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Five Seniors Presented with Clauve Awards

May 8, 2012 | By Karen Wentworth
Sunny_Liu

Five stu­dents at the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico have received Clauve Out­stand­ing Senior Awards. Megan Chat­ter­ton, Adrian Corti­nas, Sunny Liu, Flo­ren­cio Olguin Jr. and Kelly Williamson were pre­sented with the award that rec­og­nizes seniors who have per­formed well aca­d­e­m­i­cally and made sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions to the cam­pus com­mu­nity through lead­er­ship and involvement.

“There is an undy­ing energy I find in help­ing oth­ers and that is what dri­ves me,” said Liu who is an account­ing major and plans to pur­sue higher edu­ca­tion and ulti­mately become a teacher.

All of the award win­ners are marked by a long list of hon­ors and involve­ment. “I hope to con­tinue the tra­di­tion of schol­ar­ship and ser­vice as I head into the work­force,” said Chat­ter­ton. “I would hate to be one of those peo­ple who just sit around all the time.” Chat­ter­ton is an Eng­lish major who one day hopes to be a teacher.

Williamson is no stranger to on cam­pus involve­ment. When asked what she did in her spare time, the UNM vol­ley­ball player said, “I don’t have any! I play a lot of out­door vol­ley­ball now that I am done with my indoor sea­son.” After grad­u­a­tion she plans to play pro­fes­sional vol­ley­ball in Europe and even­tu­ally enter the Peace Corps.

Through their involve­ment, the award win­ners have been able to build a strong com­mu­nity and sup­port group to help them be suc­cess­ful. In addi­tion to their involve­ment, the stu­dents have been able to main­tain a high aca­d­e­mic standard.

“I feel hon­ored to have received an award that so many other suc­cess­ful alumni have received as under­grad­u­ates at UNM,” said Olguin who plans to pur­sue a mas­ters of busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion at UNM’s Ander­son School of Management.

The Clauve Award is named for Dean Emer­i­tus Lena Clauve.

Megan Chat­ter­ton
In addi­tion to being involved with many orga­ni­za­tions on cam­pus, Megan Chat­ter­ton has been nom­i­nated for the Clauve Out­stand­ing Senior Award at UNM. The award rec­og­nizes seniors who have per­formed well aca­d­e­m­i­cally and made sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions to the cam­pus com­mu­nity through lead­er­ship and involvement.

“I am very hon­ored to have received this award,” said Chat­ter­ton. “I am grate­ful that the uni­ver­sity has con­sid­ered me as one of its top stu­dents and hope to con­tinue the tra­di­tion of schol­ar­ship and ser­vice as I head into the workforce.”

Chat­ter­ton is a mem­ber of the Golden Key and Phi Kappa Phi honor soci­eties, has been the pres­i­dent of National Soci­ety of Col­le­giate Schol­ars, vice pres­i­dent and sec­re­tary of the Medieval stud­ies Stu­dent Asso­ci­a­tion, trea­surer of the Hob­bit Soci­ety, and sec­re­tary of the Hon­ors Stu­dent Advi­sory Coun­cil.  In addi­tion to her cam­pus involve­ment, she is a shodan, a first degree black belt, and enjoys prac­tic­ing judo, read­ing and hang­ing out with friends.

Chat­ter­ton said that her mind­set is what has allowed her to accom­plish as much as she has. “I just make sure to attend class, do my home­work in advance and make time for myself. I would hate to be one of those peo­ple who just sit around all the time,” she said.

After grad­u­at­ing in May, Chat­ter­ton plans to pur­sue a mas­ters degree in sec­ondary edu­ca­tion. She says that the lead­er­ship skill she has gained at UNM will be a great ben­e­fit to her, espe­cially in the classroom.

The 21 year old has lived in Kiowa, Colo. with her fam­ily and even­tu­ally moved to many dif­fer­ent towns in N.M. includ­ing Tularosa, Cloud­croft and Gallup where she grad­u­ated vale­dic­to­rian in 2008.

She would like to thank her par­ents Terry and Ellen Chat­ter­ton and pro­fes­sors Leslie Dono­van and Anita Ober­meier for their con­stant sup­port through­out her time at UNM.

Sunny Liu
Por­tales, N.M. native and high school grad­u­ate, Sunny Liu has been nom­i­nated for the Clauve Out­stand­ing Senior Award at the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico. The award rec­og­nizes seniors who have per­formed well aca­d­e­m­i­cally and made sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions to the cam­pus com­mu­nity through lead­er­ship and involvement.

After being offered the UNM Regents’ Schol­ar­ship, he decided to attend UNM with the goal of soak­ing up every sin­gle part of the col­lege experience.

