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Seventh-grade cultural ambassadors from the village of Napakiak will leave Juneau today after spending a week at Floyd Dryden Middle School. The experience was the last of three rural urban exchange programs held this year.

The program, which consists of student exchanges between three rural villages of the Interior - Akiak, Buckland and Napakiak - is in its fifth year and has one more year to go under the Alaska Humanities Forum's Rose Rural Urban Exchange grant, sponsored in 2001 by former Sen. Ted Stevens.

"It's experiential education at its finest," Floyd Dryden Principal Tom Milliron said of the program. "It's not kids learning about the similarities and differences between rural Alaska and urban Alaska from a text book, it's them experiencing it firsthand or experiencing it directly from fellow classmates who have made a trip there."

During the exchange, students from the rural villages visit Juneau on separate occasions, while 15 seventh graders broken into three teams from Floyd Dryden travel to each rural village to learn about subsistence lifestyles and other cultural and socio-economic differences.

Floyd Dryden's Zach Gianotti, 13, was able to travel to Napakiak this year.

"In this (program) we get to experience how it feels to live in a rural area, and they get to experience what it feels like in an urban area," he said. "It creates friendships between different parts of Alaska, so if we have jobs having to do with connecting Alaska when we grow up, this will help us."

According to Milliron, the exchange is only for seventh-graders because it compliments Floyd Dryden's Alaska studies unit, a focus for that grade.

As part of the unit, students first learn about the region's culture and geography before traveling. Then teachers such as Rebecca Farrell, a seventh-grade math and science teacher, helps the students decide what sort of activities they want to do while visiting.

This year Farrell, who has participated for the last four years, collaborated with Napakiak teacher KC Bodily to create an array of activities for the students.

"Students go and meet with an elder or someone in the community who will take them ice fishing or hunting," Farrell explained of what Juneau's students experience. "They teach them all they can, because it really is a subsistence lifestyle out there."

This year, students were involved in activities from beading to dog sledding. They even took Yupik classes with the other exchange students.

"While we were in Napakiak, we snowmobiled everywhere," Gianotti said. "We went fishing with nets and got to see a fish house and how to (operate) a fish camp."

Gianotti said his favorite part of Napakiak was its overall feel.

"(I liked) how everyone knew everyone and when you talked about somebody, they would know who they were," he said. "(I also liked) how they are still interested in their culture, how they still dance and do the things that they did a long time ago before the Russians and other people became involved with them."

In previous years, students have learned things from basket-making and survival skills to traveling down the Kuskokwim River.

"They all thought that was really interesting, that you can actually ride on a river," Farrell said, "That's a big means of travel for the Interior to get from one place to the another, especially on the tundra when it's melting and it's nothing but wetlands.

"(Students) walk away with seeing what it's like to live in a village and how the village people overcome not having some of those things we have here that are easily accessible."

In exchange, when Interior students come to Juneau they visit the Alaska State Museum, Mendenhall Glacier and sometimes even Eaglecrest Ski Area. They also meet their respective representatives, and the governor, if she is available.

"That also is pretty exciting for them," Farrell said of meeting the governor. "They've met Kim Elton and Beth Kerttula a few times. It's really great, because they can see how our government works."

Rural students also visit the capitol and sit in during a legislative session. Another common activity is visiting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to learn about how Juneau keeps its fishing industry healthy.

Gianotti said he found more similarities than differences during his experience.

"We're really not that different from them," Gianotti said. "We're connected to them really easily. We made friendships very quickly, and it's a great experience to go to another village and be able to be with people you know."