The University of New Mexico

Category Archives: Campus Community

UNM Graduate Starts a New Chapter and a New Business

May 21, 2013 | By Karen Wentworth

Neema Pick­ett

Neema Pick­ett isn’t your aver­age under­grad­u­ate student. Even though she has lived most of her life in New Mex­ico her col­lege career began in China. She moved to China with her hus­band, an Intel employee, to explore new opportunities. It was a tricky move. 

Pick­ett owned a hair, nail and skin treat­ment busi­ness near old town in Albu­querque and decided to keep it open while she was liv­ing in China. She man­aged, by using Von­age to talk con­stantly with her employ­ees, run­ning reg­u­lar staff meet­ings via Skype, and trav­el­ing back to Albu­querque twice a year to train new employees.

While in China she began attend­ing classes, work­ing to get her core cur­ricu­lum com­plete as quickly as pos­si­ble.  When she came back to New Mex­ico in 2008, she began to work on her major in psy­chol­ogy.  “I’ve done every­thing back­ward,” she said.  “I had my daugh­ter when I was very young. I started a business. Then I went to school.”

She con­tin­ues to run the salon, which paid tuition as she attended UNM.  Work­ing with cus­tomers at the salon also gave her a rea­son to study psy­chol­ogy.  “The prob­lem I’ve seen from behind the chair is that peo­ple don’t have per­mis­sion to be them­selves.  And I think, wow, am I the only per­son they could have told this to or is there some­thing sacred and cer­e­mo­nial about wash­ing hair and have some­one touch­ing your head in this inti­mate way that opens the door to shar­ing your life?”

Talk­ing to her clients she found her­self fre­quently refer­ring them to local psy­chol­o­gists.  “We could fix every­thing about their hair and make that per­fect, but they are still deal­ing with all this inter­nal stuff. They look at them­selves and still don’t feel good. Well, it’s noth­ing to do with the aes­thet­ics, It’s got a lot to do with what’s going on inside,” she says. She found her­self talk­ing with her clients for hours before she finally real­ized, “I just don’t have enough train­ing for this.”

Her pro­fes­sors are anx­ious to see her back in grad­u­ate school.  But Pick­ett has more she wants to do first. This sum­mer she is work­ing in her newly rented space in the North Val­ley putting together sum­mer day camps for girls 12 through 16 at her new non­profit, Kamaria Cre­ations Well­ness Cen­ter.

She plans to teach stu­dents how to make their own nat­ural hair, skin and beauty prod­ucts, hair con­di­tion­ing treat­ments, and about henna art, basic sewing skills and veg­e­tar­ian cook­ing.  She is recruit­ing stu­dents now and will hold an open house on June 2 from 2 — 4 p.m. at 4231 San Isidro N.W.  She says any­one who wants to learn more about her day camp can email her at neema@unm.edu

Media con­tact: Karen Went­worth (505) 277‑5627; kwent2@unm.edu

Posted in Campus Community, University News | |

Staff Council Elects Executive Committee for 2013–14

May 21, 2013 | By Karen Wentworth

Staff Coun­cil Pres­i­dent
Gene Henley.

The Staff Coun­cil elected its new Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee, which con­sists of four offi­cers, four members-at-large and two ex-officio mem­bers. The offi­cers include pres­i­dent, president-elect, speaker and treasurer.

The four members-at-large are selected from two coun­cilors who rep­re­sent grades and two Coun­cilors who rep­re­sent precincts. The ex-Officio Mem­bers are the Past Pres­i­dent and the Staff Council’s Admin­is­tra­tive Officer.

2013–14 Staff Coun­cil Exec­u­tive Committee

Pres­i­dent — Gene Hen­ley
President-elect — Renee Delgado-Riley
Speaker — Tracy Wenzl
Trea­surer — Karen Mann
Grade-At-Large Rep­re­sen­ta­tives — Mark Reynolds and Chelsea Beth Walker
Precinct-At-Large Rep­re­sen­ta­tives — Carol Bern­hard and Traci Jas­trzem­ski
Past Pres­i­dent — Mary Clark
Admin­is­tra­tive Offi­cer — Kathy Meadows

Posted in Campus Community, University News | |

Lobo Softball Spearheads Donation Drive to Help Oklahoma Tornado Victims

May 21, 2013 | By UCAM

As news reports and updates came out of cen­tral Okla­homa on Mon­day night fol­low­ing the deadly May 20 tor­nado that struck Moore, Okla., and sur­round­ing areas of Okla­homa City, Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico head soft­ball coach Erica Beach felt com­pelled to do something.

