Tag: Nick Stern

New campus STEMulates downtown

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By Nick Stern, Senior Reporter | Photos courtesy of CNM.edu

stem

Administration has had an innovative and different way to address the intersection of entrepreneurship, education, and economic development in Albuquerque’s down¬town community, and the STEMulus Center was found to be the solution, which is planned to be accessible by the 2014 fall semester, Chief Community and Engagement Officer, Samantha Sengel said.
CNM is currently leasing space for the new STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) center at the First Plaza Galleria building at 20 First Plaza Ctr. NW in downtown Albuquerque where it will complement the significant amount of energy being put into the revitalization of downtown Albuquerque and contribute to the constantly evolving workforce, Sengel said.
“The mayor and the leadership in our city have been very clear about the fact that downtown is going to become the hub of innovation, entrepreneur¬ship, and startup culture. We need to be responsive and proactive in bringing what we do best down¬town and making it avail¬able to the community that is there today and that will be growing in the near future,” she said.
The STEMulus center will have coding academies, cyber-security academies, accelerated learning pro-grams, boot camps, and even a prototyping lab, which will have the resources to move ideas from the sketchpad to the real world, she said.
The prototyping lab is intended to have a wood¬working station, a welding station, a machine tooling station, and even a 3D printing station, but most importantly will have technicians and courses that will help people acquire the skills needed to use each workshop, Sengel said.
“We will have the structure for credit classes, but we also have non-credit, that has to do with skill development and training. We do not just stick you in a welding station and say good luck. We are going to structure around the safety training, so that they can be at the welding station and work there and if there is one-on-one instruction that needs to occur then we are going to have that technician onsite to support them in that way,” she said.
There will probably also be practical application courses like weekend-long, non-credit, introductory welding classes where people can pay to spend the weekend learning and increasing their skills which really is what the center is meant to be all about, Sengel said.
CNM recognizes that it is still very important for more and more people to receive degrees in New Mexico, and the hope is that people will become interested in pursuing their education after learning related skills, Sengel said.
“With the introduction to something exciting and interesting we can hopefully hook them and get them interested in pursuing their education, because that is what’s good for New Mexico. More people with degrees are important in New Mexico and we want to increase degree attainment across our country, region, and state,” she said.
Sengel advises anyone who is interested in this future project to keep their ears tuned for announcements because CNM intends on doing its best to keep everybody informed as there are new developments, she said.
Anyone who is interested can also go to cnm. edu/stemulus and fill out a form with any questions or comments they might have about the STEMulus center, Sengal said.

School celebrates International Women’s Day for first time

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By Nick Stern, Senior Reporter | Photo By Nick Stern
women

For the first time ever New Mexico has celebrated International Women’s Day, a day that govern­ments and institutions set up around the world to celebrate the achievements of women in society, and CNM had the privilege to host the celebration, part-time Political Science Instructor for CHSS, Fatima Tannagda said.

Tannagda organized the event which was held in the Richard Barr Boardroom on Thursday, March 6 in the Student Resource Center, so that students and faculty alike could celebrate the con­tribution of women in the community and all over the world, in addition to talking about women’s issues, she said.

“It is going to be the first time we celebrate International Women’s Day in New Mexico and CNM is celebrating it, and our focus is to talk about the issues of our women,” Tannagda said.

The celebration was organized to include five different female speakers from around the commu­nity with different back­grounds, she said.

The first topic was the success and challenges of female students at CNM, which was led by Ann Lyn Hall, the Executive Director of CNM Connect, Tannagda said.

Lieutenant Claire McCarthy from the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department spoke about women’s contribution to the New Mexico Police Force and how valuable it is, she said.

Health challenges of women in New Mexico, the socioeconomic roles of Native American women in the Zuni com­munity, and the political contribution of women in Latin America were all topics that were spoken about by the many speak­ers that helped host the International Women’s Day Celebration, and it was of great benefit to all the people who were pres­ent, Tannagda said.

“It benefits people in so many ways in the sense that women contribute a lot to communities from raising children to eco­nomic development and political contribution. So by celebrating that, I think we are recognizing what women have contributed to every society and also looking at the challenges that women face, what are the current challenges and what future challenges might be,” Tannagda said.

