High School Equivalency Program Receives New Funding

The UNM Col­lege Enrich­ment and Out­reach Pro­grams was recently awarded $2.223 mil­lion from the U.S. Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion for a five-year term for the High School Equiv­a­lency Pro­gram (HEP). Fund­ing for this new grant begins July 1. Addi­tion­ally, UNM HEP cel­e­brates 10 years and is mark­ing that occa­sion, and the grant renewal, by host­ing a cel­e­bra­tion on Sat­ur­day, July 21, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the South Val­ley Eco­nomic Devel­op­ment Cen­ter, located at 318 Isleta Blvd. SW. Guests at the cer­e­mony can get more infor­ma­tion about the pro­gram. Onsite recruit­ment for the next fis­cal year will also take place.

“This grant renewal is extremely impor­tant to our com­mu­nity because we will be able to con­tinue assist­ing migrant and sea­sonal farm work­ers in our area with their pur­suit of a GED, while also pro­vid­ing them with guid­ance to higher edu­ca­tion. This grant award renewal demon­strates the great work UNM HEP has done in our com­mu­nity for the past 10 years,” Susy Sarmiento, UNM HEP pro­gram spe­cial­ist, said.

HEP assists stu­dents who are engaged in or whose imme­di­ate fam­ily member(s) are engaged in migrant or sea­sonal farm work to obtain a sec­ondary school diploma or equiv­a­lent and sub­se­quently gain employ­ment, be placed in an insti­tu­tion of higher edu­ca­tion, in other post-secondary edu­ca­tion, or train­ing; all of this accom­plished through inten­sive GED prepara­tory instruc­tion, tutor­ing and sup­port­ive services.

UNM HEP pro­vides con­ve­nient and flex­i­ble GED instruc­tion by work­ing around the sched­ules of the pro­gram par­tic­i­pants. The pro­gram includes inten­sive class­room instruc­tion, indi­vid­u­al­ized tutor­ing, stipends, child care assis­tance, GED test­ing fees, career and aca­d­e­mic advise­ment, and much more.

“HEP has made a tremen­dous dif­fer­ence in my life. It is thanks to this pro­gram that this past semes­ter I grad­u­ated with my bachelor’s degree in psy­chol­ogy and plan to con­tinue with a master’s degree. I highly rec­om­mend the pro­gram,” said HEP grad­u­ate Ramon Gam­bino. Upon suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of the pro­gram, HEP pro­vides assis­tance for place­ment into a post-secondary insti­tu­tion, career posi­tion or mil­i­tary service.

For more infor­ma­tion on the pro­gram, visit HEP or call UNM HEP recruiter, Dayra Fal­lad, at 505–277-3020.

Media Con­tact: Car­olyn Gon­za­les (505) 277‑5920; email: cgonzal@unm.edu