“Part of being a Lobo is being will­ing to help oth­ers, whether it’s in your own com­mu­nity or some­where else that needs help,” Beach said. “For us, it’s about doing the right thing and using the resources we have avail­able to help a com­mu­nity that is des­per­ately in need.”

In a mat­ter of hours, she was in touch with other mem­bers of Lobo ath­let­ics staff and for­mer student-athletes for­mu­lat­ing a plan to help.

Beach and assis­tant Lobo soft­ball coach Lyn­d­sey Angus, along with the entire Lobo Ath­letic Depart­ment, are col­lect­ing items Wednes­day, May 22-Thursday, May 30. Beach and for­mer Lobo foot­ball player, Derek Wat­son, will haul all donated items to Okla­homa City next Fri­day, May 31.

Lobo Field is south of The Pit and can be accessed by turn­ing west onto Sun­shine Ter­race SE off Uni­ver­sity Boulevard.

Wat­son was a mem­ber of the Lobo foot­ball team from 2001-03 and played along­side Jon Oliver (1999–01) and Kyle Coul­ter (2001–04), who cur­rently reside in the Okla­homa City area.

The news of Monday’s tor­nado prompted Wat­son to check in with his for­mer team­mates and friends.

“I heard from both Jon and Kyle,” Wat­son said. “Both of their fam­i­lies are okay. Kyle jumped right in with res­cue efforts, help­ing at both of the ele­men­tary schools — Bri­ar­wood and Plaza Tow­ers. He will be our point of con­tact as far as the needs of vic­tims in the area and then, once we get there next week, he’ll help direct us to shel­ters and relief dis­tri­b­u­tion centers.”

Coul­ter lives in For­est Park, Okla., about 14 miles north­east of Moore. He is a vol­un­teer fire­fighter with the For­est Park Fire Depart­ment and arrived to the affected area within a cou­ple of hours of the tor­nado hitting.

“It’s just dev­as­ta­tion,” Coul­ter said. “It looks like a war-torn area. Parts of the town are just com­pletely dec­i­mated and there is noth­ing left but rub­ble. The only way you can tell there was any­thing there is there’s a dri­ve­way left. It’s just devastation.”

Coul­ter says peo­ple are pick­ing up what they can find — some only a small bag full of clothes or other items — and then walk­ing to find shel­ter either set up by relief orga­ni­za­tions, or with friends or fam­ily in the area. He said nobody in the area had power or water as of Tues­day morn­ing, but peo­ple were get­ting access to water and food that was brought in.

“When we arrived Mon­day night there were already peo­ple com­ing in from all over the state, other emer­gency response teams, bring­ing water and sup­plies and com­ing ready to help,” Coul­ter said. “The local Home Depot stayed open all night and gave us what­ever we needed as first responders…from chain saws and gloves and eye pro­tec­tion to any­thing else, just right off the shelves.”

The list of needs for the area is as basic as bottled/sealed water and food, to dia­pers, wipes, baby for­mula, toi­letries and “fam­ily stuff,” mean­ing toys, blan­kets, pil­lows, dog and cat food, etc.

“There was a water treat­ment plant that was affected, so water is going to be scarce and we’re going to make a huge push to bring as much water as pos­si­ble when we travel out there next week,” Beach said. “We’re accept­ing dona­tions of cloth­ing and toi­letries as well as blan­kets, toys and games and really any­thing. There are peo­ple that have lost prob­a­bly every­thing in this storm and we have to try to help them put some of the pieces back together.

“We need help from the entire Lobo com­mu­nity on this and if we all do a lit­tle part then it’s going to make a huge difference.”

The Asso­ci­ated Press reported on Mon­day evening that the Draper Water Treat­ment Plant in Okla­homa City was knocked offline as a result of the storm. Res­i­dents and busi­nesses in south­east Okla­homa City were encour­aged to stop using water until fur­ther notice.

