Calla Jaramillo

UNM-Valencia Visionary Grad, Class of 2026

Transcript

My name is Calla Jaramillo. I am from Belen, New Mexico. I've lived here for about 18 years, and I go to Belen High School. So, some of the things I was part of throughout my high school years was Student Council, Staters, NHS, volleyball, and track and field. At the high school, there's already dual credit classes going on and so I was just thinking, I was like, hey, it'd be cool to graduate with my associate. I don't know what that exactly meant, but it just sounded cool to have.

Towards the end of my sophomore year, my mom had been taking classes here. She's very supportive. I do want to thank her. Yes, I've had other family and friends and coaches who all supported me, but definitely like my mom has helped me. I think every single time I'm like, need to do something or have a question, I'm like, oh, I go to her because she's been here. She works at the Wellness Center, so she's very affiliated, like who's here and what they do. So I'm like, oh, like, I have a question about this. She's like, oh, let me show you where their rooms at and let me show you, like where they are and how they can help you and stuff. My first few classes, they were all online during the summer, and then during the fall, I always take one class at the high school and I was taking one class at the college, and then I had three online classes, so I would go to the high school, I would do those classes, and then it comes straight here and I do my math class.

So my degree will be in integrated studies. I’ll take the summer off and then I'll go back during the fall and spring at the UNM-Valencia Campus and then I'll get my Associate in General Science, and then I'll probably go and try to get my bachelor's at the main campus. And then from there, I can apply to a program for physical therapy or athletic training. I've always had interest in like the bones and like the muscles and your tendons and then like oh, why does this part hurt me? Like, what can I do to stretch this out? And I feel like just giving plans to people who are coming out of recovery from like, from surgeries or even athletic students who have come from an injury and just give them stretches to help rehabilitate them so they come back stronger.

I've been recently working with the athletic trainer. That's actually really interesting because she goes and helps all the sports like basketball, football, wrestling, softball, baseball, all the sports. So, that helped me because I get to see all the different things that she gets to do. And like, when she's taping people and giving people different regimens to help them, like get better. And, she also has a lot of connections. So like, say like, I really do want to pursue this career outside of high school. Like once I'm done, she can help me find those connections.

Definitely don't be intimidated. I know it's like from going from high school to college, it can definitely be scary, but I feel like it's really not that bad when after you go there for a while and have some support, I definitely do say do it because then you get more ahead and you know when you feel like you have some more time to decide, like what you want to do. Take dual credit if you have the opportunity, it is worth it.