If you complete your AmeriCorps commitment through the VISTA program, you have an option of choosing to receive an end-of-service stipend of $1,200 and possibly a partial reduction in certain outstanding student loans.
The Metropolitan Statistical Area encompasses all of the Fairbanks North Star Borough and is the northernmost Metropolitan Statistical Area in the United States, located less than 120 miles (190 km) south of the Arctic Circle.
The gold rush gave many communities in Alaska their start. Fairbanks, on the Chena River, became an important supply post as well as a center of mining activity after gold was discovered in a creek north of town in 1902. And today major gold mining operations continue in the Fairbanks area.