**Title**: Energy in the North - George Reising
**Date**: June 10, 2026
**Participants**: Amanda Byrd, George Reising

00;00;00;14 - 00;00;14;21 [George Reising] And they're learning how other communities are integrating these resources to help reduce their dependance on diesel specifically, heating oil specifically, and really trying to increase that self-sufficiency.

00;00;14;21 - 00;00;57;03 [Amanda Byrd] This week on energy in the North, I speak with George Rising, the curriculum lead and instructor for the T-3 Alaska program. T3, or Teaching Through technology, started as a National Science Foundation grant, specifically working with Upward Bound programs to reach high school students who would otherwise not attend university. The grant ended in 2019, but enough colleges and universities like Â鶹ԭ´´F continue the program through Department of Education funding. Recently, George and his team hosted 13 students from 10th to 12th grade all across Alaska for a two week summer program. Focused on energy, cyber security, and storytelling. I began the conversation with George by asking him why is energy important to these students?

00;00;57;03 - 00;01;37;08 [George Reising] Some of these students already have these concepts, but what we're trying to do is introduce them to the real energy challenges that are facing their communities, like tomorrow with the next shipment of diesel that comes to their community, and prices are probably going to go up significantly. And helping them understand energy concepts and think about what the implications are and what their communities could do to help increase sustainability, increase energy resiliency and security and help them bring ideas back from this two week experience that may inspire their community to make a change.

00;01;37;08 - 00;01;43;12 [Amanda Byrd] These, high school students from communities all across Alaska are

00;01;43;12 - 00;03;14;08 [George Reising] So we've got, Pilot Station, Kotlik Cordova, Mountain Village, Bethel, and Chevak on this program. For example, Cordova already has a lot of renewable integration built into their grid, their microgrid. And so students don't even know what a microgrid is. So they're learning what is a microgrid. And they're learning how other communities are integrating these resources to help reduce their dependance on diesel specifically, heating oil specifically, and really trying to increase that self-sufficiency. So
 we started in Anchorage, we had a really cool guest speaker - AlexAnna Salmon came from Igiugig and presented the work that she did in her community. And what was so cool, what she just presents herself. I'm not an energy person, but I'm here to help my community. And many of our students just resonated with her message. Yeah, the energy thing, fine. But I want to be a leader in my community. So she was very much a role model right off the bat, and she was able to share that story. And so starting with that kind of framework and learning about energy and just some basic terminology so we can have a conversation. We went to the solar farm in Houston, which is an eight megawatt farm, and they have never seen anything that big or that scale. And just trying to weave these ideas in to what is possible and to try to get them to think about things that they've never really thought of before, in many cases.

00;03;14;08 - 00;03;41;13 [Amanda Byrd] So when they go home, they're going to be taking these energy concepts and they're high schoolers. They're going to be taking these energy concepts back to their communities, and potentially it might drive their future in education, academia, or working in a utility or something to inspire them to do something about energy resilience and sustainability in their own communities,

00;03;41;13 - 00;05;05;02 [George Reising] No doubt. I mean, part of that trip from Anchorage to Fairbanks to we went to Job Corp and we looked at their electrical program just to get a sense of, here are direct skills that are needed in every one of your communities. We've looked at,
working with, with ACEP, with, John and Dayne and Kjell and Bax and a lot of presenting these different things that they're learning and how they're actually applied in the community to. We love being able to access data and control, load and understand these things. But how do we make that secure and safe? How do we take that idea back to our community? So each one of these students is going home with a presentation and a message that they need to deliver to their fellow students, to their leadership, however that is in their community. That could be a village council, it could be a city council. It could be an energy board. So this is what we learned and this is what the situation is, and this is what we can do about it. And then personally, like you said, amount of personally for them. What are next educational steps. Right. What could I do to follow up on this a bit further. Oh maybe college is a good path. Oh, maybe apprenticeship program is a good path. Or maybe I should go to Job Corps. Right? Where do I get started? And even if energy isn't their thing, they're getting the awareness of the situation, and they can bring that message home that says, this is important and this is real,
and we can do something about it.

00;05;05;02 - 00;05;10;08 [Amanda Byrd] George Rising is the curriculum lead for T3 Alaska through the Alaska Center for Energy and Power. And I'm Amanda Byrd, chief storyteller for ACEP Find this story and more at uaf.edu/acep.