Through­out his time at UNM, Liu has been involved in Alpha Tau Omega fra­ter­nity (ATO), Beta Alpha Psi fra­ter­nity, Inter­na­tional Busi­ness Stu­dents Global, Asso­ci­ated Stu­dents of the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico (ASUNM) and Net Impact, just to name a few.

“I had been extremely involved in high school and vowed to be more selec­tive about my involve­ment in col­lege, but I sup­pose old habits die hard,” said Liu about his desire to be involved. “There is an undy­ing energy I find in help­ing oth­ers and that is what dri­ves me.”

After grad­u­at­ing in May 2013, the 21 year old account­ing major plans to pur­sue higher edu­ca­tion and ulti­mately become a teacher.

Liu said that his favorite mem­o­ries at UNM involve the stu­dent lead­ers he has met through the ASUNM Office and being a found­ing father of ATO.

Liu cred­its much of his suc­cess to his girl­friend, Lau­ren Main for help­ing him through­out many dif­fi­cult times dur­ing high school and college.

Flo­ren­cio Olguin Jr.
At a uni­ver­sity with a pop­u­la­tion of just over 20,000 full time stu­dents, Flo­ren­cio Olguin Jr. has man­aged to cre­ate a sup­port group that makes him feel like he is back in his 2,800 per­son home­town of Santa Rosa, N.M. Being well sup­ported is what has made him so successful.

Flo­ren­cio Olguin Jr. has been nom­i­nated for the Clauve Out­stand­ing Senior Award at The Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico. The award rec­og­nizes seniors who have per­formed well aca­d­e­m­i­cally and made sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions to the cam­pus com­mu­nity through lead­er­ship and involvement.

Despite the fact that UNM is much larger than Santa Rosa where he grad­u­ated high school in 2008, Olguin said he has enjoyed his time at UNM very much. He said he had two goals for his col­le­giate career. He wanted to be involved with orga­ni­za­tions that would give him expe­ri­ence and hoped to set a pos­i­tive exam­ple for his younger brother, Andres Olguin. He said that work­ing towards these goals has helped him make the most out of his time at UNM.

His goals for col­lege of being a pos­i­tive role model for his younger brother, Andres, and being involved with orga­ni­za­tions that would give him expe­ri­ence have helped him make the most of his time at UNM.

“When I found out I was a recip­i­ent of the Clauve Award I was ini­tially in dis­be­lief,” said Olguin. “I feel hon­ored to have received an award that so many other suc­cess­ful alumni have received as under­grad­u­ates at UNM.”

By being involved in orga­ni­za­tions at UNM, Olguin has been able to build a sup­port sys­tem and net­work sim­i­lar to those of his fam­ily and home­town community.

After grad­u­at­ing with a dou­ble major polit­i­cal sci­ence and pub­lic rela­tions in Sum­mer 2012, the 21 year old plans to begin a mas­ters of busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion at UNM’s Ander­son School of Management.

Olguin cred­its many peo­ple in his life for help­ing him achieve his per­sonal and aca­d­e­mic goals includ­ing his par­ents, Flo­ren­cio and Roberta Olguin, grand­par­ents Berto and Julia Chavez, girl­friend Ash­leigh More and many employ­ees on cam­pus who have been men­tors to him. Rem­i­nisc­ing on his under­grad­u­ate career at UNM, Olguin said that none of it would have been pos­si­ble with­out the sup­port of these people.

Kelly Williamson
As she began her col­lege career at the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico, Kelly Williamson had the high goal of being an Aca­d­e­mic All Amer­i­can for vol­ley­ball. Along with achiev­ing this and many other per­sonal and aca­d­e­mic goals, Williamson has been nom­i­nated for the Clauve Out­stand­ing Senior Award at UNM. The award rec­og­nizes seniors who have per­formed well aca­d­e­m­i­cally and made sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions to the cam­pus com­mu­nity through lead­er­ship and involvement.

Williamson grad­u­ated from Lin­coln Inter­na­tional High School in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She decided to attend UNM after being recruited to play Vol­ley­ball there.

Vol­ley­ball has been a cen­tral part of her time at UNM. When asked what she did in her spare time, Williamson said, “I don’t have any! I play a lot of out­door vol­ley­ball now that I am done with my indoor season.”

She said her favorite col­le­giate mem­ory was com­pet­ing in the NCAA tour­na­ment with her team­mates. After grad­u­a­tion this May, Williamson plans to play vol­ley­ball pro­fes­sion­ally in Europe and com­plete the Mas­ters Inter­na­tional Pro­gram with the Peace Corps.

In addi­tion to vol­ley­ball, Williamson is involved with and has held posi­tions with the Stu­dent Ath­lete Advi­sory Com­mit­tee, Asso­ci­ated Stu­dents of the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico and the La Placita Institute.

