LAPS School Board President Antonio Jaurigue speaks with students in the Adult Education Program at at UNM-LA. Courtesy/UNM-LA

Probate Judge Michael Redondo speaks with students during an ESL class at UNM-LA. Courtesy/UNM-LA 

UNM-LA News:

• UNM-LA is number one in New Mexico for education level gains

“At the height of the pandemic we even resorted to starting a course with no students, hoping that some would eventually show up,” former program manager Dr. Jane Clements said. “We kept the lights on, kind of like a beacon so the students could find us.”

It did sometimes work, but UNM-Los Alamos’s (UNM-LA) Adult Education and Career/College Readiness Program barely survived.

The Adult Education and Career/College Readiness Program, a mainstay of most college offerings in the state, uses federal and state funding to provide high school equivalency (HSE) courses for adults who never graduated from high school, as well as English as a Second Language (ESL) and Citizenship classes for immigrants, and career/college readiness classes for both groups. All courses and materials are free to students. The goal is to get these students on their feet and moving forward toward better opportunities, either in education or the workforce.

UNM-LA offers courses both on its campus as well as at partner institutions across the region.

While services were cut back to the minimum and some partnerships lapsed, under Dr. Clement’s steady leadership the program managed to limp out of the lockdown, weakened, but intact. The slow process of rebuilding began in the fall of 2021. Students who needed these skills began to return and UNM-LA renewed partnerships, gradually expanding course offerings in Los Alamos and beyond. Unfortunately, just as things looked to be improving, Dr. Clements had to leave the program in summer 2022, leaving it with an uncertain future yet again.

However, in the fall of 2022, UNM-LA hired Audrey Marroquin as a new Community and Workforce Partnerships Manager and she was put in charge of shepherding the program.

Marroquin brought new energy, ideas, leadership, and a dedicated commitment to supporting and advancing students to an expanded office focused on developing a new, comprehensive ”Career and College Readiness Pathway”.

The new pathway is designed to take students from multiple entry points like adult education or ESL, community education, or from continuing and workforce education programs and provide them with skills development and academic support in things like mathematics, writing, and career success habits that help them to ladder up into stackable academic and workforce certificates like Early Childhood Education, Certified Nurse Assisting, Emergency Medical Services, Welding, Robotics, Accounting, Business Management, and Business Marketing, that provide for good-paying, entry-level jobs.

From there students have the foundation to pursue further college degrees in areas like Education, Business, or Health Sciences, or to improve their workforce opportunities, in areas like machining, pipefitting, or other technical services.

All students, no matter where they are in the program or along the pathway, are helped to feel connected to UNM and UNM-LA and to feel they are Lobos in spirit and in fact. It helps to inspire them to continue forward with increased opportunities for jobs and/or further education.

It’s the embodiment of UNM-LA’s motto, “Start here, Go Anywhere.”

With a new Adult Education Program Manager, Linda Nash, in place since the spring, along with Dr. Clements brought back to serve in an advisory capacity, Marroquin and her team, including a set of highly dedicated instructors, has managed to revamp ESL instruction, expand offerings to more community partners like Buffalo Thunder and Mesa Public Library in Los Alamos and the White Rock branch library, increase workshops, and more than double enrollments in the program. What’s more, they have succeeded in making UNM-LA number one in New Mexico for education level gains and in the top 20% for multi-skill gains in the state.

In July, Marroquin secured additional Temporary Aid for Needy Families (TANF) and Adult Basic Education grant funding to expand the program’s offerings to include a full-time instructor in Adult Education, two half-time Integrated Education and Training (IET) instructors who will provide dedicated support to students in workforce programs, and a part-time coordinator.

Alongside new certificate programs like Early Childhood Education, it is expected that student retention and therefore opportunities will continue to break new ground.

To provide real-world contexts for course materials, highly skilled and committed instructors like Cat Ozment are supporting their coursework with presentations from local community leaders like Los Alamos County Probate Judge Michael Redondo, who spoke recently to advanced ESL students about the justice system, division of power in the government, and the specific duties of a probate judge, and Los Alamos Public Schools School Board President Antonio Jaurigue, who spoke to Adult Education students on strategies to advocate for our public-school children and on how much of a difference parent involvement can make.

UNM-LA student Thays Rodriguez 

Inspired by such coursework and by the dedication of this team, students are seeing themselves as able to succeed in college and beyond and are progressing further than ever before. Some, like Thays Rodrigues, who hails originally from Brazil, have already matriculated into credit-bearing programs, starting on a path to earning an Associate of Applied Science degree in Business Marketing. She describes her experience this way, “I was fortunate to have teachers who believed in me and supported me, which enabled me to go from Beginning to Advanced ESL in one year. I was fortunate to be introduced to Audrey, who gave me the opportunity to gain valuable volunteer experience in marketing, encouraged me, and supported me as I pursued my education as a UNM-LA student, secured an Internship, and even guided me through the process of applying for my student Visa.”

As Audrey Marroquin summarizes nicely, “My vision for the Adult Education Program is to complement our robust curricula with a wide array of flexible, stackable certificates in a nurturing and inclusive environment. To achieve these goals, we are providing a pipeline that gives students the potential to use their certificate credits toward a degree. Our commitment is unwavering – we’re here to empower our adult students with the skills they need to not only enter degree programs but also seize in-demand job opportunities. I wholeheartedly believe in their unwavering resilience and boundless potential, and together, we’re building futures filled with success.”

About UNM-LA

UNM-Los Alamos is an innovative, rigorous, and affordable comprehensive branch community college that provides foundations for transfer, leading-edge career programs, and lifelong learning opportunities. More information about UNM-Los Alamos is available at losalamos.unm.edu.