Youth monitor habitat after prescribed burn.
Youth Are Our Future
Karuk – UC Berkeley Collaborative projects prioritize the participation of tribal youth in outreach and training that supports college and career development for the next generation. Our current collaborative project, Managing Cultural Foods in a Changing Climate, includes STEM education components so youth can learn techniques for assessing and restoring cultural agroecosystems in the Klamath River Basin. Students will be learning through new Food Security K-12 curriculum lessons, and through opportunities to monitor for sudden oak death (a threat to tanoak acorn supply), remove invasive weeds, manage cultural foods and fibers, and restore wildlife habitat. Youth will also participate in trainings on digital visualization and creating story maps, preparing voucher specimens, and using drones to collect images and landscape data. Youth participation in these activities strengthens their academic preparedness and abilities to contribute as future managers of Karuk aboriginal lands.
Supporting Youth to Achieve in College and Career
Seasonal youth camp session.
As part of the Tribal Food Security Project, the Karuk Tribe established the tribally-led Píkyav Field Institute, which supports youth leadership development through its five divisions: K-12 Environmental Education; Environmental Workforce Development; Environmental Higher Education and Research; Food Security; and the Sípnuuk Digital Library.
The tribe also created a culturally appropriate K-12 Native Food System curriculum, currently used in three Klamath Basin school districts, along with a series of seasonal youth camps, after school programs and school gardens focusing on nutrition education, eco-cultural revitalization, and cultivation of cultural foods.
Campus visits
Students from the Karuk Tribe visit UC Berkeley
The Karuk-UC Berkeley Collaborative also supports youth to achieve higher education by introducing them to the UC Berkeley campus and hosting them at Cal Day and College Information Day.
Please visit the Native American Student Development website to learn more about efforts to support and grow the Native community at UC Berkeley, including scheduling your visit to campus. For more information about youth opportunities to visit Cal, visit http://admissions.berkeley.edu/planyourvisit.