Tannagda said that it was tough to organize the celebration because International Women’s Day is unrecognized by local and national government within the United States and it was ultimately up to her and other women involved to do it themselves.

Despite being unrec­ognized and unsupported by the state, Tannagda was able to round up a number of businesses from around the community that were willing to generously donate food and refresh­ments which ended up being more than enough for everyone that showed up and these businesses that helped were restaurants like Sahara, Quarter’s, Dion’s, Big Chow, and even refreshments provided by Tri-H gas station and M&M gas station, she said.

Criminal Justice major Maggie Gonzales was asked by Tannagda to introduce each of the speakers involved in the celebration and she also managed the Power Point presentations that went with each speaker’s pre­sentation, and she was honored to do so because she believes recognizing the importance of women is extremely important, Gonzales said.

“It is important because it is about celebrating every woman in the world, every profession they are in, everything they do, and everything they can do. They need to know that they can fulfill their dreams, and it is inspiring for me because it is cool to hear all kinds of other sto­ries from different women that are entirely different people,” she said.

Director of the Trio Department and Chapter President of CNM’s American Association for Women in Community Colleges Magda Martinez- Baca also helped Tannagda organize the Women’s Day celebration and believes this year’s celebration was a huge stepping stone for CNM, because it is the first time the college has ever celebrated International Women’s Day and she thinks it is the start of a new and important tradi­tion here in New Mexico, Martinez-Baca said.

“We will be celebrat­ing again. I think with CHSS taking the lead with the Dean’s support and with faculty and employ­ees it will happen and our partnerships within the community will grow,” she said.

The celebration was a very good reminder of how important women are internationally but also a reminder of what can be done to make the world a better place in the terms of equality, because women with children are statistically the poor­est people and with more recognition among New Mexico and the country as a whole, people can come together and work to make life better for all people, especially women and children, Martinez- Baca said.

Computer labs shutdown in Main campus Student Resource Center

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By Nick Stern, Senior Reporter | Photo By Nick Stern

comp

Beginning in the cur­rent spring semester, all of the computer labs that were in the down­stairs area of the Student Resource Center (SRC) at Main Campus have been removed, and now stu­dents can only access the second floor computer labs or the Assistance Center for Education (ACE) com­puter lab, ACE Learning Center Supervisor, Randolph Crandall said.

Crandall said that the downstairs computer labs were removed in order to turn the space into strictly computer classrooms, because of the influx of com­puter related classes being registered for by students.

“The change has been made to accommodate an increase in computer related classes,” Crandall said.

There are no other plans for the original downstairs lab space, except to remain as computer classrooms for the foreseeable future, Crandall said.

Though there are no plans for the original space, the now exclusive upstairs computer labs have been subject to a simple but effective change, and there are also online tools to make computer accessibility and availability an easier pro­cess, he said.

There have been addi­tional computers added to both the library computer lab and the ACE computer lab, which is an obvious move to make now that students who want to use a computer are required to go to a more condensed area, Crandall said.

Computer Center Supervisor, Gary Woodworth said there is also a fantastic new tool that can be used by students with smart phones and other por­table devices with internet access called Lab Maps.

Lab Maps can be accessed online by visit­ing labmaps.cnm.edu, and is a tool that was created by CNM to help students look at a diagram of every single open computer lab at every single CNM campus, he said.

Each diagram displays each computer and its loca­tion in the lab and is color-coded based on whether the computer is available, unavailable, or turned off, Woodworth said.

“Gray is off, green is open, and red is being used. It is straightforward you get out of class and you want to go to a lab and it can help you deter­mine which lab to go to. And when you go to the lab it can help you determine where there is an open spot,” he said.

The Lab Maps tool is of great benefit to many students and that benefit increases as the size of the computer lab increases, because with Lab Maps students can walk into a crowded computer lab and with their mobile device they can pinpoint exactly where an open computer is without having to scour the entire building, he said.

Thus far Crandall has observed that the labs, espe­cially the ACE computer lab, have many people in them, but are not full to the point of chaos and he also noticed a smaller number of stu­dents waiting for a chance to use one the computers, because there are fewer labs open, he said.

