Getting to know the new ECOS candidates

By Nick Stern, Copy Editor | Photos By Nick Stern

The Executive Council of Students has begun its annual election process this July and its current members who are now running for office have proven to be a capable group of folks promising that, no matter the outcome, the voice of the stu­dent body will be represented properly and efficiently, said President of ECOS and Criminal Justice major Carrie Ratkevich.

Ratkevich said four nomi­nees have been chosen for the election which is scheduled for July 11, and that she is satisfied with the candidates because she knows that they are each quali­fied and driven to do what is best for the student body of CNM.

“I am really happy to see that the members we have do care about things that are going on and they do understand the amount of effort that will have to be put in. Regardless who wins, I will be satisfied knowing that,” she said.

The four nominees each have different plans and ideas for what they would like to see happen during their time in office, yet Ratkevich is also confident that each of them understands the main purpose and goal of ECOS and are driven to pursue that goal, which is a promising pros­pect, she said.

“I think they are all serious and they have different view­points so it is really going to push them further into doing things that are the most good for the most students and as long as they have the students in mind, I think everything is going to be perfect,” she said.

The election process, Ratkevich said involves nomi­nating members at least a week before the actual election and only official ECOS members are allowed to be elected and vote.

The people who are nomi­nated are required to have a mis­sion statement and answer any questions that the members feel are important, she said.

Ratkevich said that the elec­tion process is taken very seri­ously because ECOS holds a lot of responsibility as the represen­tation of the students’ voice, and that means electing officers who are fit for the job.

“It should be an important thing on campus for us to be able to invoke positive changes for the student body with the admin­istration, so it is important that we take this job seriously, thus elections are important. There is a lot of work you have to do so it is important that you have a good solid officer too,” she said.

The people who get elected will not take office until the beginning of the fall semester, so the time between the election and then will ensure that new officers learn everything that is needed to get a running start in the fall, she said.

Any student can become a member of ECOS by having a GPA of at least 2.5, two letters of recommendation from staff or faculty, and by filling out an application from the ECOS office located at Main Campus, Ratkevich said.

Ratkevich said she looks forward to seeing who wins the elections and knows that ECOS and the student body will be in good hands no matter what the outcome will be in the fall.

“We do not serve anybody but the students. That is our purpose here and I think all of them know that and take that job seriously,” she said.


 

Thomas Saunders, Running for Administrative Officer and Communications Officer of ECOS

Welding major, Thomas Saunders is running for Administrative Officer and Communications Officer, he said.

Saunders would like to become an officer of ECOS who represents the voice of the other trades students such as himself, he said.

“What I bring to the table is I am obviously a trade student, so I am more of a blue collar voice of the group. I would like to repre­sent all the trade students—all the welders, the machiners, the carpenter, and be their voice,” Saunders said.

Saunders said when he becomes the Administrative Officer he will be willing to do everything and anything that ECOS needs him to do and is confident that he will serve to the best of his ability, he said.

Saunders has been a member for less than a month and said he is greatly qualified for the position as administrative officer because he is experienced and skilled with administrative work such as making purchase orders and event requests.

He is also running for com­munications officer because he said that student issues and communi­cation with the school are a prior­ity to ECOS, just as he is passionate about opening a dialogue where students can feel free and comfort­able to address their concerns.

Saunders understands that ECOS is the “echoed voice of the students” and he originally joined the organization because he wanted to make sure that his fellow trades students’ voices were being heard and put into consider­ation, Saunders said.

He sees becoming communi­cations officer as a great chance to seek the thoughts of the students at CNM, he said.

“Ask them (the students) ‘hey what do you think about the school, what do you think could be better, and what do you think about your teachers?’ Start hearing their voices because I know a lot of stu­dents, particularly in the welding program complain left and right about this and that, and sometimes their voices are not heard, so that is kind of what I want to be for them,” Saunders said.

Saunders’ currently has one main desire for bettering the school and that is for communica­tion to become something that is improved upon, he said.

Saunders said he sees a lot of communication issues, espe­cially in the trades departments where teachers and students do not communicate well, or where students are afraid to confront cer­tain issues involving instructors or safety violations.

“I want to see more commu­nications open up and see more friendly ground in the trades department because it is everybody versus everybody, and it should not be like that. We should all work together one way or another,” Saunders said.

Ana Martinez, Running for President and Vice President of ECOS.

Psychology major, Ana Martinez said she is run­ning for President and Vice President of ECOS.

She has been a member of ECOS for more than 2 years and said she believes that her lengthy involvement has given her the experience needed to become a leader for the organization.

“I would want to be president because I think that with ECOS we can do a lot of things. So, what I want to do is push a little more and be able to accomplish every idea,” she said.

