Tag Archives: NMSU

More students around New Mexico and the region got a taste of what it’s like to create their own business this summer as Camp Innoventure expanded its reach, introducing entrepreneurial thinking and business concepts to middle school students from 19 regional communities.

Camp Innoventure, part of the Innoventure suite of K-12 entrepreneurship education programs from Arrowhead Center at New Mexico State University, offers students in sixth through eighth grade a chance to see their creative business ideas go from concept to reality and gives them a taste of real-world competition for success.

The students who participate in this week-long camp get to brainstorm business ideas, write a mission statement, put together a business model and create a product to sell at a market in their community.

With support for New Mexico camps from a grant from the Colorado-based Daniels Fund, Camp Innoventure has already hosted sessions in Los Alamos, Rio Rancho, Deming, Bernalillo, Santa Fe, Truth or Consequences, and Clovis.

The Santa Fe Camp Innoventure session was hosted by Meow Wolf, which provided space for camp participants to work, along with tickets for campers to enjoy Meow Wolf’s unique immersive art experience.

“Hosting Camp Innoventure in the David Loughridge Learning Center at Meow Wolf was a true honor,” said Craig Thomas McAdams, education coordinator for Meow Wolf. “Witnessing these kids cultivate their creativity and make products to then sell at the flea market was incredible, and I think we will all remember this experience for the rest of our lives.”

Camp sessions continue this month in Alamogordo, Clovis, Farmington, Mesilla and Las Cruces. Registration is still open for several upcoming camps; dates and registration information are available online Tuition for the weeklong camp is $40, including materials, and scholarships are available for a limited number of student participants.

Also new this summer, Camp Innoventure partnered with the El Paso-based Success Through Technology Education Foundation to bring sessions to schools in El Paso and Tornillo, Texas.

Patty Hernandez, a college and career readiness teacher at William D. Slider Middle School, led the launch of the El Paso pilot program, which was fully sponsored by the STTE Foundation, allowing 14 students at the school to participate at no cost. She said the program was “awesome!”

“NMSU provided all the instructional materials and debit cards for the student projects,” she said. “Our kids learned many skills and started to think like entrepreneurs. They enjoyed making their products and selling the final product at the flea market.”

In addition to the week-long camps, Innoventure partnered with the TRIO Upward Bound summer program at NMSU and the State 4-H Conference to provide summer entrepreneurship workshops to students from Hatch, Alamogordo and Dona Ana County.

Innoventure Deputy Director Lydia Hammond, who oversees the Camp Innoventure program, said she’s always inspired by the campers’ creative ideas.

“Watching young entrepreneurs develop their product idea and take ownership of their business is part of what makes this program so special,” she said. “Supporting the students to make some money really brings in a unique element.”

Hammond said the partnerships with local organizations and community leaders were instrumental in allowing the program to expand to serve more than three times the number of students as the previous year.

“We could not have brought this hands-on experience to more than 260 students in New Mexico and El Paso without the hard work of the teachers and community leaders who served as camp leaders,” she said, “or the tremendous support and enthusiasm of our sponsors and partner organizations.”

In addition to support from the Daniels Fund, the Hunt Family Foundation and STTE Foundation, Camp Innoventure’s sponsors and partners included the Sandoval Economic Alliance, Luna County Economic Development Office, Capital Power and EDF Energy, Quality Center for Business at San Juan Community College, Meow Wolf, Girl Scouts of New Mexico Trails West and SBDC offices around New Mexico.

Planning is already underway to continue expanding the number of Camp Innoventure locations next summer. Communities and organizations interested in hosting a session can contact Hammond at 575-646-5230 or lh@nmsu.edu.

To hear from past Camp Innoventure participants, click here; to see participants at the 2016 Deming Camp Innoventure session in action, click here.

For more information about Innoventure programs for students in kindergarten through 12th grade, visit the Innoventure website. For information about Arrowhead Center and economic development in the region, visit the Arrowhead Center website.

Author:  Lauren Goldstein – NMSU

A year after five nursing students in the College of Health and Social Services at New Mexico State University developed an online story map examining the impacts of extreme heat in Las Cruces, the project was presented this month at a mapping software conference in San Diego.

A collaboration between NMSU’s School of Nursing and the city of Las Cruces’ Sustainability Office and Senior Programs, the ‘Extreme Heat’ story map was created with ESRI Survey 123 survey tool and ArcGIS mapping software, giving users an interactive look at the health effects of extreme heat in Las Cruces, while serving as a free resource for information on how to stay safe – and cool – during hot summer months.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 618 people in the United States die every year from extreme heat. In a three-month outlook forecast, the National Weather Service predicts temperatures for most of New Mexico will remain above average by 40 to 50 percent through September.

Completed during the spring semester in 2017, the story map was the result of a 10-week, community health project spearheaded by five NMSU nursing students – Bailee Cline, Amber Harrell, Fatima Perez, Grace Perkins and Kaitlyn Wedman – all of whom have since graduated, said Randee Greenwald, a college assistant professor in the School of Nursing, who served as the lead instructor for the project.

“The story map allowed nursing students to explore the impact of the social determinants of health, interact with community members at risk for heat-related problems, and provide information and education to the public,” Greenwald said.

Miriam Maske, a multimedia specialist and technology coordinator in the School of Nursing, also assisted in the project and presented the map at the 2018 ESRI Education Summit in San Diego July 10. The California-based ESRI is an international supplier of GIS, the program used to create the story map.

