'ASSESS, OBSERVE, AND TAKE IN': GRADUATE STUDENT ENHANCES CULTURAL RESPONSIVENESS IN STEM, AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION

BLACKSBURG, Va., Feb. 7 -- Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University issued the following news release:

Shortly after completing college and her MBA at South Carolina State University in 2018, Atlanta native Kellie Johnson traveled across the continent for a job in Bethel, Alaska.

Johnson arrived in the rural community of 6,000 residents to work as a program coordinator for the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service and was eager to share her passion for STEM, horticulture, and hydroponic gardening with the Bethel youth.

"When I got there, I realized that was not the agenda they needed," she said.

Johnson learned that the city's largely native Yup'ik population followed a traditional practice of subsisten...