Category: Student Spotlights

Student turns hard times into good times

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By Jonathan Baca , Staff Reporter | Photo Courtesy of Catie Mathis

7.1

A large group of women and their families gathered excitedly out­side of Cliff’s Amusement Park in a scene of chil­dren jumping up and down with excitement. This sight did not seem much out of the ordi­nary, but this group was unusual because all of these women and their families happen to have been homeless at one point or another.

These women were part of a charity group called Crossroads for Women, and this trip to Cliff’s was the brain­child of Integrated Studies major Caite Mathis, with the help of her partner Lambert Lamphie and Crossroads’ Resource Development Coordinator Amanda Douglas, as part of an assignment for a business class last summer.

“It’s very excit­ing. I’m very grateful to them for doing this,” said Radiology major Angela McGoldrick, as she waited with her children to enter the amusement park.

McGoldrick said that Crossroads helped her to get back on her feet, and was the inspiration for her to go back to school.

Crossroads for Women is a nonprofit that, “provides comprehensive, integrated services to sup­port women working to break the cycle of home­lessness and incarcera­tion and achieve healthy, stable and self-sufficient lives in the community for themselves and their chil­dren,” according to the Crossroads for Women mission statement.

As part of his Managing Principles class, instructor Eric Strauss had assigned his students to create a virtual cam­paign to raise money for a charity organization. The assignment was simply an exercise, but Mathis and Lambert wanted to take it to the next level and make their project a real­ity, Mathis said.

“If I was going to put that much effort into something, I wanted to do it for real,” Mathis said.

The project included working out all the details, including which charity would benefit, how much money was needed, and how the money would be raised. As a private life coach and dance instructor, Mathis had worked with dozens of children, helping them to find direction and joy in their lives, she said.

For the project, she and Lambert decided they wanted to help homeless children, and they chose to work with Crossroads, Mathis said.

“I wanted to plant some seeds of pure joy, from a total stranger, so these kids can have faith in life later and know that there are people out there who care about them,” Mathis said.

Crossroads had always wanted to send the women and children they worked with on a trip to Cliff’s, but they had never been able to get free tickets, Douglas said. Through sheer enthusi­asm and tenacity, Mathis was able to secure a dona­tion of free passes for all the families at Crossroads, an estimated $3,000 value, she said.

“I was totally sur­prised when she pulled it off. It was way beyond what I thought they were going to do, and it has just been great,” Douglas said.

Douglas said the trips to Cliff’s have been a ter­rific experience for her and Crossroads’ staff, and have meant a lot to the families who attended.

“We know that the women and children are more successful when they feel connected to a community that supports them. Special events that create that sense of com­munity are really impor­tant, and having fun is a big deal for someone who has been through a lot of trauma and stress,” Douglas said.

Mathis said she and Lamphie had always been concerned with home­lessness, and before they started their project, something happened that made the issue real for them. One night Lambert found a child sleeping in his truck, and discovered that an entire family had been using the truck for shelter.

Instead of calling the police or kicking them out of his truck, Lambert decided to invite them into his home, and he let them stay at his house for an entire month, rent free, she said.

“Isn’t that amazing? What if we all did that?” Mathis said.

Douglass said the main challenge for Crossroads is finding resources and volunteers. Several CNM students have volunteered, and students from UNM and several high schools have worked with Crossroads for class credits, some­thing Douglas said she would like to see more of in the future.

Douglas said there are several ways people can help at Crossroads, which the organization is always looking for vol­unteers, as well as dona­tions of cleaning supplies for the women, she said. Crossroads could also use help with food drives before the holidays, so that the women can pre­pare meals for their fami­lies during Thanksgiving and Christmas, she said.

Another need is dona­tions for the Crossroads emergency fund, which exists to help women with emergency medi­cal expenses and other unforeseen needs, Douglas said.

Mathis and Douglass agree that homelessness is one of the greatest prob­lems in our society today.

“It is just terrible. We are not taking care of our children. Any woman who makes it out of the cycle of homelessness, substance abuse, prison and all that goes with that, is a heroine,” Mathis said.

Cultura Cura; Bringing culture back into the community

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By Daniel Montaño , Senior Reporter

Andrew Lucero, Social Work major, said he is motivated by his past to help people where he works at the La Plazita Institute, a local commu­nity center that is an alter­native to detention center for juveniles convicted of crimes, and where Lucero tries to be a posi­tive role model for kids who have lost their way.

