Early College High School Donates Thanksgiving Baskets to Roberta’s Place

GRANTS, NM – It’s the time of year where thanks and giving back to others is celebrated and encouraged. Every year near Thanksgiving the Early College High School puts together baskets of donated food and items by the students to donate to an organization in the community. This year the Early College High School donated their baskets to Roberta’s Place and the donated food and other items will be given to families in need in the community.

Early College High School started five years ago in 2019. ECHS is an advanced program that allows students to take both college classes and high school classes and gives them a better opportunity to graduate with both a diploma and an associate degree. The program recruits eighth graders who are moving on to high school. ECHS had their first graduating class last year with 10 students graduating, and five students graduating with an associate degree. ECHS is also a public high school that is no cost to students, tuition, fees and any other costs associated with their associate degree is covered.

Each year students at ECHS decide to put together Thanksgiving baskets to donate. They put out a sign and allow students to choose which items they want to purchase and donate to fill the baskets. This year they were planning to do four baskets, but one parent donated an entire basket with a turkey and all other items allowing them to donate five baskets. ECHS decided to partner with Roberta’s place because they felt like they were the one program that is aware of which families are in need.

Vigil said the students are really excited about putting together the baskets, “One student even said that he wanted to bring yams for each basket, and he brought a ton of yams. I was like ‘Oh my gosh that’s a lot of yams!’ They are really excited to help out and help people who are in need.” Mostly the Sophomore class at ECHS donated the items for the thanksgiving baskets. The planning committee received donations of turkeys from Walmart and Smith’s. The students donated the other items included in baskets.

Each student interested in attending ECHS fill out an application which includes a letter of interest and recommendation letters, they then go through an interview process to check grades and discipline. The difference between ECHS and dual credit at the high school, is that students for example can take math classes at the college which will go towards math credits at ECHS, and the college rather than those math credits being counted as elective credits at the high school and math credits at the college. During the Freshman year students take basic high school freshman level classes, by the sophomore year students are taking full college level classes.

According to Bonnie Vigil who is the math teacher at ECHS, “[Students] have to be self-motivated, we don’t push them… You have to be really into your education.” She also said, “It’s a really good program I think for kids that don’t want to deal with that high school stuff, they just want to do their education, and they want to get ahead.” Students who attend ECHS are also still able to participate in sports at Grants High School. Anything that ECHS doesn’t offer they can do at Grants High School. Students are just encouraged to manage their time between their studies and extracurricular activities.