Project-based correspondence school seeking students

WASILLA — Students looking for another alternative to traditional education can still register for TOTEM Correspondence School, no matter where in Alaska they call home.

On the school’s website, TOTEM is described as an opportunity for “personalized, self-directed education that is creative, reflective and focused on relevant issues.” The school is based in Hydaburg, but open to all Alaska students in kindergarten through 12th grade and beyond, according to co-founder Bart Mwarey.

“We let kids excel at the highest potential they’ve been given, we don’t stop at the 12th-grade level,” he said. “We take ’em as high as we can get ’em to prepare them for life — not only for college, but for life.”

Mwarey said he’s been using a project-based approach to education for 20 years, encouraging students to develop a culminating question or idea each year to explore from all subject angles. A student who wanted to study global warming, for example, might get science credit by examining atmospheric qualities and changes, geography by looking at certain affected locations, and reading and writing through research and report building.

“It’s one of the cheapest ways to do education because it doesn’t really require textbooks,” Mwarey said. “It requires a good plan and good way to execute them.”

Each student is issued a laptop and an adviser upon the acceptance of their application, and must participate in state-mandated tests like at any other high school.

‘Life-changing’ education for everyone

Rodney McCord, who now works for Cook Inlet Tribal Council, said he never enrolled in TOTEM Correspondence, but found success in similar styles of education under Mwarey at boarding schools in Galena and Takotna. One year he completed a project on rap music and acoustics, another year on prisons around the world, and one on his home village of Tyonek.

McCord said he enjoyed the one-on-one direction from Mwarey and his teachers, whom he said helped him better understand educational concepts that flew by him at public school in Anchorage.

“I almost never graduated and (Mwarey) convinced me otherwise,” McCord said. “He changed my life forever, just telling me to never give up.”

Mwarey said a lot of student success has to do with engagement, which is something he hopes TOTEM provides — sometimes an interesting project is all it takes to get a student performing at higher level, he said. But if a student needs some remedial work in math or other core subjects, he said, they would be able to purchase additional curriculum or look at other options for credit recovery.

On the flip side, advanced high school students can receive additional credit for taking college classes by dual enrolling at accepting universities, including University of Alaska schools and Iḷisaġvik College in Barrow.

“We have a menu approach to whatever parents need,” Mwarey said.

While TOTEM Correspondence is popular among Alaska Native students, Mwarey emphasized that it is a public school, and therefore open to students of any ethnic or cultural background. As for the name, TOTEM, Mwarey said it simply comes from the name of the street on which the office is located.

“We’re seeking out everybody … all kids from around the state who want to see a different approach to education,” he said.

TOTEM’s fall semester begins Sept. 6. Prospective students can download the application online at www.totemcorrespondence.org and submit it via email to info@totemcorrespondence.org at any time, provided the student is 19 years or younger on Oct. 1.

For more information on TOTEM Correspondence School, call 907-401-3359.

Contact reporter Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.