Williamson is grad­u­at­ing in May with a major in biol­ogy and a minor in sus­tain­abil­ity stud­ies because she has a pas­sion for pre­serv­ing the environment.

Williamson said that she is truly hon­ored to receive the award and would like to thank her par­ents Mar­cia and Cliff Williamson, her brother Tyler Williamson, coaches and past and cur­rent team­mates for help­ing her suc­ceed in all aspects of her life.

Story by Evann Kleinschmidt

Posted in Campus Community, Featured, Student Life, University News | |

SUB Late Night Breakfast Set for Sunday, May 6

May 3, 2012 | By Steve Carr

The Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico Stu­dent Union Build­ing will hold their 15th Late Night Break­fast event Sun­day, May 6 from 9 p.m. – 11 p.m. in the SUB Ball­rooms. This event pro­vides stu­dents with a free break­fast, the oppor­tu­nity to win great prizes, and most impor­tantly, a way to have fun in a stress– free envi­ron­ment before finals start.

“We are excited about all of the new give­aways we have to offer this semes­ter,” Auri Vigil, SUB Mar­ket­ing assis­tant and event coor­di­na­tor. “This year we will have more t-shirts to give away, water bot­tles and trucker hats. We will be giv­ing away a Dell Lap­top and iPad.”

Addi­tion­ally, spe­cial gifts will be given at the door to stu­dents with a UNM ID while sup­plies last.

The SUB will also intro­duce a Pan­cake Eat­ing Con­test into the Late Night Break­fast. Other activ­i­ties that stu­dents can par­tic­i­pate in free of charge include ping-pong, a photo booth and mas­sage ther­apy. The SUB will also be fea­tur­ing a live per­for­mance from the band, The Noms, in the SUB Ball­rooms as well as music by DJs PBS on the Mall Level.

All UNM stu­dents with a Lobo ID are eli­gi­ble for free give­aways and can par­tic­i­pate in the raf­fle. All raf­fle win­ners must be present to win. The raf­fles will begin at 10 p.m. and will con­tinue through­out the rest of the evening. The SUB will be raf­fling off dona­tions from ven­dors such as Texas Road­house, Ele­phant Bar, Jimmy John’s, Sadie’s, and Il Vicino. All of the prizes were donated from ven­dors in our com­mu­nity who believe in reward­ing the hard work of UNM students.

“We are very grate­ful for all the sup­port from our local ven­dors, through­out the year, and espe­cially at Late Night Break­fast,” Alex Borowski, SUB Mar­ket­ing Assis­tant and event coordinator.

For more infor­ma­tion about Late Night Break­fast, visit Face­book UNM SUB or call 277‑1050.

Posted in Campus Community, Events, Student Life | |

Student Regent Jacob Wellman Receives Prestigious National Fraternity Award

May 2, 2012 | By Karen Wentworth
Jacob Wellman

Jacob Well­man

Jacob Well­man is no stranger to respon­si­bil­ity and team­work. At 22, and still a year away from grad­u­at­ing, he has been the pres­i­dent of his fra­ter­nity, held mul­ti­ple posi­tions at the Asso­ci­ated Stu­dents of the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico (ASUNM) and cur­rently serves as a UNM Stu­dent Regent.

In recog­ni­tion of his achieve­ments, Well­man was one of only three men in the nation cho­sen to receive the North-American Inter­fra­ter­nity Con­fer­ence Under­grad­u­ate Award of Dis­tinc­tion. The award rec­og­nizes fra­ter­nity men who have used the under­grad­u­ate fra­ter­nity expe­ri­ence to develop as a leader and as a man.

“I’ve learned how valu­able friends and men­tors are and I now under­stand the ben­e­fits to pur­su­ing knowl­edge,” Well­man said.

Well­man joined Alpha Tau Omega (ATO) because he admired the fraternity’s belief that polit­i­cal, reli­gious and philo­soph­i­cal dif­fer­ences have lit­tle effect on a group’s abil­ity to bet­ter the world.

In addi­tion, Well­man was chal­lenged with the unique expe­ri­ence of re-chartering a chap­ter of ATO at UNM. The ATO char­ter was pulled in 1985 after the chap­ter was no longer able to main­tain the high stan­dards set by the ATO national headquarters.

Well­man said he saw the oppor­tu­nity to re-charter ATO as a way to bring more diver­sity to UNM, Greek Life and a group of young men. “I am already see­ing the pos­i­tive dif­fer­ence it has made within Greek Life, on cam­pus and in our mem­bers’ lives.”

“Jake is an incred­i­ble leader and men­tor,” said Skip Brown, ATO Alumni Chap­ter Advisor.

