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Faculty at Rio Grande High School made an announcement before the school鈥檚 graduation ceremony Wednesday asking to please keep applause to a minimum, but the audience couldn鈥檛 help themselves.

The crowd at Tingley Coliseum greeted Rio Grande鈥檚 graduating class with booming cheers as the 291 seniors took their seats together for the last time.

The South Valley high school made it off of the New Mexico Public Education Department鈥檚 list of struggling schools in March by making sustained gains in graduation rates 鈥� for last year鈥檚 Class of 2025, Rio Grande reported a 74.1% graduation rate, up 5.5 percentage points from the year before and 12.1 percentage points since 2022.

The statewide four-year graduation rate is 80.6% 鈥� the highest number reported in more than a decade, yet still among the bottom nationwide. sa国际传媒官网网页入口 Public Schools logged a four-year graduation rate of 76.8%.

Rio Grande Principal Antoinette Valenzuela said the school鈥檚 staff set its sights on raising graduation rates together.

鈥淚t's (students) understanding the belief that they can and they will,鈥� Valenzuela said. 鈥淎nd having the right people to really encourage and get them to that finish line.鈥�

Valenzuela is herself a Rio Grande alum. When she graduated in 1995, her senior quote was, 鈥淚 want to give back to my community what my community's given me.鈥�

鈥淚 feel like it's a full circle,鈥� she said in an interview after Wednesday鈥檚 graduation. 鈥淚'm very proud to do what I do.鈥�

Rio Grande is one of eight New Mexico high schools to graduate from the PED鈥檚 鈥渕ore rigorous intervention鈥� list, the state鈥檚 highest level of support for chronically struggling schools. Five of the eight are part of APS: Mark Armijo Academy, Highland High School, Rio Grande, Siembra Leadership High School and Technology Leadership High School.

Graduating from the highest intervention level is 鈥渘o small feat,鈥� Public Education Secretary Mariana Padilla said in a statement in March.

鈥淭hese schools, their educators and their communities have committed to meaningful change to ensure more students cross the graduation stage ready for college or career,鈥� Padilla said.

After graduation, the members of Rio Grande鈥檚 Class of 2026 will set off on their own paths. Graduating senior Frida Ruiz said she will attend the University of New Mexico in the fall to study toward becoming a veterinarian. Others said they would be attending Central New Mexico Community College or would start learning a vocation.

Valedictorian Glamour Rodriguez will be moving across the country in the fall to start school at New York University, where she will study sociology. Rodriguez told the Journal she eventually plans to attend law school. 

Her favorite part of high school, she said, has been the lessons she鈥檚 learned.

鈥淵ou鈥檙e surrounded by all these different types of people, and you make friends, and then you lose friends, but it's a process where you learn to understand everything,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 think they鈥檙e lessons that you wouldn鈥檛 get if you didn鈥檛 go to public school.鈥�

Rodriguez addressed her class in English and Spanish and thanked her family and her teachers, who she said encouraged her to succeed.

鈥淭he world is there for whoever wants it,鈥� she said.

APS Board member Janelle Astorga, whose district includes Rio Grande, conferred diplomas to the graduating seniors.

Rio Grande recently became an environmental STEM magnet school, where students learn conservation, environmental science and stewardship, because of the South Valley鈥檚 deep agricultural ties.

Salutatorian Sophia Lopez, who will be attending Ottawa University in Surprise, Arizona, in the fall to play basketball, told the crowd during her speech she was grateful for her South Valley community.

鈥淚t has shaped so much of who we are, and it鈥檚 a place we can all be proud to call home,鈥� she said.

Natalie Robbins covers education for the Journal. You can reach her at nrobbins@abqjournal.com.