Category: Student Resourses

MAYOR TIM KELLER ON THE CORONAVIRUS

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Story by E.C. McRoy

COVID-19 commonly known as the coronavirus has arrived in New Mexico, but Mayor Tim Keller said that the city is ready and has been preparing for the arrival of the virus for several weeks.

Mayor Keller said that it is the city’s responsibility “to answer this call to action by continuing our operations that the public relies on every day.”

Keller said that those City facilities that are frequented by the public are scheduled for regular and additional cleanings.

Currently, public services and offices are running normally; the City will update the public with developments moving forward, said Keller.

Albuquerque will be following the same guidelines as the NCAA in regards to athletic events and public events will be reviewed to determine if postponement or cancellation will be necessary, according to Keller.

The City has activated the City Emergency Operations Center and Joint Information Center as a means of handling the response to the virus, said Keller.

Public safety is a priority for the City, said Keller, and public safety services and first responders are prepared to take care of the local response.

“[Albuquerque is] participating in national networks of emergency medical providers … to share information, expertise, and knowledge,” said Keller.

Keller said that the City is banning out of state travel for employees when it is unnecessary and those who are able are encouraged to telecommute.

COVID-19 is spread person-to-person via coughs or sneezes and has similar outward symptoms to the flu including fever, coughing, and respiratory problems, said Keller.

“It is critical that anyone experiencing symptoms [of COVID-19] not go straight to doctors or hospitals,” said Keller as this could compromise medical resources.

Keller also stated that 911 continues to be an emergency number and those with non-emergencies who are experiencing symptoms should call the New Mexico Department of Health at 855-600-3453.

The public is encouraged to stay home if sick, avoid large events, and for individuals to their hands, said Keller, but is important to be reasonable.

Hoarding supplies such as soap, food, and other basic goods is “inappropriate and detrimental” to handling the crisis, said Keller.

“Stigma and xenophobia will drive suspected cases underground and aid the further spread of the virus,” said Keller. “Coronavirus does not discriminate based on race, ethnicity, or any other demographic factors, and neither should we.”

Keller said that we should “show compassion and support” instead of discrimination.

Coronavirus FAQs

Fall Term Law Enforcement Academy Focuses on Academic Improvements

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Story by Ashley Shickler, staff reporter

The CNM Law Enforcement Academy is preparing for the next round of students this August by fine-tuning their curriculum with a few slight changes to ensure the students are receiving the best instruction while utilizing all of the academic services CNM has to offer, said Matthew Thomas, Criminal Justice Interim Affairs Director.

“When you try to run an integrated curriculum, especially with police officers, there is so much you have to think about. You have to think about the law, tactics; you need to know about reasonableness and the standards out there,” said Thomas.

Thomas said they are trying to make things easier, particularly by focusing on the class’s academic processes, to make sure they are taking care of the students academically down the road as well.

“We’re trying to break some things up into some modules, so if somebody did fail, the student would have the ability to come back in later on perhaps,” Thomas said. “And we’re trying to line things more up with the academic processes at the college this time, which I think is working better.”

Thomas said they will also more than likely preload some of the tactical stuff a little earlier in the academy and not wait for some aspects to be later in the academy.  

Test anxiety workshops, great physical fitness training and having the classes on the west side are some of the methods that worked well, Thomas said.

“Some of the good things about the academy were the use of test anxiety workshops, as well as being able to walk across to the next building and get English tutoring. This resulted in the students being able to be brought up to report-writing standards very quickly and alleviate some test fears,” he said.

The use of Blackboard was also a helpful utilization tool because students were able to go back and look at resources throughout the course of the class, Thomas said.

Elias Romero, a fitness instructor at CNM, did a great job in getting the students ready in the physical fitness department and they met all their exit standards at the midpoint, said Thomas.

Deciding to have the academy take place on the west side was another good idea, Thomas said.

“Overall, having it in a less stressful environment worked because the west side academy is beautiful and being in an academic environment is different than an academy environment, so I think we were able to get better academically trained police officers,” said Thomas.