Well­man said the char­ter­ing cer­e­mony this past March is his favorite fra­ter­nity memory.

“To see our chap­ter alumni cry­ing tears of joy that their fra­ter­nity had returned to UNM was a very mov­ing moment,” he said. “The day cul­mi­nated years of hard work and strug­gles that I was able to expe­ri­ence and enjoy with my broth­ers and friends.”

At the cer­e­mony, the mem­bers were finally able to see their fraternity’s rit­ual and be pro­claimed an offi­cial chap­ter of Alpha Tau Omega.

After grad­u­a­tion, Well­man plans to attend law school and work in pub­lic ser­vice with the inten­tion of one day serv­ing in politics.

Story by Evann Kleinschmidt

Posted in Campus Community, Regents, Student Life, University News | |

UNM Students Build, Launch Balloon into Ionosphere

May 1, 2012 | By Karen Wentworth
Balloon in sky

Balloon in skyA team of UNM under­grad­u­ates work­ing on a senior design cap­stone project have designed, built and launched a helium bal­loon with a pay­load of sen­sors into the ionosphere. The group led by Clint Corbin, the lead mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing designer and Zach Rober­son, the pay­load designer launched the bal­loon from Mori­arty, N.M. on April 14, 2012. It was recov­ered more than 300 miles away in Colorado.

Slideshow

The team is super­vised by Chris Hall, pro­fes­sor of Mechan­i­cal Engi­neer­ing and Chris­tos Christodoulou, pro­fes­sor of Elec­tri­cal and Com­puter Engi­neer­ing and includes Matt McCul­lough, who func­tioned as the lead Elec­tri­cal Engi­neer, Scott Wil­son, who did pay­load elec­tron­ics design, Clint Been who worked on atmos­pher­ics analy­sis, Pre­ston Edwards who worked on the struc­ture, Earl Camp­bell who did com­mu­ni­ca­tions and Wal­lie Kin­caid who worked on the elec­tri­cal systems.

Craig Kief, aca­d­e­mic pro­grams and design ser­vices for the Con­fig­urable Space Microsys­tems Inno­va­tions and Appli­ca­tions Cen­ter (COSMIAC) and Brian Zufelt, in charge of small satel­lite and SPA devel­op­ment, worked as advi­sors to the team. COSMIAC is a Tier 1 research cen­ter in the Elec­tri­cal and Com­puter Engi­neer­ing Depart­ment at UNM and a char­ter pro­gram of the Phillips Tech­nol­ogy Insti­tute of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Space Vehi­cles Direc­torate at Kirt­land Air Force Base in Albuquerque.

The first launch was a proof of con­cept that the team could fly and recover the payloads. The sec­ond flight, sched­uled for early May will carry a “com­mand mod­ule” that con­tains com­mu­ni­ca­tions and power sys­tems to ensure all FAA require­ments are met. The “com­mand mod­ule” is reusable.

Over the sum­mer the team hopes to fly bal­loons car­ry­ing exper­i­ments every two weeks.  The bal­loons, which reach an alti­tude of 100,000 feet, will be used as a plat­form for test­ing imag­ing, com­mu­ni­ca­tions, bio­log­i­cal and other experiments.

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

Posted in Campus Community, Student Life, University News | |

Wahleah Watson Crowned 2012 Miss Indian UNM

April 26, 2012 | By Carolyn Gonzales
Wahleah Watson

Wahleah Wat­son

Wahleah Rose Wat­son was crowned the 2012 Miss Indian UNM at a pageant recently. Wat­son, of the Big Water clan born for the Bit­ter Water clan, is orig­i­nally from Ft. Defi­ance, Ariz. She is study­ing nurs­ing with a con­cen­tra­tion in Navajo.

She explained her rea­sons for com­pet­ing in the pageant, “I wanted the expe­ri­ence and oppor­tu­nity to rep­re­sent UNM, but most of all the honor to rep­re­sent my fam­ily and community.”

Wat­son said, “I believe Miss UNM rep­re­sents a native woman valu­ing her native iden­tity, which will set me apart from other appli­cants when I apply to the nurs­ing pro­gram.” She added that it is impor­tant to be “well-rounded, edu­cated and a role model for UNM, her com­mu­nity and the younger generation.”

She said that once she com­pletes a bachelor’s in nurs­ing, she would like to pur­sue a master’s degree in mid­wifery or nurse anesthetist.

“I decided to study nurs­ing because of a tragic trauma of my only five-year-old niece being diag­nosed with a rare can­cer,” she said, adding that cop­ing with the ill­ness has changed the lives of all her fam­ily members.

