North Las Vegas is building its next generation of teachers

Editor's note: Este artículo está traducido al inglés.

Braelin Russell remembers when her kindergarten teacher encouraged her to read a chapter book.

That’s no small feat for a 6-year-old, but Ms. McKay believed in her. Right then, Braelin decided she wanted to be a teacher, too.

Now a senior at Canyon Springs High School, Braelin is part of the Homegrown Teachers initiative, a unique career preparation program for teenagers who aspire to become educators. Available only at Canyon Springs, the program is a $600,000 public-private effort between the Nevada Association of School Administrators and the city of North Las Vegas.

Participants earn up to 39 free college credits through UNLV, shadow teachers, tutor younger children, and get college and scholarship guidance from a veteran educator who is a dedicated career coach. The program comes with a promise: They return to North Las Vegas after graduating from college to teach in a public school for at least five years.

Canyon Springs senior Reuben Bada went to Lois Craig Elementary, and would love to teach there because of his fond memories, he said.

“I learned a lot, and I met a lot of my now-friends, so going back to Lois Craig and teaching there would be an amazing experience for me,” he said.

Braelin went to Fredric Watson Elementary. That’s where Ms. McKay was excited to show her how smart she is.

“It really showed me how much of an impact that teachers can have on us. And then that continued through first grade, second grade, third grade,” she said. “I just continued to have amazing teachers that really just saw my potential and led me to be the leader that I aspire to be.”

Jeff Geihs, a former principal and now executive director of the Nevada Association of School Administrators and its nonprofit arm Silver State Education Foundation, said teachers with existing roots in a community have better retention. (Historically, North Las Vegas schools have struggled the most with teacher vacancies among all corners of the Clark County School District.)

“We did a lot of research in our development of this, and to no surprise, learned that those people that are homegrown in their own community have the highest propensity to stay and it kind of breaks that trend of losing 50% of your teachers,” he said, citing a common national statistic that half of new teachers leave the profession within five years.

Senior Mariana Trabado has been admitted to several universities. The ones she’s most considering accepting are UNR and Stanford.

She wants to be a special education teacher. When she was younger, she educated her peers at Dusty Dickens Elementary about autism. She paid close attention to the therapists who worked with her older brother, who is autistic, and also started teaching him life skills.

“I would do flash cards with him, practice daily routines, like, you need to learn to go pay for yourself, you need to go learn how to brush your teeth on your own, do your own hair, pick your own clothes,” she said.

Senior Citlaly Quiñones, an aspiring elementary school teacher, said she wants kids to know that school isn’t scary or a chore.

“I don’t want them to go to school and be like, I have to see Miss, or I have to be in this class,” she said. “I want to be able to make learning fun, and want the school or my classroom to be a safe space for them to be able to express their creativity and learn their love for anything.”

Senior Angelise Sanchez also wants to support younger children. She has been a “teacher” since she played school with her brother.

“I love working with little kids, it’s just amazing to me,” she said. “I like to see their faces brighten up just being there, giving them a hug. They’re just so excited to see somebody ... new.”

Geihs said he knows from his years as Cheyenne High School’s principal that a lot of North Las Vegas parents work hard. But they still don’t have much money, and that can translate to fewer opportunities for their children.

“We want them to end up in the classroom,” he said. “But if they don’t, we’ve done something really good from a fiduciary standpoint, because the whole point was to uplift young people that might not have otherwise had an opportunity.”

Now in its second year, the Homegrown Teachers program has 85 students, most of them who will be first-generation college students, said career coach Butch Heiss.

“The proven success of this program marks a hopeful future in nurturing the talent of our students and motivating them to enter the education field here at home,” said North Las Vegas Mayor Pamela Goynes-Brown, a retired CCSD educator, in a statement. “This is the type of success that we want to be a part of supporting at the city of North Las Vegas. I am so excited to see these students reach their professional potential and look forward to seeing them return to our community as fully qualified teachers.”

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