The reality of the schedule is that they are either trying to do shift schedules of five eight-hour days or four ten-hour days, but it’s usually a mixture of both, he said. Students are asked to check in sometime between 6:00 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. and classes run anywhere from 4:00 pm to 6:00 at night.

Thomas said they try to leave the classroom as a safe zone, so there still needs to be professional discipline, decorum and abiding by certain rules, but the good thing was that no one ever fell asleep and they were very engaged the entire time considering that the academy can often be an emotionally draining experience.

“It’s easy to make mistakes, but what we really try to do is dwell on academics and engage them using some of the methodologies in the classroom that CNM developed and I think as a result of that they were very engaged,” said Thomas.

Thomas said he wants the students to be able to ask as many questions as they like during the training.

“We want them to ask questions, be critical thinkers, and have them keep a record of everything they do,” said Thomas.

The class is graded to type up notes that the teachers evaluate and look at regularly, so they can make sure students have the proper study material and all the things they need in order to succeed, Thomas said.

“The first class to graduate did pretty well and did a good job on their state certification exam,” Thomas said.

Students from the first class graduated CNM’s academy on May 24, 2019 and are currently receiving further training from Albuquerque Police Department before graduating on July 22, 2019.  

As far as how the academy turned out the first time around, Thomas felt that the schedule worked pretty well and that the things he and the teachers did critique themselves on were overall relatively minor, he said.

“I think it went very well being the first time that we ran it,” Thomas said.

Stressed with classes? Come watch DC’s “Shazam!” for free with ECOS

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By: Jerry Green, Staff Reporter

On July 19, CNM’s student government has scheduled a free showing of DC’s “Shazam!” to help students unwind before the end of the summer term and has invited other student groups to join if they’d like to boost awareness.

The event will take place at the CNM Prop House on the southeast corner of Coal Avenue and Oak Street from 7:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

“Summer semester classes started on May fifth and have been stressful to some students,” said Angel Garcia, the president of the Executive Council of Students (ECOS).

Their goal is to help students achieve their academic dreams and sometimes that involves taking a break from the workload and watching a good movie, he added.

Especially during the summer, some students on campus may not be aware of the presence of ECOS and they aim to change that with the upcoming movie night.

“We have these events to raise awareness to the student populace that CNM does have a student government and that they do have a voice,” he said.

Garcia even offered an invitation for other student organizations to join movie night and other ECOS events so that the student body could see more of what groups are at CNM.

“We also extend an invitation to other student organizations to come to our events and fundraise by selling sodas or chips or whatever they choose.” he said.

If you have any questions pertaining to student-related events happening at CNM, contact Garcia at agarcia999@cnm.edu.

New Q-Community Resources in the Fall

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Story by Audrey Callaway Scherer, staff reporter

Multiple new resources have been scheduled to begin this fall for CNM’s LGBTQ+ community and allies, including weekly lunch socials, another Coming Out Day, regular visits for HIV testing on campus and the chartering of a new student group, said Brian Rasmussen, an organizer of QCNM and the LGBTQ+ Advisory Committee at CNM.

These new resources and activities are a continuation of the two groups’ collaboration to create more equity and safe spaces for people and allies in the LGBTQ+ community, he said.

“One of the ways we wanted to start creating more equity was to raise visibility . . . so that people would see that CNM is an inclusive place – for the most part, there’s lots of places that we need to keep working on – and that there are people in the institution who are actively working to change policies to create a safer and more welcome environment,” said Rasmussen.

Weekly lunches will be replacing the Q-Study Halls that have been active since the spring term of 2018 but not getting the attendance the organizers had hoped, he said.

The lunches, much like the study halls, will provide opportunities for people to drop in, hang out, socialize and get to know each other every Wednesday in the Main Campus cafeteria. It is also confirmed that the event will take place at the West Side and Montoya campuses, he said.

QCNM will also be hosting its second Coming Out Day in October of 2019. Because the group’s focus is on getting the student group running, he said this year will be scaled back a bit, but last year, they had food, a speakers’ panel and people tabling from many different organizations.