She noticed that when her niece dealt with pain, she relied on the nurse. “The nurse is not only a care­giver, but they cre­ated a spe­cial rela­tion­ship that my niece val­ues.” Wat­son sees the poten­tial to help her niece and other ail­ing chil­dren through nursing.

She is the first in her imme­di­ate fam­ily to pur­sue higher edu­ca­tion. She’s in the UNM Stu­dent Sup­port Service-TRiO pro­gram, where she’s had valu­able vol­un­teer expe­ri­ences across the city.

Wat­son stud­ies fla­menco and looks for­ward to mov­ing up to the advance level of dance.

“My cur­rent accom­plish­ment that I am pleased with is fin­ish­ing my con­cen­tra­tion of Navajo Lan­guage this semes­ter. I have been able to main­tain my cul­tural iden­tity in the mod­ern soci­ety through­out my edu­ca­tional career by always hav­ing a pos­i­tive open mind,” she said.

Respect for mother earth and father sky means for her to wake up before the sun comes up, pray­ing sacred tra­di­tional prayers and hav­ing safe trav­els from her apart­ment to school. “I wear Navajo jew­elry to rep­re­sent my iden­tity and take proper care of jew­elry that was passed down,” she said, adding that she is ded­i­cated to shar­ing what she’s learned about Navajo cul­ture and lan­guage with her sib­lings and niece.

“I am ulti­mately study­ing the Navajo lan­guage to become a more flu­ent speaker and to remind myself every­day that I rep­re­sent four clans and Chang­ing women as a Navajo woman.”

Other con­tes­tants were Jes­sica Becenti, Navajo; and Ariel Nez, Navajo. Judges for the event were Eveli Abeyta, Kewa Pueblo, Miss Indian New Mex­ico 2011–2012; Pam Agoyo, Cochiti Pueblo, Kewa Pueblo, Ohkay Owingeh, direc­tor, UNM Amer­i­can Indian Stu­dent Ser­vices, and spe­cial assis­tant to the Pres­i­dent for Amer­i­can Indian Affairs, Melv­ina McCabe, pro­fes­sor, vice chair of Diver­sity, Fam­ily & com­mu­nity Med­i­cine, direc­tor, Native Amer­i­can Alliance for COm­mu­nity Health and Well­ness, Navajo; Lawrence Roy­bal, exec­u­tive direc­tor, ENLACE Statewide Col­lab­o­ra­tive, exec­u­tive direc­tor, UNM Grad­u­ate Resource Cen­ter, assis­tant dean, Grad­u­ate Stud­ies; Chan­dler Sanchez, All Indian Pueblo Coun­cil, Acoma Pueblo.

Media con­tact: Car­olyn Gon­za­les (505) 277‑5920; email: cgonzal@unm.edu

Posted in Student Life, University News | |

UNM Student Engineering Team Excels at Environmental Design Contest

April 16, 2012 | By Karen Wentworth
UNM Environmental Design Team Craig Garcia, Andrew Gomez, Peter Crowder, Zachariah Harris and Stephen Clark
UNM Environmental Design Team Craig Garcia, Zachariah Harris, Andrew Gomez, Stephen Clark and Peter Crowder

UNM Envi­ron­men­tal Design Team (l ot r) Craig Gar­cia, Zachariah Har­ris, Andrew Gomez, Stephen Clark and Peter Crowder

A team of stu­dents from the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico won first place last Wednes­day at the 22nd Inter­na­tional Envi­ron­men­tal Design Con­test. Chem­i­cal engi­neer­ing majors Stephen Clark, Peter Crow­der, Andrew Gomez, Zachariah Har­ris, and Craig Gar­cia received $2500, acclaim, and pro­fes­sional feed­back for their design solution.

The team was advised by Dr. Eric Carnes, assis­tant research pro­fes­sor; Geoff Courtin, research engi­neer and super­vi­sor of the Chem­i­cal Engi­neer­ing Under­grad­u­ate Lab­o­ra­tory; Civil Engi­neer­ing Pro­fes­sor Kerry Howe; and Civil Engi­neer­ing post-doctoral stu­dent Dr. Janet Leavitt.

The event took place at the Las Cruces Farm & Ranch Her­itage Museum, where the UNM team excelled among the 20 stu­dent teams rep­re­sent­ing 15 uni­ver­si­ties from across the coun­try. Hosted by New Mex­ico State University’s Insti­tute for Energy and the Envi­ron­ment (IEE), the con­test awarded $20,000 to win­ning teams for solv­ing tech­ni­cal envi­ron­men­tal prob­lems. Hav­ing spent sev­eral months to a year on their projects, the stu­dent teams pre­sented oral, writ­ten, poster and bench-scale demon­stra­tions of their inno­v­a­tive solu­tions to real-world prob­lems at the annual competition.

