"It's going to allow me to do great things': Native American students receive NM Gas Scholarship

When Whitney Platero’s brother passed away in 2019, her “whole world was falling apart,” she said.

Then her family decided to hold services for him at the Farmington Funeral Home, whose employees “were there holding it together for me.” Their support moved Platero and ultimately fueled her desire to pursue a career in the funeral home field.

Dropping out of high school in the mid-2000s, Platero had put her education on hold in order to care for her husband and raise children. She since has decided it is time to pursue the education necessary in order to offer the same love and support to grieving families she received when her brother died.

In February, Platero, 35, obtained her GED and became a licensed funeral arranger at the Farmington Funeral Home. Not wanting to stop there, she decided to continue her education at San Juan College in Farmington, enrolling in the school’s new mortuary science degree program. But given how new the program was, there was no financial aid or scholarship to help her pay for her courses. She was concerned she would have to bear the full brunt of the costs.

Then, in May, her friend on Facebook tagged her name in a post about the New Mexico Gas Company’s Native American Scholarship Program.

“I had not heard of this scholarship before,” Platero explained. “But that night, I filled out the application.”

In June, she received word that she had been chosen to as one of the 20 scholarship recipients. She broke down into tears upon hearing the news and said the $3,000 scholarship will allow her to pay for her upcoming fall and possibly even spring courses.

“It’s going to allow me to do great things,” she said.

On Saturday, Platero joined her fellow scholarship recipients at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center for the annual Native American Scholarship banquet. During the ceremony, the recipients and their families shared a meal and received their scholarship checks, along with a wireless monitor, keyboard and mouse.

Founded in 2011, the scholarship program was created to assist Native American students pursing a post-secondary education in a bachelor’s, graduate, community college or trade school program. Since its inception, the program has awarded $524,000 to 265 Native American students representing 20 of New Mexico’s 23 Pueblos, tribes and nations. Each year, the program chooses 20 students to receive the scholarship.

There is no minimum grade point average or letter of recommendation required to apply for the scholarship. The only requirements are that the applicants be a resident of New Mexico at the time of their application, an enrolled member of a Pueblo, tribe or nation in New Mexico and be a high school or college student pursuing a post-secondary education.

“The scholarship provides opportunities for these students to pursue any form of post-secondary education,” Ted Garcia, director of Native American Government Relations at the New Mexico Gas Company, said. A member of the San Felipe Pueblo, Garcia helped launch the scholarship program in 2011 and has been working with the Native American communities in the state to help grow the program’s reputation and impact.

Garcia said he’s thankful to still be working to benefit and further the education of New Mexico’s Native American students.

“I’m so grateful for the support we’ve been able to offer Native students,” he said. “It’s been an excellent program.”

Gino Gutierrez is the good news reporter at the Albuquerque Journal. If you have an idea for a good news story, you can contact him at goodnews@abqjournal.com or at 505-823-3940.