AURORA, Colo. — Seven children gathered around Amaya Mills as the soon-to-be teacher asked them what activity they wanted to do next. Did they want to read to themselves? Or read with one of their classmates?
One after another, the first-graders scattered across the classroom at Ponderosa Elementary School in Aurora, settling down with books, computers and Play-Doh. Mills moved around the room that October morning, checking on the children as they completed their tasks.
The classroom is where she had wanted to be, but Mills wasn’t sure how to achieve her dream of being a teacher while juggling both work and school. She attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., for two years, but moved back to Colorado in 2020 because she couldn’t afford tuition.
Mills worked as a librarian at Village East Elementary School until she joined a new initiative — the Aspiring Educator Pathway Program — that the Cherry Creek School District launched during the 2024-25 academic year and which pays her to co-teach while she earns a degree.
“I always wanted to do something with kids,” Mills, 24, said, adding, “It’s something I wanted to do but I had no way to go about it without the program.”
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