“The Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico did an out­stand­ing job dur­ing the com­pe­ti­tion,” said Dr. Abbas Ghas­semi, Direc­tor of IEE. “The team had the high­est over­all total score and high­est indi­vid­ual scores in each of the four cat­e­gories.” The UNM team received first place in the Task 5 cat­e­gory for design­ing an improved method for pre­treat­ing water on sea-going ships. The team devel­oped a real­is­tic solu­tion that could be applied to both sea­wa­ter and inland appli­ca­tion, reduc­ing the envi­ron­men­tal impact pro­duced by the cur­rent pre­treat­ment process.

“The team’s sys­tem uses an ultra-filtration mem­brane to remove par­tic­u­lates from sea­wa­ter,” explained Courtin. “It is designed to be an envi­ron­men­tally benign pre­treat­ment for the reverse osmo­sis mem­brane process used to cre­ate potable water.  With­out pre­treat­ment, reverse osmo­sis mem­branes become quickly fouled, which makes them less effec­tive and dras­ti­cally dri­ves up the cost of pro­duc­ing drink­ing water.”

The team’s device uti­lizes hol­low fiber mem­branes to reduce foul­ing (dirty­ing of the mem­brane). The sea water enters one end of the cylin­der which con­tains the mem­brane and runs tan­gen­tial to the pores of the mem­brane. This car­ries away par­tic­u­lates before they can accu­mu­late. That’s the back­bone of the design, explained Gar­cia. The pres­sure in the sys­tem forces water through the pores to a tube in the cen­ter of the cylin­der. When the water exits on the oppo­site side of the cylin­der, it is particulate-free and ready for fur­ther processing.

The full scale—the size the device would be in real life—was orig­i­nally designed for use on a spe­cific size of ship, but once the team met this qual­i­fi­ca­tion they mod­i­fied their design so it could be used on land as well. It was designed to be eas­ily scaled up or down to meet these vary­ing appli­ca­tions, and is transportable.

WERC’s Envi­ron­men­tal Design Con­test is a unique event that brings together indus­try, gov­ern­ment and acad­e­mia in the search for improved envi­ron­men­tal solu­tions. Held annu­ally since 1991 at New Mex­ico State Uni­ver­sity in Las Cruces, New Mex­ico, the con­test draws hun­dreds of col­lege stu­dents from through­out the United States and around the world.

A full list of win­ners and events at the con­test is avail­able at http://ieenmsu.org.This year’s event was spon­sored by the State of New Mex­ico, Freeport-McMoRan Cop­per & Gold, Intel Cor­po­ra­tion, the Office of Naval Research, and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

Story by Mat­tie Hens­ley, NMSU

Posted in Research, Student Life, University News | |

Student Hjelm Wins Prestigious Playwriting Award

April 12, 2012 | By Sari Krosinsky

UNM Depart­ment of The­atre and Dance Mas­ter of Fine Arts in dra­matic writ­ing stu­dent Christina Hjelm received the KCACTF Latino Play­writ­ing Award for her play, “Casu­al­ties of Dreams and Sand.” The award is part of the Kennedy Cen­ter Amer­i­can Col­lege The­ater Festival’s Michael Kanin Play­writ­ing Awards pro­gram. It comes with $1,000, a sum­mer pro­fes­sional devel­op­ment res­i­dency, mem­ber­ship in both the Drama­tists Guild of Amer­ica and the Play­wrights Cen­ter of Min­neapo­lis, and an invi­ta­tion to be in res­i­dence at the Kennedy Cen­ter dur­ing the KCACTF National Festival.

Hjelm is a Miami grown Cuban Amer­i­can writer. She attended the Uni­ver­sity of Miami for under­grad­u­ate stud­ies in vocal per­for­mance and the­atre and is now in her sec­ond year with UNM’s dra­matic writ­ing grad­u­ate program.

“Casu­al­ties of Dreams and Sand” will be pre­sented as part of the 2012 Words Afire! Fes­ti­val of New Plays, with two per­for­mances in UNM’s Exper­i­men­tal The­atre: at 9:30 p.m. on Thurs­day, April 12, and Fri­day, April 20. The play tells the story of Adri­ana. At a time when the U.S. econ­omy is col­laps­ing and Amer­i­can sol­diers con­tinue to die in the Mid­dle East, Adriana’s home falls vic­tim to the mort­gage cri­sis while her sol­dier hus­band is away fight­ing in Iraq. When this teenage wife decides to steal back her fore­closed home, she finds her­self face-to-face with an unex­pected squat­ter that she will never for­get. Valli Rivera directs the read­ing of this award-winning play.

Per­for­mances are free. For more infor­ma­tion about this and the other world pre­miere plays, visit Words Afire!

