Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College has become the first two-year institute in Minnesota to offer a four-year degree in elementary education.

Classes for this program will start in January with the aim to increase educators, especially American Indian or of American Indian descent.

“It’s really focused on increasing American Indian teachers,” said Dr. Kim Spoor, dean of education at FDLTCC to Duluth News Tribune, “but … it’s also important for us to pull in those non-Indigenous students to become teacher educators because it’s important for them to know about cultures that are different than their own so that they have that really good understanding and foundation when they go into their classroom.”

However, the program is still open to anyone interested in obtaining a degree in this field.

But the institute aims to focus more on culture. “While we meet the Minnesota standards, the piece that’s missing from anywhere else is that deep dive into the culture,” said Spoor. “That’s what makes us unique.”

For more information about the degree program, click here.