Kids fighting illnesses learn to ‘rise above’

Jocelyn Garcia, left, and Adrianna Garcia look up at instructors while doing push-ups during the Hero Police Academy on Saturday in Albuquerque. More than 20 children took part.John Corvino, an instructor at Saturday’s Hero Police Academy event, encourages the class in exercises. (Antonio Sanchez/Albuquerque Journal)

This story was originally published in the Albuquerque Journal.

Twelve-year-old Jordyn Evans lay tangled with the rest of his classmates Saturday morning at the Hero Police Academy, struggling to do a collective push-up.

The “T pushup,” as their instructor called it, required the students to overlap one another and work together as a team to push themselves up. Evans shouted with his classmates the phrase of the day for the group: “rise above.”

Child patients, a number of whom are battling cancer or other serious illnesses, spent the day interacting with officers and learning some basic police drills during the inaugural Hero Police Academy at the Albuquerque Police Department Training Academy in the North Valley.

Volunteers from APD and the Children’s Cancer Fund of New Mexico organized the event that condensed the curriculum of APD’s Junior Police Academy for the 22 students, who are being treated in hospitals across the metro area. It was led by volunteer police officers, instructors and civilians, and donations from the Citizen’s Police Academy Alumni helped pay for the event.

JD Maes, wellness coordinator at the training academy, led the class in learning a few stretching exercises and drills.

Maes, a citizen volunteer, said the event provides kids with a positive distraction.

“These kids are in and out of the hospital – two of them just got out of the hospital last night,” Maes said. “It’s a good thing to help these kids and provide hope for them.”

Hero Police Academy got started after a small breakfast of doughnuts, with students learning how to stand at attention and count aloud push-ups as a group. A few exercises later, the class shouted, “rise above,” as they did the T pushup. The phrase “rise above” is one taught to all APD cadets who attend the academy, Maes said.

“With the cadets, we like to teach them to rise above because they face a lot of adversity, whether it’s in the academy or whether it’s out on the street,” he said. “With these kids, they’re facing illness and at their young ages. We just want to get to them that life sometimes is going to give us problems … when life gives you problems, bring that inner strength out and rise above so you can conquer.”

John Corvino, a police academy instructor, said the exercises help teach kids to work through difficult situations.

“Fight through the pain. When we do the physical fitness, we fight through the pain and hopefully they’ll take that with them as they battle cancer,” he said.

The class continued with a lesson about firearm safety, a session at the shooting range with non-lethal paintball guns, a rappel down a wall with SWAT volunteers, and a drive alongside officers through an obstacle course. Each student would leave that day with a certificate and a badge after a graduation ceremony.

Diana Trujeque, executive director of the Children’s Cancer Fund of New Mexico, said Corvino was instrumental in organizing the event. She said it could be the first of many, saying there were a number of children who were interested who couldn’t attend.

“We would love it; the kids would love it,” she said.

APD Director of Training Joseph Wolf said his personal experience helped him appreciate the event.

“I’m a cancer survivor myself, and I understand how it is as an adult and how difficult it was for me,” Wolf said. “I can’t imagine how any kid this age would have to struggle with constant surgeries, chemo, radiation.

“It just warms my heart to see them excited to be here.”

Undocumented insight into lottery scholarship

UNM student Vanely Salinas studies in the lobby of UNM's El Centro de la Raza on Thursday. Salinas, an undocumented student who receives the Legsilative Lottery Scholarship, said the scholarship is an integral financial source for minority students like her. (Daily Lobo, Ardee Napolitano)

(Feature news story, originally published in the Daily Lobo.)

Student Vanely Salinas said she never had the opportunity to ask her mother for help with her homework.

Salinas, an undocumented student who has plans on being the first in her family to graduate from college, said her mother stopped attending school after second grade.

“A lot of kids have their parents to help them do their homework, but a lot of kids like me don’t,” she said. “Our family’s not educated. They have sacrificed a lot for me to get educated. If it wasn’t for the Lottery Scholarship, I wouldn’t be here.”

Salinas is a mentor at Atrisco Heritage Academy High School, through the Engaging Latino Communities for Education (ENLACE) New Mexico program. She said she works at ENLACE to encourage students throughout the state to become interested in higher education.

Salinas gave the Daily Lobo permission to publish her immigration status. She said she is concerned about the recent rise in required credit hours for students to be eligible for the Lottery Scholarship.