Media con­tact: Chelsea Ein­er­wold (218) 296.2845; email: ceinerwo@unm.edu

Posted in Athletics, Campus Community, Events, University News | |

UNM Marketing Students Win 2013 API Adventures in Energy Case Competition

May 21, 2013 | By Steve Carr

(l. to r.): Eric Gross, Diana Solis, Mariah Maes­tas, RuthAnn Tib­betts and Patrick Adams.

Last week in San Fran­cisco, Calif., mar­ket­ing stu­dents at the UNM Ander­son School of Man­age­ment took top hon­ors in the 2013 Amer­i­can Petro­leum Insti­tute Adven­tures in Energy Case Competition.

UNM emerged the win­ner after top­ping the Uni­ver­sity of Find­lay and Florida Insti­tute of Tech­nol­ogy, the other two top teams who qual­i­fied to travel to San Fran­cisco for the finals.

Fol­low­ing the pre­sen­ta­tion, the stu­dent team includ­ing Patrick Adams, Eric Gross, Mariah Maes­tas, Diana Solis and RuthAnn Tib­betts, received a round of applause for their pre­sen­ta­tion skills and impres­sive research.

“These com­pe­ti­tions are a great edu­ca­tional expe­ri­ence for our stu­dents,” said Ander­son Dean Doug Brown. “They enable them to asso­ciate with oth­ers who are at the top of their game.”

John Benavidez and Nick Flor, who men­tored the stu­dents, said they couldn’t be more proud of how these stu­dents rep­re­sented Ander­son and the mar­ket­ing program.

This is the sec­ond time in three years UNM has impressed the judges at the API com­pe­ti­tion. In 2011, a team men­tored by John Benavidez and Cather­ine Ros­ter was also awarded the top prize.

The Ander­son School mar­ket­ing pro­gram has a his­tory of beat­ing top-flight col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties in national com­pe­ti­tions. In recent years the pro­gram has won com­pe­ti­tions spon­sored by Cadil­lac, Sub­aru of Amer­ica and the National High­way Traf­fic Safety Administration.

The win­ning team will receive a week-long, all-expense paid intern­ship in Wash­ing­ton D.C. with API and its web­site ven­dor, Story Part­ners, to pre­pare the redesigned Adven­tures in Energy web­site for launch accord­ing to the team’s win­ning design.

Media con­tact: Steve Carr (505) 277‑1821; email: scarr@unm.edu

Posted in Campus Community, Featured, University News | |

Money from New Mexico Legislature Will Bring Relief to STEM Students

May 21, 2013 | By Karen Wentworth
Future construction area on west side of Math & Science buiding

Future con­struc­tion area on west side of Math & Sci­ence building

UNM plan­ners are start­ing the prepa­ra­tion process to con­struct an addi­tion on the west side of the recently com­pleted Sci­ence & Math Build­ing with $5 mil­lion appro­pri­ated from the state sev­er­ance tax fund by the New Mex­ico Legislature. 

The space will house organic chem­istry labs as well as math­e­mat­ics offices and sup­port ser­vices. The addi­tion was intended to be part of the orig­i­nal Math and Sci­ence build­ing, but money ran short and the build­ing project was reduced in size.

Vot­ers statewide approved Gen­eral Oblig­a­tion Bond C, which included $19 mil­lion for projects on UNM’s main cam­pus, which will be com­bined with $850,000 appro­pri­ated in sev­er­ance tax bond money by the 2013 ses­sion of the New Mex­ico leg­is­la­ture. Money to ren­o­vate Clark/Reibsomer Hall was approved was part of that GO Bond. Con­struc­tion is esti­mated to begin in early fall 2014.

“That will be a par­tic­u­larly com­plex project because the build­ing is occu­pied and the project will affect many of the build­ings’ mechan­i­cal, elec­tri­cal, and Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­ogy sys­tems,” said Asso­ciate Direc­tor of Cap­i­tal Projects Rick Henrard.

In addi­tion to these two projects, the first and third floors of Castet­ter Hall will be built out com­plete with upgrades to improve over­crowded and out­dated labs, elim­i­nate the need to store equip­ment in halls, as well as elim­i­nat­ing the need for offices to serve as resource libraries and to accom­mo­date pro­jected growth of 10 per­cent through 2014. Construction is expected to be com­pleted in the sum­mer of 2014, so fac­ulty and stu­dents will have new labs for the fall semester.

