NM MESA Ready for a New Year of Success Toney Begay NM MESA Executive Director
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MESA Students visit NM Tech and the VLA Shawndeana Smith sion. They provided a plethora of resources West Regional Coordinator and some goody bags handed out to each The top New Mexico MESA juniors participant. and seniors from the North, North Central, Providing MESA students an opportu- and West Regions attended this year’s New nity to visit the NM Tech campus has been Mexico Institute of Mining and Technolo- a priority of University President Daniel gy Field Trip Tuesday, December 2, 2015. Lopez throughout his 23-year tenure at the There were 21 students from the North helm of the Institute. The 70-year-old Lo- Central Region, 29 students from the North pez will retire June 30 and will be replaced Region, and 24 from the West Region. by either Nagi G. Naganathan, a professor Throughout the day, students were able and the dean of engineering at the Univer- to visit and meet with professors and stu- sity of Toledo in Ohio or Stephen G. Wells, dents in the Physics, Civil Engineering, the president of the Desert Research Insti- Environmental Engineering, and Electrical tute with the Nevada System of Higher Ed- Engineering Departments. MESA students ucation. The NMT administration is confi- very much enjoyed their visit to the Phys- dent that the new leadership, regardless of ics department where they were able to whom is chosen, will continue the tradition experiment with the Gyroscope, Newton’s of hosting MESA students each year. Cradle, the Electrostatic Generator, and As a special bonus, the North Region the Nebula Plasma Ball. Indeed, MESA students also visited The Very Large Array students gained great insights into each of near Socorro the day before the actual NM the engineering departments while visiting Tech College visit. Students participated professors and students. After students had in a guided tour of the facilities and asked fun visiting each department, they were questions of the staff about the astronomi- given some time to visit the newly opened cal radio observatories. Mineralogical Museum located on the NM Overall, the 80 students and 20 addition- Tech Campus. al participants on this year’s MESA visit “It was a real pleasure to meet the MESA enjoyed a very meaningful and productive students,” noted NMT sophomore Lynn day at NM Tech, selected by U.S. News Marie Jarratt. “I remember how amazed and World Report as the nation’s most af- I was when I came for a campus visit my fordable research university and the best senior year of high school, and I wanted to overall research institution in the Rocky make sure that these students had a similar Mountain Region with a 97% success rate in job placement within six months of experience.” Photo by Rick Cole graduation. This annual trip proves to be Additionally, the admissions and re- NM MESA Executive Director Toney Begay smiles during a break in the action at very encouraging for NM MESA students, cruitment staff at NM Tech were able to the Alliance for Minority Participation (AMP) Conference in Las Cruces. provide much needed information to the especially considering many MESA se- students during a question and answer ses- niors choose to attend NM Tech. NM MESA Ready for a New Year of Success Toney Begay NM MESA Executive Director Ya’at’eeh (Hello), Welcome to the first 2016 edition of the New Mexico Mathematics, Engineering, Sci- ence Achievement, Inc. (MESA) e-newsletter. As the new year begins, MESA is prepar- ing for a schedule full of events and programs throughout the state of New Mexico. We start off strong with our signature Legislative Field Trip and MESA Day. We are very proud of these experiences our students get to have. The Legislative Field Trip allows MESA students a chance to experience our state’s capitol and learn about the interesting efforts of legislators. MESA Day allows students to engage in teamwork and friendly competition after hard work (research, experimentation) and prolific mental preparation. MESA’s Loyalty Award students finish up their last semester of high school and prepare to continue their STEM education with our financial aid. NM MESA has a long tradition of helping young future scientists and engineers find early success and passion. I hope you enjoy reading about the important and exciting work of the MESA staff in this newsletter. And I hope you continue to stay up to date with MESA and our valuable work and achievements throughout 2016. Check inside for the following articles - * Regional Highlights .....................................p. 2 *Guenther Advisor Award Nominations...........p. 2 *Limbs Campaign Achievements.....................p. 3 Photo by Shawndeana Smith MESA students from the West Region pose before a fiery Texas Red Oak on the New Mexico Tech Campus during a special tour for MESA Students in December. *Deputy Director Linda Andrews’ Profile........p. 4 Students toured various departments on campus in addition to the new Mineralogi- cal Museum. Students from