“When I was in high school, I was warned against taking five classes because it would jeopardize my academic success,” she said. “You get the hang of it, and I’ve taken five classes for the longest time, but that first semester is the hardest. It really tests you. To right away throw them in the deep end will leave a lot of students overwhelmed.”

On Feb. 20, the state Legislature passed Senate Bill 347, which increased the credit hour requirement of the Legislative Lottery Scholarship at four-year institutions from 12 to 15 credit hours.

In a study published by New Mexico State University before Senate Bill 347 was passed, 69 percent of eligible minority students in the state would be negatively affected by an increase in credit hours.

Senior program manager of El Centro de la Raza Jorge Garcia said that although he understands the purpose for raising the credit hour requirement, the student feedback he’s heard suggests more problems than solutions. Garcia said that many students, minority or otherwise, were not represented by the passed bill.

“There was an issue from within the student government here at UNM that they were speaking on behalf of the students, but then there was this overwhelming response that the students didn’t feel they were speaking in their behalf when it came to this issue,” he said.

Garcia said he disagreed with President Frank’s recent State of the University address Friday, saying that Frank’s speech focused on financial goals as opposed to goals for students.

“It seems to me that we’re meeting the needs of the University and not the other way around,” he said. “If education is a way to equalize inequalities, we’re making it harder for some students coming from low-income communities to have the same opportunities.”

Although Salinas is concerned about the raise in required credit hours, she said she is still working to encourage the students she mentors to pursue a college education through the help of the Lottery Scholarship. She said she is trying to raise awareness of the fact that undocumented students can apply for the scholarship.

“For me, talking about being undocumented is not a big deal,” she said. “For a lot of my students, they’re really shy about it, saying ‘I don’t know if I should be saying anything.’ It’s just a matter of getting their trust, to say ‘Yeah, I am undocumented, and I want to go to school.’”

Senate Bill 582, which was passed in 2005, states that “public post-secondary educational institutions shall not deny admissions based on immigration status,” and that “all qualified residents of New Mexico are eligible for in-state tuition as well as state-funded financial aid, regardless of immigration status.”

Salinas plans on graduating next fall with a degree in media arts.

She said that she hopes to continue to reach out and tell her story through film.

“I want to tell our stories in a way that everyone can understand,” she said. “Everyone can sit down and watch a movie, regardless of what their ethnicity is. Not everyone is going to pick up a Chicano studies book.”

The Howl

I produce each week's script and approve each package and in-studio interview as the co-founder and executive producer of The Howl, the Daily Lobo's weekly video broadcast news show.

Below is a special report of the APD Anonymous protest against APD on March 30. It has been reposted on a blog on The New York Times and KUNM.

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta Film Festival 2013 Winner

Below is the winning video I helped produce and edit for the 2013 Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta Film Festival. The film contest allowed groups two days to film and two days to produce, edit, and have a final two to four minute short film concerning the balloon fiesta.

Building a history: Architect reflects on a legacy at UNM

Former UNM architect Van Dorn Hooker said from his home on Monday that his upcoming book reflects on the people who played important roles in the history of UNM. (Aaron Sweet/Daily Lobo)

(Feature story, originally published in the Daily Lobo)

When construction for the Duck Pond began in 1974, University architect Van Dorn Hooker said he shrugged off initial criticism of the project.

As Dorn Hooker wrote of the most vocal nay-sayers, the staff of the New Mexico Daily Lobo, in his book “Only in New Mexico: An Architectural History of the University of New Mexico,” the student paper “had a field day criticizing the whole idea of the pond … they called it the No-Name pond and said as each construction day went by, it reached new heights of tackiness.”

Dorn Hooker, who has since retired, said he knew the pond would make a great addition to the campus.

“I knew what we were planning was good, those people had the wrong impressions. I didn’t pay attention to it. I knew it was good,” Dorn Hooker said.

Today, there is rarely a time when students are not lounging beside the Duck Pond.

Dorn Hooker, 92, served as the University architect from 1963 to 1987, and was in charge of managing and planning architectural projects throughout the University. By the time Dorn Hooker retired, 75 major buildings, remodeling and additions were completed.

He also raked in 30 design awards for architecture and landscaping for the University. Of his many projects Hooker oversaw the work of the Duck Pond, The Pit, the Humanities Building, Farris Engineering, as well as new additions to Zimmerman Library.

