Today@Sam Article

Bearkat Educators Bring Expertise and Passion to Rural Alaska

Jan. 30, 2025
SHSU Media Contact: Mikah Boyd

By Lidia Brown

After trading the Texas heat for Alaska’s icy embrace, a Bearkat couple is now channeling their passion for education into a mission dedicated to helping students thrive.

Aaron ('18, '19) and Alyssa ('20) Litzler met at Sam Houston State University, where the two education majors were working their way to becoming teachers. Aside from encountering one another in the Eleanor and Charles Garrett Teacher Education Center, the couple also shared mutual friends through their involvement in a religious campus organization, Chi Alpha.

After earning a bachelor’s in history in 2018, Aaron began teaching at Huntsville ISD as he pursued his master’s in education through the accelerated 4+1 degree program. Alyssa, who majored in elementary education, also taught in Huntsville.

In December 2019, the young educators attended a conference hosted by Chi Alpha, which would shape their futures in ways they never imagined and present them with information about outstanding nonprofit organizations and job opportunities. Here, they discovered the Alaska Student Partnership, which aims to create quality educational and personal growth opportunities for rural Alaskans through culturally trained educators, peer mentors and other supporters.

“They shared with us that teachers come, stay for maybe a year or two, then leave because it is so hard, which in turn affects student learning,” Aaron said. “We heard this non-profit was working to restore and rectify this by having trained teachers commit to a village for an extended amount of time to help grow the students. It just felt like this was what I was called to do.”

The plight of the rural Alaskan education system struck the young educators. Upon receiving his master’s in education in 2019, Aaron left for the Great North to begin his training with the Alaska Student Partnership (AKSP). Meanwhile, Alyssa was wrapping up her degree in elementary education.

After spending years running in the same circles, the aspiring teachers began dating in 2020. Once her degree was in hand, Alyssa joined her sweetheart in Alaska, where they eventually married and began working together on their shared passion of improving education for the state’s rural residents.

The training the duo received from the AKSP was rigorous and sought to prepare them for living and working in the state’s harsh conditions. The non-profit trained them for 10 months in Fairbanks, Alaska, to develop survival skills, learn about Alaskan culture and adapt to life in a village. While they were facing many unknowns, the one thing Aaron and Alyssa were both confident in was their ability to teach.

“I think the first year of teaching is always hard,” Alyssa said. “Part of the program involves teacher training, so some people are coming into the program without that experience. I think being at Sam Houston and having that education really helped.”

Aaron and Alyssa quickly learned the remarkably different challenges students experience growing up in Alaska as opposed to Texas. The first and most noticeable obstacles are the isolated location and harsh conditions.

The couple lives in the village of Tuluksak with the Yup’ik people. A key part of Yup’ik culture is subsistence hunting and fishing, which can result in students being absent for over a week during moose hunting season or fishing season as they help their families stock up food in preparation for bitter winters. The cultural and physical necessity of engaging in subsistence hunting poses serious challenges and questions for the young educators.

“How do we make school relevant and engaging, while respecting their culture, but also preparing them for the outside world that they are going to interact with?” Aaron said.

In addition to these challenges, they also experience extreme poverty, high rates of alcoholism, domestic abuse and violence. Aaron noted that many of the students he teaches have had Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) and experienced high rates of either physical, emotional or mental trauma, which they carry with them into school. Helping students navigate their trauma while also providing high-quality education for the entire class has posed a significant challenge to Aaron and Alyssa, as it has for the many educators who came before them.  

Instead of becoming overwhelmed by the many hurdles, Aaron and Alyssa saw each as an opportunity to make a difference. By doing so, they were able to forge bonds with their students and help them beyond their time in the classroom.

“During the summer of our second year here, we were working with one of our recent graduates, who was planning to attend college in Fairbanks,” Aaron said. “When we started working with her, she had a lot of questions about the cost of college.”

The service-minded couple then walked the student through FAFSA and the steps she would need to take to enter college prepared for success. As they helped the student navigate through collegiate materials, Aaron and Alyssa noticed larger gaps in support that many rural students faced.

“If we had gotten started just a year earlier, she could have had access to so many more scholarships and financial opportunities,” Aaron said. “Having someone who knows the college system like us helped her through it, because these students lack an understanding of what opportunities are out there.”

Throughout most of Texas, students have access to ample resources that effectively introduce them to college and provide ongoing support. Due to limited funding, many school districts in Alaska lack counselors—the very people who would typically support these students. Faced with this new obstacle, Aaron and Alyssa recognized the need for a structured solution. This realization sparked the idea of creating a non-profit organization to bridge the gap and provide students with the essential guidance they were missing.

“By starting our non-profit, NextStepsAK, we are hoping to support and equip teachers to connect with Alaskan students to help them transition to their next step,” Aaron said.

While still in the early stages, the non-profit will focus on providing comprehensive support for these students. Currently, they are developing a framework for teachers to implement at their schools to help students navigate the transition between high school and college.

Even though they are far from home, Aaron and Alyssa manage to thrive with the strong support system they have in the village, which continues to help them navigate the challenges of living and working in a new place. Last year, the couple welcomed twins. Without family nearby to help watch the children, Alyssa stepped into a new role as a stay-at-home mom, but she is not alone. When the couple moved to Tuluksak, they were joined by a team of fellow teachers who have also settled and started families. Their connection to this community has made the Last Frontier feel like home.

“We don’t see ourselves leaving Alaska any time soon,” Alyssa said. “We love it here, and this is where we want to be."

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