Submitted by Yavapai College
If you’re a fan of Jay Hosteen on Tik Tok or @jayhosteen on Instagram, you probably already feel you know him personally.
That’s because the Yavapai College alumnus, Navajo native, fourth-grade teacher at Tuba City Boarding School, husband and father of four shares his life — the joys, the challenges, the beauty and the bewilderment, all with a positive and comic bent — with thousands every day.
“Social media creation is my stress reliever,” he says. “It helps me take my mind off things that would bother me or keep me up at night.
“I also have established a great community online that comments with positive things that keep me motivated. In a way I reciprocate that energy.”
Hosteen started making Tik Tok reels three years ago, dared by a student he couldn’t get 100 followers.
Today, his account boasts nearly 50,000 followers. On Instagram his following has grown to 10,000. Several of his short, witty videos have garnered a million or more views.
Growing up in a tiny hogan with no electricity or running water left him reserved, he says. He credits his three-year journey through Yavapai College, in part, for bringing him out of his shell.
At the urging of his mother, Jay followed his half-sister to YC in 2002. He made lifelong friends living in the residence halls and serving in the Native American Club. He became a resident assistant and then a hall director.
“It was a really good place for me to find myself,” he says.
Hosteen pursued an education degree until his mother died, his grades sank and he was placed on academic probation. He returned to the reservation to help raise his siblings but never gave up on his dream of becoming a teacher. He eventually earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Northern Arizona University; he’s on track to earn another master’s this year.
During the pandemic, Hosteen led the team that adapted Navajo schools for online learning. He regularly employs robots in his classroom and he’s developing an esports arena — a project buoyed this fall by a visit with his students to YC.
Hosteen posted a video of his students rolling down the grass hill outside The Rider Diner — something he used to do. “They’re never too young to see what college is like,” he says. “It just might stick with them.”