On June 27, for National HIV Testing Day, free HIV testing was scheduled to make its first appearance on Main Campus through Southwest Cares, an organization that provides free HIV and sexually transmitted disease testing for people, he said. The visits are to be similar to blood bank visits as they will just be on campus if anyone wants to get their status checked.

After this first visit, he said the committee plans to have them on campus either monthly or every other month.

QCNM may also try to get a group together to do the HIV walk in September as an institution to help Albuquerque Pride raise money for HIV research, he said.

The student group, Q-Cats, has been scheduled to be chartered in August and will be the third level added to the administration-centered advisory committee and the more social, all-inclusive QCNM.

“The student group will be whatever it wants to create,” said Rasmussen. “There will be a lot of cross-pollination between the three different levels, so that people are working with each other across the different levels in the institution.”

Some of the activities that are discussed between the three groups during QCNM meetings will be turned over to the Q-Cats for handling, he said.

QCNM meetings typically happen monthly and allow people from all different sectors – students, faculty and staff – to create a safe space and talk about what is going on around the school, the issues that need to be addressed, what the institution should be doing and what they would like to do, he said.

“What are some of the fun things we can do to create community on campus, to give people role models, to create networking?” he said.

Part of getting the Q-Cats active is to get them able to do tabling, which is basically setting up a table to provide people with information, answer questions and refer to allies in the community when they don’t have the answers, he said.

QCNM has assembled a kit that includes all kinds of tabling things, such as brochures, flyers, candy and rainbow tablecloths, that a student, faculty or staff member would be able to use for events they have requested or set up.

Those doing tabling would also refer people to CNM’s resources, such as the lgbtq@cnm.edu email address, the QCNM Facebook page, or the QCNM website – http://www.cnm.edu/student-resources/lgbtq, he said.

The Facebook page has a lot of content and the website has a lot of resources, including an Ally List and access to a discrimination and complaint process, he noted. QCNM also has a listserv, which is qcnm@cnm.edu.

“There’s so many things we’ve been working on,” he said.

QCNM and the committee have worked with various departments at CNM to change policies around name changes, make sure that almost all the buildings on the campuses have gender-neutral bathrooms, and provide Safe Zone, Trans 101 and Trans 201 trainings for faculty and staff, he said.

In addition, they have done community service types of events and events on campus.

They have set up volunteer days at Roadrunner Food Bank during which they helped for a few hours in the back, sorted, organized and shelved food or did whatever needed to be done, he said.

On campus, they have done a movie night and welcome back mixer. Off campus, they have gone to the Isotopes games a couple times and planned a Cliff’s Amusement Park day.

“Just showing up as a group,” he said. “Like, ‘Hey, let’s all go do this fun thing together.’”

The events are not exclusive and anyone is welcome, he said. Although, he noted, sometimes in creating a safe space, the needs of the minority community must be prioritized.

Pending approval, they would eventually like to try a rainbow graduation activity such as a small reception before the ceremony celebrating the success of the LGBTQ+ group for graduating and maybe giving them rainbow cords, a button or something they could wear, he said.

QCNM and the advisory committee have worked with multiple organizations in the community, most of which can be found on the school’s LGBTQ+ online resource page – http://www.cnm.edu/student-resources/lgbtq/resources.

They have also worked a bit with American Veterans for Equal Rights (AVER), the New Mexico Faith Coalition for Immigrant Justice, Albuquerque Pride and the people helping the transgender people at the Cibola Detention Center, he said.

QCNM started in May of 2017 and the LGBTQ+ Advisory Committee started in February of 2018 in response to the Orlando shooting and Erica Barreiro Volkers, the dean of the School of Communication, Humanities and Social Sciences, took the lead, he said.

The group was organized to compare CNM to other institutions through a campus index and then think about what the school should be doing. The whole first year was mostly planning, he said, but things really took off after that initial meeting.

“We’ve had a really effective group of people in getting a lot of stuff done,” he said. “It’s really exciting to think, in my not even three years, like two and some months, of all the things we’ve effected on the individual student level but also on the systemic institutional level. And more good stuff coming.”

