08188
March 11, 2008
Mission education
Energy, hope abound at Menaul School as its community is guided by God
Sea La Luz (Let there be light) on the Menaul School seal is taken from Genesis 1:3. Photos by Toya Richards Hill. ALBUQUERQUE, NM – At 86, Theodore Trujillo is as clear as ever about the divine plan God has had for his life, and how without a shadow of a doubt it was supposed to include the Menaul School.
A 1940 graduate of the Presbyterian-founded former boarding school, Trujillo said the Lord intended for him to attend Menaul. It was a move, he said, that set the wheels in motion for him to graduate from college and spend 30 years as a biochemist for Los Alamos National Laboratory.
“The good Lord had a decision to make,” he said. And that decision was Menaul, which has a mission rooted in educating Native American and Hispanic people.
Now today, all these years later, the Menaul alumnus is making certain he helps fulfill God’s plan for some other youngsters by providing scholarships.
“I figured if I could ever afford to help Menaul students and the school itself I would do it,” he said. “I just accepted that I had to do something, and feel good about it.”
Trujillo’s spirit about Menaul, now a day school offering a college-preparatory curriculum, is indicative of a much larger climate of support and hopefulness currently in place at Menaul. The school has had financial hard times in recent years due to problems such as low enrollment and budget shortfalls.
Folks here are eager to tell the good news taking place on campus and are feeling confident about the future.
“We are putting out super students,” boasted math teacher Emmit Dewitt. The school has graduated kids who’ve gone on to the likes of Princeton and MIT, he said.
Menaul School is well known for its art program, which includes jewelry making. Photos by Toya Richards Hill. Art teacher Paul Griego concurs. The school has especially become known for its high-caliber arts program, which includes pottery and jewelry making, and Griego said some Menaul students already are showing their work in galleries.
“My kids are selling,” he said. “They are as professional as the professionals.”
Menaul, which educates students in grades six through 12, touts that 95 percent of its graduates go on to higher education. It also touts a 9-to-1 student-teacher ratio and a “highly diverse student body – culturally and economically.”
It was the diversity of the student body that most attracted senior Toby Krasney, who has been at the school since sixth grade. He said he also was accepted into another Albuquerque private school, but it had few people of color.
“Menaul just has all sorts of people,” said Krasney, who is African-American.
Supported by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) under its racial-ethnic schools and colleges’ umbrella, Menaul has tried to keep true to its historic mission, which dates back to the 1800s. The school notes that about 70 percent of its students are people of color: 45 percent Hispanic, 16 percent Native American, 6 percent Asian American and 4 percent African American.
“The original mission was to try to give racial-ethnic families the opportunity for their kids to get a good education,” and in a faith-based environment that would build the individual academically and spiritually, said the Rev. Buddy Monahan, Menaul’s chaplain.
Yet he’s also quick to point out that the school’s mission doesn’t mean less than. Menaul students have the same things to offer as racial-ethnic kids as students from any affluent prep school, he said.
“This is not a mission to make you feel good that you are helping these lowly racial-ethnic kids,” said Monahan, a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and the Maricopa tribe. “God is working through these kids.”
Sixth grader Isias Ibarra typifies students getting an education at Menaul. Photos by Toya Richards Hill. That means working through sixth grader Isias Ibarra, who moved to the United States from Mexico with his family when he was four. A member of the chess club who also enjoys reading, Ibarra said he wants to write stories for movies when he grows up. A scholarship provided by Trujillo helps him attend Menaul.
God also is moving through 17-year-old Ashley Chaves, who has aspirations of being a pediatrician; and senior Adria Malcolm, who is set on being a photojournalist. The list goes on and on.
The students also are learning to give back, and this year the entire student body will participate together in mission week March 17-20. Assigned tasks according to their grades, the students will volunteer in Albuquerque, at the presbytery and synod levels and also nationally outside of New Mexico.
“You just don’t receive … you’ve got to give back,” said Monahan. “We’ve got to do something to let these kids know.”
Ultimately, for Menaul students and graduates, “what I hope for and what I’ve seen is a real sense of purpose in life and not simply going out and making a buck,” said Menaul President Lindsey R. Gilbert Jr. They are “going out and making a difference.”
“By and large the kids appreciate that they are getting an exceptional education,” he said. Graduates feel “well prepared for college, and with something unique that many of their friends didn’t get.”
To contact the Menaul School, call (505) 345-7727, or visit their Web site. |
