Wrangell High School senior Anne Prysunka traveled to Anchorage earlier this month to present her senior project on bears at the Alaska Forum on the Environment.

Since early January, Prysunka, 17, has been working on her senior project that has included teaching Wrangell elementary students about bears in Alaska and the animal’s significance within the community.

“I wanted to connect the youth of Wrangell to the rich culture that surrounds the community,” she said. “To do that, I wanted to use the symbol of the bear, because the bear represents wisdom and power for native culture a...