2014 Student Speaker (JNU)

2014 Student Speaker — Emily Rose King

I started going to UAS when I was in high school and participated in the Dual-Enrollment Program offered at UAS. My committed and passionate professors that first semester were the reason that I decided to stay in Juneau to attend university (well, that and the low cost tuition that helped with the student loan aspect of education.) Graduating, I can see that UAS has not just enabled me to grow academically, but personally as well. I’ve had the opportunity to teach inside the local prison through an internship with the English department, I have substantial out of class conversations with my professors, and on more than one occasion I’ve almost crashed my car because of my captivation with the incredible sublime beauty that encompasses Juneau everywhere. I’m indebted (literally and metaphorically) to this university for helping me become the woman I am today. ~Emily King

Emily King is an English major with a creative writing emphasis. She excelled in her course work and her many endeavors. In her creative writing workshops, she demonstrated an excellent ability to stand up in front of a group and talk, teach, and lead discussion.

She is a creative and innovative thinker. In the fall semester of her senior year she designed an extremely rigorous internship called “Healing through Poetry” in which she went into multiple communities in Juneau to teach poetry, including the Lemon Creek Correctional Facility, the AWARE shelter, and the alternative high school.

Emily recently learned that she will be teaching at a bilingual elementary school in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. This placement is through a program called Teach For America that places committed individuals in schools in low scoring rural and urban school districts with the goal of helping them achieve through creativity and passionate teachers.

Photo by Adam Wood.

UAS' 2014 Juneau Commencement will be held May 4 at 2:00 p.m. at the UAS Recreation Center.