“Academia and community partnerships play a crucial role in working together to gather and map data that impact members of their community and beyond,” Maske said. “The ESRI Summit allowed me to see the crucial role nursing plays in identifying community health issues and trends that impact at-risk populations.”

The map used data from the U.S. Census Bureau combined with a survey the students modified with input from the city of Las Cruces’ Sustainability Office, Greenwald said. Feedback from the pilot-tested questions was then provided to the city for future use. Students surveyed senior citizens and homeless residents in Las Cruces, using the Survey 123 iOS app on an iPad.

Populations most vulnerable to extreme heat include children 5 years old and younger, adults 65 years old and older and the homeless.

More than a third of the 60 individuals who participated in the survey reported that they or someone else in their household were affected by extreme heat. Eighteen participants indicated that they or a household member had to leave their household for another place to keep cool because of heat-related weather. These places included community centers, shopping centers and libraries.

The map also features locations of public spaces that the city of Las Cruces designates as  cooling stations when temperatures exceed 100 degrees. These emergency stations also may be made available during times of extreme cold weather. Map users also are able to download pamphlets in English and Spanish that contain detailed information from the CDC on identifying heat-related illness.

Author: Carlos Andres Lopez – NMSU

Ride for the 4-H Clover, an annual, weekend motorcycle excursion hosted by New Mexico State University’s College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences’ Cooperative Extension Service to benefit 4-H youth programs, will return Aug. 24-26 for the sixth year.

Motorcycle riders and non-riders are invited to participate in this year’s ride, which will venture through eight towns and five counties -more than 400 miles altogether – in northeastern New Mexico.

The route covers an area of the state that features both forests and portions of the Great Plains region, and is known as a destination of lakes, rivers, state parks and national monuments, and storied stops along Historic Route 66.

At each planned stop, participants will learn about programs in NMSU’s Cooperative Extension Service – the university’s non-formal, educational outreach component that has a presence in all 33 counties in New Mexico – and meet 4-H youth members who will discuss their current projects.

The vision of former NMSU Regent Mike Cheney, Ride for the 4-H Clover started in 2013 as a campaign to build awareness for NMSU’s Cooperative Extension Service and help support its 4-H programs, said Associate Dean Jon Boren, the director of NMSU’s Cooperative Extension Service.

“Our mission is to improve the lives of New Mexicans through research-based information,” Boren said. “One of our flagship programs for the Cooperative Extension Service is the 4-H program.”

More than 40,000 New Mexico youth – one out of nine children in the state – are involved in 4-H programs offered by NMSU’s Cooperative Extension Service and gain knowledge and skills in the areas of agriculture, science, citizenship and healthy living, Boren said.

“The focus of this ride is to really enhance awareness of the Cooperative Extension Service and, more importantly, the 4-H programs,” he said, adding, “Any funds that are generated go directly back into the 4-H programs.”

Each year, the ride route covers a different region in New Mexico, showcasing Extension offices and 4-H programs in that area. This year, the route starts in Las Vegas and ends in Mora. Along the way, participants will make stops in Tucumcari, Clayton, Raton and Angel Fire.

A day before the ride begins, an evening reception for participants will take place from 6-7:30 p.m. Aug. 24 at the Best Western Plus Montezuma Inn & Suites, 2020 N. Grand Ave., in Las Vegas.

The following day, Aug. 25, an opening ceremony will take place at 7 a.m., also at the Best Western Plus Montezuma Inn & Suites, before participants depart for Tucumcari at 8 a.m. In Tucumcari, the group will visit the Quay County Fairgrounds, 2000 Camino Del Coronado Road, for about an hour before heading north to Clayton at 11:30 a.m. The group plans to refuel in Logan.

It is anticipated that the group will arrive in Clayton around 1:30 p.m. to visit the NMSU ACES Clayton Livestock Research Center, 15 NMSU Lane, where lunch will be provided.

At 2:30 p.m., the group will depart for Raton, the last stop of the day, and refuel in Des Moines. The group will stay overnight in Raton at the Best Western Plus, 473 Clayton Road. That evening, the group will reconvene from 6:30-8 p.m. for dinner at the Raton Convention Center, 901 S. Third St.

The next morning, Aug. 26, the group will depart for Angel Fire at 8:30 a.m. At 10 a.m., the group will stop at Vietnam Veterans Memorial State Park, 43 Country Club Road, for a 45-minute break, and then depart for Mora at 10:45 a.m. In Mora, the ride will wrap up with lunch and an official conclusion at the NMSU ACES John T. Harrington Forestry Research Center, 547 N.M. 518.

Registration for the ride is now underway. The $75 fee includes the reception in Las Vegas, lunches in Clayton and Mora, and dinner in Raton, as well as a commemorative pin and shirt. Lodging is not included, but group hotel discounts are available.

All proceeds benefit the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences’ Cooperative Extension Service 4-H youth programs.

For additional information or to register for the ride, visit the webpage or call Monica Lury at 505-983-4615.

Author: Carlos Andres Lopez – NMSU

New Mexico State University’s College of Education has recently merged the departments of Curriculum and Instruction, Educational Leadership and Administration, and Special Education into a single School of Teacher Preparation, Administration and Leadership.

NMSU officials say this consolidation will better prepare master educators, administrators and leaders for public, private and governmental institutions.

In 2016, the College of Education received a $252,000 planning grant from the Kellogg Foundation to begin the process of transforming the college.