Martinez has also had expe­rience with the responsibilities as Vice President and Treasurer and has helped with many presidential responsibilities, she said.

“Vice president is something that I have been doing for this last term, so I know how to do it, I know what to do, and I know the responsibilities of the position,” she said.

One idea that Martinez is very passionate about is to create a spring fling during the spring semester so that students can take a break after their midterms, she said.

Martinez envisions the spring fling as a carnival-like setup that could also allow the possibility for different student organizations to have a chance to have their own fundraisers during the event, she said.

“I would like to see the spring fling so students could get some relief after the midterms. Right now we are talking about the idea and thinking about it but next term I am really going to push it and talk about details,” Martinez said.

Martinez said that her experi­ence with ECOS has showed her all of the ins and outs of being an officer in the organization and she believes she has learned how to handle the many responsibilities of being a leader with the organiza­tion, she said.

“I have seen three presidents with all the responsibilities they are doing and all the stress that they have and I think I can handle it now better than the previous terms,” Martinez said.

Phillip Cox, Running for President and Vice President

Criminal Psychology major, Phillip Cox is also running for President and Vice President and said he sees being elected as an opportunity to better the circumstances of the CNM’s student body, which has always been something he cares about as a student.

“I definitely care about the livelihood of the stu­dents at CNM. It has always been something that, as a student, I have always had an interest in and I really want to make sure that the interests of the students are being represented at the higher levels of our particular college,” he said.

Cox said that if he made office, his first goal would be to get more attention focused on student government so that more students can take advantage of the great things ECOS can do for them.

“The first thing I plan to do in office is to bring more awareness to student government.

ECOS has a lot of power before authority and I want students to become a part of it,” he said.

Cox is currently serving as the Administrative Officer of ECOS, which involves getting correspondents’ contribu­tions for events and fundraisers, and keeping tabs on offi­cers by making sure that they keep up with attendance and essential paperwork, he said.

Cox said that though he has had a lot of experience in politics as far as student government is involved, what he believes is more important is his desire to make sure that the voice of students is loud enough to be heard by the right people, he said.

“I think that people voting for me will definitely provide them with a much louder voice in school. I definitely want them to feel as though, if they have issues, talking to me as their president, they know it will get addressed in some way, shape or form,” Cox said.

Cox believes that the most important responsibility as a leader in ECOS is to be a representative to the students and to make use of every option available to reach out to them, he said.

“It is finding out exactly how the students feel about pol­icies, their situations or whatever is going on in campus and making sure it is represented to the leadership of the school. That is my primary responsibility,” Cox said.

CNM Participates in Albuquerque Comic Expo

By Nick Stern, Copy Editor | Photos By Marie Bishop

Panel speaker, Amanda Conner explains her love for comic fconventions.
Emily Debee shows her excitement for ACE.

The fourth annual Albuquerque Comic Expo brings beyond just the celebrities, geek culture vendors, and more than 10,000 visitors, the expo passes a major boost to the local economy.

The expo was held at the Albuquerque Convention Center from June 27 to 29 and according to kob.com, brought more than $3 million dollars to the surrounding economy, but the bucks will not stop there according to a Kickstarter account made by the convention’s organizers.

The Kickstarter that raised more than $20,000 from 268 backers was made not only to help with the funds for the conven­tion to bring activities like a pre-party, a documentary on the event, and the ACE Dungeons (a “fully realized live-action roleplaying game”).

But is also funding an ongoing project with the new ACE Headquarters retail loca­tion where science fiction and comic book nerds will be able geek-out all year long.

CNM participants had a big part in the conven­tion this year as well, with holding educational panels such as The Evolution of the Comic Book Hero from the CNM Science Fiction and Fantasy Club, which went into the changes in comic book protagonists over the course of time in pop culture.

Also, the Who Watches the Watchmen: the Promise and Peril of Globalization panel, pre­sented by CHSS instructor Ben Emery, which was an in-depth discussion about Alan Moore’s world renowned graphic novel, the Watchmen.

The discussion was held with Comic Book Artist and Writer Amanda Conner, who has had her own influence in the Watchmen universe, she said.

“I think my favorite part about it (ACE) is the people are really nice. I like the fans. The fans are so sweet and so fun to talk to. And before it gets really hot, the weather is gorgeous,” Conner said.

The conversation between Conner, Emery and the audience ranged from the pros and cons of globalization to a topic on the acceptance of extreme violence in society and the absurdity of what is not acceptable in society.

Emery mentions how comics, especially Watchmen, take feminine characters and make them more powerful and able to rule than the mas­culine characters of the books, he said.

Even at the conven­tion, among cos-play, the costumes that could be considered the most risqué are used for an entirely dif­ferent effect, he said.

“Instead of being asso­ciated with procreation, sexiness is associated with lethality,” he said.