Lucero grew up in a single parent family, and when he was 15-years-old his father passed away from a heroin overdose, which he has also had his fair share of includ­ing trouble with alcohol, drugs and police, he said.

But instead of allow­ing himself to continue down a destructive path, Lucero decided to change his life and dedicated him­self to helping people who have to deal with similar struggles, he said.

“Everything I’ve done has led up to where I’m at right now. I wouldn’t change a thing. I don’t regret. I’m not embar­rassed. I embrace it; I use it to continue making a difference,” he said.

La Plazita along with Lucero teaches these juvenile offenders about their culture and heritage and reintroduces them to their community so that these young men can begin working to clean up their communities rather than damage them, Lucero said.

“I think we all need it in our life; we all need our culture because if you know where you come from, you’re more likely to succeed in where you’re going,” he said.

At La Plazita they call it cultura cura, or culture cures, he said.

It is something Lucero himself had to do in order to get back into social work after spend­ing years in marketing, a career which allowed him to live a lavish lifestyle filled with alcohol and the problems that often come with it, he said.

After spending a year in jail for being convicted of his third DUI, Lucero took the time to rediscover his culture, reorganize his life and priorities and rededicate himself to helping others, he said.

“I kind of cleaned my own backyard. Plato (Greek Philosopher) said ‘Know thyself,’ and I take that seriously because I can’t help somebody if I don’t know myself and I don’t have a clean back­yard,” he said.

From working with troubled kids in schools, to lobbying in Santa Fe to start a clean needle exchange program and now working to eliminate racial disparities in New Mexico laws, he has had plenty of different oppor­tunities and avenues of helping others, he said.

He eventually wants to expand on that experi­ence by building a com­munity center in the international district once he is finished with his master’s degrees in social work and business, he said.

He wants to work with La Plazita and use the concept of cultura cura in his community center to build a neighborhood people will be proud to be a part of, he said.

“I think that’s the only way that a community organization can thrive and survive, is commu­nication with each other,” he said.

Lucero’s first experi­ence of being a positive role model for kids was as an educational assistant in the behavior intervention program in Albuquerque Public schools, he said.

He worked with kids who were often violent, that had come from hard upbringings and needed a positive role model in their lives to show them life didn’t have to always be a fight, he said.

The kids he worked with often didn’t have that role model at home, and were ignored in schools, he said.

“Nobody wanted to work with the kids I was working with,” he said.

Lucero then began working with Healthcare for the Homeless, a non­profit organization that provides free doctors, counseling and dentistry to people who live on the streets, as a harm reduc­tion technician, he said.

His job was to work with people who had substance abuse disor­ders, and work to mini­mize the damage they were doing to themselves through various health­care techniques, he said.

“It was such a new healthcare approach, that’s what I think it is more than anything, and it was real controversial and still is,” he said

A huge part of his job was lobbying in Santa Fe with the state legisla­ture and Governor Gary Johnson to enact a clean needle exchange, he said.

“Harm reduction was something (Johnson) didn’t understand and almost didn’t want to accept,” he said.

He had worked hard and was motivated by his own father’s death to get the law enacted, he said.

“I think that if he had something like that maybe he could have changed his life,” he said.

After lobbying for almost two years, he got the law passed and intra­venous drug users could bring in dirty needles, possibly infected with multiple diseases, and get a sterile needle in return, he said.

Through La Plazita, Lucero is now on the New Mexico RRED committee, a commit­tee to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in New Mexico Laws, and is composed of people within the justice system in Albuquerque and com­munity members who work with people con­victed of crimes, he said.

The committee combs through the lan­guage of laws and advises the legislature on how the laws can be changed to make them fairer to minorities, who often have higher rates of con­viction or failed probation, he said.

Working with the committee has interfered with his class time, but his teachers have been great in allowing him the time he needs to work for a better tomorrow, he said.

“Most of my teachers have been really under­standing because of the work I’m involved with,” he said.