Rasmussen’s full-time position at CNM is as a staff sign language interpreter for the Disability Resource Center and the rest of what he does are basically projects that he has taken up, he said.

“My supervisors have been really kind to support it and they see that it’s a need,” he said. “As long as my work gets done, I can do this on the side.”

Learn How to Sew Like a Pro

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Story by Ashley Shickler, staff reporter

Photo of instructor, Lila Martinez provided by herself.

CNM is scheduled to add an advanced class to its new sewing and costuming program in the spring of 2020 and Lila Martinez, one of the program’s first instructors and curriculum designers, said she is passionate about art and finding creative ways to help students learn.

The advanced class will teach students drafting, draping, tailoring, millenary (hat making), printing fabric, digitizing, and working more in an advanced computer setting, she said.

“Being one of the program’s first instructors was exciting because I got to create a lot of the curriculum for the 101 class and get a lot of feedback from the students on what they would like to learn,” she said.

Martinez started teaching the subject in the fall of 2018 and will be teaching the advanced class starting in the fall of 2020, she said. She will also continue teaching the intermediate classes and DeDe Gonzales has been teaching the introduction classes since her start in the spring of 2019.

The students learn very thorough hand sewing and machine sewing skills in the basic class, Martinez said.

“Many students who take the basic class never touched a sewing machine, whereas some of the other students do this for a living, but they still were able to learn so much,” she said.

One semester, the students made pillows, stuffed animals and aprons, and a lot of the students hadn’t even really looked at a commercial pattern before, so it’s really introducing them to that world, she said.

The classes are two hours and 45 minutes long, so she said she tries to break them up by lecturing the first part of class and then introducing the students with visuals and tutorial links.

Since students could either go on to a university or right into the working field, she would like them to be ready for both, she said.

For the intermediate class, the students had to make an alteration, design garments for an upcycling project, and participate in creating a stock garment for CNM theater stock, she said.

“Organizing and maintaining the stock has actually become a student-created thing, which I am really excited about because all the costumes hopefully in the future will have been created by students,” she said.

Every Thursday, the class watched a film that is costume-focused while the students worked on projects, she said.

“I like to approach my classes through the theater and film perspectives, so I always teach both methods because I am experienced in both worlds,” she said.

Although the class is really fun, the class does have deadlines, quizzes, and tests, she said.

Martinez said she has been in the industry professionally for 15 years and has been teaching for 10 years.

“I got the bug when I was 18 during my first year at UNM and have been absolutely passionate since,” she said.

Martinez taught at UNM’s Division of Continuing Education, Children’s Choice, children’s summer camps, and Hardwood Art Center and said she loves to teach children.

Martinez said she loves and lives by the quote, “The meaning of life is finding your gift; the purpose of life is sharing it.”

“I see how much art influenced my life in the most positive ways and I would like to continue to share that gift with others,” she said.

Martinez also co-owns the non-profit theatre company, Blackout Theatre, along with Leonard Madrid (a CNM theatre instructor).

“Our theatre community here is amazing,” she said.   

Martinez has had other opportunities offered to her in bigger cities but has a special place in her heart for CNM and is really grounded here, she said.

“I am really excited to be teaching at CNM and am thankful for Leonard Madrid, Josh Bien, and Dani Belvin – all the people I graduated UNM with, who are also teaching here,” she said.

Café Intern Opportunities to Expand With Second Store

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Story and photos by Audrey Callaway Scherer, staff reporter

David Sellers smiled while standing by a coffee station and Street Food Institute sign in the café located on CNM’s Main Campus.
 

The Street Food Institute is scheduled to further expand its students’ opportunities to sell their concept foods in about one month when it opens a second café location in the science research center across the street from its café on Main Campus, said the Institute’s program director and chef, David Sellers.

The Street Food Institute (SFI) is a nonprofit small business incubator that partnered with CNM to teach culinary and entrepreneurship classes and that sells its students’ products through both the Main Campus café and its three food trucks, he said.

