As an elementary school student, Daniela Gutierrez didn’t have a teacher who tried to get close and form a connection with her. 

That experience stayed with Gutierrez, who is now a senior at Mojave High School in North Las Vegas, and inspired her aspirations for the future. 

“Since I didn’t have great teachers, I thought I could make a great teacher toward other kids in the future,” she said. 

But Gutierrez isn’t waiting for college to start working on her goal. 

The 18-year-old is enrolled in the Teacher Academy College Pathway Program, a new state-sponsored program teaching students about what it takes to become a teacher. It includes internship opportunities, setting students up for possible future college tuition reimbursements and earning college credits during high school years at a much lower rate than it would cost at a Nevada college or university. 

The program was born from the Clark County Education Association’s (CCEA) desire to expand the “grow-your-own-teacher” training programs already offered at Clark County schools and support aspiring teachers who face barriers to reach the classroom. 

CCEA argued that those existing programs, designed to cultivate a homegrown workforce, weren’t producing enough teachers to meet the state’s needs, particularly as Nevada continued facing teacher vacancies. 

During the 2023 and 2025 legislative sessions, the union teamed up with Assm. Shea Backus (D-Las Vegas) on two bills (AB428 and AB462) that further built out that teacher pipeline by creating the academy. 

The legislation requires the Clark County School District (CCSD) to offer the program at every high school with 250 or more students (excluding magnet schools, career and technical academies and alternative schools). 

By The Nevada Independent’s count, that’s 33 schools, and according to the district, the program is currently offered at 46 high schools. CCSD estimates 4,200 high schoolers are are on some sort of teacher training track.

CCEA Director of Strategic Policy Initiatives Brenda Pearson said the academy is modeled after existing programs at three of the district’s career and technical high schools. 

“I reached out to those schools to say, ‘What do you have here that is going so well, and how can we duplicate what what you're doing in other schools, specifically in our Title I buildings where the students don't have the same type of opportunities?’” Pearson said.

Implementation is optional at other high schools and school districts. 

Students are required to participate in the program for at least two years. They can get their college tuition fully reimbursed after graduation they work at a Nevada public school for at least three years (or have a third of their tuition reimbursed for each year of service). 

AB428 appropriated $10 million to the Office of the State Treasurer for the tuition abatement. 

In order to receive reimbursement, students must complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). A Social Security number is necessary to fill out the federal form. 

“The overarching goal is to really grow and mold our students to be the teachers they need to then come back and serve their community,” said teacher Sierra Whittemore, who oversees Mojave’s program and is a CCSD graduate herself. “When you have teachers that are reflective of the community they teach, it is so much more impactful than when you’re just plopping in a random person that has no ties to anything.”

Under CCEA’s latest contract with the district, the union has pledged to contribute $2 million through the 2026-2027 school year to provide additional support for students at select high schools including Title I schools such as Mojave, Desert Pines, Eldorado and Western. Pearson said that includes helping students pay class fees or providing tutoring support.

“These are working-class kids who need an opportunity, and we think that this is going to give them just that,” Pearson said. “They deserve that opportunity for upward mobility.”

The program allows students to get an up-close view of what it takes to be a teacher. At Mojave, Gutierrez said she’s learning techniques such as how to manage a classroom and how to engage students. 

As part of the program, Gutierrez interns for third grade teacher Joy Ammogawen’s class at the nearby Raul P. Elizondo Elementary School, located less than a mile away from Mojave.

Gutierrez said one of her favorite experiences is when she got to work with a small group of students while they were taking a test. 

“I felt so special to be there to be assisting them on how to do it and them asking me for help,” she said.

She also gets to see the challenges, such as how to handle a student who is misbehaving, but Gutierrez said those negatives don’t discourage her from her dream career. 

Gutierrez plans to go to UNLV and one day become an elementary school teacher.

“I’m not interested in doing anything else,” she said. “There’s nothing else that moves me.”