When Bella Yazzie walked across the stage to graduate from Farmington High School this spring, she already had two associates degrees from San Juan College and a full-ride scholarship to the University of Southern California.
Yet, her most valuable credential is being sure about her next steps. With support from counselors and educators at Bella’s school who shared a work-based learning opportunity with her, Bella got an internship her junior year at Farmington Regional Animal Shelter that changed her trajectory.
Bella Yazzie stands outside of Farmington High School. Photo Credit: Media Desk for Project ECHO, June 2026.
“It really helped me grow my work ethic,” Bella says of her internship. “I learned a lot about the field of veterinarian medicine.”
Through her experience, Bella also learned that she’s allergic to animals—crucial information at a time when many are considering how they’ll invest in their futures. But thanks to a network of educators connected through Project ECHO’s Future Ready in New Mexico: Preparing Our Youth for College and Career Program, Bella got the support she needed to pivot to human medicine.
Project ECHO’s Future Ready program brings together the people supporting students, like Bella. It’s an ongoing professional learning community where counselors, advisors, coaches, and other educators can share experiences and knowledge, and exchange college and career resources across New Mexico.
Building Connections in Isolated Places
Farmington sits in the northwest corner of New Mexico, far from the resources concentrated in Albuquerque. Dacia Yazzie, Bella’s mother and the Native American Advisor at Farmington High School, is one of those advisors who helped Bella navigate work-based learning. As a member of Project ECHO’s Future Ready program, Dacia connects twice a month with others from across the state to share resources, troubleshoot real student challenges, and stay current on opportunities that might never make it to a school like hers otherwise.
“Future Ready has definitely helped me with my students, mainly because of the collaborative effort we have within our organization,” Dacia says. “Our sessions are built on the needs that educators have.” Without that network, she notes, work-based learning opportunities like Bella’s internship might never have been on the table. Students in Farmington simply wouldn’t have known they existed.
That’s the ECHO effect. It’s not a one-time conference, or professional development course. It’s an ongoing, practical, learning community that delivers crucial information at no cost to educators and counselors who might otherwise be working alone.
“She Knows All of Us by Name”
Three hundred miles south in Capitan, New Mexico, a small town of around 2,000 people, Theresa Kennedy is the only counselor for every student from kindergarten through 12th grade. She handles college planning, crisis support, scholarship applications, and family referrals all by herself.
Moving to Capitan 10 years ago was eye opening for Theresa because she’d thought that Albuquerque was under-resourced. “They have something like 20 times the resources we do down here,” she says.
Fortunately, Project ECHO’s Future Ready program has been a huge resource for Theresa.
“Being able to check in every other week with other counselors, get updated information, and then push it out to the students—that’s been really good,” Theresa says.
That access has translated into real outcomes for her students, including Warren Spaniel, a 2026 graduate of Capitan High School.
After a basketball accident his junior year left him battling memory loss, Warren’s plans for an out-of-state college suddenly felt fragile. Theresa helped him navigate scholarship applications, weigh his options, and find a path that kept him close to home without giving up his ambitions. Now, Warren will attend New Mexico Junior College on a full-ride scholarship, where he’ll also be on the Track and Field team. He plans to transfer to a four-year university to study sports management after.
“Mrs. Kennedy was honestly the biggest resource for me,” Warren says. “We’re so lucky to have her. She is close with every single student. She knows all of us by name. She knows our backgrounds. Her door is always open.”
Through Project ECHO’s Future Ready program, Theresa has also learned how to connect parents with continuing education and career training programs. “They don’t have to work at Family Dollar,” she says. “They can go out and finish a welding certification, or go into HVAC.”
One well-supported counselor reaches an entire community.
Future Ready Creates Opportunities
Whether it’s helping Bella discover her allergies before committing to a veterinary degree, or helping Warren overcome the trauma of memory loss to stay in-state for college, Project ECHO’s Future Ready in NM: Preparing Our Youth for College and Career’s impact is personal and transformative. It ensures that a student in Capitan or Farmington has access to the same knowledge and support systems as a student in a major metropolitan area. By empowering educators to be more than just teachers or counselors—by making them connectors, advocates, and community builders—the program fosters a culture where every young person is seen, heard, and supported in their journey to a brighter future.
For more information about the Future Ready in New Mexico ECHO Program, visit the iECHO program page or read the “Expanding What’s Possible: Project ECHO’s Future Ready in Albuquerque Public Schools.”