The Depart­ment of Biol­ogy, which is housed Castet­ter Hall, is the largest depart­ment in the Col­lege of Arts and Sci­ences, serv­ing approx­i­mately 2,000 stu­dents, 90 per­cent of whom are from New Mex­ico. Over the past 10 years, biol­ogy majors have increased 275 per­cent. Addi­tion­ally, the biol­ogy depart­ment gen­er­ates UNM’s high­est annual research fund­ing of more than $15 mil­lion in grants per year

Build­ing class­room and lab space at UNM is fre­quently a com­plex process because the money some­times comes in pieces. It’s also com­pli­cated because there is no place on main cam­pus to relo­cate fac­ulty and stu­dents dur­ing construction.

“We don’t have any surge space on the main cam­pus,” UNM Archi­tect Robert Doran said. “So there is no place to move fac­ulty and research labs while con­struc­tion is in progress in those buildings.”

Life will even­tu­ally get bet­ter for chem­istry, math and biol­ogy fac­ulty and stu­dents, but it won’t hap­pen immediately. The build­ing expan­sions and ren­o­va­tions will be exten­sive and will include new HVAC and elec­tri­cal sys­tem upgrades to meet air qual­ity, power and envi­ron­men­tal standards.

Media con­tact: Karen Went­worth (505) 277‑5627; email: kwent2@unm.edu

Posted in Campus Community, University News | |

Comadre a Comadre Seeks Peer Educators

May 17, 2013 | By Steve Carr

Comadre a Comadre rogram is now recruit­ing “Peer Edu­ca­tors” to teach com­mu­nity breast health classes.

If you’re a woman, a Hispanic/Latina bilin­gual speaker, Eng­lish speaker, Span­ish speaker or a breast can­cer sur­vivor and it’s been two years since your last treat­ment, call Edu­ca­tion Sup­port Coor­di­na­tor Gena Laugh­lin in the Comadre office at (505) 277‑2329 to obtain more information.

Due to the gen­eros­ity of our spon­sors, Comadre a Comadre will be able to pro­vide a stipend for teach­ing these classes. Train­ing will be provided.

Breast can­cer sur­vivors bring pas­sion and an abil­ity to moti­vate and inspire other women to improv­ing their screen­ing prac­tices and increase aware­ness on the impor­tance of the early detec­tion of breast cancer.

The Comadre a Comadre pro­gram is a peer-based cul­tur­ally and lin­guis­ti­cally com­pe­tent psy­choso­cial sup­port and patient nav­i­ga­tion inter­ven­tion designed to improve breast can­cer out­comes among Hispanic/Latina women in New Mexico.

To view the infor­ma­tional flyer, visit Peer Edu­ca­tor Flyer.

Posted in Campus Community, Events | |

3rd Annual Walgreens Charity Golf Tournament to Benefit UNM Children’s Hospital

May 15, 2013 | By Steve Carr

Wal­greens Cor­po­ra­tion hosts the 3rd Annual Wal­greens “Help­ing New Mexico’s Chil­dren Get Well and Stay Well” Char­ity Golf Tour­na­ment on Fri­day, June 7 at Isleta Eagle Golf Course. The tour­na­ment, which ben­e­fits UNM’s Children’s Hos­pi­tal, begins with at 8 a.m. with check-in and a 9 a.m. shot­gun start.

The entry fee for the tour­na­ment is $125 for sin­gle play­ers and $500 for a four­some, which includes greens fees, cart, dri­ving range, goody bag, break­fast and lunch. Addi­tion­ally, there will be a Wal­greens part­ner auc­tion, silent auc­tion, prize draw­ing, clos­est to the pin and longest drive prizes and much more. For more infor­ma­tion or to signup, con­tact Ben Peters at (505) 898‑0971.

Last year’s Wal­greens golf tour­na­ment raised more than $30,000 for the UNM Children’s Hos­pi­tal. “Every year, Wal­greens’ lead­er­ship, com­mu­nity lead­ers and vol­un­teers come together to help UNM Children’s Hos­pi­tal,” said Rich Grainger, asso­ciate direc­tor of Devel­op­ment, UNM Children’s Hos­pi­tal. “Whether it is answer­ing phones for Radio­thon, col­lect­ing toys dur­ing the hol­i­days or fundrais­ing year around, the Wal­greens fam­ily is there to sup­port their community.”

