Awards to help seniors make transition

Portales seniors are winding down their high school careers and for some the finality hasn’t hit them yet. Not even after the Academics Assembly, which took place on Friday.

“I’ve been so busy that I haven’t been able to soak it all in,” Amy Archibeque, Portales senior and facilitator of the academic awards assembly, said. “I think it’s all going to hit me on graduation night.”

Portales graduation will take place on Friday. Archibeque received several scholarships and accolades to make her transition easier. She has already made her decision to follow in the steps of her big sister, Sara, and attend New Mexico State University.

“I really liked Las Cruces,” Amy said. “Las Cruces has a big city feeling and small-town community feeling to it. I went down to register on my birthday, April 23. I got to look around the campus and see all of the renovations.”

Among the honors, Archibeque won the NMSU Regents Plus Scholarship of $3,166 and one of two Ron Stockton Memorial Scholarships.

“I wanted to go to a D-I college,” Amy said. “It’s going to be nice to be there with my sister.”

Senior Eddie Burns said he will also attend NMSU. Burns won a New Mexico scholarship award and NMSU Regents plus scholarship, to name a few of the awards he won.

“I received a certificate to work on computers and repair them,” Burns said. “But I still, really have no idea what I’m going to be going into. I’m not even sure if what I pursue is going to be in computers. I’m very flattered to have received the awards.”

Portales High School Counselor Joyce Hodges praised Burns for his computer knowledge.

“He achieved something, which is very difficult to achieve,” Hodges said. “He’s going to make big bucks because of what he does.”

Not to be outdone, Portales senior Kelly Parkey earned six scholarships from ENMU and one from NMSU. Parkey said she’s made ENMU her choice.

“I’m excited about going to ENMU,” Parkey said. “I’m thinking of going into the medical field, like occupational therapy. I will probably attend ENMU for two years then attend Texas Tech University. I was excited just walking around the ENMU campus when I was registering for classes.”

ENMU awarded more than 30 scholarships of $7,512 or higher and NMSU awarded more than 20 $1,000 or higher scholarships to Portales seniors.

Amy Truelock, Malissa Maloney and Oma Creighton each won four or more awards during the academics assembly.