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.