After this year’s golf tour­na­ment, Wal­greens will also be host­ing a bowl­ing tour­na­ment on Aug. 18 to raise funds. If that isn’t enough, start­ing in Sep­tem­ber, Wal­greens stores across the state will be sell­ing UNM Children’s Hos­pi­tal bal­loon icons to sup­port the more that 60,000 chil­dren helped every year.

Come out and sup­port the UNM Children’s Hos­pi­tal and New Mexico’s small­est patients.

Posted in Campus Community, Events, Health Sciences | |

UNM’s RAD Camp Begins Tuesday, May 28

May 15, 2013 | By Steve Carr

Begin­ning Tues­day, May 28, UNM’s Recre­ational Ser­vices hosts the first of five sum­mer camp ses­sions for its pop­u­lar Recre­ational Activ­i­ties Day Camp or RAD Camp for chil­dren ages 8–12.

UNM’s RAD Camp pro­vides a vari­ety of oppor­tu­ni­ties to enhance the edu­ca­tional, recre­ational and cul­tural expe­ri­ences of Albuquerque-area youth by offer­ing numer­ous activ­i­ties for your child to par­tic­i­pate in dur­ing the sum­mer with a won­der­ful staff.

Chil­dren can enjoy a vari­ety of activ­i­ties includ­ing bas­ket­ball, base­ball, dodge­ball, soc­cer, vol­ley­ball, arts & crafts, field trips, ini­tia­tive games, swim­ming, bad­minton, ten­nis, group projects and more.

The first ses­sion, which begins Tues­day, May 28, is a four-day ses­sion end­ing on May 31. Ses­sions 2–5 are two weeks long. Daily camp hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily. Early and late care is also avail­able. Early care starts daily at 7:30 a.m., while late care is avail­able from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. daily. Cost is $3 per camper, per day for each service.

Ses­sion dates

  • Ses­sion 1: May 28 – May 31
  • Ses­sion 2: June 3 – June 14
  • Ses­sion 3: June 17 – June 28
  • Ses­sion 4: July 1 – July 12
  • Ses­sion 5: July 15 – July 26

Reg­is­tra­tion is cur­rently under­way for all ses­sions. Dis­counts are avail­able for mul­ti­ple (3+) ses­sions. Inter­ested par­tic­i­pants can down­load a RAD Camp reg­is­tra­tion form. The cost is $265 with lunch and $210 with­out lunch.

For more infor­ma­tion includ­ing ses­sion dates visit, RAD Camp or call (505) 277‑0178.

Posted in Campus Community, Events | |

Engineering Student Adapts, Finds Way to Graduate

May 14, 2013 | By Karen Wentworth

Zachariah Har­ris

The study of engi­neer­ing is find­ing ways to solve prob­lems, which is ironic because UNM Chem­i­cal Engi­neer­ing grad­u­ate Zachariah Har­ris has had to find ways to work with some unusual phys­i­cal prob­lems on his way to graduation. “I had to drop out of high school because I thought I was per­ma­nently blind,” he said.

The blind­ness was the result of an acci­dent on the bas­ket­ball court. Harris was pur­su­ing a rebound and as he descended another player who was jump­ing up hit Harris’s jaw with the top of his head.  The col­li­sion was so severe it knocked par­ti­cles loose inside his eyes, caus­ing the tem­po­rary blindness. The par­ti­cles even­tu­ally clumped together to form large floaters in his eyes and he slowly regained much of his eye­sight. Before the acci­dent he had been on track to be class vale­dic­to­rian at Los Lunas High School, but he had to give that up.

The bas­ket­ball acci­dent aggra­vated another injury Har­ris received at sum­mer camp when he was 13 and was stran­gled by another camper. That caused soft tis­sue and nerve dam­age in his neck and he must work out reg­u­larly to main­tain strength and hold the injuries in check. His brother Ethan, an exer­cise sci­ence major, designs work­outs that help him iso­late the cor­rect mus­cles with­out engag­ing the injured areas.

“These things tested my life and my faith and my gen­eral out­look, but you have to keep going because life is a river,” Har­ris said. “You either swim with it or you get dragged, and you choose one or the other.”

