The San Carlos Unified School District strives to be a stable part of students' lives by expanding educational offerings and establishing cultural and community identities for some of the most vulnerable members of the San Carlos Apache Tribe.
In order to ensure staff members have the tools they need to serve every students' educational needs, the district continually invests resources into professional development. The most recent training has come in the form of Kids at Hope, the brainchild of ASU professor Rick Miller, who works from the premise that labels have consequences in the lives of students.
Miller has more than 50 years' experience working with youth service organizations, and Kids at Hope focuses on defining “at risk” youths into those “at hope.” He says that the term “at risk” has negative connotations that can lower expectations for success.
“You have to discard the old 'at risk' paradigm, which is more detrimental than it is helpful for any kid, and connect with them in meaningful ways,” Miller says. “It's not just about providing them more services, it's about providing them stronger relationships with adults.”
Having a stable, nurturing environment with trusted adults is key in a community where 20% to 30% of students might not have that at home.
It is also important to identify the dynamics that lead some students to succeed under adverse circumstances while their counterparts continue to struggle. In order to answer that puzzle, Kids at Hope reviewed a significant body of literature summarized in “Youth Risk to Kids at Hope: Flipping the Stereotype” by Linda B. Pincham, published in Literacy Information and Computer Education Journal, June, 2017:
“Our teachers are the people that are the adults in the room,” Miller says. “They're getting constant training, or whatever they would need to really be active participants, and that's what we're moving towards.”
Over the past decade, San Carlos Unified School District has worked hard to achieve stability in its administration and provide students an identity focused on San Carlos Apache culture.
According to Judy Shorten, an Apache language and history teacher who's been in the district for 21 years, much of what Kids at Hope teaches is compatible with the district's cultural programs.
“Kids at Hope is pretty much like Apache ways of life, where they dream of a better life, they hope to do things better,” she says. “It's more like a self-identity kind of thing, and it's really similar with the way Apaches are.”
Shorten adds that while there has not been a program in place, some of the things district staff have learned are already part of daily routine.
“There are some things that we were already doing, like our greetings in the morning, that's kind of a welcome thing,” she says. “We do a lot of praising instead of yelling at the kids or telling them they need to sit still.”
Carlo and Shara Villaruel are San Carlos High School teachers who have been involved with Kids at Hope training and say it comes down to positivity and believing each student has the capacity for success, however that is defined.
“It's a belief system that all students are capable of success, no exception,” says Carlo Villaruel, who has taught health and fitness for three years after an 18-year career in the Philippines. “Kids at Hope talks about three things: believe in the kids, connect with the kids, and then travel with them.”
Shara Villaruel, who teaches agriscience after seven years teaching in the Philippines, says the training can be difficult, but when it is implemented, creates a culture that can lead to success for everyone involved.
She adds that many of the lessons learned through Kids at Hope training are inherent to anyone with the desire to teach.
“It is already in all teachers,” she says. “As long as you believe in that kid, you need him or her to be motivated, engaged, and give them positive words in order for them to do good in life, not just in school, but also in the community.”
In addition to the professional development Miller has brought to more than 100 school districts in Arizona, Kids at Hope also organizes its annual Masters Institute, a conference that brings together participants from around the state.
San Carlos Unified School District’s Middle School Apache Club was invited to Phoenix in September 2025 to perform at the Masters Institute along with four of the district’s staff members. In addition to the performance of traditional San Carlos Apache dance, one of the students recited the Kids at Hope pledge in the Apache language.
Miller says that the ability to hope is one of the things that separates humans from the rest of the animal kingdom, and it is important to apply scientific rigor to its study.
“No other species can do that, so it's of interest to science to find out, what is hope? How do you define it scientifically?” he says. “Because we have defined it theologically, and we've defined it philosophically, and we've defined it personally, but we've never defined it scientifically, where you put it underneath the microscope.”
For San Carlos Unified School District Superintendent Shawn Pietila, the science is important, but ultimately creating a safe and nurturing environment is vital to the future of students.
“Every child should have adults that believe them and seek those relationships. The athletes get attention, as do the honor roll students, but every student deserves that attention,” Pietila says. “The goal is that we don't want any student to leave our doorstep or leave our campus without having a trusting relationship with at least one adult on that campus.”
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