Story by Kath­leen Clawson

Posted in Arts & Humanities, Student Life, University News | |

SUB Games Room Gets a Makeover, New Name

April 3, 2012 | By Mara Kerkez
Louies Lounge

The Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico has renamed the games room in the Stu­dent Union Build­ing to Louie’s Lounge. A grand reopen­ing cer­e­mony is Wednes­day, April 4 from noon – 2 p.m. on the SUB Plaza level next to the Lobo Card office.

“I’m excited about the changes we have made for stu­dents to enjoy all of our new ser­vices,” said Den­nis Armijo, Louie’s Lounge manager.

For­merly named cUeNM, SUB employ­ees con­ducted sur­veys to find out how stu­dents wanted the SUB games room to be improved.

“The feed­back we received was the dri­ving force behind all of our new ini­tia­tives, ser­vices and theme,” said Grad­u­ate Assis­tant and Project Lead Greg Golden.

Apart from a strik­ing new look, Louie’s Lounge improve­ments include new, larger tele­vi­sions, an XBOX 360 Kinect,  plus nine pool tables, four ping pong tables and a seat­ing area. XBOX 360 Kinect games include: NCAA Foot­ball 12, FIFA soc­cer 12, SSX, Forsa, Wipe­out, Dance Cen­tral, UFC 3, NBA 2k12, Kinect adven­ture and Call of Duty Mod­ern War­fare 3.  

The event will include a visit from Lobo Louie and Lucy, a live DJ, free Pepsi prod­ucts and water bot­tles, as well as free play on all new prod­ucts and ser­vices for stu­dents to enjoy.

For more infor­ma­tion about Louie’s Lounge, visit: sub@unm.edu or call 277‑0340.

Posted in Campus Community, Events, Student Life | |

UNM Parent Association Seeks Scholarship Applicants

March 28, 2012 | By Steve Carr

The UNM Par­ent Asso­ci­a­tion is solic­it­ing appli­ca­tions for schol­ar­ships for the 2012–2013 aca­d­e­mic year. The schol­ar­ships, which are avail­able to under­grad­u­ates and grad­u­ates, will be awarded based pri­mar­ily on finan­cial need and aca­d­e­mic achievement.

Appli­ca­tion forms are avail­able at Par­ent Asso­ci­a­tion Schol­ar­ships. Only com­plete appli­ca­tion pack­ages received by April 20, 2012 will be considered.

The fol­low­ing cat­e­gories will be awarded:

Under­grad­u­ate Schol­ar­ships
Thirty-two $1,000 schol­ar­ships ($500 per semester)

Included below are schol­ar­ship spon­sors from the Par­ent Association’s Annual Golf Tour­na­ment.
One Schol­ar­ship — AUI Inc.
One Schol­ar­ship — W. D. Reed Co.
One Schol­ar­ship — La Farge
One Schol­ar­ship — GLHN
One Schol­ar­ship — ACC Cam­pus Com­mu­ni­ties
Two Schol­ar­ships — Pete’s Land­scap­ing
Two Schol­ar­ships — WHPa­cific Inc.
Three Schol­ar­ships — Kone
Three Schol­ar­ships — ICSI
Sev­en­teen ($1,000) Schol­ar­ships – from golf tour­na­ment, silent auc­tion and hol­i­day orna­ment revenue

Grad­u­ate Schol­ar­ships
Six $1,000 schol­ar­ships ($500 per semes­ter) — from golf tour­na­ment, silent auc­tion and hol­i­day orna­ment revenue

Daugh­ters of Pene­lope Schol­ar­ship
One $1,000 schol­ar­ship ($500 per semes­ter) to a female under­grad­u­ate or grad­u­ate student

TheraSpeech LLC (1/2) / Par­ent Asso­ci­a­tion (1/2)
One $1,000 Schol­ar­ship ($500 per semes­ter) for an under­grad­u­ate or grad­u­ate stu­dent study­ing speech/communication disorders

Schol­ar­ship Eli­gi­bil­ity Require­ments
• Have a min­i­mum of a UNM 2.5 cumu­la­tive grade point aver­age
• Under­grad­u­ates: Must be full-time enrolled (12 credit hours or more) sopho­more, junior or senior dur­ing award year with at least two full-time semes­ters remain­ing until grad­u­a­tion
• Grad­u­ates: Must be full-time enrolled (9 credit hours or more, or 6 hours and an assist­ant­ship) master’s or doc­toral stu­dent with at least two full-time semes­ters remain­ing until grad­u­a­tion (con­tin­u­ing grad­u­ate stu­dents and new grad­u­ate stu­dents who are con­tin­u­ing on from their UNM under­grad­u­ate degree the pre­vi­ous semes­ter are eli­gi­ble
• New under­grad­u­ate or grad­u­ate trans­fer stu­dents for the 2012–2013 aca­d­e­mic year are not eli­gi­ble
• Inter­na­tional stu­dents are not eligible

