Attendance matters

By Ray Houser, Executive Director of Assessment and Student Services Marysville School District

 

Chronic absenteeism, which is defined as missing at least 18 school days in a year for any reason, excused or unexcused, results in lower academic performance, and is a key predictor that a child will not learn to read on time, and eventually, not graduate from high school.

In the Marysville School District, absenteeism has been a concern. The state average of chronically absent students was 15.8 percent in 2015, compared to the Marysville School District’s 2015 chronic absenteeism rate of 21.8 percent.

The National Assessment for Education Progress (NAEP) developed a state-by-state overview of how students with chronic absences preformed compared to their better attending peers. The results show students who missed three or more days of school in the prior month had lower average scores in reading and math than students with fewer absences. The scores hold true for students from every state regardless of size, region or make up of the student population.

Poor attendance also contributes to the achievement gap when it comes to students struggling with poverty, and students from communities of color. Students eligible for free and reduced meals are 30 percent more likely to miss three or more days of school in fourth grade, and in eighth grade it increases to 40 percent

The NAEP also found that poor attendance in the first month of school might predict chronic absence for an entire year. It also shows that absenteeism in kindergarten can affect whether a child develops the grit and perseverance needed to succeed in school, and shows that absenteeism in preschool and kindergarten can influence whether a child will be held back in third grade. What’s more, research from John Hopkins University also shows that absenteeism in middle and high school can predict dropout rates as early as sixth grade.

In the Marysville School District, improving attendance is an essential strategy for reducing existing achievement gaps, and ensuring all of our students are successful during their K-12 experience, and in the next stage of their life. Thanks in part to House Bill 2449, co-sponsored by our local state legislator, Representative Mike Sells, our schools and District now have a mandate to make a difference.

In addition to providing support and outreach to parents on the importance of attendance, improving notification systems around unexcused absences; and data-informed, early intervention steps to reduce absences, the bill allows school districts to create Community Truancy Boards to help address absentee behavior.

It is a familiar phrase, but it takes a village to raise a child. Our village – Marysville and Tulalip – can help make a difference. As parents and guardians, relatives, community members and friends of youth, we can help our children get to school and be present. We can help students in our community get excited about their school and the opportunities that come from learning, and we can reassure them that their teachers and friends need them.

We can also help combat bullying by teaching our children how important it is to be kind and respectful to everyone, and we can make a point to report hurtful behavior with SafeSchools (www.msd25.org/ReportBullying). And if we are really passionate, we can join the Community Truancy Board by contacting Christy Mertens at Christine_Mertens@msd25.org or 360-965-2025.

Thank you for recognizing this effort and for all your ongoing commitment to our local students. Together, we can make a huge difference in the lives of our kids – and our future.

 

 

 

Beyond the Thanksgiving myth

By Micheal Rios, Tulalip News 

“We are all thankful to our Mother, the Earth, for she gives us all that we need for life.” – Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address.

Perspective

Each November families across the country teach their children about the First Thanksgiving, a classic American holiday. They try to give children an accurate picture of what happened in Plymouth in 1621 and explain how that event fits into American history. Unfortunately, many teaching materials give an incomplete, if not completely inaccurate, portrayal of the first Thanksgiving, particularly of the event’s Native American participants.

Most texts and supplementary materials portray Native Americans at the gatherings as supporting players. They are depicted as nameless, faceless, generic “Indians” who merely shared a meal with the valiant Pilgrims. The real story is much deeper, richer, and more nuanced. The “Indians” in attendance, the Wampanoag, played a lead role in the historic encounter, and they had been vital to the survival of the colonists during the newcomers’ first year.

 

The Teachers

The Wampanoag were a people with a sophisticated society who had occupied the region for thousands of years. They had their own government, their own spiritual and philosophical beliefs, their own knowledge system, and their own culture. They were also a people for whom giving thanks was a part of daily life.

The Wampanoag people have long lived in the area around Cape Cod, in present-day Massachusetts. When the English decided to establish a colony there in the 1600s, the Wampanoag already had a deep understanding of their environment. They maintained a reciprocal relationship with the world around them. As successful hunters, farmers, and fishermen who shared their foods and techniques, they helped the colonists adapt and survive in “the new world”.

