Community Spotlight highlights members of the AKWorld community who are helping connect Alaskans to the world in meaningful ways. We’re kicking off these highlights with an educator whose work inspires students to engage with global affairs in profound ways. Through their curiosity, commitment, and connection to the wider world, community members like Perry bring our mission to life every day.
Community Spotlight | Perry Lewis
Perry Lewis has spent 30 years teaching in Alaska. Ask him his favorite moment as a teacher, and he’ll describe the instant something clicks for a student–when the world stops feeling distant and abstract and becomes something personal and real.
A few years ago, Perry brought 50 of his ninth-graders to an Alaska World Affairs Council talk on the Alaska-Russia relationship. While they were there, an AKWorld coordinator introduced the group to Vic Fischer, one of the last living members of the Alaska Constitutional Convention–the very subject his class had been studying. Fischer moved through the crowd, talking with students one by one. At one point, he turned to a student and asked what they were studying in class.
“YOU,” the student said.
Perry loves that story. It captures something he’s always believed about teaching in Alaska: that the past and the present here are uniquely close together. “Our population is small enough that, although we are worldly, we are never that far removed from the things that have made us who we are today.”
That closeness is something Perry tries to honor in his classroom, and it’s part of what drew him to connecting his students with outside voices. Hearing an idea through a new person, he says, makes it land differently. It helps paint a more vivid picture.
“When something I’ve talked about comes through the voice of another person–especially when community members take the time to show up–it elevates the subject matter and makes it more real. It helps students take it seriously and see themselves as global citizens.”
In 2021, he took that approach even further, chaperoning AKWorld’s Academic WorldQuest champions to Washington, D.C., for the national competition–the first Anchorage School District group to travel out of state after COVID restrictions were lifted.
“This was my favorite AKWorld event,” Perry says. “We placed 8th in the country, representing Eagle River High School, the Anchorage School District, and the State of Alaska. After being cooped up for a year and a half, it was a great way to celebrate a return to normal. I was extremely proud to represent those wonderful students.”
That success has only continued. His students have gone on to win the Alaska Academic WorldQuest competition again last year–and again this year–a testament to the curiosity, preparation, and global awareness he fosters in the classroom.
Outside the classroom, Perry is paying close attention to the rise of workplace AI and what widespread automation could mean for a generation of young Alaskans. It’s the kind of question he thinks deserves more attention in this state.
And if he could bring any global figure to speak in Alaska, he’d choose Angela Merkel–someone he finds fascinating, and whose perspective on where we form connections, political and historical, he’d love to hear in person.
When asked what he would say to other educators or community members who might be on the fence about getting involved with AKWorld, Perry said, “Do it. Go to see a speaker. Go to Academic WorldQuest. Try out the World Wiz Pub Quiz. Whatever angle you can find, connect with AKWorld. They are a great organization with great people to work with at every level.”
We’re grateful to have Perry in the AKWorld community. If his story inspires you to get involved, we’d love to welcome you. However you find your way in, the door is open.
