Haines High School sophomore Karlie Spud of Klukwan made a second honorary trip to Washington, D.C., this time as a cultural ambassador for the Rose Urban Rural Exchange.
“There were about 150 students participating in the whole program last school year, and there were six selected to go to Washington, D.C.,” Spud said. “There was a website where we got to upload pictures and all sorts of information about our community and how we get around, with transportation.”
As an 11-year-old, Spud and Sheldon Museum education director Kathy Friedle went to the White House to accept the “Coming Up Taller Award” from the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. First Lady Laura Bush presented the award that recognized the museum’s Tlingit language and culture program.
Last spring, Spud traveled to Anchorage as part of the Rose Urban Rural Exchange, a project of the Alaska Humanities Forum.
“I was attending Klukwan School when I first heard about it, and my teacher introduced us to it and pointed us to a website and we read up about it on there,” Spud said. “There were five kids in Klukwan School, so all five of us went up to Anchorage.”
She wrote an essay about why she wanted to participate in the exchange.
“It was new to me, so I wanted to try it out,” Spud said. “I had a good feeling about the program. Being in Klukwan, it’s sort of both urban and rural, but I don’t think the whole high school has been introduced to a school in an urban area, such as Anchorage.”
The students attended classes at Service High School in Anchorage, while a few students from that school got a closer look at Klukwan.
“It changed my view about all the youth in Alaska,” Spud said. “I think we all have the ability to make a change and be a part of the future.”
She visited an Army base and museums in Anchorage and said classes at Service High School were run like seminars, with lots of discussion between teachers and students.
“What I think the basics are of Anchorage are like how we get to Anchorage, the airport or the highway from here to Anchorage,” Spud said. “We went beyond that, not behind the scenes, but we kind of got a better look of what urban life would be like.”
Following her Anchorage stay, Spud was selected for a free, weeklong trip to Washington, D.C. She left Anchorage on Sept. 25.
As a guest in the nation’s capital, Spud appeared on “Alaska Report” with Sen. Mark Begich and attended a Ted Stevens memorial.
Spud said she is interested in politics and world history. She is considering the University of Alaska Anchorage or Oregon schools for college but said weather will be a factor.
“I love it in Haines and Klukwan,” Spud said. “We know each other, but the city, especially Washington, D.C., would be hard. The humidity there is horrible. I wouldn’t be able to live there year-round.”