UNM and CNM joined APS this semester in an educational partnership to encourage children to prepare for college as early as kindergarten.
President David Schmidly, CNM President Katharine Winograd and APS Superintendent Winston Brooks gathered at Sombra del Monte Elementary in August to sign the agreement.
Schmidly said the three institutions will work together to improve teaching, educational initiatives, dual credit programs, college preparatory courses, professional employment opportunities and making the transfer process from APS to CNM or UNM easier.
"Research shows the earlier children get attuned to learning and education and that college gets in their mind, the more likely they are to choose to go to college," Schmidly said.
Donna Key, principal of Sombra del Monte, said she was honored to host the event.
She said bringing the three schools together in front of a kindergarten class showed the kids the benefits of higher education.
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"Students need role models, and they need people to look up to, and they need a focus in life," she said.
Key said it also let the students know they have the invaluable opportunity to get a secondary degree.
"I feel with this merger and this commitment, there will be more emphasis on 'Yes, you can go to college,'" she said. "There are different ways of getting there, but you can earn a degree."
Schmidly said students who begin in kindergarten and move through APS will now be more aware of their opportunities to go to CNM, UNM or both. He said this will increase the likelihood students will plan to go to college.
"The most important thing to me is this partnership will make students more successful," Schmidly said.
Many high school graduates are not prepared to come directly to UNM, he said.
They may have come from a small high school where they didn't get enough math or science credits or haven't done well enough to succeed at a university, Schmidly said.
Winograd said in a statement that CNM and UNM will continue to build bridges to allow students to take advantage of the services both institutions offer.
"CNM and UNM students will benefit," she said. "It further strengthens the high level of commitment between our two institutions."
Ryan Northington is a CNM student enrolling at UNM next semester. He said the agreement will make course transfer and transition easier because everyone will be on the same page.
"You don't have the runaround and trying to match courses, so it makes it easier," Northington said.
Schmidly said representatives from the three institutions will meet every month and hold faculty and staff meetings to make this partnership work.
"We're all in education, and it all fits together - we've agreed to work together to make the Albuquerque area some of the most seamless systems of public education in the United States," he said.
The State Legislature, which provides funding for CNM, UNM and APS, may provide additional resources now that the partnership is in place, Schmidly said.
He said seamless education has become an important issue nationally, so there is an opportunity to get both federal and state dollars.
UNM will also be applying for grants from private foundations that support educational initiatives, he said.
Schmidly said CNM, UNM and APS will work toward aligning their academic calendars. This will allow faculty and staff who have children or a spouse in APS or CNM to have more family time, he said.