Dorn Hooker has had several books published since his retirement, including “Only in New Mexico…” which won the New Mexico Heritage Preservation Award from the State Office of Cultural Affairs in 2001. Dorn Hooker is currently putting the final touches on his new book, an untitled work concerning the people behind the names of buildings, monuments and memorials on campus.

“I didn’t want these people to be forgotten, so many of them had so much to do with the history of the University,” Dorn Hooker said. “It is a question from many people I talk to; they say ‘I always wondered who Zimmerman was.’”

Dorn Hooker’s career in architecture first began after taking some advice from his doctor while living in Austin. Dorn Hooker had viral pneumonia and was advised to take life easy — he agreed and moved with his wife to California. There, he studied architectural design at the University of California, Berkeley, with the money awarded to him from his GI Bill.

A few years later, Dorn Hooker moved to Santa Fe to work in a partnership, where he worked on the first Santa Fe Opera.

On a morning coffee run, Dorn Hooker noticed an advertisement for an architecture position at UNM. He said he quickly applied for the position. UNM Director of Student Affairs Sherman Smith, who was impressed with his application, called then president Tom Popejoy.

Popejoy already decided to hire an applicant from the University of Iowa, but Smith got to him before the offer was extended, Dorn Hooker said.

“Sherman called Popejoy and asked him if he had made that call yet and he said ‘No, I’ll do it right now.’ Sherman said ‘No, wait, I’ve got somebody else,’” he said.

While serving as the University architect, Dorn Hooker said he focused on adding projects that continued the theme of the Southwest architecture already on campus.

“When we were doing a major building on main campus, I would have the architect make a model of the building, showing the facades of the buildings around it, how did it relate to the other buildings,” he said.

Geraldine Forbes Isais, dean of UNM School of Architecture and Planning, said Dorn Hooker’s work was both progressive and traditional.

“Dorn Hooker had a very strong vision for how a contemporary campus could serve the people of New Mexico, even if the architecture referred to traditional New Mexico architecture,” Forbes Isais said. “He tried to design and assemble buildings that spoke as much to the future as they did to the past. That’s what students are about, they’re our future.”

Forbes Isais said it’s important for people, whether students, faculty or staff, to remember that an architect like Dorn Hooker helped design the walkways and plazas throughout the University.

“Whether it’s walking around campus or walking around the city, we tend not to think that those environments were planned and designed by professionals that actually define the built environment,” she said. “When you turn a corner on campus, you see something that’s wonderful and inspiring, rather than get lost.”

Dorn Hooker said his work reflects the few words of advice from former president Popejoy.

“Tom Popejoy said one time; he thought the campus had an influence on the students, an aesthetic feeling that helped students,” he said. “I hope so.”

NM Board of Regents raises undergraduate tuition rates and student fees

(News story, originally published in the Daily Lobo)

In what GPSA President Marisa Silva called a “rogue” move, the Board of Regents Tuesday went against the Student Fee Review Board and approved an increase in student fees for Athletics.

The measure provides Athletics with a $900,000 increase in fee money for FY 2014, which begins in July. The increase per student is $33.45 more than what SFRB recommended for Athletics fees, and increased the total per-student fee for Athletics to $165.20.

Athletics received $131.75 per student for FY 2013 and the SFRBrecommended that it receive the same amount for FY 2014.

This is the second year in a row the board has gone against the SFRB’s recommendations and approved a fee increase for Athletics. Last year, regents approved a $50 per-student fee increase to fund the Athletics Department.

The proposed increase was a surprise to Silva and ASUNM President Caroline Muraida.

“Students, all 23,471 that Marisa and I represent between the two of us, do not support this increase in Athletics at this time,” Muraida said.

After the regents approved the increase, Silva told the Daily Lobo that neither she nor Muraida was aware of the proposed Athletics increase. Silva and Muraida sit on the SFRB and the Strategic Budget Leadership Team.

“President Muraida and I were surprised to see that the two bodies that we’ve sat on, both with considerable legitimacy who have put in a great deal of work, had the recommendations changed,” Silva said.

Silva said the decision goes against work that both the SFRB and theSBLT have made to communicate to Director of Athletics Tim Cass how much student fee money should be allotted to the department.

“This was a very rogue move and it flies in the face of our processes and how responsible we have been in the good faith in the way we’ve been acting the entire year. Students were betrayed by that vote today,” Silva said.

The board passed the rest of the student fee recommendations with no further discussion.

Restructured tuition

The Board of Regents approved a motion Tuesday that changes the definition of a full-time student as well as student tuition structure.

