“We’re only as healthy as our environment,” says Daniel Denipah, Santa Clara Pueblo’s Forestry Director, while looking out over two new greenhouses the Pueblo has built in the last year.

In thirteen years, three wildfires destroyed much of the Santa Clara Pueblo land, closing a large portion for decades. This had elders in the community worried. The youth had not been able to access or connect with their ancestral lands and weren’t showing much interest in learning traditional practices. Elders feared that the Pueblo’s way of life would slowly fade unless they could get more young people involved in forestry and agriculture.

Fortunately, the Pueblo recently secured over twenty acres for a new community garden and seed-saving program, including the two greenhouses. And Daniel Denipah has been working to involve as many local youth as possible in the process after assembling an advisory counsel that emphasized the need. 

“Many elders were almost in tears in one of our meetings,” explains Denipah. “They were saying: ‘We need this youth component. We need them here. It doesn't matter how we get them here—whether it's in the school or internships—they need a voice at the table.’” 

To answer that call, Daniel partnered with Future Focused Education’s X3 and NeXt Internship Program, alongside the Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps, the Santa Fe Indian School, and others.

For years, the X3 program has connected high school and early college students with local employers in Albuquerque. Students team up with local employers to learn essential skills and build a stronger workforce on-ramp. They earn a stipend that respects their time and contributes to their family, replacing or supplementing minimum wage jobs and offering rich work experiences that build resumes. X3 builds professional connections that transform into new career paths—ensuring historically underserved students receive the mentorship and opportunities they deserve. 

The traditional internship model often fails those who need it most. Students from underserved groups, rural areas, or those who must work to support their families often fall through the cracks. In rural Northern New Mexico, where job opportunities are not as plentiful as urban areas, these gaps are even wider. Plus, traditional internship models do not include the additional support that the X3 interns receive in the form of one-on-one weekly coaching and mentoring from an X3 Internship Coach who helps with scheduling, navigating challenges that come up in the internship, and advocating on that intern’s behalf. 

This is why Future Focused is partnering to expand access beyond Albuquerque. We are partnering with local businesses, Northern New Mexico College, and Tribal governments to bring these opportunities directly to the communities that need them most. And the demand is growing. X3 internships began in the region in 2020 with only four interns. That number quickly grew and now we average between 20 and 30 interns in Northern New Mexico each year. Young people in the region are hungry for more opportunities. 

At the heart of this expansion is Future Focused’ Northern New Mexico team: Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap and Celina Montoya Lindgren, Future Focused’s Northern New Mexico X3 Internship Co-Managers, and Jasmine Shorty, X3 Internship Coach. 

Lindgren, who is Pueblo Indigenous from Ohkay Owingeh, joined the team because she gets to witness young people in her community grow and discover who they are. 

“They’re finding their voice and learning that they have a say in how their life turns out, you know? That's something I'm super passionate about,” says Lindgren.

Together, Lindgren and Sopoci-Belknap coordinate placements with schools, employers, and community organizations, with a specific focus on creating inclusive, strengths-based experiences for neurodivergent learners and fostering clear communication between mentors and interns.

“There are a lot of young people who can't even afford to go to college,” Lindgren explains. “Maybe their parents make too much money for financial aid, but not enough to support them financially. So they don't go to college, and then they try to get into the workforce. They don't have experience, so they don't get hired. But how can you build experience if you don't get that opportunity?”

Denipah himself didn’t go back to finish his college degree until after getting trapped in the Santa Clara Canyon during the Las Conchas Fire, when he realized he needed to learn more about ecology and forestry to really understand how to help. 

“It's more than just cutting a tree; it's more than just planting a tree. You know, you've got all these different components to learn about,” explains Denipah, who had taken a few classes when he was younger, but quit so that he could earn money. 

While he was able to work his way into a permanent position after fighting forest fires as a young man, he now emphasizes the importance of education to the young people he works with, urging them to learn and then bring that knowledge back to their communities.

The impact of the X3 model is visible on the ground at Santa Clara Pueblo. With the help of his mentor, Gilbert Naranjo, Lindgren coaches Jeremiah Mtz Herrera, who is the first X3 NeXt intern at the Pueblo’s Forestry and Agriculture Department. Having finished high school, Jeremiah works mornings at McDonald’s and spends his afternoons learning sustainable forestry and agriculture from Daniel Denipah. Recently, Jeremiah has been busy watering trees for the community garden–wild plums, peaches, apricots, apples, and cherries.

“So far I have learned so much from how plants should be planted in the ground,” Jeremiah says. “Where you place them determines how they will grow.”

He also got to take a workshop on farm food safety, which he says he plans on using in the future.

“It will help me support my community and give back to my people,” explains Jeremiah, who is from the San Ildefonso Pueblo.

Behind this internship experience is a meaningful partnership rooted in community care and opportunity. Through the collaboration between the Northern New Mexico X3 Program and the San Ildefonso Pueblo Education Department, Pueblo youth are able to step into real-world learning experiences without the burden of financial barriers. By investing directly in their young people, the Education Department helps create space for growth, skill-building, and exploration; ensuring that these opportunities are not only accessible, but deeply connected to community, culture, and future pathways.

Jeremiah’s story challenges the stigma that young people are lazy or entitled, something we hear frequently about youth. 

“It’s all about giving young people the chance to show us how responsible they are,” Lindgren says. “They’re our future leaders, and it's important to teach other organizations that they actually have something to say if you listen.”

The X3 program in Northern New Mexico is reconnecting youth with their ancestral lands, preserving cultural practices, and building a resilient workforce for the future. This partnership works because many local employers in Northern New Mexico want to help but lack the time, money, or infrastructure to train interns. Future Focused partners to help fill this gap and funding. We coach both the youth and the employers, ensuring interns get paid, learn, and build careers, while employers get skilled, motivated team members. Future Focused has meaningful partnerships with other Tribal communities, businesses, colleges, and non profits in Northern New Mexico too–and, with more support, we hope to continue and expand our reach into even more communities in the state.