I first met representatives from Akhiok at Kodiak College at the Rural Forum last Spring.  Akhiok resident Linda Amodo has been my main contact.  Our goal: Determine what needs Akhiok has that the college might satisfy.

I traveled to Akhiok this past August.  It’s the smallest town I’ve ever visited.  There are between 20 and 40 residents, several of whom I met — an elder (Mary), school teachers Mike and Rachel Hinman, many students, and Linda’s husband, Rudy and their children. 

I was particularly interested in the school, since its graduates are the college’s potential students.  Mike told me he’d like to be able to hook up his students to my office hours via Elluminate.  That was the first concrete connection between Akhiok and me.

The next connection came when I ran into Michelle Amodo, an ex-student of mine and a current tutor at the Akhiok school.  She expressed interest in taking another Algebra class from me.  It just so happens that I had been looking to pilot a new distance Algebra product, so I asked her if she would be interested.  She was, and now she’s taking Intermediate Algebra through this distance product.