Emery said that in the spring semester of 2015 he plans on teaching a course that will be based on comic books and society, and will include Watchmen as one of the readings covered, Emery said. ­

Conner said she believes the geek culture definitely got huge within the last decade and has noticed that it eventually became something to not be afraid of being openly interested in.

Today’s society is much more accepting of people who are obsessed with dif­ferent genres of the culture and that is such a huge dif­ference from the way people were treated in the past and now no one has to consider liking anime or comic books to be a guilty pleasure that is kept secret, Conner said.

“I think people just got more comfortable in their own skin being nerds and geeks. A lot of people were afraid, because back in my day you used to get beat up in high school for that,” she said.

Conner also said loves the different conventions like ACE and what they provide the community with which is basically a chance to get together and be a part of something bigger and allows every­one to go a bit crazy for the stuff they love.

“It’s like some people go to football games and base­ball games for their geek culture; we go to comic book conventions and love to see cos-players for our geek culture. This is sort of the equivalent of going to a ball game for people who love comics and science fic­tion,” Conner said.

Fine Arts major Emily Debee, who was with Gamer’s Anonymous at the event said, that the game store partnered up with GameStop this year to bring new and different gaming tournaments to the event.

Debee said her favor­ite part of the expo was all of the different costumes people wear, and that there were fewer cos­tumes this year, but that the turnout was still incredible regardless.

Debee also mentioned that she thinks the comic convention and celebrity culture helped bump the geek culture to the incred­ible size it is now, she said.

“It’s always been big to the people who are in it. I love ACE, it’s so cool to come here every year and find out that there are people who live in New Mexico who are into the same games as you and into the same anime as you,” Debee said.

Debee also noticed how ACE has grown from more of a local thing into a larger event with more people coming from out of town in costume every year, and she said she expects it to keep on getting bigger and better each year.

Theater department gets new digs

By Nick Stern, Copy Editor

Acting students at CNM can now look for­ward to a brand new stage and a whole new building dedicated to the theater department for the first time in the school’s his­tory, Theater Instructor Joe Damour said.

And as the new stage is being built this summer so will a new associate’s degree pro­gram be offered, which will specialize in theater, beginning in the fall 2014 semester, Damour said.

Damour said classes that are offered in the new major will include acting I and II, improvisa­tion, screenwriting, and camera acting, as well as a few others, which will all be transferable to UNM. “The purpose of the pro­gram is that we get people into jobs, and that it gives us a chance to express ourselves in an incredible way,” he said.

Early Childhood Multicultural Education major, Avery Miller said she was not aware of the new theater or the Associate’s in theater until recently, but was greatly impressed by the new changes and what they could mean for the students and surrounding community.

“Personally I could benefit from it construc­tively for my students when I begin to teach. I would know a little bit more about theater, how it goes and how to be more dramatic, and maybe be more of a char­acter myself,” she said.

The construction for the new stage began in March of the spring semester and is antici­pated to be up and ready to go by the middle of August; just in time for the fall 2014 semester, Damour said.

Different types of theater classes are expected to be able to take full advantage of the space when the semester rolls around, he said.

Damour said the building being renovated for the theater used to be a document storage build­ing, and will include an outdoor mini-amphithe­ater as well.

“The whole program is roaring and getting underway and it is because —well, it’s because we worked on it, but the theater is part of what we asked for a long time ago. I mean, how can you have a the­ater program without a the­ater? Everything takes time — this is a huge institution,” Damour said.

The new stage is intended to seat 60 to 80 people, and much of the work has already been completed, he said.

The stage and the­ater style seats are univer­sal, and can be moved or morphed to accommo­date each show for space, need and audience size, he said.

The new theater area will have the latest in what is to offer for auditorium spaces, which Damour said includes sound-proof paneling throughout the staging area, a lighting and sound system, a dressing room, prop making and clean-up areas, as well as a new sound proof venti­lation system installed and designed to eliminate any noise while shows go on.

“It is going to be all the latest stuff,” Damour said.

Once the new the­ater is complete, it is planned to hold two large productions a year, which students of any major can audition for and can receive credit for participating in the play, Damour said.

“We hope to have a show go up toward the end of the fall term,” he said.The new stage and theater major will go hand-in-hand, as the stage will be completed and ready for use while the option to major in theater should become available, Damour said.

The renovated space is intended to not only serve the community with different types of the­atrical productions, but to help the theater program grow and develop in to something bigger and better than it was before, which Damour said was only a couple classes just a few years ago.

“All there was really was intro to theater— there was an academic course on musical theater, but I believe that was it,” he said.

One possibility Damour said he sees for the future is the chance for experienced actors in the community to work with CNM students on differ­ent productions, which could provide invaluable experience and insight for students hoping to enter the field of acting.

