Peñasco students make NNM College Dean’s list
Despite the disruption of having to pivot to all-online learning, two students at Peñasco High School have made the Dean’s list — at college.
Freshman Analise MacAuley, 14, and sophomore Elviria Encinias, 16, are enrolled in the Early College High School program, which allows high school students to take college-credit classes at Northern New Mexico College in Española.
MacAuley and Encinias both completed 12 class credits and earned higher than a 3.5 grade point average, which are required to land on the Dean’s list.
“It was really time consuming,” said MacAuley. “I tried to get all A’s — that was my goal. But I ended up getting a B-plus for my Spanish class and my Intermediate Algebra class.”
MacAuley, who lives in Vadito, has two older sisters who also studied in the Early College High School program. One is a junior now, and the other is a freshman at Stanford University. “Both of them have made the Dean’s list before. They’re really good role models,” she said.
Better courses needed
The Early College High School program at Peñasco High School began in 2013, as a way to retain students in the district and offer them more challenging coursework.
“We’ve had the same problem with rural communities all over the nation — we’ve had a loss of students,” said Aaron Mitchell, Peñasco’s elementary school principal.
Mitchell had previously been the school district’s program coordinator for GEAR UP (CQ), a federally-funded career readiness program, and was instrumental in launching the Early College High School program in Peñasco.
“With the lack of Advanced Placement courses, and the lack of some of the more interesting elective courses that they can get in other schools, we had students leaving to go to Taos or to Española,” said Mitchell.
“In order to combat that, we decided to apply for a grant to create an early college high school where our students would begin taking [college] classes in their sophomore year,” said Mitchell. “The goal was to provide them the opportunity to complete an Associate’s degree that they would finish at the time of graduation from high school.”
Mitchell said there was a lot of interest in the program’s first year, and after a few years, two students graduated from high school with
an Associate’s degree.
“The following year, we had four. And then this last year, we had six that graduated with their Associate’s degrees,” he said.
In a high school class of around 21 students, that means close to 30 percent graduated with a college degree.
Adapting to the new normal Prior to the state’s pivot to allonline learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, students enrolled in the program would board a yellow school bus in the morning and drive 45 minutes to the NNM College campus in Española. At noon, they would return to
Peñasco High School to finish the day’s schoolwork.
Nowadays, MacAuley, Encinias and the other students in the program study at home on laptop computers provided by the high school.
“I was pretty nervous to start college, because it’s not in-person.
It’s all over the computer,” said Encinias, who lives in Peñasco. “But once I got the hang of it, I felt better. When I started communicating with teachers via email, it helped me out even more.”
Encinias earned three A’s and a B in her college classes during the Fall 2020 semester.
This semester, she’s studying History, Introduction to Ethics, Composition 2 and Algebra at the college, and English, Fitness and General Band at the high school.
“Since we’re not really in school, we’re not playing an instrument now,” said Encinias, who has been studying trumpet for almost two years. “We’re putting videos together — editing them and putting music in them.”
Encinias said she also misses competitive sports. “Basketball was my favorite. I played volleyball and I ran track,” she said. “I hope that we get back to competing. It was a big part of my life.”
Shooting for the stars
Like Encinias, MacAuley had to put competitive sports on hold — cross country, volleyball, basketball and track and field. “I miss playing games, but I’m hoping that we’ll be able to play volleyball in February,” she said.
For MacAuley, the transition to online learning has not always been easy. “I think it’s harder because there’s so many distractions,” she said. “My mom’s a teacher, so sometimes I hear her teaching in the other room, or sometimes my sister has classes and I hear that too.”
MacAuley is studying Western Civilization, Composition 1, Introduction to Art and Introduction to Statistics at the college, and studying New Mexico History, English and Physical Education at the high school this semester.
“Whatever they’re doing up there on their end, it’s really helping these students succeed. And the students themselves are working hard,” said Rhiannon West, an assistant professor of Biology at NNM College who taught MacAuley last semester.
West has instructed students from Peñasco High School in the Early College program since 2017.
“It’s a really great opportunity for them to kick start a career,” said West. “You show them they can do it. And then they realize they can, and they shoot for the stars.”
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