Wherever Europeans set foot in the Western Hemisphere, they encountered Native peoples who had similar longstanding relationships with the natural world. With extensive knowledge of their local environments, Native peoples developed philosophies about those places based on deeply rooted traditions.

The ability to live in harmony with the natural world begins with knowing how nature functions. After many generations of observation and experience, Native peoples were intimately familiar with weather patterns, animal behaviors, and the cycles of plant, water supply, and the seasons. They studied the stars, named constellations, and knew when solstices and equinoxes occurred. This kind of knowledge enabled Native peoples to flourish and to hunt, gather, or cultivate the foods they needed, even in the harshest environments.

Traditionally, Native peoples have always been caretakers in a mutual relationship with their environment. This means respecting nature’s gifts by taking only what is necessary and making good use of everything that is harvested. This helps ensure that natural resources, including foods, will be sustainable for the future. In this way of thinking, the Wampanoag along with every other Native tribe believe people should live in a state of balance within the universe.

Native communities throughout the Americas have numerous practices that connect them to the places where they live. They acknowledge the environment and its gifts of food with many kind of ceremonies, songs, prayers, and dances. Such cultural expressions help people to maintain the reciprocal relationship with the natural world. For example, the Tulalip Tribes of Washington conducts a special ceremony every year called Salmon Ceremony that demonstrates respect for the life-sustaining salmon as a gift. By properly respecting the fish, the Salmon King will continue his benevolence through months of salmon returns.

 

The Immigrants

A majority of those who came to America on the Mayflower came to make a profit from the products of the land, the rest were religious dissenters who fled their own country to escape religious intolerance. The little band of religious refugees and entrepreneurs that arrived on the Mayflower that December of 1620 was poorly prepared to survive in their new environment. They did not bring enough food, and they arrived too late to plant any crops. They were not familiar with the area and lacked the knowledge, tools, and experience, to effectively utilize the bounty of nature that surrounded them. For the first several months, two or three died each day from scurvy, lack of adequate shelter, and poor nutrition. On one exploration trip, the immigrants found a storage pit and stole the corn that a Wampanoag family had set aside for the next season.

As the starving time of the European’s first winter turned to spring, the Wampanoag began to teach them how to survive within their lands. The summer passed and the newcomers learned to plan and care for native crops, to hunt and fish, and to do all the things necessary to partake of the natural abundance of the earth in this particular place. All of this occurred under the watchful instruction and guidance of the Wampanoag.

 

A Harvest Celebration

As a result of all the help and teachings the Europeans received from the local Wampanoag, they overcame their inexperience and – by the fall of their first year in Wampanoag country, 1621 – they achieved a successful harvest, mostly comprised of corn. They decided to celebrate their success with a harvest festival, mimicking that of the Harvest Home they would have most likely celebrated as children in Europe.

Harvest Home was traditionally held on the Saturday or Sunday nearest to the Harvest Moon, the full moon that occurs closes to the autumn equinox. It was typically held in parts of England, Ireland, Scotland, and northern Europe. The Harvest Home consisted of non-stop feasting and drinking, sporting events, and parading in the fields shooting off muskets.

The “First Thanksgiving” is said to be based on customs that the Europeans brought with them. Even though from ancient times Native people have held ceremonies to give thanks for successful harvests, for the hope of a good growing season in the early spring, and for good fortune. Traditional Wampanoag foods such as wild duck, goose, and turkey were main dishes of the menu.

Although the relatively peaceful relations first established were often strained by dishonest, aggressive, and brutal actions on the part of the “settlers”, the Wampanoag were gracious hosts to their now immigrant neighbors. Edward Winslow (a European attendant at the celebration) stated in a letter from 1621 that the harvest celebration went on for three days and was highlighted by the Wampanoag killing five deer, thus providing the feast with venison.

 

Afterward

In only a matter of years following the harvest celebration that would become known as the “First Thanksgiving”, the rarely achieved, temporary state of coexistence had been torn to shreds. The great migration of European refugees and religious zealots to America that ensued brought persecution and death to the Native tribes. Full-scale war erupted in 1637 and again in 1675, ending with the defeat of the Wampanoag by the English. Though decimated by European diseases and defeated in war, the Wampanoag continued to survive through further colonization in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. Today, the Wampanoag live within their ancestral homelands and still sustain themselves as their ancestors did by hunting, fishing, gardening, and gathering. Additionally, they maintain a rich and vital oral history and connection to the land.