Damour said it is very common for actors to come speak and teach students, but that there was no outlet for it until the new upgrades to the program, he said.

“Being able to act with somebody who’s got a ton of experi­ence —students will be able to benefit immensely,” he said.

For more informa­tion on theater classes and the new theater major curriculum, students can inquire with the CHSS department at the Max Salazar building in the fourth floor office.

Albuquerque Trolley Company shares its love for Burque

By Nick Stern, Copy Editor

The Albuquerque Trolley Company has taken on the respon­sibility of being the first tourist attraction that many visitors see or participate when they arrive in the city of Albuquerque, said Jesse Herron, Co-owner of the Albuquerque Trolley Company.

The Trolley Company gives everyone in the community and tourists a chance to see the different and interesting locations and activi­ties that Albuquerque has hidden throughout the city, which helps people to get a general understand­ing of the city’s layout by touring the Best of Albuquerque City Tour, Herron said.

“It is a pretty big responsibil­ity and we are kind of like the wel­come wagon, so we feel like we are doing good for the city and we are representing Albuquerque as ambas­sadors,” Herron said.

The company has its box office location where tickets can also be purchased, located inside the Hotel Albuquerque in Old Town, at 800 Rio Grande Blvd. NW, he said.

All ticket prices for special tours, such as the (Breaking) Bad tour, the Albucreepy Halloween tour and Microbrew tours, are $40 to $65, with general admission city tour at $25 for adults and $15 for children 12 and under, Herron said.

The Albuquerque Trolley Company is co-owned by Jesse Herron and Mike Silva who said they run their company with pride and confidence, having chosen to reflect those feelings in the way that they market themselves.

“We realize that we are often a visitor’s first impression of Albuquerque. We market our­selves as the best first thing to do in Albuquerque, so we take it very seri­ously,” he said.

Jesse Herron said that ABQtrolley.com is the best place to get tickets beforehand and can also be used to get all the up-to-date times, dates and even news­letters that come out every couple of weeks for people who choose to sign up.

The city tours do a great job of giving people an understanding of what is where in Albuquerque and why it is interesting, Herron said.

The tours educate visitors about the city and have also taught many folks how much fun can actually be had which has led to people’s views switching from negative opinions to positive ones, Herron said.

“Hop on board with us for like an hour and a half for the City Tour and we will give you the lay of the land and a lot of times people are saying ‘wow, we had no idea there was so much to do here. We’re definitely going to spend more days here,’” he said.

Herron said he cannot keep track of how many visitors have altered their vacation plans to spend more time in Albuquerque, after going on one of the tours.

Herron also stressed the fact that the tours offered by the trolley company are by no means limited to tourists and visitors, He said.

Many locals have gone on the tour and were flabbergasted by how much there is to do in their city, which they considered boring before then, he said.

“A lot of people just assume that we are only for tourists and for visitors and that is definitely a misconception. We get locals who are not bringing visi­tors, they are just coming themselves because they want to learn more about Albuquerque and they are always after­wards like ‘ wow, we had no idea about all of this stuff in our own city,’” he said.

Many people believe that Albuquerque is a town with abso­lutely nothing to do and that Santa Fe is a better place to be, and this misconception is one of the reasons that motivated Herron and Silva to create the Albuquerque Trolley Company, Herron said.

Herron believes that people need to step outside of their limited perspec­tives towards the city, and that the tours give people a chance to do just that, Herron said.

“A lot of locals have this mentality that we are in the shadow of Santa Fe and there is nothing to do here and they just need to step outside of that perspec­tive. That is partly the reason we started the company because we were tired of people badmouthing Albuquerque and saying there is nothing to do here,” Herron said.

There is a plethora of different tours that are offered by the trolley company, but the current season, which lasts from April to October, consists of the Best of Albuquerque City Tour, the Bad Tour, and the soon-to-be Bad Tour 2.0, he said.

The Bad Tour is literally the most popular tour the company has to offer and has been a huge success, Herron said.

“The demand for the Bad Tour is just ridiculous. Honestly nine out of 10 emails are about that tour and same with the phone calls. We are getting emails and phone calls from people in England and Germany— just all over the world, who are just trying to plan their vaca­tion based around the Bad Tour dates, or whether or not they can get tickets,” Herron said.

Architectural and Engineering Drafting major Matthias Lopez, had been on the Bad Tour which he said is easily one of the best tours he has ever experienced and believes it to be the best attraction the city has to offer to tourists and locals alike, he said.

Lopez said the tour is much more than just a chance to take pictures of different locations from the show.

“The tour guides, who are also the owners of the trolley company, obviously put all their hearts into making the tours as interesting and enjoyable as possible, and it defi­nitely shows,” he said.

