A small rural community on the southern end of Kodiak Island celebrated high school graduation this week. Just two seniors graduated. One of those graduates wants to stay in her hometown to give back to her classmates and community.
In the middle of the Akhiok school gym, 12 young dancers, ranging in age from five to 17 years old, are dressed in traditional Alutiiq regalia – mainly black parkas decorated with red bands and tufts of fur. They are dancing for a crowd of local Akhiok community members, their families, along with visiting staff and school board members from the Kodiak Island Borough School District.
Jazmine White-Amodo stands out from the rest of the Kasukuak Dancers as they perform a series of dances. Not just because she is taller than the rest of her younger classmates, who are all part of the student-led dance group, but because of her infectious smile. White Amodo’s classmates, friends, and family all call her Jazz.
“I’m happy that I am still going to be staying at home while still pursuing my dreams of becoming a teacher," White Amodo exclaimed.
White Amodo has spent the last 17 years of her life in Akhiok and wants to continue living and working in her hometown as a teacher. While White Amodo technically graduated in December as one of two local seniors in the class of 2024, she chose to walk in the graduation ceremony on Wednesday, May 22. Since she finished school months ago, she has been helping to teach the other 11 students at the local school as a teacher’s aide. She plans to earn her teaching degree remotely, so she can stay home.
“Having a teacher that is also from Alaska, you will better connect with your students who are also from Alaska because you can understand them more, better," White Amodo said.
White Amodo and her siblings make up a third of the local student body. If you add in her cousins, that basically accounts for the whole school, which is separated into elementary students and middle to high school students.
There were 13 total students enrolled in the Akhiok school last year but one student goes back and forth between Kodiak and Akhiok often. Currently, two full time teachers with a rotating guidance counselor from the district, a maintenance employee, and White Amodo, the local teacher’s aide, staff the school to provide an education to a dozen students, split up between two classrooms.
“I’m excited to watch them grow," White Amodo said. "I mean I already get to watch them grow, but now I get to watch them grow in a different way.”
Jazmine’s grandmother, Linda Amodo gave the benediction during this week’s graduation ceremony. Amodo said she started dancing with the Kasukuak dance group when she was 16 years old. Since the Akhiok group started dancing again in 1991, Amodo said her children have participated and now it’s her grandchildren’s turn to lead.
Support from family, connection to culture, and a love for life in Akhiok are important tools White Amodo will need to succeed as a local teacher in rural Alaska.
The turnover rate for teachers in rural schools varies across districts, but on average the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) says 30%of teachers leave rural Alaska schools annually.
The Director of Rural Schools for the Kodiak Island Borough School District, Peggy Azuyak, said the district needs more homegrown teachers like White Amodo to help reduce turnover.
“It’s really important that people from the community move into these really important roles that really help continue to shape the community and build it up. We don’t tend to have the same issues of turnover and unknowns when you have local teachers come into the communities," Azuyak explained.
All five rural schools within the district finished their school year between May 17 and May 24, with Akhiok being the last one to hold graduation. There were four total graduates from the island’s rural schools this year, including one from Ouzinkie and one from Old Harbor; Cienna Johnson and Charlie Christiansen respectively. Kodiak High School will round out the island’s graduations on Memorial Day, May 27, which the other graduating senior from Akhiok, Leilani Murillo, will participate in.