Doc­u­ments Required (Com­plete Schol­ar­ship Packet)
• Par­ent Asso­ci­a­tion Schol­ar­ship Appli­ca­tion Form
• A brief state­ment describ­ing the rea­sons you are apply­ing for this schol­ar­ship. Please describe how this schol­ar­ship will help you achieve aca­d­e­mic suc­cess (no more than 250 words)
• Rec­om­men­da­tion let­ter from one of your UNM instruc­tors
• Unof­fi­cial UNM tran­script
• UNM Finan­cial Aid Award Pack­age for the 2012–2013 Aca­d­e­mic Year

Appli­ca­tion forms may be down­loaded at Par­ent Asso­ci­a­tion Schol­ar­ships. Only com­plete appli­ca­tion pack­ages received by April 20, 2012 will be con­sid­ered. Incom­plete pack­ages will be dis­qual­i­fied and not con­sid­ered for an award. Mailed appli­ca­tions must be received by April 20, 2012. Faxed and elec­tronic appli­ca­tions will not be accepted.

There are two options avail­able to stu­dents for sub­mit­ting your com­plete Par­ent Asso­ci­a­tion Schol­ar­ship packet:

1) Com­pleted appli­ca­tion pack­ets may be dropped off at the front lobby desk at Stu­dent Sup­port & Ser­vices Cen­ter dur­ing reg­u­lar busi­ness hours – Mon­day — Fri­day, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Atten­tion: Deb­o­rah Vigil Kiel­tyka
Stu­dent Sup­port & Ser­vices Cen­ter
Par­ent Asso­ci­a­tion Schol­ar­ship Com­mit­tee
1155 Uni­ver­sity Bl. SE
Albu­querque, NM 87106

or

2) Com­pleted appli­ca­tion pack­ets may be mailed to:

Atten­tion: Deb­o­rah Vigil Kiel­tyka
Stu­dent Sup­port & Ser­vices Cen­ter
Par­ent Asso­ci­a­tion Schol­ar­ship Com­mit­tee
1 Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico
MSC11 6300
Albu­querque, NM 87106

** Note a slight dif­fer­ence in the mail­ing address which includes mail stop code. Include all infor­ma­tion as listed at the above address (No. 2) to ensure proper deliv­ery.

Ini­tial noti­fi­ca­tion by email to schol­ar­ship recip­i­ents for the 2012–2013 aca­d­e­mic year will hap­pen by June 1, 2012.

Con­tin­u­a­tion of the Par­ent Asso­ci­a­tion Schol­ar­ship award for the Spring 2013 semes­ter is con­tin­gent upon the suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of full-time credit hours, a con­tin­ued cumu­la­tive GPA of 2.5 or higher and ver­i­fi­ca­tion of full-time enroll­ment for the Spring 2013 semester.

The Par­ent Asso­ci­a­tion mis­sion is to pro­mote stu­dent suc­cess and aca­d­e­mic excel­lence; engage par­ents in the University’s mis­sion and goals; empower par­ents to play a sup­port­ive role in stu­dent edu­ca­tion; and pro­vide a forum for networking.

Media Con­tact: Steve Carr, (505) 277‑1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu.

Posted in Campus Community, Student Life, University News | |

UNM Involvement with National Student Exchange Program Reaches New High

March 28, 2012 | By Mara Kerkez

The Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico placed 60 out of 68 appli­cants to the National Stu­dent Exchange (NSE) pro­gram at the recent NSE Place­ment Con­fer­ence in Anchor­age, Alaska ear­lier in March, as well as plac­ing two more after the conference.

The 62 UNM stu­dents accepted into the pro­gram will par­tic­i­pate for either a year or a semes­ter, study­ing in Hawaii, N.H., Alaska or Fla., 16 stu­dents were placed at UNM. The pro­gram gets rave reviews from participants. One stu­dent said the exchange was the most amaz­ing adven­ture they’d had, and that it gave them the oppor­tu­nity to meet new friends, try new food and learn a new language. 

To date, UNM has placed nearly 2,000 stu­dents at var­i­ous uni­ver­si­ties around the coun­try and has accepted nearly 1,000 stu­dents wish­ing to study at UNM.

Stu­dents can apply for the pro­gram by appoint­ment with Rob Bur­ford in the Dean of Stu­dents office. Bur­ford can be con­tacted at (505) 277‑3361 or email, rburford@unm.edu.

Infor­ma­tion about the pro­gram can be found on its web­site at National Stu­dent Exchange.

Posted in Events, Student Life | |