Sharing agricultural knowledge was one aspect of early Native efforts to live side by side with Europeans. So, the “First Thanksgiving” was just the beginning of a long, brutal history of interaction between Native peoples and the European immigrants. It was not a single event that can easily be recreated. The meal that is ingrained in the American consciousness represents much more than a simple harvest celebration. It was a turning point in history.

 

Present-day

Giving daily thanks for nature’s gifts has always been an important way of living for traditional Native peoples. Ultimately, Native peoples’ connection to place is about more than simply caring for the environment. That connection has been maintained through generations of observations, in which people developed environmental knowledge and philosophies. People took actions to ensure the long-term sustainability of their communities and the environment, with which they shared a reciprocal relationship. In their efforts, environmentalists are acknowledging the benefits of traditionally indigenous ways of knowing. Today, Native knowledge can be a key to understanding and solving some of our world’s most pressing problems.

 


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Did you know?

 

National Day of Mourning

 

An annual tradition since 1970, Native Americans have gathered at noon on Cole’s Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts to commemorate a National Day of Mourning on the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. Many Native Americans do not celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims and other European settlers. To them, Thanksgiving Day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of their people, the theft of their lands, and the relentless assault on their culture. Participants in National Day of Mourning honor Native ancestors and the struggles of Native peoples to survive today. It is a day of remembrance and spiritual connection as well as a protest of the racism and oppression which Native Americans continue to experience.

The following is an excerpt from a speech given by Moonanum James, Co-Leader of United American Indians of New England, at the 29th National Day of Mourning.

“Some ask us: Will you ever stop protesting? Some day we will stop protesting. We will stop protesting when the merchants of Plymouth are no longer making millions of dollars off the blood of our slaughtered ancestors. We will stop protesting when we can act as sovereign nations on our own land without the interference of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and what Sitting Bull called the “favorite ration chiefs”. When corporations stop polluting our mother, the earth. When racism has been eradicated. When the oppression of Two-Spirited people is a thing of the past. We will stop protesting when homeless people have homes and no child goes to bed hungry. When police brutality no longer exists in communities of color. Until then, the struggle will continue.”

 


 

Sources:

  • American Indian Perspectives on Thanksgiving. National Museum of the American Indian. Retrieved from www.si.edu
  • Harvest Ceremony. Johanna Gorelick and Genevieve Simermeyer, the Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved from www.socialstudies.org
  • National Day of Mourning (United States protest). Retrieved from www.wikipedia.org

Honoring our tribal Veterans

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By Kalvin Valdillez, Tulalip News 

Tulalip community members gathered at the Hibulb Cultural Center on November 11, to honor our veterans. They paid tribute and gave thanks to the brave men and women of Tulalip and its surrounding communities, who served and are currently serving in the United States Military of Armed Forces.

Several Tulalip tribal member quilters banned together and made quilts to present to, and recognize, a handful of the Veterans. After many weeks of hard work, the group made a total of seven quilts to gift to the elders who fought for this nation.

 

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In the Hibulb longhouse, community members gathered and showed appreciation to those who protected the rights and freedom of Americans nationwide. During roll call, the community listened to the Vets as they shared stories and experiences from their time in the service. Once roll call came to a close, a moment of silence was taken in remembrance of the fallen soldiers who paid the ultimate sacrifice, as well as to pay tribute to Tulalip’s Golden Mothers.

The Veterans Day event concluded with lunch, a carving demonstration by Tulalip Master Carver Mike Gobin (Navy Veteran), and a Veteran’s Healing Forum that was led by Reverend Bill Eagleheart Topash (Marine Veteran).

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Men urged to think healthy and get checked

By Micheal Rios, Tulalip News 

The Karen I. Fryberg Tulalip Health Clinic is reminding men to take charge of their health as the upcoming Men’s Health Fair is right around the corner. Scheduled to take place on Friday, December 9, from 9:00a.m. – 3:00p.m., the annual health fair is all about raising awareness for men’s health, with a particular focus on preventative measures.

