University Of Alaska Anchorage: Opportunity: Learn Advocacy/leadership Skills And Help Lower Textbook Costs

Press release from the University of Alaska Anchorage:

August 26, 2021

Want more affordable textbooks? Are you interested in learning advocacy and leadership
skills (while receiving incentives!)? Curious what zero-cost textbooks and course
materials have to do with student success and equity?

Become a Textbook Affordability Ambassador!

This program will teach valuable leadership and advocacy skills that will benefit
you in your academic, professional, and personal life with the potential to make a
difference in the education and lives of your fellow students. The ambassador program
consists of 3 stages:

Stage 1: Complete an 8-hour training focusing on advocacy, leadership skills, and textbook
affordability. All students who complete this stage will receive a gift card of at
least $100. Students do not need to commit to later stages to participate in Stage
1!

Stage 2: After completing Stage 1, interested students may choose to plan and execute a campus
advocacy/outreach project. The aim would be to promote textbook affordability at UAA
in a public way. Examples might include reaching out to faculty, reaching out to students
and/or student government, developing outreach materials, etc. Ambassadors will be
supported by a peer mentor and program leaders, and may choose to work together on
projects. Students who complete a project will receive either hourly compensation
for their time OR a gift card incentive (amount to be determined).

Stage 3: Students complete Stages 1 and 2 may visit Juneau to help advocate for educational
affordability with their elected officials in Spring 2022. Travel expenses will be
paid.

Who can participate?All current UAA students are eligible for the program! Seats for each stage of the
program may be limited. If we are unable to accept all students who express interest,
students who express the most interest/enthusiasm, were most engaged at the previous
stage, are most likely to benefit from the program, and/or are the most prepared to
be successful at the next stage. Due to the focus of the grant that funds this program,
preference may be given to Alaska Native students, followed by students from other
minoritized groups.

Interested? Learn more about the project. Reach out to D'Arcy Hutchings (dlhutchings@alaska.edu) to express interest and reserve your space!

This program is made possible by grant funding provided by the USDA National Institute
of Food and Agriculture.

This press release was produced by the University of Alaska Anchorage. The views expressed here are the author’s own.