Scholarships Provide Educational Opportunities for Underserved Schools
“It means a lot for our school to receive scholarships to participate,” shares Cassie Panther, teacher at Children’s Kiva Montessori Charter School in Cortez, CO. “I don't think we would be able to come without scholarship support.” Schools and students travel to Crow Canyon from across the country for our accurate and inclusive experiential educational programming. We charge minimal fees for these experiences to help cover a portion of our costs like staffing, materials, and curriculum development. However, even minimal fees can be a barrier for many schools.
“Just busing is relatively expensive,” explains Cassie.
Crow Canyon makes it a priority to offer our educational opportunities to all schools and students, regardless of circumstances. We especially strive to welcome local schools and students from Tribal and Indigenous communities. To ensure no student or school is ever turned away, Crow Canyon is continually replenishing our scholarship funds so that schools like Kiva, which serves many Diné, Ute Mountain Ute, and Hispanic students, can participate. Thanks to scholarship funding, Kiva Montessori was able to bring three groups of students to Crow Canyon in 2025. Their fourth graders were among nearly 300 Montezuma County students to participate in our annual Outdoor Museum on the Ground program. Kiva’s 5th through 8th graders were also able to experience overnight programs. “The hands-on programming Crow Canyon offers our students is important because it teaches respect for the people who were here first,” explains Cassie. “Our students see how Ancestral Puebloans were thriving, not just surviving. They see how ingenious people were and how they were connected to the earth and environment.” While demand increases for Crow Canyon’s educational programming, schools are becoming less able to access resources. That, combined with our own funding cuts, inspired a special fundraising campaign in late 2025 to raise even more funds for scholarships. Thanks to the generosity of our amazing community, the new Educational Resilience Fund raised nearly $86k. Those funds will be used to ensure schools like Kiva and dozens of others can participate in 2026. “It's great that Crow Canyon values local schools,” shares Cassie. “Our students are excited and looking forward to coming every year now.” Want to help? You can still contribute to the Educational Resilience Fund.
In 2025: 18 schools received nearly $51k in scholarships to participate in Crow Canyon’s on-campus programming 11 of those schools were from the local Four Corners region The funds benefited 652 students 344 of those students were local
Contribute to the Educational Resilience Fund today
CROW CANYON ARCHAEOLOGICAL CENTER
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