ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Improving education and preparing students for life in New Mexico beyond high school is a challenge this state faces.

Isaac Rivas was once that young New Mexican. Beyond school, he has seen all facets of life in our state. Ultimately, it’s why he founded Voz Collegiate Preparatory Charter School in Albuquerque.

“This is a school I wish I had growing up and so this is a school I decided to found to ensure kids had a fighting chance in New Mexico,” he said. “We need to make sure that the leaders in front of our kids are prepared to deliver on the rigorous curriculum and instruction that we want them to receive and what they deserve to receive.”

Rivas says the school is seeing increased student enrollment. He says direct coaching from the administration to educators, foundation building for their sixth graders and a special focus on computer science set a higher standard for teachers and students.

“There is no other middle school in the city, in the state, and even on this side of the nation, that has this type of rigorous comprehensive computer science curriculum. We couldn’t find it so we wrote it,” Rivas said.

Each grade has its own focus in the computer science world:

• Sixth graders start with coding
• Seventh graders build robots
• Eighth graders build drones
• Ninth graders focus heavily on AI

“It didn’t exist in the middle school space so we wrote it. we wrote a curriculum that was comprehensive. It’s rigorous and it’s responsive to the needs of our students,” Rivas said.

Why computer science? Riva says it’s to help get students ready for the workforce.

“Over 2,000 computing jobs exist that are vacant in New Mexico alone,” he said.

The school is tuition-free. If you’d like to learn more about it, click here.