Youth Teaching Youth program changing lives in Glendale neighborhood


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SALT LAKE CITY — Youth have been teaching youth science in Salt Lake's Glendale neighborhood for the past 20 years.

The Youth Teaching Youth program is a unique partnership between Glendale Middle School and the Natural History Museum of Utah.

It's funded through private donations and has a track record of graduating 100 percent of its young teachers from high school and sending 80 percent of them to college.

This school year, the 12- to 14-year-old middle-schoolers visit Parkview Elementary for their first teaching experience. The fourth-graders in Miss Megan King's class are amazed at how young their teachers are and Youth Teaching Youth coordinator Linda Gillis has to explain how they earned these important jobs.

"They get to be teachers even though they're only in middle school because they are such great students and such great scientists," she said.

The first science lesson is in animal adaptation. The young teachers capture their students' interest with hands-on exhibits from the Natural History Museum. Eighth-grader Alberto Solano asks a group of fourth-graders, "Do you guys notice any similarities between all of these specimens?"

The kids chime in with answers like, "Yes, they all have big teeth."

Kellan Warner is a specialist with the Youth Teaching Youth program and believes "it helps us do science the way we would like to do it. So, we do it all hands on and inquiry based."

For the past month these young teachers have been mentored by high school students who came up through the middle school program themselves.


When you see someone who is slightly older than you, giving you, telling you all these cool things, it's more accessible.

–Kellan Warner, Youth Teaching Youth program specialist


Sophomore Gerardo Robles talks fondly about his young protégés. "They basically blossom from what you teach them and it's a great, fun experience," he said.

The learning experience is based out of Glendale Middle School where dozens of students line up to get applications to be young science teachers.

"In that (application) process, they have to fill it out, they have to get a teacher recommendation, and we interview them too, so it's a really cool, authentic experience just like they'll have later in life when they apply for jobs," Warner said.

Solano remembers Glendale Middle School students just like himself coming to his fourth-grade classroom and he was inspired. "And from there on, I just had this passion for this and I was like I want to do this," Solano said.

King knows her students won't forget their youth teachers or the scientific questions they asked and got answered during this lesson about animals. Warner said the youth teachers have an impact that can't be duplicated by the veteran educators.

"When you see someone who is slightly older than you, giving you, telling you all these cool things, it's more accessible," she said.

Eighth-grade student teacher Amber Hobbs agrees. "I think they kind of look up to us and maybe they might want to join the program, too."

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