Giving Like the Sun

Supporting Education is a Gift that Never Stops Giving

As 2024 draws to a close, we want to take a moment to reflect on the incredible impact that your generosity has had on the Adult Education Center in Durango and Cortez, and to ask for your continued donor support as we close out the year.

For 37 years, the AEC has been a beacon of opportunity for adults in southwest Colorado, providing the education and skills needed to transform lives. We are the only provider of adult education across a five-county region, helping individuals unlock new doors for themselves and their families through high school equivalency (HSE) diplomas and English as a Second Language (ESL) programs.

The many ways you support our students’ successes calls to mind the wise words of medieval Persian poet, Hafiz, who observed, “Even after all this time, the Sun never says to the Earth, ‘You owe me.’ Instead, the Sun’s stalwart giving lights up the whole sky.

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Wrong Turns and Roadblocks

“I was completely going down the wrong path,” Acelynn Samora confesses. “I was failing every class. I was into drugs and everything.”

Her older brother was also diving deeper into drug use. The two had always been close. Whatever he did, Acelynn was quick to imitate. When her brother dropped out, Acelynn followed. But then, he died from overdose. Acelynn realized she was following close on his heels.

“That is what made me wake up,” Acelynn explains, wiping away tears. “I definitely wouldn’t be here if wasn’t for that. I wouldn’t have…after that…it really made me want something better for my life.”

Long before Acelynn dropped out, another young girl was forced out of school.

“I am from a little town and they don’t have a high school,” Obdulia Fonseca explains, recalling her youth in Jalisco, Mexico. “I studied for six years. I don’t have the opportunity to study more. To go to high school, we need to walk to another town. We don’t have money to do that.”

Instead of school, Obdulia helped support her family at an age when most children in the U.S. get their first PlayStation. A decade later, while in her twenties, she was living and working in Los Angeles. She could neither speak nor read English. She met and married Alfredo, who had also come to the U.S. from Jalisco just a few years before.

Although they possessed Green Cards, the Fonseca’s found themselves on thin ice in 2022 when the renewal process broke down amidst bureaucratic quagmires. If the wrong document fell through the right cracks, either Alfredo or Obdulia could be booted back to Mexico. They’d be separated, with one exiled in a country neither had known for over two decades.

Adult Education is Critical to Local Economies

The need for our Center’s services is critical. According to Department of Labor data from 1979-2019, real wages decreased by 20% for those with less than a high school diploma. Individuals without a high school diploma or basic English skills face real challenges: from lower wages to limited access to better job opportunities. Those without education or English proficiency are often left behind, unable to qualify for living wage careers, vocational training, and higher education. In a region as vast as ours, DAEC is more than just an educational resource – we are a lifeline.

Thanks to donors like you, DAEC is able to offer the critical services that change lives. Since 2016, we have helped 248 learners earn their GEDs, with an average of 31 graduates each year. This figure includes inmates at the La Plata County Jail who are also served by our excellent instructors. Since 2015, we have helped 31 people become U.S. citizens through our citizenship tutoring program, and we have empowered countless others by equipping them with the skills to enter the workforce, continue their education, and build more stable futures.

CHANGE MORE LIVES WITH A GIFT ON COLORADO GIVES DAY 12.10.24

Shutdown by Lockdowns

You’re too late! Too far behind. Give up!

These messages swirled like ghosts in Madigan (Maddy) Egizio-Hughes’ mind after she dropped out of high school. The online learning necessitated by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic isolated the then 16-year-old and sapped her motivation to learn. Even her parents agreed: Maddy should withdraw from public school. But after withdrawing, she faced a psychological nightmare on social media, watching all her friends progress towards graduation.

Far away, the pandemic had also upended Silvano Hernandez Zarate’s shot at an education leading to better prospects.

“I am from a very small town from Oaxaca,” Silvano says. If you imagine Mexico shaped like a cornucopia, Oaxaca is nestled not in the wide-open bell bordering the U.S., but rather in the slender curl of the horn’s tip near the peninsular thread of Central America.

He’d been attending his first year of university in Mexico when the pandemic struck. Everything shut down. Silvano had to go back home.

“[Oaxaca is] one of the poorest states in the country. You can imagine how bad is the internet. Sometimes with the poverty, it’s gone. So, it’s very hard to study in distance. And my father is alcoholic so…” Silvano pauses, eyes cast down to his shoes. He takes in a breath and continues, “I had a hard time. I couldn’t deal with all that pressure with the school, my father, then I had to work. So, I just quit and start again moving here.”

Shortfalls and Gaps in Grant Funding

The educational gains our students make at DAEC go far beyond graduation—they reduce recidivism, help families rise out of poverty, and contribute to the economic vibrancy of our entire community. Yet, despite our proven success, our work is funded primarily by competitive state and federal grants that cover only a portion of our costs, with the largest chunk of that going toward teacher salaries. What these funds don’t cover is the infrastructure that makes our work possible: the curriculum, supplies, staff salaries for administration and student services, IT updates, and most facility costs.

For example, we invest $10,000 each year in waiving testing fees for our HSE students so that financial barriers don’t stand in the way of their success. We also spend over $3,000 annually supporting our Pearson VUE testing center—an invaluable community resource—because we believe that access to licensure or certification testing for any career field should not come at a cost.