Lopez said that during the tour, when guides were not sharing their immense knowledge of the show, they were either holding trivia con­tests with prizes or directing the attention to the television screens that showed behind-the-scenes Breaking Bad footage, which Lopez had never even seen before.

Herron said he has a back­ground in hospitality and tourism and eventually reconnected with the idea that Albuquerque is missing the one thing that most big cities had— an actual city tour.

“We were both there for a couple years and we met there and then we kind of reconnected back in 2007 and were tired of working for the man so to speak, and wanted to do our own thing. One of the things that were kind of missing from the Albuquerque visitor experience was a city tour which most major cities have,” Herron said.

For more information on the Albuquerque Trolley Company, or its tours go to abqtrolley.com.

ARTworks CNM Art Club offers social media workshops

By Nick Stern, Copy editor

The Artworks CNM Art Club has put together a workshop that consists of four sessions and targets the growing need for networking through social media among entrepreneurs, specifically entrepreneurial-minded art­ists, said Seminar Instructor Sky Carlisle.

The name of the work­shop series is Social Media for Artists and consists of a three-part remote YouTube login webinar, using Google Hangouts, plus the four workshops which are held from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. in Room 120 and 122 of the Student Resource Center, on June 6 and 20, July 25, and August 1, Carlisle said.

The workshops focus on how beneficial social media can be in the devel­opment of an artist’s pres­ence, and are directed towards helping individu­als in the art community develop better knowledge and understanding of all the different social media systems, Carlisle said.

Students can get them­selves seen and recognized by anyone who might be interested in what they do, he said.

“The four seminar class is geared to help create a presence for artists online, so that they can be found and so not only just be found locally but they can be found nationally. Our goal is to let people, even if they have never done it before, get introduced to a system that works to help keep them updated on trends moving forward,” Carlisle said.

Carlisle looks at the workshops as a way to build strong relationships to help artists over time and help them use the different social media systems to define and promote who they are, what they do, how they want to be seen online, and who they want to be seen online by, he said.

“So people can be found for their art and for what they want to be known for. We want to make sure we can create a relationship with each of them so that way, moving forward, we are here to help the in the long term,” he said.

Carlisle said that, though the workshops definitely ben­efit the artists who attend and work hard to create a sub­stantial social identity, there is also a much bigger picture, which is that the entire com­munity can benefit from art­ists becoming more stable and having more of their art seen locally, he said.

“I think the ripple effect is just like throwing a stone in a pond, because the rest of the community benefits from the fact that people can be found that we are more stable with our art. I think that art trends are coming back. We have a ton of great stuff happening now with new galleries open­ing, and new art from all over the place is brought here,” Carlisle said.

President of Artworks CNM Art Club, Letitia Hill, said that she and Carlisle recognized the fact that the social media of today has truly changed the way that an artist has to go about getting noticed and connected with a way to make a living, she said.

Currently it is almost impossible for an artist to be seen or heard of by anyone, unless he or she are net­working properly, and that can be tough when people are spending all their time and energy on the medium that they are talented in, Hill said.

This networking neces­sity that has been born out of the booming expansion of social media is how the idea came up to create the workshops, Hill said, and is tough to do, but can actually be very helpful.

“It is born out of the fact that there has been a shift in how artists actually get con­nected with their source. We decided to host this because it just seemed to be something that was really needed in the art community,” Hill said.

The very first open seminar happened on June 6, and Hill was very thrilled with the results because many different people showed up with many dif­ferent ideas and agendas, and they were all there to learn to promote themselves effi­ciently, she said.

Hill said that there are definitely still open seats available, and for $5 anyone can become an Artworks club member, which will also allow free entry in any of the workshops that are held throughout the rest of the year, Hill said.

“I am super stoked. I am really happy that we had so many people show up first off, and it has actually produced a great interest, especially in social media. We would love to see every chair taken,” she said.

Carlisle and Hill both agree that though the work­shops are geared toward art­ists, anyone can come to the meetings to learn entrepre­neurial skills for networking, Hill said.

“You do not necessarily have to be an artist. It is actu­ally about entrepreneurship. It is a huge tool for entrepre­neurs,” Hill said.

Anyone who is inter­ested in the social media workshops, Artworks club, or other workshops held in the future can go to artwork­scnm.wix.com/artworks or email artworkscnm@gmail. com for more information.

Graduating with flying colors

By Nick Stern, Copy Editor, and Daniel Johnson, Inves­tigative Reporter | Photo by Daniel Johnson

graduation

CNM’s spring graduation cer­emony was held on Saturday, May 3 at Tingley Coliseum where, for the first time in the college’s his­tory, students involved with the brand new dual-credit College and Career High School walked with the rest of the graduates.

A total of 659 students from all the schools at CNM partici­pated in the graduation ceremony, 85 were GED graduates and nine were College and Career High School graduates.

