Cora Montoya

Enthusiastic Grad Overcomes Adversity with the Support of Her School Family

“Family is not an important thing. It's everything.” --  Michael J. Fox

The family that recent grad Cora Montoya ‘23 has built at Sandia Prep over seven years is nearly as important to her as her blood family.

Whether she’s with fellow members of the Native American Sandia Prep Alliance (NASPA), performing arts students, or her friends, Cora values those relationships and shared experiences.

Cora recently wrapped up a demanding stint as stage manager for the Upper School Theater Department’s production of “Mamma Mia!,” a high-energy musical featuring the music of ABBA. Rehearsals and performances required her to spend more than 13 hours a day on campus, which meant less time with family at home.

Cora pulled double duty, video recording all of the cast’s rehearsals and creating a documentary of building and managing the show for her Senior Capstone Project. 

“It was very draining and caused me to lose time with my family, which I didn’t like, but [the stage manager job] was something that was important to me,” she explains.

Theater has become her home away from home over the years, thanks to former Prep Performing Arts Chair Erin Moots. “She introduced me to something I never knew I needed in my life until I met her, which was tech theater,” Cora says.

She was inducted into the Thespian Society as a freshman and never looked back. “A group of kids who share the same passion for theater as me is everything I've ever wanted,” Cora adds. “I’m so grateful for the people I've met and made friends with.”

Cora has been involved in numerous musicals over her school career both as an actor and technical assistant. She also played softball for two years at Prep.

She participated in her first musical outside of Prep as an Assistant Stage Manager last year for community theater’s Landmark Musicals production of White Christmas.

A member of both Laguna and Sandia pueblos, Cora has lived in Sandia Pueblo since birth. She got involved with NASPA “because I have a chance to be part of something where I can relate to other Native students and be able to share my experiences with them,” she says.

NASPA students “make sure to spread awareness of Native communities around New Mexico, and not to mention, Prep is actually on Tiwa Land, and it’s important to speak about the land acknowledgment and knowing the importance of history behind it,” Cora says. 

During Native American Heritage Month in November, NASPA students do multiple presentations on Missing and Murdered Indigenous People. “We mention the residential boarding schools and how this has affected us,” she explains. “We want to make everyone aware that we are still here, and that there are multiple students at Prep who are Native, that everything about our culture is so important.”

Cora attended Manzano Day School and knew as soon as she set foot on Prep’s campus that it was the right fit. “I think it was the sense of community and the size of the school wasn’t all that overwhelming,” she says. “It felt like home.”

Though she describes herself as a procrastinator, Cora says she’s managed to juggle all of her academic and extracurricular activities. “I enjoy everything. There has never been a dull moment on campus,” she says. “Maybe stressing about homework or projects, but I love the freedom we have. This school has shown me how to grow individually and take matters into my own hands.”

Tech theater, astrophysics and cosmology, New Mexico history, and English have been her favorite courses. 

Prep has been a family affair for her siblings and cousins as well. Cora’s sister Mary Montoya graduated in 2022; her cousin Jade Lente in 2019; cousin Julyssa ’28 will be an eighth-grader next fall; and numerous other cousins have or are attending Prep.

Surprisingly, Cora’s favorite memory of her tenure at Prep isn’t theater-related: It was the Boys State Quarterfinals Basketball game last year against Santa Fe Indian School. 

“This game was the most intense game of basketball I’ve ever seen,” she says. “I was so excited and proud of the student section for cheering the MOST. Not to mention my best friend Javin, who graduated last year, absolutely crushed running the student section cheers. We didn’t win, and I lost my voice, but I would do anything to be back there with my friends hollering, ‘AIRRRRRBALLLLL!’”

Cora’s enthusiasm and optimism are all the more impressive given some of the challenges she’s faced. 

“My childhood and family were nowhere near perfect,” she shares. “My dad passed away when I was in second grade when he was hit crossing the street in Phoenix on a business trip, which caused a downward spiral with everyone in my family. My mother was an alcoholic starting from when we lost my dad and was in and out of rehab throughout Albuquerque and Arizona. My sister and I went into my grandfather's care not too long after my dad [passed.] We didn’t live with my mom and didn’t see her as often as we wanted to, but her drinking took the biggest toll on all of us. This didn’t mean I loved her any less, but this life was so hard for her. She passed away in 2020 due to alcoholism.”

Cora still lives with her grandfather, whom she calls her best friend and number one supporter. “He’s taught me the way of life through his traditional knowledge of Sandia [Pueblo] and the world outside. He is the smartest man I know. I love him with everything I am. He is my hero and the one who saved me from living the life I wasn’t supposed to have.”

Cora’s family from Laguna on her mom’s side also plays a large part in her life. “My grandparents, my auntie and little cousin give me the love and support I need to get through anything,” she says. “Losing my mom was so hard on all of us, and I'm so grateful to have gone through it with them and not alone. I'm so proud and happy to say I come from a large, goofy, beautiful family.”

Learning to be without her sister Mary Montoya ‘22, who attends Northern Arizona University, has been difficult. “Her leaving for college has been hard sometimes since we do everything together. But this was a learning process, to be independent like her.”

Cora’s parents

Cora will attend New Mexico State University and major in theater arts. “I’m going into this experience open minded and excited to see what this will bring me,” she says. “I am willing to learn every aspect or position in theater.”

Down the road, she hopes to attend New York University and get a masters in stage management. Her dream job is to stage manage Broadway musicals.

Wherever she goes, Cora says she’ll be forever grateful for her time at Prep.

“Here, I’ve grown individually in such a social place,” she says. “I think Prep gives you the opportunity to work through things on your own but still have that support from teachers and classmates. I loved going to school here. It will always feel like home.”