The Aprendamos Family of Services origin story has an unlikely beginning. It started in 1973 when our CEO and Founder, Abel Covarrubias, was born into a farming family in the North Valley. Abel’s parents immigrated from Mexico, a country they loved, to “live the American dream.” Abel’s father, José, joined the Bracero Program, where he left his wife and three children to find work in Arrey, NM. “It took a lot of courage to leave his country, to leave his mom, but he wanted to help his family,” said Abel.
José was fortunate to have an incredible sponsor, Mr. McNutt, who mentored him and helped him acquire several parcels of land to start his very own farm. “Mr. McNutt created spaces for my dad to have his own dreams and aspirations,” said Abel. Their family grew to include nine children, all of whom were part of the family farming business. As the farm grew, one thing became clear—farm life was not the best fit for Abel. “As a farm kid, I complained so much. I was always trying to find excuses like ‘Dad, I have homework!’ But my parents never shamed me, and my father always encouraged me to follow my dreams. As I would water the crops, I would envision myself as a doctor, a teacher, or a banker.”
Abel’s parents continued nurturing his dreams and allowed him to forge his own path. After graduating from high school, Abel chose to attend New Mexico State University. “The joke in my family is that the reason my dad encouraged me to go to college is because I ruined too many crops.” With a goal of becoming a doctor, Abel decided to pursue a degree in Biology, but he was also interested in running his own business and was fascinated by the operational aspects of managing the family farm. During his junior year in high school, his nieces were born prematurely and with his sister working at Tresco TOTS, Abel began volunteering, taking time to observe and shadow the various therapists. This ignited a desire to learn more about Speech-Language Pathology. Abel scheduled a meeting with Dr. Farmer, Department Head at NMSU, to discuss options. “I love identifying mentors and building relationships, so I basically did what my dad did with Mr. McNutt. I shared my own dreams and aspirations with Dr. Farmer, and he allowed me to become a leveling student and take communications disorders classes as an undergrad.” He finished his Bachelor’s in Biology and was accepted into the graduate program to begin working on an advanced Communication Disorders degree.
Upon graduation, Abel landed his first job working within the Gadsden School District. “I fell in love with the community,” he said. “Being raised in Arrey, and working at Gadsden and interacting with kids who lived the same life I lived as a kid, you could see they were dreamers.” With the Gadsden school day ending early, Abel found the need to fill his extra time. He took a second job at CORE Rehab, an outpatient clinic, where he worked with patients until the early evening hours. After several years at both organizations, he moved on to work at Tresco TOTS to work in early intervention.
Abel’s wife, Monica Marrujo—who he met at NMSU during grad school—had a similar path and was an instrumental puzzle piece to Aprendamos’ founding. Early on, she shared with Abel that she also was in the Biology program but was unsure if the program was the right fit for her. He encouraged her to look into the Communications Disorders program. The program resonated with her and she also went on to earn her Speech-Language Pathologist degree. During this time, Abel reconnected with two friends he met at NMSU during graduate school, Danny Palma and Bryan Tierney. He learned that Bryan and Danny founded a company called Direct Therapy Services (DTS) that provided programs for adults with developmental disabilities. They hired Monica and encouraged her to recruit Abel to also join the DTS team. He joined the team after-hours and took on a few clients after his shift at Tresco TOTS ended. Abel soon realized he loved the work, and shortly after, Danny asked Abel to help with the administrative functions that came with running the company on a part-time basis.
While working with adults with disabilities, Abel observed that those who had access to early intervention and supportive environments seemed to thrive more than those who did not. Seeing a need, Abel met with DTS shareholders—Danny Palma, Bryan Tierney, Dean Palma, Kerry Linnan, and Kerry Palma-Szalay— to begin brainstorming the idea of creating their own early intervention program. “I shared with them that by planting these seeds early on, we will have these amazing young adults in our community twenty or thirty years later. They supported me 100%, allowing me to start Aprendamos 20 years ago,” Abel shared.
Soon after, Aprendamos received an early intervention contract with the State of New Mexico and over the next twenty years, the Aprendamos Family of Services organization evolved to encompass six business units—Aprendamos Early Intervention, Esperanza Children’s Therapy, Mariposa Autism Service Center, Cariño Home Visiting, Alegría Family Counseling, and the Conscious Fathering Program. When Abel was asked how the programs were born, he credits this to working closely with community partners and providing resources to clients in need. “When kids transitioned out of early intervention at age three, we found that some still had delays and needed additional support from speech, occupational, or physical therapists. There were also families navigating newfound autism diagnoses, or those needing additional emotional support and counseling.” Creating programs that acted as a resource for our community, while maintaining integrity, was important to Abel. “We don’t have dreams of growing, we have dreams of fulfilling the hopes and aspirations of the children and families we serve. We don’t create programs or services to be transactional— we strive to be relational. Our programs have really grown organically because families, community partners, or even the State of New Mexico, have come to us with a need and asked us to help meet that need,” he added.
Professionally, Abel attributes Apredamos’ success to the team of professionals who have been part of the organization for the last twenty years. “It’s the amazing services that our staff, our colleagues, provide, and the beautiful relationships they have built with the families we serve and our community partners, that have helped us grow.” He added, “Today, I am very proud to say we have over 250 passionate, caring individuals that show up every day to work and give back to our community and invest in our future generations.” Abel also credits a strong relationship with New Mexico State University as another key to the organization’s success. Out of the 250 employees, 140 team members are proud NMSU alumni. He believes that access to a quality education close to home has allowed Aprendamos to benefit from a strong, educated workforce to serve our community.
Personally, it is those closest to Abel who have had the biggest impact in his journey. He shared, “Over the past twenty years, Monica and my girls Alexa, Avery, and Nyla have been my number one mentors, supporters and cheerleaders. They love what we do at Aprendamos and why we do what we do for our community. The girls are especially excited about learning more about how they can continue to give back to our community by either sharing their time, talents or treasures.”
When we asked Abel what he envisioned for the future, he shared his desire to continue his family’s legacy of finding ways to invest in the community that has given so much to him, his family, and the entire Aprendamos team. “My mom was also very instrumental in modeling acts of kindness, integrity, and generosity, values I believe are very important to me as we collectively serve our community,” he shared. He has memories of playing out in the fields with his brother where they would meet farm laborers who were making the same journey his father made years ago. “Many times they were thirsty and tired. My mom would always stop what she was doing to make them homemade burritos, offer them something to drink, and instruct us to let them know that our dad would be home soon so they could rest and sleep in one of the farm houses prior to them continuing on their journey the next day.” With the recent founding of the blended company-family philanthropic arm, the Covarrubias-Aprendamos Foundation, Abel and his family now have a vehicle to help continue the generosity their matriarch and father modeled throughout their childhood. Through the foundation’s investments, the Covarrubias family and the Aprendamos team can help ensure youth in our community thrive and have equitable access to opportunities to support their education, development, and success.
When Abel reflects back, he shares that his family’s legacy has been entrenched in everything he has accomplished. “Those seeds and values that my parents were modeling along the way are values that I hold close to my heart and also values that we embrace at Aprendamos. Twenty years later, here I am living the American dream. And although I am not a farmer, I am still planting seeds in my community in my own unique way.”
Congratulations, Abel, on 20 years of making a meaningful difference for our community! We look forward to 20 more years of building brighter futures for children, families, and individuals in Southern New Mexico.
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