the North Region also toured the Very Large Array on the Plains of San Augustin to accent their trip. Specially coordinated trips for MESA *Winter Beauty.................................................p. 6 students to NM Tech have been a mainstay of the MESA program and NM Tech for more than two decades. *SIFT Qualifiers and Milestone Advisors........p. 8 2 VISION - Winter, 2016 Adventure Amidst Challenge in CO Region Rick Cole Indoors, the teams competed in conducted an Arduino workshop January 13 are also slated to earn Loyalty Awards later CO Regional Coordinator the prosthetic arm and MESA FUNda- to help students polish their coding skills in this year. Robles is also the WMHS MESA building prosthetic arms. The PowerPoint President. WMHS Advisor Luisa Castillo “Adventure amidst Challenge” has been mentals events as well as attending work- of that lecture, created by Sandia Labora- will also be on the trip as a teacher-chaper- the dominant them of Central Outer re- shops in those same venues. Taylor Middle tory Scientist Arne Gullerud was, in turn, one. gional activities this winter. School dominated the MS competitions by shared with schools throughout the region. And when it comes to Loyalty The November regional rally was sweeping the prosthetic arm and finishing West Mesa High School continues Awards, more than 20 CO students from quite successful, but it was certainly an ad- second behind Sarracino MS in MESA to set the pace both regionally and state- five high schools are eligible to receive the venturous challenge as some of the events FUNdamentals. Atrisco Heritage Academy wide in community service. During the scholarship. Students will complete appli- were outdoors and November 7 just hap- HS won its first-ever rally by earning first winter, the Mustang MESA students have cations in March and be notified of official written thank-you letters to military per- award status in April. sonnel serving our nation overseas, MESA CO students have been working support letters to legislators in Santa Fe, hard for the upcoming MESA Day and will recruited volunteers for the UNM Raisin` be competing against programs from all Cane Performance, collected donations for over New Mexico for state championship Niños de Hospicio, fund-raising for SIFT, honors. Any and all students, parents and volunteering for the NM MESA Leader- community members who would like to see ship Council at MESA Day and creating the MESA Day competition are welcome and hanging scores of signs around WMHS to come to the University of New Mexico encouraging positive behaviors. Student Union Building March 2 to see the Meanwhile, Truman Middle best in prosthetic arm engineering and the School raised $2,700 in pennies for char- exciting and entertaining closeing ceremo- ity and participated in a Civil Air Patrol nies. workshop, Jimmy Carter Middle School NM MESA also extends congrat- participated in the Bosque Environmental ulations to the following MESA Advisors Monitoring Project and Ernie Pyle Middle for achieving these noteworthy milestones: School has begun a school-wide recycling Chris Trueba, Los Lunas HS – 10 years as program. a MESA advisor; Diana Russell, Atrisco Congratulations go to West Mesa Heritage HS – 3 years as an advisor; Mar- High School seniors Brenda Salas, Karla garita Smith, Taylor MS – National Board Vazquez, Ariana Astorga and Gladys Rob- Certified Teacher; John Davies, Los Lunas les for being selected to represent the CO HS – a record-setting 46 years as a high Region on the NM MESA Senior Incentive school science teacher; Joey Sanchez, Va- Field Trip to Washington D.C. in April. All lencia High School – proud papa of a baby four are multi-year MESA students who boy. Photo by Rick Cole Desiree Arnett of Ernie Pyle Middle School contemplates how to plan a theme dur- ing a workshop at the Central Outer Middle School Leadership Summit. pened to be the coldest day of the month. and third in the prosthetic arm and claim- Thus, students arrived at the zoo in the ing three other honors in MESA FUNda- Albuquerque BioPark early that morning mentals to edge out runner-up Cibola HS. as the temperature bottomed out at 18 de- Middle school students also grees, a full 21 degrees cooler than average participated in the CO Regional Middle for that date. Indeed, the weather would School Leadership Summit at the UNM not get that cold again in Albuquerque until Valencia Campus January 29. Polk MS mid-December. students taught their peers how to develop Thus, students bundled up to par- trust as a leadership attribute. Other work- ticipate in the opening and closing ceremo- shops included Belen MS teaching internet nies held at the zoo’s outdoor theatre and safety, Truman MS developed teamwork continued to don their jackets, gloves and through “Crest” design and Ernie Pyle MS hats as they participated in making toys for made their colleagues aware of food waste the zoo animals outdoors and/or toured the and its ramification on hunger at a world- Photo by Rick Cole zoo for behind-the-scenes insights in ani- wide scale as well as locally.