The Star School

Changemaker School
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Network Member Since 2014

This STAR (Service to All Relations) School serves students from preschool through grade 8 who live in a large rural area in the southwest corner of the Navajo Nation. Their vision is to create a joyful learning community in which members develop the character, skills and attitudes for understanding themselves, living in balance, and serving all relations. Drawing on foundational values of the Navajo culture, the school focuses on The 4 R’s: Respect, Relationship, Responsibility, and Reasoning, toward themselves and their surroundings. A fundamental value practiced among Navajo people is the importance of relationships (K’e’). Therefore, STAR School emphasizes the building of meaningful and respectful relationships with the children, the staff, the community, the land, and all of the surrounding nature. The whole school is powered with solar energy and a few wind generators, making it the first school to be entirely off the grid. Whereas less than 1% of native populations receive post-secondary education, more than 68% of STAR school students go on to receive post-secondary education. All staff contribute to the STAR School environment where confidence is developed to solve problems by working together.