Worldwide Influence

Ever told someone that you go to or are thinking of going to UAF and then get that confused look and a mumbled "Huh? Where is that?" Students often have a bit of a complex when it comes to the notarity of UAF. Hearing things like "Nobody knows or cares we're up here." or "What can you do with a degree from UAF? Its a state school!" unfortunatly is too common.

Right now, I'm in Longyearbyen, a town of about 2,100 inhabitants on the Norwegian archepeligo of Svalbard on exchange from UAF. (I assure you, myself and other ambassadors will be telling you a lot about Exchange and Study Abroad from UAF in the weeks to come.) I've been here for a week. In that one week, I've found 2 paper publications with articles about science and activities conducted at UAF. Furthermore, UAF was mentioned in a lecture I attended on Tuesday. Today as I walked out of the computer lab, I saw someone looking at the Aurora Forecast website run by UAF's Geophysical Institute. You can check it out yourself at http://www.gedds.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast/. All that in just a week!

Clearly, UAF and its students are making big impacts worldwide. I don't know about any of you, but I say that I'm a UAF student with pride. I have faith in our students, our staff, and our faculty and the education they give us. We are influencing the world in countless ways and it makes me proud to be a part of that.

More from Longyearbyen soon!

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