Junior
Business enterprise program
Daily Lobo: What is the business enterprise program?
Michelle Gallegos: It's kind of complicated. It's specifically for blind people.
DL: How long have you been blind?
MG: I was born completely blind. I was born really early. I was a 25-weeker, and I gained my sight slowly. What I have now is 20/200 in the right eye and 20/400 in left eye. And without my glasses, I can't even see the big 'E.'
DL: Tell me more about the business enterprise program.
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MG: The B.E. program is a combination of business and culinary arts. It's actually really, really fun. At the end of the B.E. program, the state of New Mexico helps blind people get businesses like a cafe. I'm actually going to open a little cafeteria, and I'm going to have vending machines.
DL: So, do they help you find the financing to do that, or do you have to front your own money?
MG: They finance it for you. They finance the first month's start-up cost and then you have to pay from then on.
DL: What kind of cafe do you want to open?
MG: It's actually going to be like a cafeteria, but I want to do it in some place with a smaller base - maybe about 600 to 1,000 people just to start. And it's definitely going to be in a federal building. It will probably have three or four employees, including myself.
DL: Does it have to be in a federal building or is that just what you want?
MG: It's what I want. I mean, it could be outside a federal building, but you get better funding if you're inside a federal building. Eventually, I want to open my own restaurant. I want to do maybe an extension of my cafe in its own little place - like its own little building.
DL: I read that Rio Rancho is a great place to expand. Would you ever consider going out to Rio Rancho?
MG: If they improved the bus system. Right now, the bus systems aren't up to par for blind people. So, it's really hard to get around.
DL: What could be improved about the bus system?
MG: Example No. 1: I live off of Osuna and a street called El Vista del Norte. It takes me 23 minutes to walk to the bus stop from my house, and I live right off of Osuna. So, the walk is all Osuna with no sidewalks, and Osuna is a 45-mile-an-hour street.
DL: You could get hit doing that.
MG: I've been hit by a car twice. One was actually on campus in a parking lot of all places, and the other was walking to one of my culinary classes at CNM - and it was this term. A person, she was backing out of her driveway, and she wasn't paying attention, and she smacked me, and she drove away.
DL: How do you protect yourself from people like that?
MG: This is my stick. I've broken a couple of taillights with this baby - that and I took a couple of self-defense courses with my cane. If you look at it, it makes a very, very good defense system because it has this metal tip. And if you feel it, it has got kind of a sharper end. It's not going to stab you. But if you hit somebody with that, it's going to hurt them. There are two different places in town that will teach you self-defense with your cane. I looked them up because riding the bus is so dangerous - especially for females.