“I have noticed fewer stu­dents standing around waiting for an open machine. There are more people using the labs, but I would not categorize it (ACE lab) as overcrowded,” Crandall said.

One important thing for students who are seek­ing alternatives to using the open labs is that those alter­natives do exist in the sense that different devices can be checked out from the library including laptops and iPads, Crandall said.

The use of the new Lab Maps program came about because CNM previously used a program called Lab Stats to track the overall amount of usage of the computers at CNM which in the fall semes­ter of 2013 equaled 200,000 individual logins, he said.

Suncat Chit Chat

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By Nick Stern, Senior Reporter | Photos By Nick Stern
Has the computer lab move affected you at all? How do you like the labs?

Stephanie Avila Business major “It’s harder sometimes during the day because it is really congested.”
Stephanie Avila
Business major
“It’s harder sometimes during the day
because it is really congested.”
Steven Doolittle Psychology major “I don’t really have an opinion on whether the computers should be here or downstairs. I don’t really feel any different about it”
Steven Doolittle
Psychology major
“I don’t really have an opinion on whether the
computers should be here or downstairs. I
don’t really feel any different about it”
Jennie Flores Radiology and Psychology major “Not really. I definitely use the computers and there’s times when it’s been a little crowded but I’ve always been able to get on one.”
Jennie Flores
Radiology and Psychology major
“Not really. I definitely use the computers and
there’s times when it’s been a little crowded
but I’ve always been able to get on one.”
Jeff Whiteman Social work major “I’ve been attending this center (ACE) for math for actually 18 months now. I utilize it quite a bit and I think it’s pretty fantastic. Up here is really difficult. It has affected me (The move). I found about the ones being gone downstairs when I went and tried to use them when I couldn’t get on one here (ACE). That’s when I realized they were gone.
Jeff Whiteman
Social work major
“I’ve been attending this center (ACE) for math for
actually 18 months now. I utilize it quite a bit and
I think it’s pretty fantastic. Up here is really difficult.
It has affected me (The move). I found about
the ones being gone downstairs when I went and
tried to use them when I couldn’t get on one here
(ACE). That’s when I realized they were gone.
Jeff Grey Civil Engineering major “I think the Student Center, that’s what it’s called right, is great! The move hasn’t really affected me at all.”
Jeff Grey
Civil Engineering major
“I think the Student Center, that’s what
it’s called right, is great! The move
hasn’t really affected me at all.”
Dylan Larsen Pharmacy Tech major “If I get to the labs a little later in the day I can get on a computer without any effort whatsoever. It’s all in the timing!”
Dylan Larsen
Pharmacy Tech major
“If I get to the labs a little later in the day I
can get on a computer without any effort
whatsoever. It’s all in the timing!”

From overseas to Albuquerque; Dorian’s shades of Gray

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By Nick Stern, Senior Reporter | Photos courtesy of Dorian Grey
Dorian Grey

Computer Sciences major Dorian Gray is a professional tattoo artist who works at Ace’s Tattoo and Body Piercing located at 2737 San Mateo NE, she said.

She has been a profes­sional tattoo artist for three years and believes it is one of the most rewarding experi­ences she has ever gotten out of life, Gray said.

“I absolutely love my job because it is really creative, I get to meet thousands of new people, and I get to cover the world in beautiful art,” she said.

The style of art she is best at and loves to do the most is Japanese, which she would do all day if her clients would let her, she said.

The name Dorian Gray comes from a joke that some­one made about her never aging, and is a reference to Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray” about a man who never ages while a portrait of himself ages more and more, she said.

Gray already has her Bachelor’s degree in illustra­tion that she got from the Northern Illinois University and she is currently attend­ing CNM courses in order to knock out all of the coursework that she can before transferring to UNM in the fall semester of 2014, she said.

CNM has helped her in both her pursuit of a Master’s in Computer Science and also helped her with her career in tattoos, she said.

Gray said her time at the Montoya campus has been sur­prisingly very educational and she has been taking math and a couple programming classes, which have helped her learn how to create databases, and as far as tattooing goes, the people that she has met around the campus community have been very cool and interested in what she does which has inspired her to keep up her hard work.

