On April 22, 2025, Instituto del Puente held its first policy workshop of the 2025 interim where we addressed our three policy priorities for the coming year: Paid Internships, Teen Mental Health First Aid, and Re-engagement. We held student panels at each session that gave young people a chance to speak from their own experience about what they want and need. Below are a few comments we received from the adults who attended:

• "Innovation begins with student voice."
• "Students need to feel like their educators care about them. We know this, but hearing from students recenters this priority."
• "School needs to make more sense to them, and adults need to show caring to young people in different ways."

About 5 years ago, Future Focused Education made a commitment to engaging young people.  I’d like to say it was in our DNA all along because we work in the education sector, but it’s another thing to actually create policies that respond to what they tell you. Enter Instituto del Puente, which has been on that journey for about 18 months. It started with a panel of young people in Albuquerque who told us that there was really no benefit to a high school diploma. In fact, anything they needed to learn they could get from a GED prep class. After a student takes the high school equivalency exam, they can get on with their life.

I admit, it was humbling, but rather than trying to convince them that they needed a high school diploma, we decided to listen. Over the next year and a half we visited 13 Nuevo Mexíco communities and gathered over 2,000 comments from young people about their vision of success, what they were good at, and what they wanted from school and the people who work there. Importantly, we also asked about the students who were only coming to school sporadically or not at all. What did they need?

We analyzed the comments from young people from communities as diverse as Lake Arthur, Las Cruces, and Aztec, New Mexico. Three themes emerged:

• Learning that mattered and had a purpose
• Someone to care for their well-being, and
• Mentors who could help them learn how to be an adult

In essence, we committed ourselves to building a “puente” (bridge) from our current reality filled with disengagement and alienation to a reality where young people said they would thrive. We decided to focus on areas where we thought the themes young people had given us could become policies: 

1. First, a sustainable revenue source for paid internships. This is a critical need in New Mexico that has been proven by the 300 percent increase in paid internships that have been funded through Innovation Zones. It’s clear to us that paid internships live at the intersection of care, purpose, and mentorship and that is why there is so much demand for them from young people. House Bill 528: High School Internship Grant Program was introduced in 2025 by Representative Christina Parajon and it will serve as a starting point for the 2026 session.  
2. Second, expand on the $1.0 million appropriation in 2025 for Teen Mental Health First Aid where the majority of funding is dedicated to paid internships for students in high school who are trained as “Peer Support Specialists” and provide support in their schools now. This is also the first step to a behavioral health career. The program provides mental health support for schools now and in the future. There are so many communities across our state that are in desperate need of support and this program is a first step to enter the profession where they live.
3. Third, increased funding to address chronic absenteeism across the state. Future Focused Education is working in partnership with PED and schools around New Mexico to serve 435 students who are in danger of not graduating this year. The program provides a credit recovery option that combines a capstone project with a paid internship and gives students the chance to make up credits in a project that is meaningful to them and their community.  It also includes stipends for teachers who participate in an educator Community of Practice so that they can learn a new way of teaching and learning from each other. We want this program to grow. In fact, if we increased the number of graduates in New Mexico by 2,000 students our state would be at the national average.

During the recent policy workshop on April 22, Simon, who is a Senior from Las Cruces, told the group about an internship he did at a welding shop. He had time during the school day to do his internship. He got paid. He earned credits so he could graduate and he figured out what he wanted to do for a living. It was a sharp contrast to the option most of our students who are off-track have - they sit in front of a computer taking multiple online classes that are meaningless, have no human interaction, and have no bearing on their future. 

When I asked Simon if he was afraid when he went to work on the first day, he said, “Yes, I was scared.” When I asked why he stayed with it, he said, “I didn’t want to disappoint my teachers. They took a chance on me by recommending me for the internship and I wanted to do it for them.”  

I am so happy to be part of a movement based on keeping our promises to young people and to see them keep their promises to us. It is the best example of mentorship I’ve ever seen.  

We have come so far, yet we’re just beginning to show young people why graduating from high school is way better than getting a GED. Please join us on this journey. It’s full of hope.

For more about Instituto, watch this video from one of their convenings or read the following blogs: 

• The Bridge to Future Focused Education
• Democratizing the Policy Making Process