Tlingit & Haida invests in children, families and the future of Southeast Alaska through Head Start programs in 10 communities. In some classrooms, that investment is coming full circle: Head Start graduates are returning as teachers, carrying forward the lessons, relationships, language and culture they experienced as children. 

As a Head Start graduate and teacher’s daughter, Mekell Heppe-Worthington was raised in the classroom. Her mom, Brandi Heppe, has been Petersburg’s Lead Head Start Teacher for years, and Mekell remembers helping her mom run errands around the school, delivering papers to the front office. 

Now, Mekell is going into her fifth year as a Head Start teacher herself in Petersburg. 

“I learned so much from Head Start and I get to share that and I get to teach so many little kids that as well,” Mekell said. 

Brandi said she loves working side-by-side with her daughter. 

“When she applied for the position and got it, it made my heart just so happy to know that she wanted to follow in my footsteps and do what I do,” Brandi said.

Brandi and Mekell are one of three mother/daughter pairs teaching for Head Start. 

Carrie Denny has been with Saxman’s Head Start team for 25 years. Her daughter Tre’ann Denny is a Head Start graduate who started volunteering in her mom’s classroom after she graduated high school. 

Now the Dennys work together in the same school where Tre’ann went as a kid. They’re bringing more culture into the curriculum, giving students opportunities to make drums, paddles, headbands and vests. 

Carrie and Tre’ann have also taken Lingít classes to enhance their teaching. 

In Sitka, Shaye Jensen is Tlingit & Haida’s Lead Teacher, and works with her mother Starr Jensen, the lead teacher for Sitka Tribe of Alaska, in a Head Start program that’s held in partnership between the two tribes and the Sitka School District. 

Shaye grew up as a Head Start student when her mom was a teacher in Yakutat. After they moved to Sitka, she volunteered in high school before graduating from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and becoming first a substitute teacher, then teaching assistant and now lead teacher. 

“To see her growth every day is amazing,” Starr said about her daughter. “From the beginning where she was helping me prepping materials to now we’re having complex discussions about child development and making our learning experiences really meaningful, not just for children but for families, we’re having those higher level conversations. It’s gotten better and better every year.” 

Shaye said her mom’s presence as a mentor was valuable, especially in her first year of teaching. She hopes to see even more mother/daughter teams teaching together as the Head Start programs grow. 

“I hope someday I can teach my own kids,” Shaye said. 

One of the 14 Southeast Alaska Traditional Tribal Values is “Pride in family, clan and traditional is found in love, loyalty and generosity,” and in no place is that more evident than in Tlingit & Haida’s Head Start classrooms.