The Path December 2023

Admission Application Deadline: February 8, 2024

Albuquerque Academy is going places! Every day, Academy students are discovering new interests, pursuing their passions, and contributing to our community. And every year we're looking for more students to join us for the journey. The Academy is now accepting applications for all grades for the 2024-25 school year. Get started or continue working on your application today. Our tuition assistance application is also available now, and you can find it here. The admission and tuition assistance deadlines are February 8, 2024.

Upcoming Events

Alumni XC Run | December 27, 10 a.m. | Meet at the benches southwest of the East Campus Gym | Followed by lunch at Dion’s on Academy Road | Register here.

Alumni Swim & Dive Reunion | December 30, 9 a.m. | Natatorium | Register here.

SAVE THE DATE: GrandDays | Grades 6-7: Monday, April 8, 2024 | Grades 8-12: Tuesday, April 9, 2024 | Details to follow in 2024

Phoebe Suina ’94: A Steward of Landscape and Language

In honor of 50 years of coeducation at Albuquerque Academy, Alumni Council member Ted Alcorn '01 is telling the stories of women alumni.

By Ted Alcorn ’01

When Phoebe Suina describes her feelings for the mountains, fields, and rivers of New Mexico, even the word “love” doesn’t seem adequate. “It’s in my bones, and it’s in my blood,” she said.

She has forged that connection over decades of study and work as an environmental engineer. It’s also a product of her lineage as a daughter of San Felipe and Cochiti Pueblos, a history it took her time to embrace and revere.

In her infancy, Phoebe began learning Keres, the language spoken by a few thousand people in a handful of Middle Rio Grande pueblos. But when her parents separated, she and her mom moved to Rio Rancho where it was easier to find work, and Phoebe was only exposed to the language on weekends in Cochiti, visiting her dad. A treasured fifth-grade teacher encouraged her to apply to the Academy.

Her mom worked long hours, so Phoebe was often the first to arrive at school and the last to be retrieved. There were only two Indigenous girls enrolled at that time, but she remembered how Mr. Vincent Cordova, an early champion of diversity at the Academy, would often check on her. Sports helped bring the quiet girl out of her shell. When faculty and staff held pickup basketball games in the middle school gym where she lingered after school, they often drafted her to play.

In particular, she was a free throw ace — such a sharpshooter, in fact, that in eighth grade she won a citywide contest and advanced to nationals. Her entire class gave her a sendoff party and a giant card scrawled with well wishes, which she has kept to this day. “Maybe I still have it because I cherished that my entire class got behind me,” she said.

The competitive spirit discovered on the athletic field also spurred Phoebe and her friends in the classroom, where they organized study groups and pushed each other. After graduating, she headed to Dartmouth to major in engineering. Electrical classes stumped her, but hydraulics was another story. “I saw how water moved,” she said, “and it clicked.”

The real turning point arrived when she was back at home on a break and was invited to help with a language revitalization program being undertaken in Cochiti Pueblo. Re-immersed in the community, Phoebe spoke with older generations and delved into the history of the dam on the eastern side of the pueblo, which the Army Corps of Engineers had installed to control the flow of the Rio Grande.

Contrary to assurances made to the community at that time, seepage from the dam had eventually destroyed the pueblo’s farmland, altered traditional ways of life, and contributed to social dissolution that had imperiled the language she was working to revive.

Looking at the engineering drawings, Phoebe thought to herself, “This can’t happen again.” The community needed someone who could decipher this type of document, parse the Flood Control Act, and protect their interests and the environment they were a part of. “It reignited my passion.”

Now decades later, Phoebe fully inhabits that role, heading her own project management and environmental consulting business High Water Mark, which has helped communities across New Mexico recover from natural disasters while improving their long-term stability and sustainability. She has also been appointed to two influential government boards, where she volunteers her time and expertise to make consequential decisions for the whole state. She sees herself as a bridge, navigating the intricacies of tribal, state, and federal governments while leveraging the traditional ecological knowledge her pueblos have developed over millennia.

And she’s bridged generations, too, giving her kids the language that nearly eluded her. Her daughter was one of the first students at the Keres Children’s Learning Center, a Montessori program that immerses students, and enrolling her there prompted Phoebe and her partner to be more mindful about speaking at home in their everyday lives.

Thinking of the vastness of eternity and the responsibility she feels for future generations, she said, “It’s less than a blink of an eye that we’ll be here.” She won’t let her time go to waste.

Academy Exceeds Giving TuesdAAy Goals

Thank you, Chargers, for your incredible support for Albuquerque Academy on Giving Tuesday! We realize there are countless opportunities and organizations to support, and we are grateful so many of you made the Academy your nonprofit of choice.

We had a great response! This Giving Tuesday the Academy received 603 individual gifts, exceeding our goal of 500, and surpassing our total fundraising goal, bringing in a total of $274,030!

We would like to extend a special thank you to our AAPA and Alumni Council for all their support this Giving Tuesday. We greatly appreciate the commitment of all the volunteers who serve as spirited champions for our annual giving initiatives.

Albuquerque Academy was built upon a deep foundation of philanthropy, and every generation of Chargers has benefited from the generosity of those who came before them. You are the driving force behind our students' education, and your continued support makes a lasting impact on our school and the greater community.

Thank you for helping us build a community of gratitude and giving!

If you missed this giving opportunity and still would like to support the school, it is never too late!

Community Service in Full Swing

In addition to the on-campus Giving TuesdAAy and the Coats for Cocoa initiatives, our community was actively involved in charitable efforts across the city this holiday season. A few examples include:

Toiletry Bags for Students: Seniors and their 6th-grade Convocation partners are working together to assemble bags of necessities for Albuquerque youth in need.

Saranam Gift Drive: Students donated gifts to the 30 children at Saranam, a program that provides everything families need to break the cycle of generational homelessness.

Holiday Toy Drive: Seventh-grade student leaders are working on collecting 500 gifts for local children experiencing homelessness during the holiday season through a partnership with Heading Home.

Holiday Treats for Hospitalized Children: Students assembled treat bags for the children spending the holidays at Ronald McDonald House.

Hot Chocolate Fundraiser for Maui: Change of Tomorrow sold hot chocolate on the quad during lunch. All proceeds were donated to the Maui Food Bank.

Collecting Children’s Books: Gently used books were collected and donated to Locker #505, a clothing bank for kids in need.

Mirukafei: This year’s sticker collection is now available in both bookstores! Proceeds will be donated to New Mexico Animal Friends.

Thank You, Corporate Partners!

Thank you to our corporate partners – HUB International, Manzano Day School, and Paul Davis Restoration of New Mexico– for their investment in our school and the broader community’s educational, cultural, and economic progress. We truly appreciate their commitment and for signing on as the first three participants in this new program.

As corporate partners, they are not only investing in the education of our future leaders, scholars, and changemakers; they are also contributing to the overall strength and vibrancy of our entire community. Albuquerque Academy serves as a hub for intellectual and cultural engagement as well as community service that benefits our city, and it drives economic development as one of the city’s larger employers and by attracting new businesses whose employees seek exceptional educational opportunities for their children.

Learn more to learn about the benefits of this program and how to get involved.

Young Alumni Celebrate Together

On November 22, Head of School Julianne Puente hosted nearly 50 young alumni from the classes of 2018-2024 for some traditional New Mexican cuisine at Common Grounds Cafe located in Simms Library. Faculty and staff welcomed these Chargers home to campus and reminded them to stay in touch with their teachers and fellow alumni as they explore their educational and professional opportunities. We hope to make this gathering a new festive Charger tradition that helps support our graduates as they transition to adulthood.