Hello to all the fantastic readers of this blog. My name is Andres U., and I am currently a sophomore this year at Arrowhead Park Early College High School. This is my second year working with Evolvement, and I truly feel all the benefits of it. I was so happy when I was given the permission and help to have two principal meetings at two middle schools here in Las Cruces.

A fellow Evolvement member and I met together with the principals of both Lynn Community Middle School and Mesa Middle School to share with them what Evolvement is all about and more specifically, what our 24/7 campaign is. In the separate meetings, we shared with the principals about why we joined Evolvement and the 24/7 campaign. With our personal testimonies, we were able to allow the principals to feel comfortable enough to share why they thought tobacco-free schools were important. We shared with them the rates at which students try tobacco and how this behavior can affect their lives in the long run. After sharing our information and answering some questions, we invited them to a school board meeting, where they can see us advocating for strong policy updates when it comes to tobacco use in public schools. Additionally, we were able to get both principals to sign our pledge card, stating that they want their schools to be tobacco-free and that we will be there to assist them in their journey. For this meeting, the fellow Evolvement member and I met several times to practice what we were going to say and what questions would likely come up. This was a great way to prepare and make us feel confident before, during, and after our meetings.        

After doing both of these meetings, it helped me to discover that principals deeply care about ensuring that their schools are tobacco-free and that they are open to our help and resources. This is greatly beneficial to our campaign because we had both principals wanting to receive our free resources and greatly wanting to support our organization. By preparing for both of these meetings, it allowed myself to learn even more about the facts behind the use of tobacco, and it also educated me on what issues and concerns school administrators have. I truly believe and hope that these meetings gave those principals a better understanding of the dangers of tobacco and what we do with the 24/7 campaign to combat this issue. Additionally, by sharing this information with the principals I believe that it will encourage them to enforce stronger tobacco policies, which will encourage other public schools in my school district to do the same.

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