When Jade Land started her job as a special education paraeducator at Yelm High School on Sept. 25, she couldn’t even receive staff emails for three weeks because her student email was still active.
That’s because Land was the newest employee at the school she had just graduated from 108 days prior.
In her senior year at YHS, she was a student in the careers in education course and was part of the first group of students to earn paraeducator certificates at the end of the year. Land found the job posting over a week after the 2024-25 school year began, and two weeks later, she returned to her alma mater as a paraeducator.
“I’m so incredibly grateful to have the training in high school. The careers in education program gave me so much helpful information,” she said.
Land, 18, was inspired to pursue a career in education, particularly special education, because she has family members with special needs, and she enjoys working one-on-one with students in a paraeducator role. She was also a member of the peer mentoring class at the same time as the careers in education course in order to practice to become a paraeducator with special education students.
Land spent two years working in Colleen Sarmiento’s classroom through the peer mentoring program, and her students were delighted to see her again when she returned as a paraeducator after graduation.
“When I graduated last year, a lot of them were very upset that I left because seniors leave a little bit earlier than everybody else. They simply thought that I left them, and that wasn’t the case,” she said. “A lot of them were really disappointed and then excited when I came back. Nobody knew that I was coming back, so the students were very excited to see me.”
Land said she loves helping special education students to work toward the “small victories” that aren’t as frequently found in general education.
“I think it’s those small victories, whereas in general education, there are no small victories. If they write their name correctly, that’s a basic requirement for them,” she said. “But here, some of our students write the Es upside down, so flipping that E and not having to tell them to flip the E was fantastic. It’s about seeing the progress, even how miniscule it can be at times.”
Her senior year was mostly spent training for the job she has today and beyond. Land was teaching four out of her six classes during her senior year between the peer mentoring and careers in education programs.
Land has slowly been adjusting to the rapid flip from student to staff, one that has been awkward at times but beneficial at others.
“Being here is really awkward because I just graduated. I started three months after I walked across the stage with everybody, and so there’s lots of people here who know me,” she said. “But it’s so rewarding because I get to actually help the people that are my age. I know the process. I went through all of school in Yelm, and so knowing how the system works in Yelm and what the graduation requirements are, I can really help the specific students asking those questions, whereas some of the teachers don’t even know all the answers to those questions because they didn’t go here.”
Land aims to begin her pursuit of a bachelor’s degree in special education online this spring so that she can eventually become a teacher. She thanks her superiors-turned-peers at YHS in both the careers in education and peer-mentoring classes for helping her begin on the right path in the education field.
“It gives you a fantastic perspective, even if you don’t end up with special education students. Talk to your teachers, talk to people in the field, and talk to other paraeducators about how they got this job and where they got their certification,” Land said. “Ask as many questions as you possibly can. It’d be nice to see more students come back and return to the school district as they have that unique perspective.”
