Jennifer Vasilez: Doing Right by the Children

“Jennifer is a strong Native woman,” says Teresa Harvey. Harvey is a member of the Puyallup Tribe of Indians. She worked as a teacher for 38 years at Chief Leschi Schools, a school serving tribal communities from across the country that is led by the Puyallup Tribe. “I’ve known her [Jennifer] since she was a child and have watched as she’s come into her own.”

The Jennifer in this case is Jennifer Vasilez.

Chester Earl has known Vasilez for two decades but the pair really got to know each other in the past few years when Vasilez became the Secondary Principal (students in grades 6-12) at Chief Leschi.

Earl, like Harvey and Vasilez, is a member of the Puyallup Tribe. “She is the main reason I decided to bring my kids back to Leschi,” said Earl. “There used to be a lot of bullying but she came in and changed things.”

Being an educator is hard work. The hours are long and the needs are dynamic. Vasilez seeks to meet student needs in a way that provides structure, but also includes room for growth. She also seeks to build relationships with parents while honoring the culture of the students and community she serves.

It’s a testament to Vasilez’s skill that so many in the Puyallup community wanted to speak about her abilities as an educator. There are a number of reasons why that could be, but perhaps an image will suffice. “She’s out in the halls during passing periods,” said Earl. “She’s talking to people and connecting with them.”

Vasilez’s career in education unofficially started at age 18. “I volunteered at Chief Leschi in my younger cousin’s kindergarten classroom,” she said. “I have always believed in service and giving back.”

Vasilez says she enjoyed learning and going to school. She graduated from Curtis High School but initially didn’t know if college was right for her. “My parents hadn’t been to college and my grandparents hadn’t been to college,” she said. “It just wasn’t something we talked about in my home.”

Vasilez ultimately decided to apply. “My friends talked about where they were going to go and I just figured I’d go too,” she said. The then-teenager got accepted to UW in Seattle. “I lived in Tacoma and drove north for classes,” said Vasilez. “The campus was really big and I had responsibilities like so many Indigenous students do to provide care and support for my family.”

At the end of her first year Vasilez decided to leave UW and enroll at Pierce College. She earned her associate’s degree then transferred to Western Washington University. Vasilez would go on to earn a bachelor’s in history and a master’s in education at Western.

Building With Community

Community is important to Vasilez and is one of the reason’s why she chose to teach at Chief Leschi. “I started in 2011,” she said. “I was interested in trying to build something with my community.”

Vasilez remained at Leschi for five years. “In the fifth year I also served as dean of students and was made the interim middle school principal,” she said. Around this time Vasilez completed her administrative credential through UW Tacoma’s School of Education.

There’s a part of Vasilez that is always looking to improve. “I love learning,” she said. This philosophy is partly why Vasilez decided to leave Leschi and work for the Muckleshoot Tribal School. “I wanted to know if I was good at what I do or was good because I was serving in my own community,” she said.

Vasilez served as the elementary school principal at the tribal school for two years before taking a position with the Bethel School District. “I received an email from the superintendent at Chief Leschi one day,” said Vasilez. “He said there had been a lot of transition and he wanted to know if I’d consider coming back.”

Returning to Chief Leschi

Vasilez had proven to herself that she was a good educator, regardless of place. Buoyed by this knowledge, she made the decision to return to Chief Leschi. “I was very excited to come back and serve my community,” she said.

Not long after she returned to Leschi, Vasilez started working on an Educational Leadership doctoral degree at UW Tacoma. Vasilez is part of the inaugural Muckleshoot Cohort. “I always knew I was going to get a doctorate,” she said. “I was planning on waiting a while but then I learned about the cohort.”

The decision to be part of the cohort is personal for Vasilez. “I didn’t have an Indigenous teacher in K-12,” she said. “I had one Indigenous professor in college. It just sounded really amazing to be in a world where everyone around me would have experiences similar to mine.”

Vasilez will soon have her doctorate and is already busy planning what comes next. “I’m starting a non-profit with other Native women where we can talk about and build things for our communities,” she said. “I’m also going to take part in an Advocacy Boot Camp through the Native Action Network so I can spend some time around other brilliant Native women. No matter what I do, I know I will always return to Chief Leschi, my home.”

When she’s not polishing her dissertation, attending advocacy boot campus or forming a non-profit, Vasilez is busy helping students succeed. The mother of two sees her students as family and wants them to do well. “We hold our students accountable because we love them and we care about their future,” she said. “They have a responsibility to themselves and to the kids who come after them.”

This passion is what resonates with Chester Earl. “She always does right by the children,” he said. “She is able to provide the structure students need but does it in a way where people feel welcomed.”

As for Teresa Harvey, the child she knew grew up and eventually became a coworker and then a former coworker after Harvey retired. “It’s wonderful,” said Harvey of Vasilez’s success, specifically the latter’s doctoral degree. “It reflects well on us as Puyallup,” said Harvey. “When someone represents us in a good way it makes us very proud of who we are.”