ANNUAL REPORT 2007 THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO

5
Story and photo courtesy of The Albuquerque Journal
UNM STUDENTS HELP BRING
ARCHITECTURE TO HIGH SCHOOLERS
Students who don't speak English as their
first language have a hard assignment
understanding what teachers are saying,
but Noe Quiñonez is pushing them to think
beyond the moment.
The 24-year-old University of New Mexico
architecture student wants to help them
span the distance between imagination
and creation.
He has been spending time in classrooms
all over the city [of Albuquerque]—including
a bilingual math class at Rio Grande High
School on Tuesday — showing how the
math, science and history children are learning
can take shape as a building or a home.
Quiñonez spent his formative years shuttling
between his parents' house on a farm in
Paloma, Mexico, and his aunts' home in
California before settling with his parents in
Deming and finishing high school. He came
to UNM through a program for children of
migrant workers. The College Assistance
Migrant Program provides financial assistance,
academic advisement, tutoring and
other benefits for migrant worker youths.
"I know what it's like to sit in their chair,
not knowing English, not knowing what
the teacher said," Quiñonez said of the Rio
Grande students. "I think as educated people
we have the obligation to help others and
to teach what we know."
David Giron, a 17-year-old junior, said he
appreciates having a chance to learn about
an advanced subject in school.
"It's bilingual so I can understand, and a lot
of people don't explain architecture that well
in Spanish," Giron said.
Anne Taylor, a professor of architecture and
planning at UNM, teaches a class called
Architecture and Children, which Quiñonez
and several other architecture majors are
taking. The class requires they spend time in
schools in the area, teaching what they've
learned and hopefully, according to Taylor,
learning something new in the process.
"They know the content," Taylor said of the
students' architecture studies. "What I have
to teach them is how to teach."
Taylor said textbooks that teach the basic
theories of, say, geometry, don't do a good
job of making links between principles and
practice. That's where her students come in.
Quiñonez, for example, brought to the
Rio Grande class a scale model he built
to illustrate "architectonic scale," or how
to shrink plans for the El Malpais National
Monument down to the size of a cake box.
Jesus Montoya, a 17-year-old senior, said
he likes seeing Quiñonez's work.
"I would like to know something about
architecture so when I have my own house
I don't have to go and get somebody else
to do it," Montoya said.
Quiñonez has spent time at schools like
Pajarito Elementary and Valley High school
as part of his class.
"I advocate for everyone," Quiñonez said.
"I think that every student should have
a chance."
Aside from spending time in classrooms,
Quiñonez also founded a group, Planning
and Awareness for College Education, that
provides information about the college
application process and financial aid,
among other things, to interested high
school students around the state.
"We have 34 members at UNM and 34 at
New Mexico State University," Quiñonez
said. "Our mission is to go out to rural areas
and promote higher education ... We actually
go out and let them know about lottery
scholarships, money, how to get educated."
Quiñonez said he benefited from similar
programs when he was younger.
"I just think everyone should have the
choice," Quiñonez said.