WEBVTT 00:01.000 --> 00:04.000 INSTRUCTOR 1: What are we doing here? We are orienting a map. 00:05.000 --> 00:11.000 JACKI KLANCHER: I think we're seeing a resurgence of interest and value in technical trades. 00:11.000 --> 00:15.000 KLANCHER: So there's everything from maps, to web-based applications, to drones. 00:15.000 --> 00:18.000 KLANCHER: This field of study that might seem foreign to people 00:18.000 --> 00:22.000 is actually something we're using at every moment of the day these days. 00:22.000 --> 00:26.000 INSTRUCTOR 2: We can download onto our phones or tablets to take into the field. 00:26.000 --> 00:30.000 KLANCHER: People actually are engaging with geospatial information science and tech, 00:30.000 --> 00:35.000 and using it intimately through Google applications on their phone and anything located to place and space. 00:35.000 --> 00:39.000 INSTRUCTOR 1: We have the river, and we have the road. We could use either one of those as a handrail through... 00:39.000 --> 00:44.000 STEVE BARLOW: What the ATE funding has done for this program is actually made it thrive. 00:44.000 --> 00:52.000 KLANCHER: The support is critical for advancing our student growth, our college growth, our community growth, our employability of our students. 00:52.000 --> 00:57.000 [MUSIC] 00:59.000 --> 01:06.000 KLANCHER: I'm Jacki Klancher. I'm the Director of Instruction and Research for the Central Wyoming College Alpine Science Institute. 01:07.000 --> 01:12.000 We're in Lander, Wyoming. Really bucolic small town, population just over 7,000, 01:12.000 --> 01:18.000 situated in the foothills of the Wind River Range, and proximal to the Wind River Reservation. 01:19.000 --> 01:22.000 BARLOW: We serve a very diverse population. 01:22.000 --> 01:28.000 Our mission is to find what's needed in the community, in the world, kind of what we're doing here with the NSF, 01:28.000 --> 01:31.000 and address that in a way that meets the needs of any student. 01:31.000 --> 01:34.000 KLANCHER: Sean, any thoughts on how studying GIST has been helpful for you? 01:34.000 --> 01:38.000 SEAN: It will help me get a permanent job at the Forest Service, eventually. 01:42.000 --> 01:47.000 KLANCHER: Our program is housed within an associate's degree called Expedition Science. 01:47.000 --> 01:54.000 So that's a mix of students exploring outdoor education, environmental science, and geospatial information, science, and technology. 01:54.000 --> 01:59.000 But during the summer, with support from the Advanced Technological Education Program, 01:59.000 --> 02:08.000 we are crafting accredited curriculum where students are focused on learning and applying GIST to collect data in the field 02:08.000 --> 02:15.000 and extending those applications to natural resources, to archeology, to glaciology, to hydrology. 02:15.000 --> 02:21.000 TODD GUENTHER: Without the ATE funding, we would be limping along at a much-reduced scale. 02:23.000 --> 02:28.000 INSTRUCTOR 3: Line up the number so you get your whole target in the center of your-, bottom of your bucket here. 02:28.000 --> 02:31.000 STUDENT 1: Wow. OK. This is actually kind of fun. 02:31.000 --> 02:37.000 GUENTHER: And so, what we're doing differently now is that, in addition to getting experience in the field, 02:37.000 --> 02:41.000 more students are able to participate because we've actually got funding to pay them stipends 02:41.000 --> 02:46.000 so that they don't have to work in the summer at the same time. 02:46.000 --> 02:56.000 CADENCE TRUCHOT: We have used GPS in high elevation archeological sites, as well as lower elevation sites, and interdisciplinary climate change expeditions. 02:56.000 --> 03:00.000 [MUSIC] 03:02.000 --> 03:08.000 KARRI L. CARY: The Forest Service is a public land management agency. We focus on managing and protecting our resources. 03:08.000 --> 03:11.000 The partnership is really invaluable. 03:11.000 --> 03:17.000 These students are our eyes. There are places where, maybe, we get to once a season, and they're able to revisit them multiple times. 03:17.000 --> 03:23.000 KLANCHER: Not only do we look to the United States Forest Service as an end goal, perhaps, employment agency, 03:23.000 --> 03:27.000 but also, as part of the learning process, and we play off each other. 03:27.000 --> 03:30.000 INSTRUCTOR 1: We go from Timber Top here to down in the valley. 03:31.000 --> 03:39.000 TRUCHOT: It has helped me so much pursuing my education and helped me embrace who I am and where I come from. 03:39.000 --> 03:48.000 I am from the Lemhi Shoshone tribe. That is the same tribe that Sacagawea is from. 03:49.000 --> 03:55.000 Being Native American, the land is very, very important to our spirituality. 03:55.000 --> 03:58.000 We don't look at it as property. 03:58.000 --> 04:03.000 And if we don't know how to give back to it or appreciate it, then we don't have anything. 04:03.000 --> 04:07.000 TRUCHOT: This is coming off of this side here. 04:08.000 --> 04:12.000 GUENTHER: For many of my students, it's a route to expand their horizons. 04:12.000 --> 04:15.000 [MUSIC] 04:17.000 --> 04:23.000 KLANCHER: We've woken up to the challenges that face students trying to gain an education. 04:23.000 --> 04:29.000 There are many, many federal jobs and private agency jobs that require all these skills. 04:29.000 --> 04:32.000 STUDENT 2: Yeah, because there's that big quarry right there. 04:32.000 --> 04:37.000 KLANCHER: And in doing so, contribute to social justice, environmental justice, social change. 04:37.000 --> 04:43.000 TRUCHOT: I can actually use this education and this skill set and experience to actually give back to the tribes. 04:43.000 --> 04:46.000 And that, within itself, is bigger than I have ever imagined. 04:47.000 --> 04:50.000 BARLOW: Life gets in the way, and many of them have to drop out of school 04:50.000 --> 04:53.000 because the length of the courses, the length of the program is too long. 04:53.000 --> 04:56.000 So, any way we could shorten that up would be wonderful. 04:56.000 --> 04:59.000 KLANCHER: We can condense learning through the Advanced Technological Education Program 04:59.000 --> 05:02.000 and give really quality learning during the summer months. 05:02.000 --> 05:05.000 GUENTHER: Many of them are first generation college. 05:05.000 --> 05:09.000 A lot of them are discouraged by their family members from pursuing a college education. 05:10.000 --> 05:16.000 KLANCHER: I think the ATE program has had a magnificent impact on student success, student recruitment, student retention, 05:16.000 --> 05:19.000 and attracting a more diverse student audience to our programs. 05:19.000 --> 05:23.000 And I'm really proud to be able to offer something that's so practical. 05:23.000 --> 05:26.000 And I feel great satisfaction that when they leave at the end of the summer, 05:26.000 --> 05:29.000 their pockets won't be empty, and their minds will be full. 05:30.000 --> 05:36.000 GUENTHER: It's really reshaping their lives, and then, by extension, their children and grandchildren and everybody else. 05:37.000 --> 05:42.000 KLANCHER: The real delight is watching students shine and gain confidence and competence. 05:42.000 --> 05:47.000 That's the outcome that enriches your soul as an educator, is watching someone else shine. 05:47.000 --> 05:50.000 That's the whole goal. 05:50.000 --> 05:53.000 [MUSIC]