Santa Fe New Mexican - SFCC Graduates Celebrate Commitment, Achievements

News Article

By Dennis Carroll

Rachel Gutierrez of Clovis still remembers the day she nearly abandoned her goal of graduating from Santa Fe Community College.

Gutierrez, 35, was among 328 students (out of a graduating class of about 800) who picked up their diplomas or program certificates before a packed Pueblo Pavilion at the Santa Fe Indian School on Saturday.

She was one of two students who addressed the graduating class. The other was August Honnell, 17, a sustainable energy-biofuels student in The MASTERS Program, an early college charter high school based at SFCC. (Honnell will receive his high school diploma next week.)

But for Gutierrez, a single mother of four children, obtaining her associate degree in American Sign Language interpretation was literally a long haul -- 216 miles one way from Clovis -- a trip she made several times a week, on occasion more than once a day -- and fraught with struggles. (She estimated she put about 170,000 miles on her 2009 Honda Civic hybrid while commuting for several years.)

What got her through, she said, was "just knowing this was where I needed to be for my child," referring to her 4-year-old, Lorena, who goes to the New Mexico School for the Deaf in Santa Fe.
Similar learning opportunities were not available for Lorena in the Clovis-Portales area, where Gutierrez and other members of her family live, so she committed to the giant scheduling and balancing act, making sure Lorena was where she needed to be and getting to her own classes so far away from home.

Gutierrez remembers one day that was particularly bad -- the day she nearly gave up.
"I wasn't going to be able to pick Lorena up from school on time and I couldn't find anybody to get her. … I felt so alone."

In her speech, Gutierrez told her fellow graduates: "I thought this day would never come." But she said she wanted it to be a learning experience and a model for her children. "I can't expect my children to do what I can't do for myself."

Besides Lorena, Gutierrez has three other children: Juan, 17; daughter Fabiola, 16, and a MASTERS nursing student; and son Lorenzo, 8.

Gutierrez also advised the graduates: "Do not let go … and always push for more."

Gutierrez said she next plans to take New Mexico Highlands University classes at the Santa Fe Higher Education Center in preparation for a career as a trilingual interpreter of English, American Sign Language and Spanish.

In an interview before the ceremony, SFCC President Randy Grissom, noted the growing number of graduates in expanded health care and sustainable technologies program as well as the sign language curriculum.

There were 32 home health aide certificates given out Saturday, compared to 19 last year, and 84 nursing assistant certificates, up from just 30 last year. Grissom also noted that 12 students earned the culinary arts-professional chef degrees -- twice as many as last year.

This was the first year students received degrees in ceramics, paramedicine and sustainable technologies-water treatment operation.

Besides Gutierrez's commute from Clovis, other students came from the pueblos, as well as communities such as Bloomfield, Las Cruces, Gallup and Datil.

The youngest graduate in the Class of 2015 is 16, while the oldest is 76.

Sitting near Gutierrez on Saturday was 73-year-old Robert Carson of Santa Fe. He was waiting for Grissom to present him with a fine arts degree with a focus on sculpture.

"At least I'm not the oldest one in the class," joked Carson, who holds a doctorate in high-energy physics and taught physics for many years at Rollins College near Orlando, Fla.

Of his art classes, he said, "I wanted to explore the other side of my brain."

U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., delivered the keynote address, noting it was the largest graduating class in the school's 30-year history.

In a lively speech, Lujan called on the graduates to use their new degrees and experiences "to open doors for others … and don't ever get discouraged. You will do great things."

He urged the class not to let mistakes along the way knock them off their paths, recalling the early setbacks of Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison and Walt Disney.

Honnell, in his speech, called on his fellow grads "to be adventurous … to go out and make a difference. Be the leaders of change."

Honnell, the recipient of the Santa Fe Institute's 2015 Prize for Scientific Excellence, said he will pursue a mechanical engineering degree at the University of Washington-Bothell.

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