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Native Leadership has changed over the last 100 years because the needs of Alaska's first peoples have changed. What skills do Alaska's future leaders need in order to ensure that future needs are met?
We know the path to Native leadership includes knowing Native values, cultural protocols, and history. We also know that it is important for leaders to be grounded in their own Native identities and origins.
First Alaskans provides summer internships, focusing on the development of Native leadership, to Alaska Native graduate and undergraduate students.
The 10-week summer session has placed approximately 70 interns with various employer placements since 2004. In 2006, a third of the participants were placed outside of Anchorage in locations such as St. Mary's, Barrow, Kotzebue, Sitka, Juneau, the North Slope, and Fairbanks. The partner organizations ranged from village clinics and regional hospitals and tribal organizations to Anchorage-based regional corporation affiliates, British Petroleum (BP), and ConocoPhillips.
Alaska Energy Authority
Alaska Federation of Natives
Alaska Fisheries Science Center
Alaska Growth Capital
Alaska Native Heritage Center
Alaska Native Professional Association
Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program
Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium
ANCSA Regional Corporations
ANCSA Education Consortium (13 regional Native education foundations)
Alaska Works Partnership, Inc.
Alaska Native Non-Profits and Health organizations
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Alaska's People
Alaska Congressional Delegation
Alaska State Legislature
ARDORS
BP
Community Development Quota Entities
ConocoPhillips
Denali Commission
Institute of Social and Economic Research
Inuit Circumpolar Conference
McDowell Group
Municipality of Anchorage
Native Village of Kotzebue
Network Business Systems |
Northstar Group
Rasmuson Foundation
Sealaska Heritage Foundation
Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium
St. Mary's Subregional Clinic
State of Alaska Departments of Labor, Commerce and Education
Talking Circle Media
Tanana Chiefs Conference
The Trans-Alaska Pipeline Owner Companies and Contractors
U.S. Department of Labor
University of Alaska and other post-secondary institutions
VECO Alaska
YWCA Anchorage
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The carefully designed recruitment process matches an intern with a partner organization. The process includes reviewing the student's areas of study and interest, employer needs, and then making a match. Students are paid a competitive wage. Those not based in Anchorage are provided travel and related expenses.
During the 10-week internship, interns participate in discussions on relevant topics that:
- Help interns understand the qualities, characteristics, traits, choices and actions of effective Native leaders;
- Discuss political, economic, education and social issues and their historical impacts on Native people, politics, and leaders;
- Help interns understand their own personality traits, their personal interactions and choices, and provide some practical tools for effective planning and decision-making;
- Train interns in successful management practices for organizations (finance, human resources, communications, planning, board-staff relationships, public relations, politics, etc.);
- Train interns in the processes of policy formation at various levels of government;
- Present and discuss current issues in the context of Native cultural values;
- Familiarize interns with methods and institutions of community service (e.g., volunteering, educational mentoring, child-care and development, Elder care, etc.)
The Summer Intern Program is generously funded by the Denali Commission.
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606 E Street, Suite 200 Anchorage, AK 99501 
