The Voice of Central New Mexico College
Photo & Story by Senior Reporter Chloe Fox
The CNM STEMulus Center, located in the First Plaza Galleria at the corner of 2nd Street and Copper Avenue, remains dormant as a part of COVID-19 health and safety procedures. There has been no official announcement as to when the space will resume occupation as of July 14th, 2020.
Photos and Story by Nasia Jones
Staff Reporter
For CNM students who are seeking to step foot into the computer coding world, the STEMulus Center will be taking applications until March 9th for their next upcoming coding boot camps.
The STEMulus center has three boot camp programs for entry level coders; Full Stack Web Development, DeepDive.net, and the most recently added Java + Android + Salesforce boot camp, said Senior Program Manager, Andrea Sisneros-Wichman.
Currently in the Full Stack Web Development boot camp students are creating projects such as a digital jeopardy type trivia game where students will create and then play the game to review what they have learned in the program so far, Sisneros-Wichman said.
Some students are working on an application to give users virtual interactions of local Albuquerque art by using city data, said Sisneros-Wichman.
Another group of students are currently working on an app to fight hunger in the city of Albuquerque to help those that are in need on a digital interface, she said.
The Full Stack Web Development and DeepDive.net boot camps are ten-week programs, and the Java+ Android + Salesforce boot camp is a twelve-week program.
Every student is required to have their own laptop when starting in the program, Sisneros-Wichman said, other than that, the STEMulus center provides textbooks, a student server, and the infrastructure.
The W.K. Kellog foundation funds the coding boot camps, she said, students who are eligible can receive the Kellog grant for free access to the boot camps.
The Kellog foundation also provides other resources such as child day care to help students become successful during the camps, she said.
So far, 14 companies have been started from students that graduated from one of the STEMulus center’s boot camps, Sisneros-Wichman said.
There are many companies that have hired our graduates such as RSI, Real Time Solutions, and Resistance Solutions 21, just to name a few, she said.
Upcoming Full Stack Web Development and DeepDive.Net boot camps are set to start on April 9th, applications are being accepted as of now but the deadline to turn in applications turned is March 9th, she said.
For students interested in the twelve-week Java + Android + Salesforce Bootcamp it is starting up again on May 21st, but the application deadline will be March 21st, Sisneros-Wichman said.
“I’ve been managing training programs at CNM for eight years now, and this program is by far my favorite, it’s really changed lives,” said Sisneros-Wichman.
The boot camps are challenging but there are resources such as career coaches and success specialists to help students see the boot camp through to the end.
To apply for the Deep Dive Coding boot camps, click here.
https://deepdivecoding.com/apply-now/
The STEMulus center is currently looking into possibly developing a new boot camp based specifically around Sales Force technology, said Sisneros Wichman.
Sales Force is the world’s largest customer management tool, and a lot of places locally are using Sales Force and they are also looking for administrators, developers, consultants or anyone that knows how to properly use the program, she said.
By Nick Stern, Senior Reporter | Photos courtesy of CNM.edu
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.