“Getting men to understand their own health, to think about their health, and then getting them to show up and take advantage of the all the preventative health screenings we offer could make a big difference in their lives,” says Jennie Fryberg, Health Information Manager for the clinic. “Our Tulalip men are so used to putting family first, making sure their kids and loved ones are taken care of, that they forget to make themselves a priority when it comes to their own health.”

Some of the health prevention measures offered will be a cholesterol screening, blood pressure checks, prostate screening (via a blood draw), hearing and vision tests, diabetes screening, as well as many informational booths.

Hypertension (high blood pressure) and high cholesterol are two of the most frequent diagnosis for Native men. Both can be easily screened for and detected with the simple prevention screenings offered that the health fair. If detection occurs, follow-up appointments can be schedule right on the spot.

In recent years at the health fair, Jennie says there are typically three or four men who, based on their screening results, decide to schedule follow-up appointments.

“Prevention is the best kind of medicine. That’s why we have our Men’s Health Fair, to help our men be as healthy as possible. If we do detect something like hypertension or possible diabetes, then we can start the treatment process right away.”

Along with all the preventative screenings and informational booths there will also be demonstrations by Haggen Northwest Fresh meat department and Klesick Farms. The demos will focus on healthy eating made simple, along with detailing the various health advantages of eating local and organic.

For those who still require that extra incentive to attend the health fair and make their health a priority, let’s not forget about the raffle giveaway. All men who attend and participate in the screenings will be entered into a raffle that includes various prizes and goodies. Highlights raffle prizes include chainsaws, tools, and a stand-up freezer. As a reminder, you do not need to be in attendance at the raffle drawing to win. All winners will be contacted through phone and/or e-mail to collect their prizes.

“This building is named after [my] mom and one of her messages she always said was, ‘Our health fairs are a one stop shop.’ You can come in, get all your screenings done at once, no need for multiple appointments sitting in the office,” Jennie concludes. “By taking advantage of our one stop shop health fair, our men can make sure they are healthy and in best condition to take care of their families for years to come.”

 

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Tulalip hosts First Annual MOA Training with Washington State’s Children’s Administration

By Kalvin Valdillez, Tulalip News 

Dr. Stephanie Fryberg, keynote speaker for the first annual tribal training under the MOA.
Dr. Stephanie Fryberg, keynote speaker for the first annual tribal training under the MOA.

In January 2016, the Tulalip Tribes and the State of Washington signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that would allow the two entities to collaborate on government-to-government issues regarding child welfare and Tulalip youth. Tulalip wants to ensure that the youth of the community remain connected to their culture and their people.

Previously, in the event that a Tulalip child was taken out their home, the child would enter the system and often would be placed in the home of non-natives. This practice caused a disconnect between the youth and their families and culture. Tulalip has long worked on a resolution, and at the beginning of 2016 the resolution was presented in the form of the MOA. The agreement involves the Tulalip Tribal Court, beda?chelh, and Child Protective Service caseworkers uniting together to ensure that when a Tulalip youth is removed from the their parent’s guardianship, that child will relocate but remain with family. If family is unable to take the child in, alternate families throughout the community are considered and are the next option for placement. Once the child is relocated, beda?chelh team members remain involved, often assisting the families with guidance and informing them when cultural and community events are occurring.

Recently, in the month of November, caseworkers and team members of Washington State Children’s Administration traveled to the Tulalip Administration Building for the first annual Tribal Training Under the MOA. Tulalip’s goal for the first training was to make sure the trainees had a clear understanding of how a tribal community operates.

The trainees had the opportunity to meet the teams they will be working with including, Judge Whitener and the Tulalip tribal attorneys, the beda?chelh team, as well as Tulalip Tribes General Manager Misty Napeahi and Kinship Coordinator Verna Hill.

Dr. Stephanie Fryberg, keynote speaker, shared her experience growing up on the Tulalip Reservation. She explained that the modern society praises an independence lifestyle, which is introduced at a young age. Independence is based on the decisions an individual makes, meaning a person’s successes and failures are placed entirely on that individual.

