Yup’ik has become the first Alaska Native language to be taught in an immersion program in the Anchorage School District. This week, College Gate Elementary School opened its doors.
The school is starting with a kindergarten class of 30 students. Each year the school will add another grade with the goal of graduating fluent Yup’ik speakers. Students will be taught in Yup'ik half the day and in English during the other half.
The Anchorage school will be using Yup’ik teaching materials and books developed over decades by Lower Kuskokwim School District teachers from Bethel’s Ayaprun Yup’ik Immersion School.
Parent Kelsey Wallace graduated from Ayaprun in Bethel, and told KTVA that she's happy for her daughter to receive a similar elementary school experience.
“The language is really the backbone of our Yup’ik people," Wallace said. "There’s so much history and knowledge embedded within our different languages.”
Some students, like Wallace’s daughter, already have a foundation in bilingual education. She and others are coming from the Cook Inlet Native Head Start Yup’ik language program.
Principal of the Anchorage immersion school, Darrell Bersten, hopes the school will lead to more Alaska Native language programs in the state’s largest city.