The CCHS graduates were the very first students to be enrolled in the new program which gave them a chance to finish their high school diploma while simultaneously earning a college certificate, two-year degree, or credits toward a bachelor’s degree, which would place them ahead of the game the following college semester in their college careers.

The ceremony also imple­mented the use of new massive flat screen projectors of the event that lined each side of the stage, and allowed for a much better view of the proceedings, since Tingley Coliseum is such a large venue.

Director of Communications Brad Moore said that the addition of the new rear flat screen pro­jectors where audience members could see loved ones close up for the first time at graduation was a fruitful decision and improved the view for everyone, especially the family members of graduates.

“Adding the video boards was a way for CNM to provide family members and supporters much better views of the graduates and the ceremony on stage. The video boards were a great addition to the ceremony,” Moore said.

A local celebrity was also cre­ated when dual schooled student, Emily Watson graduated with her associate’s in liberal arts and studio arts degrees alongside her parents, and doing so before even finishing her high school diploma.

Emily Watson walked with her mother, Kelly Watson who received degrees in general studies, liberal arts, history and fine arts, and her father Jarrod Watson who received a degree in drafting, liberal arts, and a certificate in general studies, she said.

Emily Watson and her par­ents were pleasantly surprised and excited when they realized they were so close to graduating at the same time and decided they would make the plans which eventually put all three of them in their caps and gowns at the exact same time, Kelly Watson said.

“It is kind of amazing that it worked out that way. We did not have any idea it was going to track like that until the last year and we started planning our final year and were like ‘I think this is going to happen,’” Kelly Watson said.

As a family of mostly stu­dents, they had to sell one of their cars and soon after, while Emily and Kelly Watson wound up carpooling with the second car, Jarrod Watson made use of the CNM bus pass to get to his ATC courses, Emily Watson said.

Jarrod Watson even made a color-coded spreadsheet which was used to figure out how to make everyone’s school sched­ules fit together with the rest of their time and transportation, Kelly Watson said.

“She and I would try to schedule 95 percent of our classes together and online whenever possible. It actually worked out alright,” Kelly Watson said.

Roughly two weeks after the CNM graduation ceremony, Emily Watson also walked with her fellow high school students at the graduation ceremony for the SAMS Academy where she was the student speaker.

Emily Watson plans on going to UNM to study art education with the hopes of getting a job teaching children with disabilities, she said.

Emily Watson’s advice to any and all CNM students who may need it was to make sure to persevere no matter how rough the road may seem to be.

“Do not give up. It is not easy but as long as you just keep going you’ll make it —every day just start over fresh,” Emily Watson said.

Kelly Watson also had simi­larly wonderful advice for stu­dents, which was to encourage them to stay positive and take smaller steps towards the larger goal by not obsessing over the uncertainty of the future, she said.

“Every day is just one day closer to the end so you just have to do it one day at a time, sometimes when it gets rough,” Kelly Watson said.

The keynote speaker for the ceremony was the Honorable Judge Willow Misty Parks, who on top of being a CNM alumna, was also voted in as the distinguished CNM Alumna by the Alumni Foundation.

Parks’ speech involved a recol­lection of her remarkable and inspi­rational story of her journey from the pursuit of her education to her induction as Bernalillo’s one and only probate judge.

The student speaker was computer information systems major Regina Thompson, whose speech seemed to not only cap­tivate the audience, but also suc­ceeded in capturing quite a few laughs from the crowd.

In her speech, Parks talked about her challenge of summing up everything she had gone through with just 500 words and ended the speech by jokingly saying, “500 words!? I can’t do that.”

The speech’s ending seemed to almost poke fun at the first feel­ings of hesitation that she and many others have undoubtedly had about being able to get through college, and like her speech, she and 659 stu­dents were able to graduate after all.

Graduate Chit Chat

By Nick Stern, Copy Editor, and Daniel Johnson, Investigative Reporter | Photos By Daniel Johnson

What are your plans?

What was your favorite thing about CNM?