According to a news release from NMSU, the mission of the School of Teacher Preparation, Administration and Leadership, or TPAL, is to “support and advocate for equitable education for all, especially historically marginalized and multicultural/multilingual communities and students with exceptionalities. This is accomplished through teaching, scholarship, public service, the preparation of teachers and leaders, and collaborations across the disciplines and with constituents.”

Betsy Cahill, who is interim associate dean of academic affairs and co-director of TPAL along with associate professor and Stan Fulton Endowed Chair in Education Azadeh Osanloo, said there are plans to begin a search for a school director sometime next year. For more information on TPAL, visit their website.

“We received the Kellogg Foundation grant and hosted guest speakers and discussed how we should best restructure the college, and that evolved into one result: one large department made up of Curriculum and Instruction, Educational Leadership and Administration, and Special Education,” said Cahill. “It absolutely made sense because we should all be in this together. It’s a natural fit.”

The Kellogg Foundation, founded in 1930 as an independent, private foundation by breakfast cereal pioneer Will Keith Kellogg, is among the largest philanthropic foundations in the United States. Guided by the belief that all children should have an equal opportunity to thrive, the Kellogg Foundation works with communities to create better conditions for vulnerable children so they can realize their full potential in school, work and life.

Author: Adriana M. Chavez – NMSU

Students in New Mexico State University’s Department of Anthropology recently participated in a field school excavating Cottonwood Spring Pueblo north of Las Cruces.

“The pueblo dates from about 1300 to 1450 A.D.,” said Kristin Corl, a crew chief on the project who is working on her Ph.D. in anthropology. “I led six students in working on one part of the pueblo, a 200-room section, and our goal was to date various parts of the rooms and also determine the architecture.”

Corl said they primarily use three techniques to date various aspects of the pueblo.

“By collecting ceramic sherds, we’re able to get an idea of when the site was occupied and who they were trading with,” Corl said. “We’re also able to do carbon dating on very tiny pieces of charcoal and tree-ring dating by examining the wooden beams from the roofs.”

Corl, who earned her master’s in anthropology at NMSU working with William Walker, an anthropology professor and principle investigator at Cottonwood Spring, is now working on her doctorate at the University of Texas-San Antonio.

Corl has been working on the site since it was opened by White Sands Missile Range, which co-owns the land along with the Jornada Experimental Range and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in 2012.

“After about 1150 A.D., a lot of smaller pueblos throughout southern New Mexico disbanded but there was an aggregation of people at this pueblo on the Jornada del Muerto,” Corl said. “So it’s a really interesting time period and one I wanted to stick with and learn more about.”

The pueblo was inhabited by the Jornada Mogollon people, a sub-group of the Mogollon people, who were native to southern New Mexico and west Texas. The pueblo was inhabited just before Spanish contact and is one of the larger pueblos in the area, with more than 400 rooms in six sections spread over a mile-long area.

Hannah Clark is another crew chief on the project and is working on her master’s degree at NMSU.

“This was my second time working at Cottonwood Spring,” she said. “This time around we worked in area ‘A’, which has about 200 rooms. We worked on 10 rooms, excavated three different layers of the floor, and uncovered 60 features, which is unprecedented; we’re not really sure what that particular room was used for. Some people think it was a ritualistic room; my idea is that it was a meat-preservation room. So that’s something we’re still trying to determine.”

Allison McCullar is an English major who recently added anthropology as a second major. This field school was her first experience in excavating a site.

“I took an anthropology class as a gen-ed requirement and really loved it, so I decided to add on anthropology,” she said.

While initially nervous because she didn’t know much about excavating and was worried she would destroy artifacts, McCullar worked on

Clark’s team and enjoyed the experience.

“I expected the excavating to be more physically challenging but, aside from the heat, it wasn’t as bad as I thought,” she said.

The field school ran June 23-29 and the students, who commuted from Las Cruces to the pueblo each day, learned basic excavation techniques, artifact processing, and artifact analysis

Author: Billy Huntsman – NMSU

For the second year, groundbreaking innovation is taking place with a cohort of entrepreneurs in the agriculture sector. New Mexico State University’s Arrowhead Center AgSprint accelerator is in full swing, as the cohort of eight companies looks to disrupt industry status quo.

AgSprint offers innovators in agriculture the tools to perform customer discovery in a cohort setting. Teams selected for the program receive education, mentorship and funding, including $2,000 in participant support and one $20,000 investment.

“We are thrilled to host this exceptional accelerator class,” said Zetdi Sloan, director of Arrowhead’s Sprint Accelerator programs. “This distinct cohort reflects the diverse industries, age ranges, ethnicities and gender that is truly indicative of the New Mexico landscape. We look forward to continue working closely with each team to strategically refine and progress their businesses, by tapping our curated network of mentors, speakers and funders.”

Teams do not need any prior NMSU affiliation to be considered and can participate in the program’s curriculum and weekly workshops virtually or in person. The five-month program is sponsored by the U.S. Economic Development Administration and New Mexico Gas Company.

Fifty percent of this year’s companies are women-led and collectively, and 72 percent of Arrowhead’s Sprint Accelerator programs (AgSprint, HealthSprint and BizSprint) are comprised of women, veteran or minority owners.

