Jayne Hanna of Nuniwarmiut School in Mekoryuk and Rylee Johnson of Bethel Regional High School are the recipients of this year’s Lower Kuskokwim Administrator’s Association scholarships. The LKAA gives away up to four $1,000 scholarships to current and former LKSD students who are pursuing a career in education.
These scholarship have been awarded to students going back to at least 1985. The application process consists of candidates completing the application, providing a copy of their high school transcripts and any transcripts of college credits earned, a college acceptance letter if the applicant is a graduating senior, an essay of interest or educational philosophy, and two letters of recommendation.
Jayne Hanna graduated from Nuniwarmiut School in Mekoryuk, AK and is attending Biola University in Mirada, California. She has been on the Dean’s list in the Fall of 2017, Spring of 2018, Fall of 2018, Spring of 2019, Fall of 2019, Spring of 2020, and Fall of 2020. She has also received The BP Alaska Principal’s Scholarship Award, the BP Alaska Commissioner’s Scholarship, and the ACT College and Career Readiness Campaign National Student Readiness Exemplar Award.
In her essay, she describes her firsthand knowledge of the challenges that rural students face in attaining a quality education in rural Alaska. She is pursuing a degree in High School Math and has already set her goal to obtain her M.A. in Teaching. Her desire is to return to rural Alaska and work in a rural village school in the Lower Kuskokwim School District. She feels that her personal experiences growing up in a rural village will help her guide students to overcoming challenges and reaching their goals. She describes her passion for incorporating cultural values and making connections between those values and education (particularly math). She hopes to help rural students realize their valuable strengths and capabilities.
Rylee Johnson graduated from Bethel Regional High School in 2019 and is attending the University of Alaska Southeast. She has been on the Deans List both years she’s attended UAS. In her essay, she describes her path to education as her childhood dream. She further describes having many great role models and a community full of support who provided her with the tools she needed to fulfill her dreams. Her desire is to complete her education in Alaska and return to Bethel (where she grew up) to complete her student teaching. She hopes to become a kindergarten teacher in Bethel.
Returning to Bethel is important to her because she feels that she can provide stability to students who live within the community and to carry on the knowledge of the culture and the land to future generations. She already has plans to obtain her Master’s Degree and would eventually like to rekindle the NASP (National Archery in the Schools Program) that her father started. She describes her career choice as a path to being a ‘lifelong learner’.
Thank you to Tina Cataldo, Site Administrator at Lewis Angapak Memorial School in Tuntutliak, for this scholarship update.