“The whole point is that we have students who go through the program and who are our employees, and it’s a teaching thing. We’re teaching them how to run a business,” said Sellers. “They are trying to maybe start their own small businesses, so it’s like a little business incubator.”

A sign near the café’s entrance welcomes visitors and lists hours of operation.

In addition to the entrepreneurship lab and lecture, SFI offers an internship through which students work for the café for college credits and are paid on a stipend basis, but also gain work experience, more experience with their business concepts, and for those students who start a business, the ability to use the café’s kitchen and sell their items through SFI.

SFI buys the items wholesale but sells them using the students’ own packaging, he said. The incubator kitchen gives their businesses a place to start, some promotion and some sales.

In addition to providing more opportunities for the students, expansion and sales allow SFI to rely less on grants because of how it is set up as a 501(c)(3), he said.

“It’s a social enterprise program . . . what we do through the food sales is generate money to fund our program,” he said. “As we keep expanding, it offers more opportunities for our students and then as well, it allows us to rely on less grant funding. It kind of feeds itself in a way.”

Virtually every employee at the SFI, except for the three main people running the program, have gone through and been hired by the program, he said. Some will become managers and then most go on to run their business or become sous chefs at another restaurant.

Because of this cycling in and out of people, the food items in the café switch up a lot according to the different concepts students are trying. It currently has two bakers, a coffee micro-roaster, and an empanada person using the kitchen, he said.

SFI does its own things, like a daily burrito and taco bar, but also does a lot of special things that involve the students, he said.

There is usually a weekly special, like the recent Greek lamb gyros and falafels, and random daily specials like their recent doughnuts and doughnut holes.

The café team also does a lot of special things like Waffle Wednesdays, done by a baker who started Atomic Age Bakery, and pizza on Fridays, done by another baker who started 505 Kalamata, he said. Sometimes 505 Kalamata will do lasagna and other Italian and Greek specials and it also makes the bread for Nick and Jimmy’s restaurant, he said.

A sign in the café details Waffle Wednesday options.

The food trucks do double-duty as catering mechanisms and for serving out in the public, he said. SFI does all kinds of different things in the community, such as catering in Santa Fe and at weddings and serving at Marble Brewery.

“We started with just one food truck across the street, then we built it up to three trucks and then we got the café, so we kind of just keep adding onto it,” he said. “We’ve been around for five years and we slowly build.”

SFI moved into CNM’s cafeteria in January of 2018 when it became available and was offered to them, and the biggest advantage was that it centralized the SFI location, he said.

“Previously, we were in a different kitchen, kind of doing the program at CNM but we were split up and all over the place,” he said. SFI used a shared space in a community kitchen at the South Valley Economic Development Center.

“As we grew more and more, it was basically becoming impossible to stay there and this opened up right at the same time and it was perfect,” he said.

Not only were they able to open the café and have a three-dock bay for their three food trucks, but they now do all the cooking for their catering, food truck sales and everything out of that one kitchen, he said.

“They’re awesome [at CNM]. They provided us with this kitchen, which is huge, totally huge. Not only is it little cost to us but it generates money,” he said. “And it’s symbiotic. It works for them too because the students benefit from being able to do our program and do their stuff.”

The Street Food Institute’s café displays many of its options on center stations and lists its specials on the glass in front of the food bar.

In addition to offering their program at CNM, SFI offers basically the same information to members of the community who wouldn’t go to a college, like undocumented immigrants, very poor people or maybe late career changers, he said.

Although the internship part is offered in the CNM café, the classes for these groups are done at Three Sisters Kitchen on Gold Avenue and 2nd Street, another community-based nonprofit doing culinary education, which is run by a friend of the SFI team.

Look on the Bright Side: A Seminar for Those in Difficult Relationships

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By: Jerry Green

Staff Reporter

On April 9, a seminar was scheduled to help students identify the characteristics of healthy and unhealthy relationships and the steps necessary for exiting an unhealthy relationship, said seminar host Austin Dougherty, the director of community education and outreach for the Rape Crisis Center of Central New Mexico (RCC).