The companies currently participating in the 2018 cohort are:

— Reap’s data-driven app helps farmers plan and predict crop cycles and comply with regulations and certifications, saving time, money and guesswork.
— Exotic Harvest Gourmet provides fresh, high quality, sustainably grown gourmet foods including escargot, freshwater blue lobsters, organic produce, spices and herbs to chefs, restaurants and those interested in natural foods.
— Wellspring Water Technologies uses unique, proprietary technologies to solve the agricultural, commercial and residential water quality and supply problems that no one else can.
— Dr. Child’s bitter herbal remedies, gathered from the high desert of northern New Mexico, help prevent infection and treat inflammation of the upper respiratory tract associated with the exposure to dry air and altitude. The company uses wild-harvested herbal ingredients that have a long history in herbal medicine and now have a mechanism of action backed by medical research.
— Sustainable Planet Solutions designs solar portable power systems for remote location use.
— GreenAI crop analytics turns data into field ready, actionable decisions to get the most out of every acre.
— FieldMAK’s modular, rugged sensor array will allow on-site, rapid testing for farmers, resulting in better yields, cheaper costs and halted diseases.
— Food-Origins brings the benefits of IOT to high value, hand-picked crops.

The cohort companies have had multiple successes over the duration of the AgSprint program; MagPi Innovations, creators of FieldMAK, secured $25,000 at the University of New Mexico as first place winner of their Business Plan Competition, Food-Origins secured $20,000 at the Startups Ventura County competition, and Systems Technology Solutions, LLC, creator of GreenAI, was accepted into AgriNovus, Indiana’s agbiosciences industry sector initiative.

AgSprint doesn’t just prepare teams for a demo-day, the program prepares them to continue to innovate. Arrowhead accelerators provide additional programs and tools to support teams’ transitions to next steps.

At the conclusion of the customer discovery section of the accelerator curriculum, the cohort participated in a Strategic Doing workshop to plan next steps in their commercialization process. Strategic Doing, developed at the Purdue Agile Strategy Lab, is an innovative thinking/doing process based on agile software development.

The discipline manages the tension around collaboration by teaching participants how to form sophisticated collaborations quickly, move towards measurable outcomes, and make incremental adjustments and pivots as circumstances change.

Each week for the remainder of the five-month program, the teams will meet with business development, investment, and science and technology advisors. In addition, network expertise is supplemented with Enterprise Advisors and subject matter experts from the Arrowhead Innovation Network.

Post-accelerator and beyond, the teams become members of Arrowhead Ventures, a next steps program that keeps teams connected to Arrowhead resources as they continue their path to commercialization.

Services include access to Arrowhead’s enterprise advisor network, online entrepreneurship curriculum models for self-paced learning, eligibility for the Arrowhead Innovation Fund, an early stage seed investment fund, advising and support from the Arrowhead team, follow on funding opportunities and general support for business development and momentum.

The culminating AgAssembly conference will take place on Septeber 6 at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum. With industry partner New Mexico Gas Company, an Emera Company, the conference offers a chance for the AgSprint cohort to pitch to industry experts and investors.

The event brings together a group of productive local and national ag-market leaders to talk about demands from the frontlines, translating ideas from vision to reality, and the future of agricultural technology.

Author: Lauren Goldstein – NMSU

New Mexico State University’s College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences will host its first-ever Sustainable Agriculture Field Day Thursday, June 28.

The field day will highlight many of the ongoing research projects at the Leyendecker Plant Science Research Center that support sustainable agriculture in New Mexico.

Information will be provided that will interest large and small commercial growers, home gardeners, and members of the public who appreciate and support the state’s agricultural base. A diverse group of ongoing research projects will be presented, including weed control in chile using mustard seed meal, biochar and pinto beans, irrigation efficient pecans, heat tolerant tomatoes, guar and jujube fruit trees.

The event is being sponsored by the western region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program. WSARE is a United States Department of Agriculture program that provides funding for research and education projects supporting agriculture that is profitable, environmentally friendly and beneficial for communities.

The event will be from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the NMSU Leyendecker Plant Science Research Center.

The event is free and open to the public and refreshments will be provided. For more information or directions, contact the Leyendecker Center at 575-646-2281

Author:  Ximena Tapia – NMSU

Retired Las Cruces businessman and engineer, Orlando Cervantes, recently gifted the New Mexico State University Foundation $50,000 to create the Orlando Cervantes Endowed Scholarship.

The scholarship is special in that it specifically bridges the El Paso and Las Cruces communities by awarding graduates of El Paso High School with scholarship dollars to complete a degree in engineering from NMSU.

Cervantes proudly explained his idea behind the scholarship, “I’m an Aggie,” he said. “And, I’m a Tiger.”

A native El Pasoan and graduate of El Paso High School, Cervantes’ life is a culmination of opportunity, perseverance and hard work. In high school, he served as captain of the EPHS football, basketball and baseball teams, lettered in both football and baseball and was inducted into the EPHS Hall of Fame.

He earned a football scholarship to play at NMSU and after his freshman year, Cervantes voluntarily joined the military. He was stationed in Korea for two years where he honed his passion for engineering by working on building and engineering projects for the army.

Following his service, Cervantes returned to El Paso, completing his degree in engineering from NMSU in 1960.

Opportunity immediately came knocking, and after a one-year appointment with Robert McKee General Contractors in El Paso, Cervantes moved to the West Coast where he was able to build his engineering portfolio alongside some of the area’s top engineers.

Nine years later, Cervantes returned to Las Cruces to his wife’s family farm where he would face new career challenges, “I didn’t have a lot of experience in farming,” he said, “So I started looking for things to do.”

