Grow Your Own (GYO) Future Teachers Program
Contents
- 1 How to APPLY to Sapsik’ʷałá’s GYO PROGRAM
- 1.1 Grow Your Own (GYO) Future Teachers Program
- 1.2 Sapsik’ʷałá Alumni Teacher Stories
- 1.3 Distinguished Elder Education
- 1.3.1 Elders are our communities’ most revered teachers. We are honored to share these resources from átway Tuxámshish Dr. Virginia Beavert (Yakama) who served as our Distinguished Elder Educator for several years. Our beloved Elder lovingly shared her wisdom in these videos which she wanted recorded for the benefit of all current and future students and educators.
- 1.3.2 Elder Wisdom Sharing by átway Tuxámshish Virginia Beavert PhD (Yakama Nation)
- 1.4 Community Educator Series
Education Strengthens Our People 
Sápsikw’at xtúwit naamí tananmamíyau (Ichishkíin) – Education Strengthens our People Interpretation and recording by Átway Arlita Rhoan and Suzie Slockish (Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs)
How to APPLY to Sapsik’ʷałá’s GYO PROGRAM
Grow Your Own (GYO) Future Teachers Program
Sapsik’ʷałá’s Grow Your Own (GYO) Future Teachers Program is a 12-week mentorship program (runs annually March – June) for AI/AN high school and undergraduate students. Building upon the Sapsik’ʷałá Program’s successful teacher education model, and our philosophy that Education Strengthens Tribal Communities, the GYO Program centers intergenerational Indigenous knowledge to achieve college success, cultivate teacher identities, and empower Indigenous high school, undergraduate, and recent graduates to become the next generation’s leaders in education. To date, our GYO Program has served 134 student participants and 22 Sapsik’ʷałá alumni mentors have facilitated a community of practice centering Indigenous educational excellence.
Sapsik’ʷałá’s GYO provides an academic enrichment and mentoring program that meets virtually each week Spring Term, with important contributions from: Elders, Tribal education leaders, teacher education faculty, alumni, current teacher candidates, college students, high school students, and their parents/guardians. Each mentoring session focuses upon three components:
1) Academic skill building and pedagogies;
2) Strengthening participants’ Indigenous teacher identity; and
3) Honoring Elder, youth, and community knowledge in education.
Sapsik’ʷałá’s Grow Your Own (GYO) Program’s primary focus is to eliminate barriers for Indigenous peoples to imagine themselves as teachers and to create an ongoing cycle of building power that centers self-determination in education.
Sapsik’ʷałá Alumni Teacher Stories
Click on a name below to watch a brief video of each mentors’s teacher story:
”GYO is a place for Native American students to learn and share. We all learn from each other.”
Distinguished Elder Education
Elder Wisdom Sharing by átway Tuxámshish Virginia Beavert PhD (Yakama Nation)
Education and Books As Cultural Resources
Indigenous Storytelling as Education
Keep Learning And Stay On Track
Community Educator Series
Indigenous education relies upon the generosity and shared wisdom of our extended community of education leaders, scholars, and relatives. Click on a name below to watch a brief interview of our featured GYO guest presenters:
The Pedagogy of Aloha with Aunty Kū Kahakalau, Ph.D
Don’t Be Afraid to Learn, Don’t Be Afraid to Teach with Natalia Schneider
Indigenous Teachers Shape the Future with Sonya Moody-Jurado
Finding Your Magic to Work For Your Culture with Hannah Sholl
Mission, Vision, and Values in the Classroom with Jessica Towns-Camara
Inupiaq Elder Wisdom Sharing with Bessi Sinnock