The event was set to take place in JS208 of CNM Main from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

“It is vital that people understand what a healthy relationship looks like as opposed to an unhealthy relationship, for these types of relationships can exist outside of the stereotypical sexual or romantic relationship,” Dougherty said.

One way to spot an unhealthy relationship from a healthy one is something as simple as communication, he said.

“In a healthy relationship, communication is respected, authentic, treated fairly, encouraged and craved; in an unhealthy relationship, communication is lacking, treated unfairly in someone’s favor, perhaps craved but for the wrong reasons and inauthentic,” he said.

Empathy, open-mindedness, truthfulness and respect all play crucial roles that yet again must be communicated to your partner, he said.

“Unhealthy relationships can be draining, overwhelming, suffocating and detrimental to someone’s self-esteem and dignity,” Dougherty said.

Many people realize that they are in an unhealthy relationship but lack the will and gumption to follow through and move on from it, he said.

While a very difficult step of the process, it is quite vital to look for help, he said.

“The best answer I can give is to identify that person in your life whom you trust and in whom you can find solace and support and discuss options and ways in which you can exit the relationship,” Dougherty said.

More advice on the vast differences between these two relationships will be provided upon attending the event.

“We will be using an engaging themed slide presentation, statistics, videos and different activities to help the audience understand and acknowledge what leads to a healthy relationship and what encompasses an unhealthy one,” said Dougherty.

CNM Transfer Fair

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By Guadalupe Santos-Sanchez

Staff Reporter

The CNM Transfer Fair is scheduled to take place at CNM Montoya campus on March 20 and Westside Campus on March 21 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. both days.

The Transfer Fair is about bringing the schools to students instead of having the students go to the individual schools, said Rochelle Yazzie, CNM academic advisor and Transfer Fair coordinator.

“I think having a transfer fair is beneficial for our CNM students because it’s an opportunity for them to take advantage, to explore admission information and transfer scholarship opportunities,” Yazzie said.

It gives students the opportunity to explore their options on transferability to a four-year college or university, she said.

The Transfer Fair includes colleges and universities from outside the Albuquerque region such as Western New Mexico University from Silver City and Eastern New Mexico University from Portales, she said.

“Other schools that they may not have thought about may have the programs that they want, so it’s just a great opportunity for students to ask the representatives themselves as well,” she said.

Yazzie said that they may not have a strong presence with the representatives at the Montoya and Westside fairs but will have the main focus schools from around the area such as Western New Mexico University, New Mexico Highlands University, UNM, Eastern New Mexico University, and Lewis University.

The Schools of Education, Humanities, and Political Science for UNM may not be at the other events but they will have representation for UNM, she said.

“If they miss this opportunity I also host the university visits, I work with a lot of these colleges that want to promote about their school as far as transferability,” Yazzie said.

The individual schools visit CNM throughout the year as well and the dates that they visit can be found on the CNM event calendar, she said.

The Transfer Fair at Montoya Campus will be held at H Building in the Commons Room (Cafeteria) and at Westside Campus MJG in the Security Office.

Colleges and Universities in attendance:

New Mexico Highlands University

Grand Canyon University

Western New Mexico University

-Office of Admissions and Recruitment

-College of Professional Studies, School of Behavioral Sciences

-School of Education

UNM

-School of Engineering

-College of Education

-Anderson School of Management

-Humanities

Eastern New Mexico University

Adams State University

Institute of American Indian Arts

New Mexico Tech

New Mexico State University

Northern New Mexico College

Lewis University

Empowering club wants to get their name out there

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By Ashley Shickler,

Staff reporter

Maddy Baca, the president of Women Advancing in Technology and Trades (WATT) and a construction management technologies major, said WATT is trying to get their name out there so more students will have the opportunity to advance in their careers.

According to their mission statement, this club has a goal to empower women and men who pursue non-traditional careers. W.A.T.T. offers networking opportunities, access to resources, and a chance to help more individuals to enter trade occupations.

