Two academic institutions that  brought their students to Sitka for field courses this summer are taking advantage of  the local experts that Sitka Sound Science Center has to offer. University of San Francisco has a  ”Culture and the Environment”  course and Knox College has a class called “Alaska Forest, Fisheries and the Politics of Wilderness”.  Students are getting an education through lectures and field trips taught by local experts such as Richard Nelson(cultural anthropologist), Jim Seeland and Lon Garrison (aquaculture specialists) Kitty LaBounty(botanist), Scott Brylinsky(edible plant expert), Dave Gordon and Kristen Greene(Alaska Department of Fish and Game) and John Littlefield(subsistence expert).