Zach ary Arbogast, aviation maintenance degree, AT “I just was recently hired on at Eclipse Aerospace so I’m basically their aircraft mechanic full-time.” “The aviation program itself is really well setup. They’ve got a lot of stuff to offer. The price for the program was really good.”
Zach ary Arbogast,
aviation maintenance degree, AT
“I just was recently hired on at Eclipse Aerospace so I’m basically their aircraft mechanic full-time.”
“The aviation program itself is really
well setup. They’ve got a lot of stuff to offer. The price for the program was really good.”
Sgeve Urvina, Fire science, HWPS “Bachelor’s degree. Maybe in Arizona.” “Everything about it. The teachers and I’d say just about everything.”
Sgeve Urvina,
Fire science, HWPS
“Bachelor’s degree. Maybe in Arizona.”
“Everything about it. The teachers and I’d say just about everything.”
Lavette Hernandez, Integrated Studies, BIT “I’m going to continue to go to nursing school. I’m transferring to UNM. Just trying to make a living—a good one.” “My favorite is just the company. The people, they’re awesome.”
Lavette Hernandez,
Integrated Studies, BIT
“I’m going to continue to go to nursing school. I’m transferring to UNM. Just trying to make a living—a good one.”
“My favorite is just the company. The people, they’re awesome.”
Justin Srader, liberal arts, CHSS “I’m going to UNM to get my bachelor’s in environmental science, minor in engineering, and then hopefully go to grad school.” “My favorite thing would probably be the small classes. How it was very interactive and you can get a lot of help from the teachers and stuff.”
Justin Srader,
liberal arts, CHSS
“I’m going to UNM to get my bachelor’s in environmental science, minor in engineering, and then hopefully go to grad school.”
“My favorite thing would probably be the small classes. How it was very interactive and you can get a lot of help from the teachers and stuff.”
Maryah Chmura, GED “I’m going to start summer classes at CNM. I already registered and everything.” “It got me in right away and I got everything done and now I’m finally moving on to the next step so I’m excited about that.”
Maryah Chmura,
GED
“I’m going to start summer classes at CNM. I already registered and everything.”
“It got me in right away and I got everything done and now I’m finally moving on to the next step so I’m excited about that.”
Hunter Farvour, Business, CCHS “I will attend CNM this following semester then I will proceed to go to UNM.” “My favorite was I guess getting to know my fellow seniors and it was really easy since there were only nine of us.”
Hunter Farvour,
Business, CCHS
“I will attend CNM this following semester then I will proceed to go to UNM.”
“My favorite was I guess getting to know my fellow seniors and it was really easy since there were only nine of us.”
Brittney White, Biology, MSE “I’m going to go to UNM in the fall and I’m going to pursue a bachelor’s in biology and hopefully graduate and I want to do the PHD program there too.” “My favorite thing was my professors. I really liked my biology professor because I like biology.”
Brittney White,
Biology, MSE
“I’m going to go to UNM in the fall and I’m going to pursue a bachelor’s in biology and hopefully graduate and I want to do the PHD program there too.”
“My favorite thing was my professors. I really liked my biology professor because I like biology.”

Support groups for students on campus

By Nick Stern, Copy Editor

Undergraduates can find themselves with many problems aside from the obvious stress that comes with trying to get that degree, but luckily for students, different support groups of many different shapes and sizes are springing up on campus, including the four groups listed below.

Students Support Sobriety

Child Youth Family Development major, Denise Savchuk has succeeded in getting a sobriety support group officially approved by CNM and has been working quite hard to get the program up and run­ning by the fall semester, she said.

The name of the support group is Students Support Sobriety and is a program that is intended to follow in the footsteps of the traditional Alcoholics Anonymous organization, she said.

Savchuk believes that there are a large number of students who are willing to attend the meetings, which reflects the necessity and benefits the program could provide for many people who are working on their sobriety, she said.

“I feel that there is a dire need for it and I have gotten tons of emails regarding when the meeting is,” she said.

Unfortunately, despite the large inter­est in the support group among students, Savchuk is short of starting the meetings until a proper organization is grounded, she said.

To create a board for the group Savchuk would only need to recruit five members, but so far the large number of people that have been interested have been strictly interested in showing up for the meetings as guests and Savchuk is unwill­ing to have the meetings without the assur­ance of longevity, because the organization would provide such an important service to the large number of people who need it, she said.

“I believe I just have not come across the right people. I really want this organi­zation to carry on. I want the backing of CNM to support this and they are-they want it as much as I do but I am not willing to just have any meeting,” she said.

Speakers are intended to inspire and motivate students who are newer and cur­rently trying to walk the path of sobriety while also trying to complete their educa­tion, she said.

“We need to hear these people that have already walked this path. People who are currently on the road to recov­ery can see that it can, and has been done,” Savchuk said.

To contact the sobriety support group, email Savchuk at dsavchuk@cnm.edu or Lori Gallegos at lgallegos4@cnm.edu.


 

Mothers and Mothers To Be

CNM Moms and Moms to be is a support group that is directed at helping mothers who are also trying to make it through school as well, Treasurer Torrey Moorman said.

The group came to be when a number of mothers decided that CNM needed a resource where mothers could get support and education about breastfeeding, access to parenting classes and support, and access to any other resources that could benefit mothers or future mothers who are also enrolled in school, she said.

“A whole bunch of mothers were like ‘let’s at least have a support group at school so that we had a place to have a support group at school,’” She said.

