University of Alaska Southeast’s commencement celebrates cultural diversity

The 54th annual University of Alaska Southeast commencement ceremony in Juneau on Sunday focused on diversity, equity and inclusion despite the UA Board of Regents’ February decision to ban these words from online and print materials.

“I was not meant to be here,” Selah Judge, the student speaker, said. “I don’t say that to scare you or strike fear. I say it because as a Lakota woman I was never supposed to exist after the first clause of colonialism landed on this continent and people were torn from our lands, taken from our mothers and our culture’s mother, the only source of what we were, what we once were, means. But guess what — I am here. We are here all together.”

Members of the UAS faculty held signs that said “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” while entering the university’s ceremony behind the Mt. Juneau Tlingit and Woosh.Ji.Een dancers. They raised them as UA Regent Dale Anderson spoke on stage.

Judge graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in social sciences with a primary focus on anthropology. She was a student worker in the Native and Rural Student Center (NRSC), the first UAS/Haa Tóoch Lichéesh Harvesting summer intern, and a student coordinator for Wooch.een. Earlier on Sunday, the Alaska Native graduation was coordinated by NRSC and hosted by the Wooch.Een Student Leadership Club.

Judge is now the rural admissions counselor at UAS. She said she tells new students that diversity, equity and inclusion are important at the university, even if leaders “are not specifically saying that in those words.” She said the UAS community is going to support students “no matter who you are, no matter what sexuality you are, no matter what race you are — and we celebrate you for your culture.”

Before her speech at the full commencement ceremony at the Student Recreation Center, Judge danced at the annual Alaska Native graduation in Egan Library. The celebration of Native students’ accomplishments recognized their reclaiming of education. Sunlight streamed through the windows, where Woosh.Ji.Een dancers performed and gave graduates roses, eagle feathers, and body butter.

“Native graduation is particularly special because it’s such a hard thing to be an Indigenous student,” Judge said. “Having Native graduation specifically so that our elders, and our aunties, and our community come around us, and really kind of revel in that and celebrate it. Regular commencement, of course, is awesome, and for everyone. And we love that, but it’s a special accolade to hear our Native languages spoken on stage.”

Speaking in Tlingit, X̱’unei Lance Twitchell, UAS professor of Alaska Native languages, said he was proud of the next generation, which will continue to keep Native languages alive after a near extinction.

“You are the boats that keep us afloat in the floods,” he said. “You are the mountains that we can live upon. You are the ones that show people that it is possible to go from a generation of not speaking our language to a generation that speaks it, and teaches others, and talks it everywhere, and makes it through the mistakes and the hard times and the lack of confidence. And you all are going to be the medicine that pulls us out of this.”

Twitchell won an Emmy award for Writing for a Preschool Animated Series at the 2025 Children’s and Family Emmy Awards. At commencement, UAS Chancellor Aparna Dileep-Nageswaran Palmer recognized him for his achievement. Some of the praise was heard in stomps, a traditional Tlingit form of applause. He stood up to be congratulated with a “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” sign in his hands.

Twitchell also helped design the stoles that Native graduates at all three UAS campuses wore for the first time at commencement. UAS awarded 488 certificates, occupational endorsements, and degrees this weekend at the three Southeast campuses.

“This is such a special day for you, and I want you to know that all of us at UAS are very proud of you,” Palmer told graduates at the Alaska Native ceremony. “I also want to thank you for choosing UAS. Thank you for what you bring. Thank you for who you are. You make us better by being here.”

The 2025 commencement included the first graduating class of students in the UAS Asian American/Pacific Islander Club (AAPI), who were invited to attend the Alaska Native graduation ceremony.

AAPI club president Charlene Zanoria graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in social sciences and plans to work at REACH Inc. She joined the club in her sophomore year and hopes it will continue to grow.

“It started first because of AAPI hate during the pandemic; there was a lot of Asian hate,” she said. “That was the initial push to get it going. It’s always good to have representation, and to have a safe space where people know that they’re going to be loved and supported.”

Marcelo Quinto, president of Alaska Native Brotherhood Camp 70, told graduates that their struggles may continue today, but “people who have come before you have made it a little easier for you to walk.”

“What I want you to know is that people before you went through the same struggles,” he said. “You, as young people, are the new leaders that are here today and that will carry on for your children and your families. It is the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Alaska Native Sisterhood that started 100 years ago with young people and the support of the elders because it was the elders who encouraged those young people to move forward.”

Áak’w Kwáan clan leader Seikoonie Frances Houston gave the land acknowledgment and congratulated graduates at both ceremonies.

“Our ancestors are happy,” she said. “They’re looking down on us right now – as you can see, the sun is peeking out.”

Graduating students and dancers attending the Alaska Native ceremony headed to the Student Recreation Center for commencement, where a gym full of people waited to congratulate them.

Sioux Douglas congratulated graduates and was honored herself with a UAS Meritorious Service Award. Before she gave a speech, she was described as often being seen “with a shovel in her hand, literally breaking ground” for another Juneau project she conceived and guided to completion.

Her career with small-town telephone systems led her to become the first director of the Alaska Division of Telecommunication Services during its formative years. Later, as an innkeeper and Skagway mayor, Sioux continued to hone her community-oriented skills and background.

She led the effort to build Riverview Senior Living, an assisted-living and memory care facility, and was the fundraising committee chair to build the Teal Street Center, which provides resources for elders, at-risk youth, people with disabilities, and low-income families. Douglas was also one of the first board members of the Juneau Community Foundation, which awarded her Philanthropist of the Year in 2021. In 2017, AWARE celebrated her service with a Woman of Distinction award.

“My graduation gift to you, if you accept it, is just some well-intended advice from my heart to you,” Douglas said. “Do your best to live a balanced life.”

“Start small if you haven’t already,” she said. “Watch how giving back can provide you with a balanced life that will feel really good to you as well as those you support. It’s that simple, trust me, it works.”

• Contact Jasz Garrett at jasz.garrett@juneauempire.com or (907) 723-9356.