I am UAA: Kelsea Akerelrea

B.S. Nursing '11
Hometown: Scammon Bay and Anchorage, AK
Fun Fact: Owns an Atari and original Nintendo, complete with Duck Hunt

Nursing is becoming something of a family tradition for the Akerelreas. When asked how she came to join the Recruitment and Retention of Alaska Natives in Nursing (RRANN) program at University of Alaska Anchorage, Kelsea says, "My sister is actually a nurse. She said, 'I love my job, come work with me' and I said OK!" Andrea, Kelsea's older sister, is also a RRANN graduate who now works for the Alaska Native Medical Center (ANMC). With one younger brother in Anchorage and a younger sister and brother in Scammon Bay, Kelsea and Andrea have several opportunities to recruit more family members to help meet Alaska's demand for qualified health care providers.

Kelsea is an urbanite with small town roots, a woman with two hometowns. Since childhood she has divided her time between Anchorage where she lived with her mom and attended school, including Baxter Elementary and West High, and Scammon Bay, a small town of approximately 700 northwest of Bethel, where she spent summers with her dad and where she still returns to rest and recharge. She left Alaska briefly for Colorado, but found herself missing her home state too much. "It's hard to leave. I love Alaska. I feel at home." Her decision to attend UAA became a natural extension of her Anchorage-based education.

As the child of a Russian and Scottish mother who is first-generation American and a Yup'ik father, Kelsea fields a lot of questions about her heritage. "People always ask me in classes what my ethnicity is and I say, 'I'm both-I'm Alaska Native and, I don't know, 'urban.' I'm white."

"Because we grew up in both [Anchorage and Scammon Bay], I have very Native tendencies, very Yup'ik tendencies and also very urban tendencies." She feels comfortable in Anchorage, and is willing to do all she can for the up and coming generations from Scammon Bay. "Anyone from Scammon who talks to me about going to college, I encourage it thoroughly. Go to Anchorage! Give me a call! You guys are my family."

Kelsea says an experience early in her relationship with her fiancé Robbie (a Kodiak transplant) highlights the strength of her Yup'ik tendencies. Upon learning his aunt was planning a trip to Anchorage, she was ready to clear out her busy schedule for the visit. In Yup'ik culture, which places great emphasis on family ties, "whenever family comes into town you stop what you're doing, if you can, to go hang out with them, run errands, whatever." Robbie, although he loves his family, was baffled by her eagerness to accommodate an aunt he had no plans to see and definitely uninterested in going along on errands. Now, several years later, Kelsea says Robbie understands Yup'ik priorities. And it's the strength of her ties with her family and her fiancé and their unflagging support that have helped her to succeed in the RRANN program.

Kelsea is in her final semester of the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program and expected to complete 160 clinical hours with a preceptor before graduation in December. She admits that her program has been challenging. "It's difficult being able to balance personal life with classes and homework and reading. So much reading!" In her limited spare time, she's a homebody, either spending time with her fiancé, possibly playing games on their PS3, Atari or original Nintendo Entertainment System, or hanging out with her sister and her sister's kids. Being so close to the finish line has her looking forward to life after graduation. She would like to join her sister and work for ANMC, possibly in pediatrics.

Earlier in her studies, she completed her community nursing at Williwaw Elementary aiding the school nurse and loved it. They had their "frequent fliers" who visited often, sometimes with boo-boos in need of some "magic ice" and sometimes just for the attention of a caring nurse. The important thing in community nursing, particularly in a school with a larger underserved population like Williwaw, she says, is to maintain a holistic approach. "We look at the dynamics of the family, how they're doing in school, we collaborate with the psychologist, the teachers, the social service worker. I really enjoyed it."

The UAA nursing program has given her a solid background in many areas, she says, which will allow her to be flexible in choosing her next steps after graduation. If she is able to gain a hospital background in pediatrics at ANMC, she feels that could help her when she returns to community nursing, possibly as a school nurse. In the end, she says, "I like that feeling of having helped someone, even if it's only one person!"