Going First Class
LA Class of 2009 has high hopes, dreams

Laguna-Acoma seniors crowd the halls lining up for graduation on Saturday in Casa Blanca, New Mexico. — © 2009 Gallup Independent / Adron Gardner

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

CASA BLANCA — Cars and trucks lined up along the entrance to Laguna-Acoma High School early Saturday, at one point stretching up to a mile.

Hundreds of students, family and friends, school staff, faculty and Grants-Cibola County School District administrators were arriving for the 10 a.m., graduation of the Class of 2009.

The school's construction was completed and the first class moved into the school in the spring of 2005, and were only in the school for a few months before the first-ever class graduated.

The 64 members of the class of 2009 have the distinction of being the first class that has attended all four years, from freshman to senior grades.

Bobbie Jo Touchin, a graduating senior, said moving from the old Laguna-Acoma High School, which was also a middle school, as the new school is, was remarkable.

“The classrooms are bigger, cleaner and all of the equipment is state of the art,” she said.

“The old school had small classrooms and the school was not kept up, it was run down,” she said.

“I was so excited to go into the new school.”

Touchin said she will be attending Eastern New Mexico University on a scholarship to become a secondary education teacher.

“I plan to come back here to teach, to give back to my community,” she said.

Amanda Nicole Pedro, said she is attending Northern Arizona University in the fall, in order to get a degree in secondary education as well.

“I want to get a minor in sports medicine too, so I can coach and be an athletic trainer,” she said.

She agreed with Touchin that the new school, which is still clean and has that “new” feeling, after four years, makes her proud to have graduated.

Just prior to graduation, Catherine Pinto was sitting in the bleachers to watch the graduation of her niece, Ronnie Lorenzo.

“I am so happy for my sister Margaret, Ronnie is her baby,” she said.

“I am not sure what Ronnie wantsto do, but she is going to go to New Mexico State University,” she said.

Graduation opened with three members of the Laguna-Acoma High School Marine Corps JrROTC performing a drill with rifles to much applause. The cadets then posted the colors for the national anthem.

Of the 64 graduating seniors, 18 have applied for and received some type of scholarship to attend a four-year university, 13 will attend a two-year college.

Kilino Marquez, superintendent of the school district, said those numbers are higher than in previous years, although he did not know by how much.

In the gymnasium, where the ceremony took place, three walls of bleachers were full to capacity with family, friends and visitors standing in the exits watch the 90 minute graduation ceremony. The crowd numbered about 800.

Many of the students were greeted with loud yells, hoots, hollers, and applause as they walked across the stage to receive their diplomas.

The keynote speaker for the class was Marvin “Brody” Hicks, who is the head of security at the school and the defensive coordinator on the varsity football team.

“It is amazing that this class has developed that kind of respect for Mr. Hicks,” Marquez said.

Hicks talked to members of the class by their names, in groups, giving them such advice as “keep smiling,” and “you can overcome any obstacle.”

“If you take someone's money, do the job, if you are not going to do the job, don't take their money,” Hicks said in a not-so-subtle reference to working for a living.

Mikila Crespin said she was excited about graduation, and was nearly speechless, huffing out the words, “I am going to be a teacher, K-12,”

Fraternal twins, Addison and Etheleen Goombi, both said this was the happiest day of their lives.

“I finally finished, I am so happy,” Addison said.

He said he planned to study criminal justice and eventually be a lawyer.

Etheleen said, “This is the most exciting day of my life.”
She said she plans to attend either Haskell Indian College in Kansas or Highlands University in New Mexico and intends to play basketball and volleyball at whichever school she attends.

She said she has not yet decided on a career path.

Several receptions for many of the graduating students were held across Acoma and Laguna over the Memorial Day weekend, with classmates, family, friends and teachers attending. Many of the teachers attended several receptions as the bonding between this class of students and their teachers continued following graduation.

— To contact reporter Jim Tiffin call (505) 285-4560 or e-mail: jtiffin.independent@yahoo.com.