Maddy Baca applying the skills she’s learned from WATT to her work.
photo by Hailey Tolleson

When the group was created, it was specifically for women because women are the smallest minority in the trade industry, and that was changed to include men as well in the middle of 2018 so they could recruit more members, Baca said.

“At the time we didn’t realize that several males were also having trouble converting from the education into the workplace because of lack of experience,” Baca said.

The thing that holds people back a lot is most companies are looking for three to five years of experience prior to going in, Baca said.

WATT is not planning on changing the name because they like how it cleverly fits with the unit of electricity the light bulbs are measured in, Baca said.

“The club’s culture is mellow but professional like when we interview or do anything pertaining to the group, we make sure to follow up with people, respond back, write thank you letters, schedule and confirm appointments,” Baca said.

WATT does a lot to promote their organization such as informational interviews, fund raisers, and community outreach, she said.

In 2018, HB and Sony Construction came in and they talked to WATT’s HVAC, construction, electrical, and mechanical students, Baca said.

They told the club what could be expected from the corporate world and the culture within the companies, the type of experiences they expect from incoming students, and how the students can prepare themselves for the transition, Baca said.

“We’re a bunch of student kids that are learning about every opportunity we have while having fun and guiding one another,” Baca said.

WATT has appreciation day for engineers and national hug a plumber day, where informational interviews are held and students of a specific trade come in, Baca said.

For community outreach, the club did a little workshop with the Girl Scouts building birdhouses, and working on simple switches with batteries, Baca said.

WATT does two food drive’s a year, one for Christmas and one before the end of summer.

“Summer is the biggest time that young children go hungry because they don’t have school meals, “Baca said.

Last year they hosted an event for international women’s day, which led to Baca being offered a summer internship position, Baca said.

The club would like to have additional events soon, such as bake sales and hands on day in the trades, Baca said.

WATT also has plans to combine different clubs in order to share resources and get their name out there, Baca said.  

CNM has an electrical club that we are talking to about possibly joining, in order to share resources, Baca said.

WATT came across another new organization called Women in Construction, Baca said.

“Women in construction’s goals are similar to the ones I have tried setting up with CNM, so as we continue to connect maybe we can have not only a student-based organization but potentially an out-research organization as well,” Baca said.

A lot of these industries see students with no experience, and they think it’s a high risk to hire them, Baca said.

Any trade is already a high-risk environment, so Baca understands the need for experience, Baca said.

“However, by meeting all these potential employers, we’re trying to mend the bond of creating internships so that way we can get more students involved in the community so when they do graduate, they have at least two years’ experience in an industry opposed to just going in empty handed,” Baca said.

There are a lot of trade students, the demand for the industry is high, and there are several trade classes being offered at CNM, Baca said.

Baca has been the president for a year in a half, oversees finances, budgeting, fundraising events, reaching out to guest speakers, and following up with them, while maintaining professionalism, Baca said.

Baca found out about the club from Jennifer Klecker, the founder, club’s staff sponsor, and an instructor for a class that teaches resources specifically for trade students, Baca said.

Baca says she’d be happy with twenty members, as the club only has a vice president, club sponsor, and treasurer, Baca said.

Our overall goal is to mend the gap between the career world and the education world, Baca said.

“We want everyone to feel welcome, and have a place and open book to resources,” Baca said.

To find out more information, email Maddy Baca at Mbaca345@cnm.edu or Jennifer Klecker at Jklecker@cnm.edu.  

Invite for Instructors and Students: Resource Trainings by CNM’s Libraries

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Story by Audrey Callaway Scherer, senior reporter

CNM’s libraries are trying to get the word out about how many ways instructors and students can learn about and use their resources, including topic-specific trainings that can be brought to the classroom, said Mike Germroth, a reference librarian at CNM.

One problem he said libraries have is that many students don’t have a good idea of what a library offers because some schools, especially in Albuquerque, don’t have librarians and many students don’t visit public libraries. Another issue is that returning students who have been out of school for awhile may not have experience with accessing information online.