Using knowledge and skills from his background in engineering, Cervantes worked with companies in Louisiana to introduce a new Tabasco crop ¬- and processing method – to Mesilla Valley. His initial talks were met with speculation about the probability of success in the desert. “They thought I was nuts,” Cervantes said. “Especially because it was a new crop and process foreign to the area.”

His perseverance and unique innovation in crop production and chile processing – along with a little luck, “I just happened to pick the right crop,” he added – resulted in the growth of the farm from 10 acres to several thousand, which now produces millions of pounds of mash distributed worldwide.

Notwithstanding the farm’s success, Cervantes maintained a second career as a plan-review engineer. He has served on the boards of a variety of civic and community organizations and has played instrumental roles in numerous projects across southern New Mexico, including the development of the Planning and Inspection Departments for Doña Ana County and the city of Sunland Park, the creation of the performance zoning ordinance for Doña Ana County and the construction planning and design of NMSU’s Zuhl Library.

Cervantes hopes his scholarship opens doors for new generations of fellow Tigers and Aggies. He wants them to understand that it will take a lot of hard work to achieve their goals. “Each student will have a different situation and story when they come to study at NMSU,” Cervantes said. “To be successful, however, you have to be the first one in the morning to open the office and the last person to close the office at night. You have to remember that a degree is not a pass to success. You have to make the effort.”

Looking back, Cervantes admits that of all his accomplishments, he is most proud of his three children, Joseph, Dino and Tina – who now run the family farm – and his six granddaughters. With regard to his career, Cervantes remains humble about his successes. “You can find examples of achievements much greater than mine,” he said. “But, I’m happy with what I’ve done.”

Author:  Daphne Griffin – NMSU

An associate professor of English at New Mexico State University recently published his fourth book telling the true story of Shawn Harrington, a former Aggie basketball star who was shot and paralyzed in Chicago in 2014.

Rus Bradburd started work on “All the Dreams We’ve Dreamed: A Story of Hoops and Handguns on Chicago’s West Side’ in 2015.

“Shawn was working as a high-school basketball coach in Chicago at the time,” Bradburd said. “He was driving his daughter to school in a rental car. It was a case of mistaken identity, these guys ran up to his car and opened fire on him and he dove on top of his daughter and saved her life but he took a bullet in the back.”

Bradburd, who coached basketball at the University of Texas-El Paso and at NMSU for a combined 14 years and who coached Harrington during his 1995-1996 season with the Aggies, had lost touch with Harrington by the time of the shooting.

“To me it was such a remarkable act of heroism and it drove me crazy that this guy wasn’t being treated like a hero,” Bradburd said.

Shortly after the shooting, when Bradburd learned about the shooting, he started advocating for Harrington by contacting media in and around Chicago.

“Finally a writer I’d been irritating said to me, “Why don’t you write something about Shawn yourself?” Bradburd said.

So he started work on ‘All the Dreams We’ve Dreamed.’

“As a player Shawn did everything a coach would want him to do,” Bradburd said. “He graduated from college, he was a good parent, he went back to his high school to try to make a difference by teaching. The more he got ignored, the more obsessed I got with the story.”

The biggest challenge Bradburd faced in writing the story was approaching the inherent emotionality of the story. Bradburd also expanded the story beyond Harrington and included stories of other people, mothers whose children had been shot.

“I think a lot of people know these shootings and murders go on but we tune them out,” Bradburd said. “I hope by telling this particular story and the story of Marshall High School, which since Shawn was shot has had seven people shot over three years, it brings a focus and

empathy to what these people are going through and what life is like on a daily basis on Chicago’s west side.”

Bradburd retired from coaching basketball in 2000, working at the time for the famed Lou Henson, and enrolled in NMSU’s creative writing MFA program. Currently he teaches fiction at NMSU. Two of Bradburd’s previous books are nonfiction and the third is fiction. He is currently at work on a satirical novel.

“What fascinates me about writing and reading is the same thing that fascinates me about basketball,” Bradburd said. “It’s the stories behind the game, the personalities, the interactions. I was always more interested in the stories behind the games rather than the statistical or analytical parts.”

“All the Dreams We’ve Dreamed” is available on Barnes & Noble’s website and on Amazon.

Author: Billy Huntsman – NMSU

According to the 2018/19 Center for World University Rankings, New Mexico State University has been ranked in the top 4.3 percent of institutions of higher education worldwide.

With 18,000 degree-granting institutions of higher education worldwide evaluated, NMSU ranked 770th and earned a national rank of 184th this year.

The Center for World University Rankings distributes the only global university performance tables that gauge both the quality of education and training of students along with prestige of faculty members and the quality of their research without the use of surveys and university data submissions.

Seven factors are used to base the Center for World University Rankings, including quality of education (15 percent), measured by the number of a university’s alumni who have won major international awards, prizes and medals relative to the university’s size.

Other factors include alumni employment (15 percent), measured by the number of a university’s alumni who have held CEO positions at the world’s top companies relative to the university’s size; quality of faculty (15 percent), measured by the number of academics who have won major international awards, prizes and medals; research output (15 percent), measured by the total number of research papers; quality publications (15 percent), measured by the number of research papers appearing in top-tier journals; influence (15 percent), measured by the number of research papers appearing in highly influential journals; and citations (10 percent), measured by the number of highly cited research papers.

