The Pejuta Haka Teacher Fellowship Program is a five (5) year, Native Youth Community Program (NYCP) grant (CFDA 84.299A) under the Office of Indian Education.
The program’s purpose is to create and provide a supportive teacher-training pathway for High School Students that exposes them to culturally appropriate academic experiences and opportunities within Early Childhood Education. Our mission is to prepare high school students for collegiate success and the teaching profession by offering High School, credit-bearing classes in teaching skills; dual enrollment opportunities; job shadowing of teachers, and student-teaching experience.
Apart of the grant, the program also had the opportunity to create and open an Early Childhood Education Lab, the Pejuta Haka Wakanyeja Otipi. The early childhood education lab addresses a staff and student childcare need.
The Pejuta Haka Wakanyeja Otipi, Children’s center for early childhood education provides childcare to the children of our young High school parents (priority) and certified teachers/staff.
The mission is to create a sacred learning environment for the Wakanyeja that honors and nurtures the nagi (spirit) of the child which encompasses the whole development- Mental, Physical, Spiritual, and Social Emotional- Behavior.
The program honors and take pride in providing a quality early childhood program that honors Taopi Cikala Owayawa's vision and mission.
Our new program team consist of the following:
Project Director/ Early childhood Education lab Administrator
The project director is responsible for leading implementation of the project, monitoring its progress toward established goals and objectives, and administrating and coordinating enrollment for the Pejuta Haka Wakanyeja Otipi.
Career and technology education (CTE) teacher:
The CTE Early childhood teacher is responsible providing credit-bearing coursework related to the teaching profession, supporting students in taking dual enrollment classes, coordinating student teaching, job shadowing, management of the summer program for teaching fellows, and assisting the coordination academic coaching and graduation and matriculation coaching.
Early Childhood Education Lab Worker (2):
The lab worker and childcare provider is responsible for the care of the children enrolled and planning and guiding early childhood learning experiences, managing day-to-day operations and providing mentorship and limited instructional leadership to student teacher learning in the lab.