She then explained to the group the opposite of independence, interdependence. Dr. Fryberg explained that the majority of the world adapts the interdependence lifestyle. Interdependence is the reason why many cultures including, Native American, have strong, deeply connected communities. With interdependence, each individual has a role to play within their community. If a person fails they are supported by their community, allowing the individual the opportunity to learn why they failed. Not only does this present the opportunity for the individual to learn from the mistake but also the chance for more experienced members to pass down advice and knowledge to the individual, therefore making a stronger connection amongst community members.

Dr. Fryberg spoke of the importance of growing up in an interdependence based community. She informed the group that she has taken in two Tulalip tribal children, the youngest an infant boy who was born prematurely.

She states, “He’s really had a big impact on the way I think about what we are doing in our community. The idea of focusing on promoting our people is really helping others see the strength in our people. This is something that has been really important and it will help move us away from the systems that have continued to hold people down. In particular the systems that have kept some families of our communities in foster care. And what we’re trying to do is interrupt that cycle. In our community there’s a real desire for well-being, there’s a real desire to help us move forward. What we’re doing is trying to be very purposeful in this work we are doing, as we continually think about how do we get better.”

She continued, “In that process we realized that change is hard, but it is hard because we are fighting against all of the mindsets people have.  We’re trying to be purposeful in understanding that it’s not just about individuals. They exist in a system. We can try to change the system to make it easier for our people. To help scaffold what it means to take those steps, to help improve them. And by improving them, we improve the next generation in our community.”

Dr. Fryberg stated that the young boy in her custody was born drug exposed. She researched different methods that would give the child in her care the greatest future possible. She stated, “I don’t know what the drugs did to his brain while he was in his mother’s body. I can’t know. But what I do know is that I will do everything for this little boy every day of his life to give him the best chance possible. And he is so loved! There are many families like mine in our community. There are many people who’ve taken in these babies and children, and said they are going to commit to these little souls with every ounce of energy they have.”

Wrapping up her speech, Dr. Fryberg addressed the trainees, “What we want you to walk away with today are three things. Number one, we want to approach our families, especially our most vulnerable families, from a place of promotion. They’re already in a terrible place. Most of them didn’t get there because they were awful people, but because they had awful experiences. So, we want to start from a place of promotion, and we want to put families back together. We have to find a way to empower people when they are most vulnerable because a lack of empowerment will never lead to change. Number two, we have to understand that there is more than one good legitimate way to be. There are different ways of existing in the world, there’s different ways of expressing, of thinking, and being motivated. And third and lastly, we have to know what our bias is and be willing to confront it in every interaction in the community and at home. Our objective is to make sure we do our best by our families and by our children.”

 

 

Contact Kalvin Valdillez, kvaldillez@tulaliptribes-nsn.gov 

In Memory of Leota Lynette Pablo January 25, 1935 – November 11, 2016

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Leota Lynette (Price) Pablo, 81 of Tulalip went to be with her Lord on November 11, 2016 surrounded by her loving family.
She was born January 25, 1935 in Tulalip, WA to William and Elsie Price. She worked for 35 years doing a number of jobs for the Tulalip Tribes including, Land Lease Administrator, Recording Secretary for the Tulalip Board; Tax Exempt File Clerk; Port Master at the Marina; and she was on the Tribal Enrollment Committee. She was an ordained minister, third elder and bishop in the Tulalip Full Gospel Shaker Church. Her side jobs were owning and operating a frybread stand, and selling fireworks, all while raising five boys. Some of the things she loved to do were weddings for people; praying for many people; as well as going to garage sales; getting apples and peaches from Wenatchee and Yakima for canning; playing bingo and going to the Casino. She was also a fill-in and extra for the CBS series – the Northern Exposure.
She is survived by her special auntie Lorraine Joseph; brother Gary Price; sister Sheila Price; children, Danny Sr. (Stephanie), Louie Sr., Jimmy, and Roger (Maxine) Pablo; daughter-in-law, Lori Parks; numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren in both Washington and Montana; special grandchildren Dan Pablo Jr., and Michael Pablo Sr. whom she helped raise. She is preceded in death by her husband, Louis Pablo Sr.; her parents; son, Eddie; sister June Ione Pablo; grandsons Louie III, Desmond Paul Pablo; great-grandson, Dontae Wayne Jones; and two children at birth; as well as all her 13 of her siblings.
Visitation will be Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016 at 1:00 PM at Schaefer-Shipman Funeral Home with an Interfaith service to follow at 6:00 PM at the Tulalip Gym. Funeral Services will be held Friday at 10:00 AM at the Tulalip Gym with burial to follow at Mission Beach Cemetery.