UNM President Robert Frank presented a restructured body of tuition to the board early that provides new incentives for students to graduate in four years.

Frank said 15 percent of students graduate in four years and 46 percent of students graduate in six years.

Before the regents approved the measure, students who took 12 credit hours at the University were considered full-time students and all credit hours between 12 and 18 were the same price.

Frank’s new motion requires students to pay for individual credit hours up until 15 credit hours. Students who take 15 to 18 credit hours a semester will see a 6.6 percent increase in tuition and fees, whereas students taking fewer than 15 credit hours will see a 13.2 percent increase in tuition and fees.

Essentially, students taking between 15 and 18 credits will receive about a $400 tuition increase while students taking 12 credits will receive about an $800 increase.

“We’re asking a lot of you today, we’re asking a lot of our students today, we believe this is the right time to ask a lot,” Frank said, as he spoke to the Board of Regents. “This is the right moment to try to make a big step.”

Frank said the restructured tuition will help retain faculty members and staff, as it provides a 3 percent pay increase for faculty and a 1 percent pay increase for staff, graduate assistants and teacher assistants. Those are in addition to the 1 percent pay increase Gov. Susana Martinez approved on Friday for all state employees.

Wildcats whip Lobos in singles

UNM freshman Riaan Du Toit sets up for a forehand on Sunday at the UNM Tennis Complex. The game against Northwestern ended 5-2 and was the first time the Lobos lost a home game this season. (William Aranda/Daily Lobo)

(Sports story, originally published in The Daily Lobo)

Senior men’s tennis player Jadon Phillips was just as concerned with his stomach Sunday afternoon as his upcoming doubles and singles match against Northwestern University.

Phillips was feeling ill that afternoon, throwing up before he asked head coach Alan Dils if he could play. After Dils approved, Phillips went on to win both his doubles and singles matches, standing as the only player to garner a singles win against the Wildcats on Sunday.

The Lobos endured their first home loss of the season as Northwestern swiped away a 5-2 win. UNM is now 5-6-0.

Phillips won his doubles match with freshman Riaan Du Toit against Alex Pasareanu and Mihir Kumar 8-5. Phillips then met Sidarth Balaji for his singles match. Balaji entered the match with seven straight wins under his belt before Phillips broke his streak 7-6 (7-5), 6-2.

For Sunday’s match, Phillips said he channeled his experience playing Balaji last year.

“I knew his game a little bit and how he was going to come out and play. This year I did a few things differently,” Phillips said. “I was a little more aggressive and kept the balls deeper, I expected his best shots this year, I tried to stand my ground and serve better, just be more ready and aware.”

Dils said Phillips’ two wins are indicative of the way he has been playing on the court and during practice.

“Jadon lost to this guy last year at Northwestern pretty badly, and to turn around and beat him when he’s not feeling well tells you where Jadon is playing,” he said.

The afternoon matchup with the Wildcats began with a slow start for the Lobos, as the Wildcats took an early lead with the first doubles match. Number one doubles senior Conor Berg and freshman Andrew Van Der Vyver were beaten by Wildcats Balaji and Raleigh Smith, losing 5-8. By the third doubles match, with one win tallied for both teams, the allotted doubles point came down to the Lobos’ junior Mads Hegelund and sophomore James Hignett and the Wildcats Spencer Wolf and Fedor Baev. Hegelund and Hignett pulled through after a long match, winning the match’s tie break 9-8 (7-4).

“In the tie breaker, we got down early and we told each other, ‘James, if we’re going to lose this, let’s lose it going for it,’” Hegelund said.

Hegelund faced Chris Jackman in the singles category, coming up short after taking the match to a third set 1-6, 6-4, 4-6.

“I think I was still mentally on the court in the doubles match, I wasn’t quite focused on the singles as I wanted to be and I started slow,” he said.

The Lobos lost momentum as the day went on. No. 1 seed sophomore Samir Iftikhar lost his early lead in the second set against Wolf, losing in the third set 6-4, 2-6, 5-7. No. 2 seed Berg lost to Smith 4-6, 6-7 (0-7).

Dils said that while the Lobos suffered a loss, the team held its own better than it did in its previous encounter with the Wildcats.

“They’re a very good team (Northwestern), probably better than their ranking, but we sunk our team in the match, won a great doubles point and gave ourselves a chance to win,” Dils said. “Now we have to learn a little bit from Northwestern — how we can win two or three more points under crunch time and do a couple things better, and we can turn those matches in our favor.”