Har­ris tried to swim with it by going to Texas A&M for his fresh­man year, but the move away from his phys­i­cal ther­apy sup­port struc­ture resulted in a phys­i­cal col­lapse. He read­justed, and came to UNM, which was closer to home, but each semes­ter was a marathon.

For the last year and a half Har­ris’ health has been stable. Before that, “I would lose 20 to 30 pounds every semes­ter in weight,” Har­ris said. “And then I would regain it over Christ­mas break or sum­mer, as much as I could and then attack the next semes­ter and lose weight and it was like a death spi­ral after every semester. It was hor­ri­ble. I can truly say that most of my col­lege edu­ca­tion was pure tor­ture. And almost nobody knew that, because how do you bring it up in casual con­ver­sa­tion? I’m in per­ma­nent pain and how are you?”

Har­ris says part of his prob­lem was self-imposed. He didn’t want peo­ple to see him or treat him dif­fer­ently because he has a visual dis­abil­ity and is in pain. He wanted to be able to make the grade as a nor­mal stu­dent. But his prob­lem is severe enough for him to fit UNM’s dis­abil­ity cri­te­ria and to require some spe­cial ser­vices such extra time to com­plete tests. He also records lec­tures and lis­tens to them while he’s dri­ving to catch points he might have missed in class. Har­ris says apply­ing for dis­abil­ity ser­vices was the most hum­bling expe­ri­ence of his life because he wanted to com­plete his degree as a nor­mal student.

Har­ris says he’s adjusted to his phys­i­cal prob­lems and he’s now enrolled in grad­u­ate school. An under­grad­u­ate research expe­ri­ence last sum­mer in Wis­con­sin doing genetic engi­neer­ing, and pro­fes­sors who work with him at UNM, have inspired Har­ris to go into bio­med­ical engineering. He’ll be back at UNM this fall look­ing for a research topic that will allow him to help peo­ple in some last­ing way.

Media con­tact: Karen Went­worth (505) 277‑5627; email: kwent2@unm.edu

Posted in Campus Community, University News | |

‘Qualitative Research Methods with Children and Adolescents’ Topic of Discussion

May 13, 2013 | By Steve Carr

UNM’s Com­mu­nity Based Pre­ven­tion Research Pro­fes­sional Devel­op­ment Series fea­tures Dr. Julia Mered­ith Hess who will dis­cuss “Qual­i­ta­tive Research Meth­ods with Chil­dren and Ado­les­cents” on Tues­day, May 21 from 12 to 1 p.m. at the Research Incu­ba­tor Build­ing (RIB) Com­mons located on the UNM cam­pus at 2703 Fron­tier NE. Atten­dees are invited to bring your lunch.

Chil­dren and teens are at par­tic­u­lar devel­op­men­tal and life stages, with their own per­spec­tives, expe­ri­ences and vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties, and they are often per­ceived as per­plex­ing or chal­leng­ing as research par­tic­i­pants. In this sem­i­nar, a dis­cus­sion of qual­i­ta­tive meth­ods for con­duct­ing research with kids, includ­ing inter­views, par­tic­i­pant obser­va­tion, focus groups Pho­toVoice, audio diaries, jour­nal­ing, research via social media (e.g. Face­book, Twit­ter) and par­tic­i­pa­tory research. Come share your own expe­ri­ence and learn some­thing new to try in your next research project.

Hess is a cul­tural anthro­pol­o­gist whose pri­mary research inter­ests are the health and well-being of migrants, includ­ing refugees and immi­grants. Since join­ing the PRC in 2009, she has devel­oped a par­tic­u­lar focus on research with youth. She has been the lead qual­i­ta­tive data ana­lyst on research projects with Native Amer­i­cans and recently reset­tled refugees (Dr. Jes­sica Good­kind, PhD, PI). Hess is a co-editor/co-author of an edited vol­ume, Every­day Rup­tures: Chil­dren, Youth, and Migra­tion in Global Per­spec­tive edited by Coe, et al (Van­der­bilt Uni­ver­sity Press, 2011).

For more infor­ma­tion con­tact Theresa Cruz at (505) 272‑4462 or by email, ThCruz@salud.unm.edu

Posted in Campus Community, Events, Health Sciences | |