Barnhill has held her executive director position with the APS Education Foundation for nine years, but she’s been with the foundation for eleven. She says her organization is “the nonprofit arm for the school district,” which means they provide funding and resources to schools and departments in order to facilitate creative, innovative ideas that a traditional budget won’t cover.
“If you want to really teach chemistry to students, you might come to us and we’ll find DNA forensic kits so that the students can learn their curriculum in a creative way,” she says.
The foundation just awarded over $500,000 in grants to begin implementing cool educational experiences such as the Mariachi Herencia program at Atrisco Heritage Academy, which provides scholarship opportunities for music-minded students who plan to attend UNM. In fact, the program has grown so much that New Mexico elementary and middle schools are now including Mariachi programs in their curriculum.
Over the past five years, the nonprofit foundation has helped fund STEM programs at schools such as West Mesa High School involving advanced projects in underwater robotics, rockets, weather balloons, drones with cameras and even robots. And many students eventually compete collegiately because they have the tools and materials to attend those types of competitions.
“We funded the Future Farmers of America (FFA) program for an inner city school where kids wouldn’t have the opportunity to experience what rural life is like. They would learn sowing and see how they breed ducks and bunnies. The programs also show [students] how to grow tomatoes and have a vegetable garden and enter them into the state fair.”
Barnhill says attendance on Fridays “went up astronomically” because kids wanted to go to their FFA program. And the program has not only shown an increase in attendance, it’s contributed to higher test scores at the school.
“Students in New Mexico deserve the opportunity to find and achieve their full potential, and I feel like the Education Foundation gives us an opportunity to help provide experiences and opportunities that the students wouldn’t normally get on a regular school day,” she says. “They are able to find a place where they belong, where they fit, that really interests them or engages them. I don’t know another place where you can find this type of work – where you get to see the impact that you have every day, that you walk into the office knowing that you’ve changed a student’s life.”
Barnhill says the best way to help them out is through volunteering and donations. A full 79 cents of every dollar donated goes right back into the schools and funds these types of programs. She encourages the community to embrace public excellence and public education, because APS is a “pretty dang great place” for learning.
APS Education Foundation
Phone: (505) 881-084
Email: foundation@aps.ed
6400 Uptown Blvd. NE
Suite 630 East
Albuquerque, NM 87110