By: Emilia Coombs

My name is Emilia C. I am a sophomore at Arrowhead Park Early College High School and have been in Evolvement for two years. I joined Evolvement with the goal of learning leadership and communication skills while pursuing the great cause of promoting a tobacco-free New Mexico. This week alone, I was able to meet with two principals in my school district to help them create a tobacco-free school environment. I’m happy to say that both principals were on board and willing to help however they could. I believe that, by tackling tobacco in schools, we will be able to stop children from starting tobacco use at a young age, which will hopefully stop them from using those products at all.

My first principal meeting was at Camino Real Middle School. First, I completed the principal meeting training on a Monday and was excited to get started. The very next day I emailed the principals of both APECHS and Camino Real, asking if I could set up a meeting with each of them. I was surprised and happy then both principals responded within the same day. In fact, Mr. Ramos, Camino Real’s principal, even responded within minutes! He agreed to meet that Wednesday after school. In the meantime, I prepared by printing out the papers I needed for my meeting and reviewed what I was going to say.

After school on Wednesday, I rode the bus to Camino Real and walked to their front office for the meeting. When I walked into the meeting, Mr. Ramos greeted me and was curious to know what the goals were for 24/7. The meeting went really well, and he was excited to work with 24/7 in his school. He even asked if we would be able to give a presentation to his leadership class. He was happy to meet with me and happy to work with 24/7 on future events. I’m so glad I had the opportunity to meet with him to teach why and how Camino Real Middle School can be tobacco free 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

This experience has helped me with my goal of learning leadership and communication skills while sharing the powerful message of 24/7. It allowed Camino Real’s principal to learn about Evolvement and 24/7 for the first time and to join in on the campaign to work towards making their school tobacco free. This meeting has created a new opportunity to teach Camino Real’s leadership students about 24/7, which could hopefully inspire them to become 24/7 tobacco-free school ambassadors when they enter high school.

I am excited to represent the 24/7 campaign as I work with Camino Real Middle School. My hope is that we will be able to create tobacco-free school environments one school at a time, which will prevent children from starting to use tobacco. I believe that by doing this, we will be able to stop many of my generation of students from using tobacco at all.

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