State, donor funds to help students studying special education, communication disorders

With the help of generous donors and funding from the New Mexico Higher Education Department, the NMSU College of Health, Education and Social Transformation is able to further help students and professionals focused on special education and communication and autism spectrum disorders.

Abel Covarrubias ’96 ’98, CEO of Aprendamos Intervention Team, provided 50% of the funding in 2022 for the Papen-Aprendamos Professorship, which was matched by the New Mexico Higher Education Department to equal $500,000. The Papen-Aprendamos Professorship will train professionals for careers in speech-language pathology and autism spectrum disorders in schools.

When making the gift to endow a professorship, Covarrubias wanted to honor former state Sen. Mary Kay Papen ’77 by naming the professorship after her, noting her advocacy for people with autism spectrum disorder. In addition to his gift for the professorship, Covarrubias made a donation to name the Autism Diagnostic Center the Papen-Aprendamos Autism Diagnostic Center.

“Issues like mental health and how we address autism are important to all of us, and the needs have been increasing in recent years,” Papen says. “They have certainly been central to much of what I had hoped to accomplish in my years in the New Mexico Legislature, and I am pleased to see this funding going in this direction now.”

The New Mexico Higher Education Department also awarded $25,000 from its Higher Education Endowment Fund to help establish the Esperanza/Covarrubias Endowed Helping Hands Scholarship for students working toward degrees in special education. Covarrubias and Monica Marrujo ’00 ’02, his wife, donated another $25,000 towards this scholarship.

“We are committed to supporting the important work of the NMSU autism diagnostic center and look forward to being on this journey of supporting the children with autism and their families in our community,” Covarrubias says.

The Department of Communication Disorders is working with the School of Teacher Preparation, Administration, and Leadership to create an additional graduate-level autism certificate track.