Move Mountains Summer Youth Leadership Program set

SAN LUIS – The 4th Annual Move Mountains Summer Youth Leaderships Program will begin July 5-31 and will employee 10 Centennial High School youth.

Students will be engaged Monday-Friday with Fridays set aside for field trips and Saturdays performing community service projects. 

First thing students will learn is their own genealogy history. Local genealogist Maria Martinez will walk students through their family lineage to understand how their ancestors settled this community. Students will work with Professors Teresa Cordova and Arsenio Cordova, UNM in the performing arts area. The youth leaders will study “teatro” and will produce a performance which will be showcased for Santa Ana.

Bullying will be an issue that will be discussed and studied through the lens of “restorative justice” practices using hip-hop music to give youth the tools to deal with this issue.

The program will partner with the Costilla County Conservancy District and the Vega Board to remove noxious weeds and map out what once were walking paths from the road into the Culebra Creek. 

Social justice poetry will be part of the curriculum with Professor of Creative Writing Mary Jane Sullivan, University of Colorado and Master Creative Writing Teacher Jacob Camacho from the University of Pennsylvania. Professor of Education Dr. Rudy Chavez, Highlands University, will conduct a workshop on “dichos,” Spanish wise words to pass on cultural wisdom. 

Youth leaders will also work and study with Denver based hip-hop artists 2MX2 and Miss Lotita to create and film a final video of the summer program experiences.

In addition, Move Mountains Youth Leaders in conjunction with the Southwest Conservation Youth Corp will plant and care for a community garden at the Carpenter Ranch. The nearly one acre garden project was made possible when Alonzo Lobato and Roy Esquibel stepped forward as volunteers to assist the youth in the preparation and education of caring for such a project.

Move Mountains’ mission is to activate youth into taking ownership of their community, speaking up about they see and using their creativity to positively influence San Luis and the surrounding Culebra villages to develop the art, science and entrepreneurial skills that will empower active community citizens through a focus on local and global social justice issues.  The goal is to create youth leaders within San Luis and the surrounding land grant villages

The program is asking the community to get involved and help us raise the needed funds to carry out this summer’s program. Tax deductible contributions can be made to Move Mountains Youth Project, P.O. Box 44, San Luis 81152 or donate online at “generosity.com.”