Going to college was not a priority for Margarita Telles until her young niece starting asking her about it. Telles, a resident of Las Cruces, has been working with her mother to raise her niece, who is now nine years old. Inspired by her niece’s questions and encouragement, Telles enrolled as a Psychology major at Western New Mexico University, where she has been completing her coursework online. Her academic career at WNMU was capped this spring when she learned she was the first-prize winner in this year’s Academic Writing Contest.
Telles’ award-winning paper, “The Adverse Effects of Parent-Child Loss or Separation: A Literature Review,” was written for her senior seminar class and nominated for the award by Associate Professor Jennifer Johnston. In it, she reviews recent studies that have considered the psychological and physiological effects when a child loses contact with a caregiver. Her project was inspired by her interest in psychological parenting, a form of parenting that can occur, said Telles, when “someone raises a child but does not have legal rights.” If children are separated from their psychological parent, the harmful effects can be wider ranging than she expected, which she found “surprising and a little scary,” she said.
Her decision to take courses online has allowed her to balance her life and stay at her home in Las Cruces without a long commute. “Usually people think that online students don’t do as well,” said Telles, but her experience as an online student has been very positive and she has been able to perform well academically despite some challenges in her life.
Especially challenging has been living with narcolepsy, a neurological disorder that affects the brain’s ability to control sleep-wake cycles. The disorder has at times created difficulty for her as a student, especially when she did not have access to appropriate medications. However, even with this challenge, Telles has regularly made the President’s List for her high academic achievement at WNMU.
After graduating next December, Telles expects to begin graduate school in Counseling.