For a complete list of the rankings, along with the methodology used, visit the center’s website.

Author: Tiffany Acosta – NMSU

A researcher from Mexico has been selected for a prestigious fellowship that will allow her to explore pepper research at New Mexico State University.

NMSU will host Angela Corina Hayano Kanashiro from the University of Sonora in Mexico as a Borlaug Fellow. She will conduct research with Paul Bosland, Regents Professor in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences.

Hayano and Bosland will use the latest DNA technology, genotyping by sequencing, to study wild Sonoran chiltepins. Chiltepins are considered to be the progenitor of domesticated peppers such as bell peppers and New Mexican types.

The Norman E. Borlaug International Agriculture Science and Technology Fellowship Program is funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture and promotes food security and economic growth by providing training and collaborative research opportunities to Borlaug Fellows from developing and middle-income countries.

Borlaug fellows are generally researchers who are in the early or middle stages of their careers.

Each fellow works one-on-one with a mentor at a U.S. university, research center or government agency. Borlaug Fellows are selected based on a number of factors including academic and professional interests, level of scientific competence, aptitude for scientific research, leadership potential, and likelihood of bringing back new ideas to their home institution.

Hayano’s objectives at NMSU are to learn new techniques to measure DNA diversity among chiltepin populations, and to review state-of-the-art bioinformatics. Hayano is acquiring knowledge on new technologies and concepts, but she is also working on collecting and preserving the chiltepin germplasm in Sonora, Mexico, with the Chile Pepper Institute.

Hayano said another goal of the project is to establish a long-term collaboration with NMSU’s Chile Pepper Institute and the University of Sonora. These efforts will be used to seek additional funding from other sources to support understanding of in-situ genetic conservation.

“Specifically, her study is looking at state-of-the-art DNA sequencing and the challenges it presents to address diversity studies, sustainability, conservation and the effects of global environmental change,” Bosland said.

The Borlaug Fellowship is a prestigious award named after Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug. The purpose of this fellowship is to provide opportunities to study with a researcher at a world agricultural center.

“I consider the Borlaug Fellowship a huge opportunity to increase my skills as a researcher, and an excellent chance to establish ties of cooperation with other scientists and institutions whose common objective is to achieve an impact on reducing poverty and improve nutrition. I am excited and grateful for the opportunity to acquire new knowledge, tools and techniques that will improve my work at the University of Sonora,” Hayano said.

“Hosting a Borlaug Fellow is a great accomplishment for both the Chile Pepper Institute and NMSU,” said Bosland. “It sets a path for NMSU for future participation in this program.”

Hayano will spend 12 weeks at NMSU before returning to Mexico, with Bosland in turn traveling to Mexico sometime in the near future to continue the collaboration.

“The idea is that the Fellow will have developed a skill applicable to the place where she works and that this will strengthen the international collaborations of the university,” said Bosland.

“I am thrilled to see that Dr. Bosland is hosting a Borlaug Fellow from Mexico and providing her with an opportunity to share her experiences and explore new ideas in her scientific pursuits here at NMSU,” said Rod McSherry, interim associate provost for International and Border Programs. “Visiting scientists that we host help us think about the global relevance and connectivity of the science we conduct, underscoring how our laboratories serve as powerful international avenues of collaboration.”

Another important goal of Hayano’s visit to NMSU is networking, as she gets to interact with NMSU researchers and professors who share similar areas of interest. An example of this networking are the discussions Hayano and Ivette Guzman, assistant professor of Vegetable Health Bioactivity at NMSU, have begun on how pro-vitamin A in wild chiltepins differs from that in domesticated chile peppers.

Author: Adriana M. Chavez – NMSU

The University Art Gallery at New Mexico State University is hosting a community art project with artist John Garret for the production of three very distinct quilts that will be constructed.

The work will take place from May 24 – July 14 in the gallery at 1390 East University Avenue. The building will be open from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

Members of the community are invited to participate in the process by contributing fabric from their clothing, household fabrics, even old dishtowels or curtains and sewing scraps. All materials, colors and designs are welcome and the fabric can be from any time period.

“Participants will use their distinct styles and fashions to help construct the quilts and bring the visual narrative of Las Cruces to a wide audience through the completion of this communal work in the UAG,” said Marisa Sage, director of the gallery. “What do you have in your closet that you never dared to part with, but is no longer wearable, for whatever reason? Bring it out, donate it to Community Quilt, and have it represent you in perpetuity.”

The event will run during the UAG’s ‘Here & Now’ regional juried exhibition May 24-July 14 and at the Las Cruces Museum of Art May 11-June 21. ‘Here and Now’ includes works created by artists living and working within a 150 mile of Las Cruces.

Paintings, prints, photographs, video, ceramics and sculpture highlight the diverse approaches to creative expression found in Southern New Mexico and West Texas.

The gallery will host a joint opening reception for both shows from 5-8 p.m. on Friday, June 1. There will be a free shuttle going back and forth between the museum and the UAG from 5-7:30 p.m.

Artist John Garrett will host a community day from 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. Saturday, June 9 at the University Art Gallery with a special design workshop for kids from 1-2 p.m. He also will host another community day at the Las Cruces Museum of Art during the farmers market from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Bring your fabric.

Garrett’s community day will be in conjunction with the new 10-10 Arts Hop series. Through the 10-10 Arts Hop, the UAG is partnering with local participating galleries and arts organizations from 10 a.m.-10 p.m. for 12 hours of art in Las Cruces every second Saturday to promote art viewing and activities in greater Las Cruces.