Self made stand-up Albuquerque comics take back the scene

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By Jonathan Baca, Staff Reporter | Photo by Jonathan Baca

Comedy
The world of stand-up comedy is changing, and a handful of dedicated comics in Albuquerque are taking back the scene and doing things their own way, said professional comedian and Burque native Mike Long.
One local comedian who has broken out in the scene is Digital Media major Curt Fletcher. Fletcher has become a big name in local comedy, and has had success performing at clubs and comedy festivals throughout the country, he said.
“I like the scene here. Everyone is super supportive,” Fletcher said.
Since he started doing stand-up twelve years ago, Fletcher has performed all over the country, to audiences in 24 states, he said.
He has moved up through the ranks of the comedy world, battling critical club owners and drunken hecklers along the way, he said.
“I think it takes a certain kind of person. You definitely need to have thick skin,” and Fletcher said “You have a lot of bad shows before you get good.”
He first started performing there, despite his extreme nervousness and shy personality, and feels that he has come a long way since then, he said.
A new style of do-it-yoYurself stand-up is changing the local comedy scene, replacing the old model of the comedy club with a looser, more democratic system that puts the power back into the hands of the comics themselves, giving comedians and their fans the power to do things their own way, Long said.
“There’s a real resurgence of comedy as an art form, but it’s more accessible. All the gatekeepers have been removed, so it’s more do-it-yourself. Everyone has access to the same kind of network and scene,” Long said.
Just like many other comedians in Albuquerque, Fletcher got his start at Laff’s Comedy Club, where he previously worked.
“I’ve known Curt Fletcher for eight years and he’s one of the hottest comics coming out of New Mexico now,” said local actor Steven Michael Quezada, best known from his role as Agent Gomez on Breaking Bad.
Quezada also got his start as a stand-up comic in Albuquerque, and has since been the host of a local late night talk show, where he helped put the spotlight on many local comedians.
Former student and fellow comedian Terrance Brown said, “There’s a lot of funny guys here, but Curt is on another level.”
Local comedian Sarah Kennedy, along with ten others, will be hosting Comedy Awareness Week from October 12 to 19, with multiple shows every night, performances at UNM, and many other events, all with the goal of putting the spotlight on Albuquerque’s comedy scene and letting people know about the caliber of talent the city has, according to their Facebook page.
Kennedy runs the website AlbuquerqueComedy.com, which has become a much needed source of information for local comedy fans, with a calendar of performances, profiles of local performers, and other useful information.
“Since I started doing comedy, I think we’ve become so much more connected and so much more collaborative, and I think we’ve grown a lot,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy hosts several stand-up open-mic nights at Blackbird Buvette downtown and at Broken Bottle Brewery on the west side, as well as a showcase at The Box on the first and third Saturdays of the month. With so many options, new talent has a chance to shine, Kennedy said.
“I would put any comedian from here up against what happens elsewhere in the country, and they would shake out to be equal if not better,” Kennedy said.
Comedy in Albuquerque has evolved from the days since Laff’s Comedy Club closed its doors years ago. Back then, if a local comic wanted to perform, Laff’s was the only stage in town.
“Now, with the internet and the local hubs of connectivity that we’re seeing, it’s a whole new world. We’re seeing people having amazing success without having to go through those traditional channels,” Long said.
Big name touring comedians also have plenty of venues at their disposal, Long said.
The Kimo Theater, the Kiva Auditorium, the Guild, and the Launchpad are all hosting touring comics, as well as the casinos, especially Santa Ana Star casino’s new comedy spot The Stage, and all of these are helping to make New Mexico a lucrative destination for national talent, Long said.
“The fact that there is a good paycheck to be made for a national headliner in New Mexico is a really big boom,” Long said.
National acts like Doug Stanhope, Seth Meyers, Steve Hofstetter, David Tobey, and many others have made New Mexico a stop on their tours is a testament to the growing importance of the Land of Enchantment as a comedy destination, Long said.
This helps the local scene because many of the opening acts for these shows are local up-and-comers, said Kennedy. Kennedy, Long, and fellow local Matt Peterson recently opened for Doug Stanhope at the Launchpad, which was a great opportunity for them to get stage time with a high-profile headlining act, Kennedy said.
Many exciting things are happening in the local comedy scene, and the challenge now is getting the word out, Long said.
“There’s half a million people in Albuquerque who don’t know that comedy shows are happening in this town,” Long said.
Thanks to people like Long, Kennedy, and dozens of others, the scene is alive and well, and should only continue to get bigger.
“There is always room to grow, and I hope Albuquerque stays on top of things, and remains ahead of the curve instead of just following,” Kennedy said.