None of these expenses are covered by government funding.

We rely heavily on the support of local foundations, municipalities, and individuals like you. In fact, local donors make up 35-40% of DAEC’s annual operating budget, and we simply cannot continue this work without your support. Your donation will help us meet immediate needs like student supplies and administrative costs, but it will also ensure that we can continue providing high-quality, free services to adults who need them most.

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New Beginnings

Acelynn Samora found employment as a classroom aid at Riverhouse Children’s Center. To become a full-time early childhood education teacher, she’d need higher education degrees. To obtain those, she’d need a diploma. She enrolled at the Durango Adult Education Center to get her GED.

“I’m the type of learner that asks a lot of questions,” she notes. “The teachers were right there to answer every single of them! The teachers made the environment feel so inclusive. Like no one’s judging you for being there.”

Upon graduating, she received an Early Childhood Training Scholarship from the DAEC thanks to a fund generously backed by the Buell Foundation. The scholarship enabled her to enroll in a Lead Teacher Certification program through the Colorado Northwest Community College. After completing the one-year program, Acelynn’s professional credential will open the door working at larger schools on an even better salary.

Meanwhile, the Fonsecas sought out the AEC’s programs for citizenship assistance and English language classes. Citizenship candidates work one-on-one with a free tutor who helps them master the test content. Meanwhile, free English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) classes would prepare them to ace their interviews.

In 2024, on Leap Day, the Fonseca’s were sworn in as official U.S. citizens. They literally leapt to freedom. Standing on solid ground at last, Alfredo declares, “I want to say to the community to support the [DAEC]. It helps us to learn something else. To learn English and any careers we want. It’s a good place for the community. They have excellent teachers! They are positive. They have good attitudes. You can do it, you can do it! I think positive, and we got the citizenship!”

Double Your Local Impact

As we look ahead to 2025, we hope you will consider making a generous year-end contribution to DAEC. Your gift is not just a donation—it is an investment in the future of our community. It is that sunlight, brightening the skies for everyone. You will help open doors for people who are striving to improve their lives, and you will ensure that DAEC remains a pillar of opportunity in our region for years to come.

We are deeply grateful for your continued partnership. Together, we can make sure that everyone, regardless of their background or circumstances, has the chance to succeed. Thank you for being a vital part of our mission.

This year, donors can double their impact when they contribute to the AEC through Colorado Gives Day. This 24-hour public philanthropic giving event is on Tuesday, December 10, 2024. And early giving is already underway. It’s the biggest one-day giving event in Colorado and one of the most successful in the country. Since 2010, Colorado Gives Day has raised over $469 million for nonprofits across the state.

All donations contributed to the AEC through the Colorado Gives Day portal will be matched or augmented by a $1M Incentive Fund is made possible by Colorado Gives Foundation, FirstBank and other generous sponsors.

The Colorado Gives Day site makes it easy for individuals to contribute to their chosen cause using major credit cards, bank accounts, PayPal, IRA Charitable Distributions, or Donor Advised Funds. Businesses can create a group giving page and share it with their team to compete for matches. FirstBank also hosts an online trivia game where players can win $1,000 for their chosen nonprofit.

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Happy Endings

Maddy Egizio-Hughes defeated the ghostly doubts haunting her mind when she enrolled in the High School Equivalency (HSE) program at the Adult Education Center in Durango. She encountered a very different learning environment. The classes were small, targeted, and intensive. Students buckled down for 8 weeks, attending 3-hour sessions four days per week. The teachers at the AEC were also unlike any educators Maddy had ever encountered.

“They were super supportive,” Maddy notes. One teacher in particular reached out any time Maddy missed a class. She always made sure Maddy caught up on missed assignments. Maddy points out, “I feel like in a big high school you don’t always get that one-on-one.”

By January 2024, Maddy successfully earned her GED. No longer dwelling on the past, her attention is set on the future. “I’m looking the culinary school in Colorado Springs. That’s a long-term goal. My goal for like later on in life is opening up my own restaurant.”

And around the same time, Silvano heard about the English as a Second Language (ESL) classes at the Adult Education Center’s Durango campus. He immediately enrolled. When he discovered that the high school equivalency classes might serve as a fresh pathway to college, Silvano enrolled in that program, as well.

He only had a few months of English language instruction under his belt when he began taking his GED tests in English, rather than Spanish! So far, he has taken three of the four GED exams. He passed Science easily. He nailed a perfect score in Math. And, he earned a college-ready score in Social Studies. All he lacks is a passing score on the Reading and Language Arts exam.

He attests, “It’s the hardest one because you have to read a lot and know a lot of vocabulary.”

Silvano’s dream is to attend college and get his degree in architecture. That the pathway to this prestigious career is fraught with obstacles like costly tuition, job-juggling, and strenuous studies is not lost on Silvano. He is focused on his studies and is grateful for the teaching he receives at the Adult Education Center. “It’s so friendly here,” he beams. “I feel like they are my family right now. When I have some concerns, [the teachers] help me. I feel we have a close relationship.”