The lack of official status has led to a lack of students who show up regularly along with limited potential candidates that could be elected as officers which would then help make the support group an offi­cial student organization, Moorman said.

“This term was primarily supporting three pregnant moms and so we did a lot of pre-natal education classes. We talked about how to make breastfeeding easier, we talked about the fact that it is the act of breastfeeding that increases IQ and changes oral development,” Moorman said.

There is a plan for having meetings during the summer semester of 2014 and, Moorman said the goal is to have meetings at the Montoya campus on Thursdays and then at Main campus on Tuesdays, she said.

The times have not been decided yet because the room locations are still being figured out, but the meetings will most likely be held between 9 a.m. and noon, she said.

If there are any mothers who are inter­ested in receiving more information about the support group and discovering the times for the future meetings, their best bet is to find the support group on Facebook. com/moms.moms2b, Moorman said.

The group has also anticipated the need for a new president, vice president, secretary, and a treasurer after the fall semester and would greatly appreciate having enough people to run, Moorman said. To contact Moms and Moms to be support group email Torrey Moorman at tbrooksprovost@cnm.edu.


 

National Alliance on Mental Illness

The NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) on Campus support group is another group that is in the process of becoming an official student organization which is meant to sup­port students and the family of students with mental health issues, Disability Resource Center Counselor Kate Rogers said.

NAMI has helped people by using support groups which cover how to deal with mental health issues and also provides support for family members to help educate them on how to support their loved ones in the best manner possible, Rogers said.

“Family members can be so influential in people’s health and so family members got train­ing on what to do in certain situations so they could support the person and keep that person out of the hospital or out of institutions,” Rogers said.

The support group focuses on and is open to all students whether they are diagnosed themselves with mental health issues, related to someone who is diagnosed, or even just inter­ested in learning to be supportive, Rogers said.

Educational meetings and events are anticipated to be scheduled on a regular basis for the fall semester of 2014 and the current task is getting a solid board and proper bylaws together so the group can become an official student organization, Rogers said.

“What they are really hoping to do is have events that help educate people about mental health. We want to be sure to be involved in student health fairs and things like that,” she said.

Rogers believes the support group is beneficial to students because students who have problems and feel uncared for will have a chance to talk to people who really do care, and are willing to discuss problems and provide the support that might make all the difference in someone’s life and educational success, she said.

“If you don’t feel like anybody here actually cares, you might just stay home. So if you have a support group you can call up and say ‘I’m really feeling depressed’ somebody might say ‘hey I’ll meet you after class and we can talk,’” Rogers said.

The community could also benefit immensely from the support, Rogers said, because by learning the proper education about different mental diseases, people will learn just how invalid the stigmas are and learn to be compassionate and understanding towards people with these issues.

Rogers advises anyone who is interested in contacting NAMI on Campus for sup­port, interest in volunteering, or for information can contact Rogers through her email at Krogers25@cnm.edu, Rogers said.


 

LGBTQ+

 

The LGBTQ Plus support group is a group that is intent on creating safety zones on campus and providing safety training to create such safety zones, all for the benefit and support of people of all genders and sexualities, Treasurer Torrey Moorman said, who participates in both Moms and Moms to be, and the LGBTQ support groups.

The group has a goal which is to let people know that no matter what their gender or sexuality is, it is important to communicate openly and honestly about tough subjects, she said.

“What we are trying to do is-people need to know that information whether you are les­bian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, or whether you are straight. You need to know how to have good communication skills to talk about these things. You need to know where to go to get tested. You need to know how to get tested,” she said.

The support group plans on holding its meeting during the summer semester every Tuesday but the exact location and time is still yet to be announced, Moorman said.

The group has also planned to have a safer sex workshop on Friday, May 30 and has already confirmed two speakers for the event, she said.

The workshop is meant to cover everything from the basics of safer sex like using con­doms to the tougher subjects like talking to partners about getting tested, Moorman said.

“We are going to be covering the basics but also the nitty gritty stuff that people do not want to talk about like how do you talk to somebody about being safe during sex, how do you talk about being tested before you have sex because it’s not just vaginal or anal that can cause problems but the fastest growing trait of oral cancer is in the 15 to 25 age range from oral sex without a condom,” Moorman said.

The meetings are planned to be more like a lounge and coffee situation where people can choose to stay as long or short as they please, she said.

If any participants have questions, concerns, or personal problems they will have the option to seek help during the meetings and will even have the option to ask for a mentor, Moorman said.

Moorman also said there is a need for a CNM faculty member who would be willing to support the CNM LGBTQ Plus community, she said.

“These support groups are helpful because it is hard enough to be in college. There are always stresses and we need to eliminate all the things that should not be stresses,” Moorman said.

To contact the LGBTQ Plus group contact Torrey Moorman at tbrooksprovost@cnm.edu.