Workforce Wednesday Newsletter

A Year of Growth & A Look Ahead

Our Workforce Development program would like to take a moment to thank our supporters, subscribers, and partners for a wonderful year. We strive to continue to grow our program in support of Shareholders seeking meaningful career opportunities, training, and education. Our program is still new, and we look forward to partnering to offer incredible things in the year ahead. This will be our final newsletter for the year, and we wish you and your families a warm and special holiday season.

In 2025, we had the wonderful opportunity to engage with students from various towns and cities across our region. Our dedicated team participated in lively job fairs and vibrant community events, where we met many enthusiastic individuals eager to learn and advance their careers. We also welcomed visitors in Fairbanks, providing a warm and informative experience for those who stopped by to connect with us. We were happy to have been invited and traveled to Ruby and Huslia this spring where we met with students and community members to talk about career possibilities. As we look ahead to 2026, we are excited to deepen our relationships with both youth and adults throughout our region, fostering connections that inspire and empower.

This year, we established and implemented an internship position at the Doyon Foundation. We collaborated with the First Alaskans Institute to host our first intern, Hannah, a student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, during the summer. She supported our Workforce and Language teams by working on various projects while gaining valuable experience in administrative duties, outreach, and scholarship processes.

In the fall, we partnered with Effie Kokrine and the Fairbanks North Star Borough Career and Technical Education (CTE) program to host high school senior Andria. She is actively involved with our Language Revitalization program and is working on organizing a language spelling bee for next year!

We take pride in supporting our youth in this manner and look forward to continuing to offer internship positions through our workforce development program.

In collaboration with the Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education, we successfully organized several Kids2Careers prep panels that aimed to inspire high school students in our community. These panels featured a diverse group of volunteers who shared their personal career journeys and experiences following high school graduation.

Students from Effie Kokrine and the Iditarod School District had the opportunity to hear firsthand about different career pathways, educational options, and the various challenges and successes that the panelists encountered along the way. Panelists answered questions, offered practical tips and valuable insights, and provided encouragement to help students navigate their own educational and career decisions.

We believe that providing these panels is crucial in helping students understand the possibilities that await them after graduation. We are excited to continue this initiative and plan to host more panels in 2026, both in-person and virtually, to reach even more students in our interior schools.

In October, we launched a virtual series featuring speakers from various industries each month. We invited individuals from our region to join us for unique lunchtime sessions where they could hear from employers, training and education entities, and resources that could help them excel in meaningful careers.

Each session includes Shareholder speakers who share their stories about how they navigated their respective fields to achieve their current success. We hosted speakers from organizations such as the Laborers Training School, Plumbers & Pipefitters Union, UAF Community & Technical College, Foundation Health Partners, Tanana Chiefs Conference, Doyon Energy Services, Mid-Alaska Pipeline, and more.