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�������� student Maiyuraq Nanouk Jones is one of two Western recipients of the which recognizes students from across Washington state who are dedicated to civic engagement in their communities. Each student is then considered for the Governor’s Student Civic Leadership Award, which is announced later this spring. 

Nanouk Jones, an Environmental Science major from Unalakleet, Alaska, was nominated by �������� Fellowships Office Director Tom Moore. Moore said he was impressed by both her accomplishments and work ethic. 

“She is so humble — maybe that's what struck me the most about her.  Whereas others might have had their own website, she just works and works to get things done, regardless of the publicity.  That's why I thought she needed this recognition,” Moore said.  

Some of Nanouk Jones’ impressive civic engagement resume includes being on the board of directors of the Arctic Youth Network, a group that connects people ages 18–30 across the Arctic who are looking to make a difference; being an 2023–2024 Arctic Youth Ambassador; and being a member of the Norwegian Chairship Youth Committee for the Arctic Council, creating the Arctic Youth Conference held in Norway earlier this month. 

To Nanouk Jones, the Arctic is not just a critical part of the world, it’s home.  

“A lot of what drives me is the way I was raised,” Nanouk Jones said. 

Unalakleet is a small town of about 700 people, perched on the edge of the Bering Sea. As an Inupiat Inuit, she spent her early years hunting, fishing and berry picking on the tundra; her people have always lived off the land and she was taught these traditions by her grandmother.  

“Indigenous people and different tribes have been able to cultivate such richness in the way we live, and our relationships with the world around us,” Nanouk Jones said. “We have a duty to be able to protect those relationships and our way of life.”  

As an Environmental Science student at Western, Nanouk Jones’ emphasis is in freshwater & terrestrial ecology, and she said its renowned College of the Environment was one of the things that drew her to Western. 

“I knew that Western had the College of the Environment, and I knew I wanted to go out of state and experience something different, but still stay relatively close to Alaska,” Nanouk Jones said.  

Caribou People 

Inuit people are caribou people, she explained. When her brother was in first grade, he hunted his first caribou a mile from their community. The last caribou he successfully hunted, for the first time in three years, was over 100 miles north. 

Global warming is not an abstract concept for Nanouk Jones and her people. While effects of climate change are observable across the world, the Arctic is warming four times faster than anywhere else. Her advocacy work and her degree both encompass this topic: she wants to study why caribou behave the way they do and use that knowledge to benefit her people.  

“I want to be able to protect my homelands, my people and my culture for generations to come,” Nanouk Jones said. “How can future generations understand the importance of caribou in our culture, if they’ve never even seen one?” 

Nanouk Jones is a part of Youth Together for Arctic Futures, a four-year European Union-funded project that began in January 2024. As part of their Arctic Youth Dialogue, she spent about a week with 30 other youth from across the Arctic creating policy recommendations. Then, she presented them to the EU. 

Western isn’t the only entity to recognize her hard work and dedication. The Aspen Institute’s Center for Native American Youth has named Nanouk Jones a . The program is a way to uplift young Indigenous peoples’ voices and comes with the opportunity to go to Washington D.C. in February to speak with elected representatives.  

The intersection of advocacy for issues the Arctic faces and awareness of Indigenous people are inextricable in Nanouk Jones’ work. She’s conscious of the stereotypes that surround Indigenous peoples and wants to bring awareness to the way her people live and the challenges that the loss of caribou and salmon pose.  

"The narrative of Indigenous people is that we’re people of the past and we don’t still hunt, like we’re not here. But we are still here,” she said.  

Western’s second recipient of the Student Civic Leadership Award is Human Services and Leadership Studies student Bo Watkins, who will be profiled in an upcoming issue of Western Today.