Author: Jasmine Woodul – NMSU

New Mexico State University is helping post-conflict Colombia get back on its feet through the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Farmer-to-Farmer program, and now volunteers are sharing their stories.

The F2F program “promotes sustainable economic growth, food security and agricultural development worldwide,” according to its website.

The F2F program is sending 10 volunteers to Colombia from January until June 2018. Thomas Dominguez and Michael O’Neill are the program’s second and third volunteers to go and visited Colombia in March.

Michael O’Neill, retired NMSU Professor of Agronomy in the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences:

Q: How did you learn about the opportunity to volunteer?

I first started working with the University of La Salle on a joint proposal with NMSU in 2014. I led an NMSU student and faculty exchange group to Colombia in November 2014 to foster cross-cultural experiences and teach at the La Salle Utopia project, an agricultural campus in Yopal, and at the main campus in Bogota.

In 2015, a reciprocal student and faculty exchange group came from the La Salle Utopia campus to the NMSU campus in Las Cruces for a similar educational and cross-cultural experience. In 2016, I returned to La Salle to teach a three-credit course in World Food Security for their International Summer Academy.

In March through April of 2017, I went to Mali in West Africa on a Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer assignment with Common Pastures, a non-governmental organization, working with women’s groups to identify strategies for increasing the productivity of small ruminants, which are primarily the responsibility of women.

Since I had worked for over two decades in international agricultural research and development, primarily in Africa, had a strong relationship with La Salle in Colombia, and was familiar with the Farmer to Farmer program, I jumped at the chance to apply for this F2F project when the application announcement was issued in December 2017.

Q: What did you do while in Colombia?

In addition to meetings at the Salva Terra headquarters over the two weeks, we visited Salva Terra organic garden operations with homeless men and LGBT community members and a Green Belt terraced garden in Medellin. We also visited a Salva Terra research garden and fertilizer tea production facility in the Arvi National Park and several school and community gardens in the Montes de Maria area of northern Colombia.

We had meetings in Bogota with representatives from the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center and with the Director of the University of La Salle International and Inter-Institutional Programs Office. We also traveled to the Utopia project campus in Yopal to meet with students and faculty to get a better understanding of the potential role that the campus could play in an enhanced education and research extension system.

Q: What was your favorite part of the trip?

What impressed me the most was the determination and tenacity exhibited by Salva Terra management and personnel to address the issues of rural poverty, food insecurity and environmental degradation through organic gardening and capacity development in areas torn by drug war trade. I was also pleased to meet agricultural agents working for, or collaborating with, Salva Terra projects in rural areas who were graduates of the University of La Salle Utopia campus in Yopal. It was extremely gratifying to learn that the students we visited in 2014 had graduated and found ways to be associated with Salva Terra and put their education to use.

Thomas Dominguez, NMSU County Extension Agricultural Agent for Santa Fe County Cooperative Extension Service:

Q: What did you do while in Colombia?

I met with the host, Salva Terra Foundation, to understand the function, management and operations of the foundation with regard to delivery of agricultural information and training to small farmers. I also met with University of La Salle Agricultural researchers to understand how research is targeted and pushed out to producers, shared with other researchers funneled into and through Utopia project, and met with Utopia project researchers to understand how research is developed as part of curricula for training prospective graduates and junior field agents.

Q: What was your favorite part of the trip?

The chance to work with a group excited about starting an extension methodology in a country post-conflict. I could imagine the feelings of extension personnel in 1862 and 1914 in this country with the beginning of Extension and the land-grant university system. That is what Colombia is going through now in 2018.

Q: Why would you recommend for other people to volunteer with this program?

It’s a very exciting opportunity. Lots of hard work but very satisfying and exciting to be a part of something greater than yourself. Also,

Extension and Agriculture Education is a way to advance a country’s economic and cultural prosperity.

There are still seven more volunteers that will go to Colombia. The volunteers include professors, extension agents, one graduate student, and researchers who specialize in certain areas, such as water research.

For more information about the program, please visit the Farmer-to-Farmer website.

Author: : Ximena Tapia – NMSU

New Mexico State University’s Board of Regents announced the selection of Dan Arvizu, Ph.D., as the university system’s next chancellor and John D. Floros, Ph.D., as president of NMSU.

The Regents described this as an opportunity to take the university to the next level, and by dividing the responsibilities among two leadership positions, to create a unique atmosphere for success.

Arvizu presently serves as senior adviser to the Emerson Elemental practice of Emerson Collective. In 2015, he retired as director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Floros is dean of the College of Agriculture and director of K-State Research and Extension at Kansas State University. He has led the development of the college’s strategic plan and guided the college to record student enrollments, retention and graduation.

The selections were announced during the May 11 Board of Regents meeting.

Regents Chair Debra Hicks said the Regents focused on finding a leader who is innovative, strategically investment-oriented, decisive and a respected visionary.

“They need to have the ability to assess and leverage all campuses,” she said, and put in place plans “that will place this institution on a trajectory to a sustained, successful future.”

She said the new leader must be able to “engage a diverse community of multiple stakeholders with regard and respect to shared governance, build effective, cross-pollinated teams and external partnerships, remove the silos and break through traditional barriers, and create a culture of innovation and collaboration. They must produce meaningful and measurable outcomes that enhance the well-being of the citizens of New Mexico and beyond.”

