![\"picture](\"http:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2012\/11\/Aquila-Tapio-3.jpg\" "\\"Aquila-Tapio-3\\"")
<\/a>When she was growing up, Aquila Tapio said she never really knew what she wanted to do. \u201cI just wanted to help people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\nUntil recently, Tapio and her husband helped Native American children as foster parents through the Indian Child Welfare Act program. And then after the birth of her second child, she decided it was time for her to return to the workforce.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to help Native American kids and keep doing the work we were doing at home,\u201d she says. So when Tapio discovered Augsburg\u2019s tribal special education program, she knew she had found the right fit. <\/p>\n
Naadamaadiwin, Ojibwe for \u201chelping one another,\u201d is a partnership between the University of Minnesota-Duluth Center for Indigenous Knowledge and Language Revitalization and the Augsburg College Master of Arts in Education program. Naadamaadiwin is a special education licensure program in emotional behavioral disorders and learning disabilities with a focus on the unique needs of Native American children.<\/p>\n
For Tapio, a member of the Oglala Lakota in South Dakota, working with Native children and families through the education system is important because education is a \u201ctouchy issue\u201d for Native Americans. \u201cWe need teachers who know where people come from and who understand the history and trauma families have experienced,\u201d she says. \u201cHaving a Native teacher provides comfort to students and their parents.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tapio is completing her student teaching this term at Longfellow Humanities Magnet School in St. Paul. She says the Naadamaadiwin program has given her a new way to give Native children the consistency and support they need. \u201cNo matter how many times you have to tell them something, they will pick it up,\u201d she says. \u201cThey are capable. They can do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Naadamaadiwin is a two-year cohort-based program with classes meeting primarily online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Naadamaadiwin — Helping one another When she was growing up, Aquila Tapio said she never really knew what she wanted to do. \u201cI just wanted to help people,\u201d she said. Until recently, Tapio and her husband helped Native American children as foster parents through the Indian Child Welfare Act program. And then after the birth <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[65,46],"class_list":["post-1418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured-stories","tag-my-auggie-experience","tag-spring-2010"],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1418"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13178,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1418\/revisions\/13178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}