Next month Lotus Center will have completed our ninth school year
(2025/26) of Yoga in Public Schools (YIPS), and it could be said that
this might be our most successful campaign yet! For your consideration…
- During this school year we taught in eight different Grant County schools:Â Snell Middle, Cliff, GW Stout Elementary, Guadalupe Montessori, La Plata Middle, Hurley Elementary, Aldo Leopold Charter, and Bayard Elementary schools.
- With this being our inaugural year at GW Stout Elementary, your community-owned Lotus Center has now taught at all but two Grant County public schools.
- The number of students to whom we taught yoga increased by 59% (from 204 students to 324) from the 2024/25 to 2025/26 school year.
- Of the 324 students served, two-thirds were in under-served communities.
We are proud to have brought a taste of yoga to 11 schools in Grant County … none more so than at Cliff School, where Tama Capellini is currently leading YIPS for seven grades — K through 6 — in Cliff’s Social Emotional Learning program.
Tama says that while the kids were initially a bit resistant to the idea of yoga some ice-breaking exercises (like having a student pick a card from a deck of yoga cards, demonstrate the pose for the other students, and then have everyone try the pose; this particular exercise has helped create camaraderie and connection among the children), the students have come to experience the benefits of yoga, and to embrace them.
Aili Lopez, the director of Cliff’s Social Emotional Learning program says that, in a society where children’s ability to turn inward is challenged by electronic devices, yoga helps the kids experience another way to live.
“Yoga teaches the kids how to regulate the body,” Aili said, “and once they can regulate the body, they can learn how to regulate other parts like their thinking, feelings, and awareness of their emotions so that they can reflect before acting.”
At the end of each class, students are invited to speak one word that describes how they’re feeling. “Calm” and “Safe” are common responses from the Cliff School children.
Give Grandly is April 18!
We at Lotus Center are honored to be SW New Mexico’s non-profit space for meditation, yoga, and other forms of mindful movement. We’re equally proud of our ongoing community service programs such as YIPS and Meditation in Public Schools (MIPS). Your generosity enables us to offer both YIPS and MIPS at no cost to either the students or the schools.
Give Grandly is a wonderful opportunity to support your non-profit, community-owned Lotus Center. To make a gift to Lotus Center, or any other SW New Mexico charity, please visit www.GiveGrandly.org
Note: Although the official date of Give Grandly is April 18, donations can be made through April 24.