“I am immensely proud as an Aggie to be coming home,” Arvizu said. He said he has been in communication with Floros, who was unable to attend the meeting, and said the two are aligned in their thinking about moving the university forward.

Arvizu read a statement from Floros.

“I am deeply honored and delighted to be given this tremendous opportunity by the Board of Regents to lead as the new president of NMSU as it plays a vital role in the state, the nation and, increasingly, the world beyond our national borders,” Floros said. “Dr. Arvizu and I have many ideas and we have discussed those. Before we put them in place, we would like to listen to our faculty, to our staff and to our students. We would like to discuss those ideas with our administration and leadership teams and then prioritize that based on those discussions into an action plan.”

Arvizu is set to start on May 21. He succeeds current Chancellor Garrey Carruthers, who has led the university since 2013 and will retire on July 1.

Arvizu previously served as chief technology officer and STEM Evangelist at Emerson Elemental. Emerson Elemental’s mission is to restore and strengthen the symbiosis between humanity and nature. Arvizu’s current roles include advising on organizational strategy, reviewing investments and conducting technical due diligence for Emerson portfolio technology companies, and supporting strategic initiatives with Emerson’s network partners. He also currently serves as a Precourt Institute Energy Scholar and adjunct professor at Stanford University.

Arvizu has had a long, distinguished career in advanced energy research and development, materials and process sciences, and technology commercialization. He started his career in 1973 at Bell Labs, and after four years transferred to Sandia National Labs, where he spent the next 21 years, 14 years in executive roles. In 1998 he joined CH2M Hill Companies, Ltd for six years, his last two years as a CTO.

In January of 2005 he was appointed the eighth director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, and became the first Hispanic lab director in the history of any of the 17 U.S. DOE’s National Labs. He retired in December of 2015, and is presently director emeritus.

In 2004 Arvizu was appointed by President George W. Bush, and subsequently in 2010 reappointed by President Barack Obama (twice confirmed by the full Senate), to serve six-year terms (2004-2010; 2010-2016) on the National Science Board.

Arvizu has a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from NMSU and a master of science and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University.

Floros became dean of the College of Agriculture and director of K-State Research and Extension in July 2012. Since then, he has led the development of a College of Agriculture strategic plan for Vision 2025, guided the college to record student enrollments, retention and graduation, and nearly 100 percent placement.

As director, he steered K-State Research and Extension – an entity with faculty and staff in five colleges: Agriculture, Arts & Sciences, Engineering, Human Ecology, and Veterinary Medicine – to record extramural funding, with research expenditures of more than $105 million.

Under his leadership the College of Agriculture established the first ever NSF-supported Center on Wheat Genomics; and four new Feed-the-Future Labs from USAID on wheat, sorghum and millet, postharvest loss reduction, and sustainable intensification, for a total investment of more than $100 million in five years.

Floros’ research work spans the application of chemical engineering science, applied mathematics and industrial statistics to the field of food science, food process engineering and food packaging.

Floros served as professor and head of the department of food science at Pennsylvania State University from 2000-2012. He also served as a professor at Purdue University from 1988-2000 and worked as an international industry consultant for more than 30 years.

He earned his Ph.D. in food science and technology from the University of Georgia. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in food science and technology from the Agricultural University of Athens, Greece. Floros is a native of Greece.

Author: : Darrell J. Pehr – NMSU

An assistant professor of anthropology and her students at New Mexico State University are conducting archaeological research on El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, a Spanish-Colonial period trade route extending from Mexico City to Santa Fe.

Kelly Jenks, her research assistant Shannon Cowell, and students enrolled in her Cultural Resource Management classes are doing the work as part of a cooperative grant with the New Mexico Bureau of Land Management.

“We got the grant in the fall of 2015 and did our first field research in 2016,” Jenks said.

Last spring, Jenks and her students worked at the site of Paraje San Diego, a popular campsite along the Camino located south of Hatch. Students mapped the locations of all artifacts and features and brought the artifacts back to NMSU for further study.

Cowell was a student in that class and studied the pottery fragments recovered from the site. She found that they came from four distinct areas, each of which was probably a campsite. By looking at the different types of pottery in each cluster, she was able to figure out when each campsite was used and where the travelers were coming from.

“We can learn a lot by looking at where artifacts are found,” Jenks said. “That’s why it’s so important for people not to pick them up.”

This spring, the class traveled north to record La Parida, a 19th-century Hispanic village site located along the Camino just north of Socorro. The village was described by soldiers who marched through it during the Mexican-American War, but most of the residents left after severe floods in the 1850s and the houses eventually melted away.

“All of the structures were adobe and when we went there, you couldn’t even see the outlines of the walls anymore,” Cowell said.

The students relocated the old homesteads by finding scatters of artifacts and faint traces of adobe walls.

“We also used historic documents and photographs to help us figure out where things should be,” said Jenks. “We’re putting together a map of the village now, and trying to learn more about each household by looking at the kinds of artifacts we recorded nearby. At the end of the project, we’ll turn in a report to the BLM so that they can share the information with the public.”

Jenks’ team consists of herself, a research assistant, and students in her CRM classes (nine this semester) who receive academic credit for their work in the field. The students, mostly graduate students in anthropology and history, get ‘real world experience’ working on public land.

“It helps our students get the experience they need to get jobs,” said Jenks. “And the federal agencies really value the expertise we have to offer. It’s a win-win!”

Author: Billy Huntsman – NMSU