“I think CNM is a really great school. I went to a com­munity college outside of Chicago where I am from and I thought the educational qual­ity was pretty bad, but CNM is actually really good and I was really surprised and happy. The math classes are actually really great,” Gray said.

After Gray graduated with her first bachelor’s degree she said she moved to Japan for three years where she apprenticed and started to study the way that tattooing is done there. Then she went to Melbourne, Australia where she also did a year-long appren­ticeship in tattooing which was hard work and required some serious dedication and tough­ening up.

Gray said she is respon­sible for doing everything and anything that needed to get done around the shop like cleaning, getting other artists food, scrubbing everything, and when the artists eventu­ally had free time, they would teach her how to tattoo.

“It is pretty hard work and is kind of like boot camp where everyone is hazing you and it really toughens you up, but it is really good training and you do all your medical certifications too,” she said.

Gray said that with her apprenticeship and her three years of professional tattooing, she has probably done around 2,000 different tattoos and she believes it is an honor and priv­ilege to help so many people along the transformative pro­cess that is tattooing, she said.

Ace’s Tattoo and Body Piercing is open from Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays are also available by appointment and the shop can be contacted via email at info@acestattooabq. com or by phone at 872-8287, Gray said.

Student keeps it in the family at local business

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Nick Stern, Senior Reporter | Photo By Nick Stern

food

Business major Justin Gabaldon has used his education to help keep the tradi­tion of The Bird of Paradise liquor store and Antonio’s Café and Cantina which are con­joining local businesses that have been family owned and operated for more than 50 years, Gabaldon said.

Gabaldon is the co-owner of Antonio’s and he also helps with the daily duties involved with running the liquor store, which he knew he would be a part of some­day, because aside from being tradition, he holds a lot of love in his heart for the business that his grandparents started in 1963, he said.

“Since I started high school I always knew that I would follow in the family footsteps and ensure that the business would continue on. It is my family’s heritage and it is what we have left throughout all the years. People may pass away and many things may change but we have constantly had the place,” Gabaldon said.

Gabaldon said he is convinced that going to CNM was one of the best decisions he has ever made because it has helped him learn how to handle and manage just about everything that comes his way while keeping the businesses operat­ing smoothly, and the majority of what he has learned from attending CNM has been success­fully applied directly to his work.

“I carried a lot from CNM over to my work here. I learned a lot of managerial concepts, a lot of accounting, but one of the most impor­tant things was the idea that if anyone works hard and puts their mind to what they need to accomplish, then what they are working for becomes much more attainable,” he said.

One of Gabaldon’s favorite aspects of CNM was the number of highly capable and greatly experienced instructors there were during his time there, he said.

The professors he had during his time at school did not just teach him what he learned by taking everything straight from a text­book, but much of what he learned seemed to have come from actual experience, because so many of his instructors had actually worked in the field they taught and had even owned their own businesses, which helped Gabaldon see what he was learn­ing up close and per­sonal, he said.

“They (CNM) have a lot of teachers that are knowledgeable in the field and have been through the stuff they teach themselves. Teachers seemed to have first-hand expe­rience in their fields and that made a huge difference in how well they taught me. That is what it is all about is experience, because when you can actually apply it to real life and when you have people who can help you see it for what it really is, it makes it so much easier to understand,” Gabaldon said.

His plan to follow the family tradi­tion and help run the family business aided Gabaldon to make his decision to pursue a business degree at CNM, right out of high school in 2008, he said.

He strongly believes that in this day and age, an educa­tion is one of the most important things to have in just about every facet of life, and he understood then as he does now that receiv­ing a higher education is a strong asset not only to his own success but to the continued success of his family’s businesses, he said.

Gabaldon said he believes that any stu­dent can get a lot out of pursuing their educa­tion further than high school and that most of all, it is important to not give up.

Ever since his grandparents Albert and Carmen Gabaldon started the Bird of Paradise more than 50 years ago, it has remained family oper­ated since its creation and has expanded in size and had Antonio’s (restaurant) added to it, which has gone through many names but has still remained a family-owned and oper­ated business, he said.

Gabaldon encour­ages anyone to come by to either the Bird of Paradise or Antonio’s Café and Cantina, which he said will always have great prices on both food and drinks.