A bookstand displays new books available at the Main Campus library.

“The library mantra is that we connect people to information. That’s what we’re trying to do,” he said.

He always tells his classes that when he was a student, he had to go to the library to do research, but now the library can come to you. Students may access almost all of the library’s material off campus now, except for the print books.

His advice would be to get familiar with the databases, research guides, and trainings, and feel free to contact the library, especially when stuck on something.

It is important to learn how the databases work and get familiar with specific ones because compared to the roughly 20,000 print books, CNM’s libraries have access to about 200,000 eBooks, he said. The databases also include many academic journals.

The search box on the library’s main webpage was a good idea that is not fully developed yet, he said – it accesses the book catalog but only some databases since certain vendors prefer students to use their databases directly.

When it comes to physical books, students can request to have them brought to any campus within a couple business days and return them to any campus that is convenient. Some campuses even have book drops in case they finish outside of business hours.

He suggests that both students and instructors get familiar with the online research guides, which are like mini-websites that librarians create to help people do their research, he said.

They are mostly broken down into subjects – which resemble classes that can be taken, and topics – things for which there are no classes but may be of interest, like navigating fake news.

“The nice thing is if people were falling asleep or they weren’t paying attention when I did my presentation, it’s always here,” he said. “It’s kind of like a permanent PowerPoint.”

There is also a research guide for faculty that outlines trainings and additional resources such as the Library Research Course, which students may take through BlackBoard, he said.

The library team invites instructors to use training for their classes, including the ‘One-Shot’ Library Instruction course (a one-hour course introducing library services and research tools) and Embedded Library Instruction (customizable trainings broken up into shorter presentations).

The Embedded course is new as of Fall 2018 and is based off the idea that students may pick up more and be able to focus better in shorter sessions. These courses are done by a librarian who works closely with the teacher and comes to the classroom over two or more short sessions to speak with students about topics the instructor specifically wants them to learn, such as literacy or fake news.

Teachers may find more good information in each semester’s Conference for Teaching and Learning (CTL) and the library’s presentation about more ways instructors can use their tools.

He knows people get value from their trainings because of the feedback he has gotten – many will share that they had no idea the tools and resources that were available, whether they are students fresh from high school or returning students unfamiliar with library tools.

In one training, he said, as a teacher spoke about how eye-opening the presentations were and shared that the librarians were great, he saw a lot of heads in the room nodding and knew that many of the instructors there had the same idea.

“We know that we’re doing something right, because somebody’s appreciating and benefiting from what we’re doing,” he said.

He also recognizes instructors’ names who return for the same class trainings each term. He said some tell him that even though they bring in their classes every semester, they learn something new each time.

That’s really what the library team is trying to achieve, he said, and for this reason they are trying to do more presentations.

“We are hoping that if we can get a few instructors interested, then they can talk to other instructors with the idea that it’s one less thing for them to teach and focus on,” he said.

The library team tries to be as flexible as possible in the methods it allows people to reach out, he said, and they have availability by phone, in person, or online through email or a chat service that they are working toward having active during all hours the Main library is open.

Each campus’s library hours are slightly different, but the one on Main Campus is open the longest and the only one open on Saturdays.

A new addition to their services is the option for students to set up a consultation at any campus when they would like one-on-one instruction in researching for a project or finding specific information, although they can still ask these questions by any method, he said.

“I say in my classes that we may be the last degreed profession where you don’t need an appointment to meet with us,” he said. “Librarians…we’re still trying to keep it informal if we can.”

In New Mexico, a lot of students are working their way through school and he thinks the secret to being a good student is knowing how to manage time, he said.

Also, since burnout can be a problem, it is important is to make sure to have downtime and to maybe set one day a week aside during which students don’t do any school work or think about anything – just relax, he said.

His third general tip would be to just pay attention and go to class.

“You know, the old joke is that you’re never too poor to not pay attention,” he said.

People may access the library’s home webpage at cnm.edu/depts/libraries, or by clicking “Libraries” under the Resources & Services tab on CNM’s home webpage, cnm.edu.