Hello, my name is Rio Romero and I am a senior at Los Lunas High School. This is my 4th year being apart of Evolvement and my 3rd year on the Leadership Team. One of the campaigns we work on is 24/7. 24/7’s main goal is to get schools and school districts across New Mexico to adopt its policies to become tobacco free. Evolvers, such as myself, help to do this by presenting to school boards and principals.
       The most recent thing I have done was a principal meeting this last spring. Since I had already met with the principal at Los Lunas High School, I decided to branch out and have a meeting with Century High School’s principal Clair Toledo. I had no troubles setting up the meeting and I was very happy that we were able to meet in person. The meeting went great and the conversation flowed smoothly. Mrs. Toledo signed a pledge card and was so excited about the program. She asked how she can get Evolvement at Century, and offered to show her support by making announcements and putting up the signage we provide. It felt really good to get support from another principal and it inspired me to try to set up even more meetings with other principals throughout my school district.
       I am confident that if 24/7 keeps the work up, we can one day have every school in the state compliant with our tobacco policies. As this starts to happen, less kids will have to deal with the distractions of tobacco/nicotine use in school. I hope that some of  the work I’m doing, like meeting with principals, will allow that day to come sooner than later. 

1. Blog
2. My Principal Meeting at Century High School