Arrangements under the direction of Schaefer-Shipman Funeral Home, Marysville, WA.

Tulalip Tribal Employment Rights Office Family Day

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On Friday November 4th the Tulalip Tribal Employment Rights Office (TERO) held a “Family Day” at its vocational training center. Children, parents, and uncles and aunties gathered together at the training center to paint the bookshelves this years students have built as their first construction project. The school year started in September. Families enjoyed the painting and then had a wonderful hot lunch of fried chicken and salad.

Tulalip Employment Rights Office (TERO) provides training, hiring, and contracting to Tulalip members, their families, and spouses. The Tulalip Vocational Training Center (TVTC) was open in 2014 to provide an opportunity for students to learn a variety of trade skills in order to enter into the construction trades. TVTC trains Native Americans in the trades but offers so much more. After receiving a grant from the Kellogg Foundation two years ago TVTC has been implementing a new philosophy with additional services. That philosophy looks at the individual seeking training but also offers services to the larger family in order to help create success for the next generation.

TVTV staff interacts with students and help to build a foundation of trust and communication. It is through this process that the student’s family needs are identified and the program is then able to identify obstacles that may be interfering with student success. They may help pay for childcare, the education needs of the student, as well as help identify education barriers their children may have; they create linkages and bridges to address these barriers. An adult is not going to have success if they are overwhelmed by worry for their children. Basically, the idea is that in order to create a healthy and productive employee means identifying, and assessing the family stressors, wand then provides the extra services, which in turn creates healthier families; thus, the second generation model.

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The training program is accredited through South Seattle Community College and Renton Technical College; all the students taking this program earn 24 college credits.

Teri Gobin, director of the Tribal Employment Rights Office (TERO): “What we do is enforce preference of hiring and contracting. A part of that is getting the work force ready. We created the TERO vocational training center back in 2001 to respond to this need. The Washington State Apprenticeship Trades Council now recognizes it as the only pre-apprenticeship program for Native Americans, and the only program of its kind in the nation that is recognized by a state.”

Lisa Telford, the family career navigator, explains the different types of certificates students receive: “First Aid, CPR, AAP, Flaggers, Forklift, Boom Lift, Scissor Lift, OSHA 10; they get all those certifications at the end of the program. The students think about what unions or trades they are interested in and we work on filling out applications towards those places.”

Mark Newland, TERO Vocational Training Center instructor, talking about projects they work on during the 13 week course: “The students get introduced to all the facets of the trades: safety, blueprint drawing and reading, what the construction business is all about, building a personal project to scale with cut list. We do all the ground up, building footing, foundation wall, framing, they learn how to frame windows and walls. They build rafters, calculate scales, and learn about plumbing and electrical.

Lynne Bansemer, TVTC program coordinator, says: “Students will be able to take the information they learn and apply it into their own lives and houses.” We want to start working with Heritage High School, bringing in the students to start helping build Tiny Houses. It would be empowering to the kids who come and work on a project like this to see there is more things going on in life, be a part of people thanking them for building these houses.

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What other local projects have TVTC been involved with? “We do a lot of projects for the tribe right now, the gardens you see at the Boys and Girls Club, the Clinic, and we built those. The students help build the garden structure and get an idea for what it’s like to grow your own food.”

Family day is about kids coming in and seeing what their parents are doing every day, how they are bettering their future, being truly focused, and successful people.

Talking to a student, Ralph Flores, about why he joined the program “It was definitely something I was interested in and I had to go for it; I couldn’t pass it up.”

Nicholas Brown and Caleb Hatch, two students in the TERO program, traveled far to be in this program “We came from Wyoming to take this program. We traveled and are staying at a relative’s house, trying to find opportunities that we can take advantage of in Washington. I lived here before, I grew up in Washington, I enjoy it here.”

When asked why they took this program they responded, “You get to learn the basic knowledge of construction trades, power tools, and learning the process of soft skills. I’ve learned presentation skills like proper dress codes; you don’t want to go in wearing a suit and tie. You want to go into an interview ready to work, steel toe boots, here I am, let’s go work.”