State focusing on education
Engage NM fosters a highly skilled workforce
BY NATISHA HALES
The Las Cruces Bulletin
Las Cruces played host to the first-ever Engage New Mexico Day, an all-day conference focused on developing a knowl-edge- based workforce. "There are definitely challenges facing the state of New Mexico and the entire nation to be competitive at a global level," said Noah Garrett, spokesman for the conference. "This conference is aiming to highlight those challenges and explore some solutions."
The event, held at the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum Friday, April 25, brought in nearly 200 attend-ees, which included government officials, industry leaders, students and educators, with a goal of addressing the challenges of developing a highly skilled workforce in the areas of science, technology, engineer-ing and mathematics (STEM).
"Las Cruces was chosen (as the host city) because of the tremendous work that New Mexico State (University) has done in STEM research," said Jamai Blivin, a consultant with the New Mexico Learning Network who assisted in organizing the event with the NMSU College of Educa-tion. "This is the third year they've done an event for STEM, and we decided to incorporate the workforce and e-learning to learn about what the state is doing in all areas and ways we can collaborate. The future of New Mexico education relies on partnerships, and we have many great things going on across the state." Kemi Jona of Kemi Jona Associates, a consulting firm devoted to the enhance-ment of education at all levels, presented the problems and possibilities of STEM education during the keynote address of the conference.
"We're facing a lot of challenges try-ing to help students stay in school and maintain an interest in math and science careers," Jona said. "It has reached crisis proportion. There is not enough aware-ness, and the problems arise specifically among parents and teachers."
There is a way to overcome the crisis, however.
"Technology can play a big role in addressing the challenges, particularly technologies that allow K-12 students to tap into resources at university labo-ratories or online courses," Jona said. "There are new tools that can help make it easier. Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories are tough to get to, but web conferences can connect students with scientists, making science more relevant. Learning about science in the classroom is boring, but doing science in the real world is really exciting." In the real world, however, technology companies are struggling to find a work-force with the skills required for their jobs. "Microsoft has more than 17,000 unfilled jobs because there are not enough people with the right skills to fill the jobs," said Randy Guthrie, Microsoft regional academic relations manager based in Den-ver, Colo. "Part of the problem is that stu-dents are not entering programs. Enroll-ments in computer science and informa-tion technology are down 66 to 80 percent from 2000. Parents are discouraging their children because they don't think it will be a profitable career field."
Guthrie, who was a panelist during the conference, said he is looking for ways to get the word out about the great careers students will have at Microsoft. "My own company's success depends on us not losing our competitive edge," he said. Guthrie primarily works with institu-tions of higher education in the five-state region surrounding Colorado.
"I come to classes and teach, I'll help with organizing curriculum and act as a resource for college campuses," he said. "I work primarily with colleges because it's difficult to impact K-12 students, but the colleges will impact K-12." It's also difficult to reach students in rural areas with a limited number of teachers, said Brian Ormand of the New Mexico Learning Network.
He said the organization is working to implement statewide e-learning solutions that support a variety of STEM curricula. "We're bringing quality teachers and curriculum to remote areas around the state and bringing math and science teachers to these students so they have an equal footing," he said. There are plans to make Engage New Mexico Day an annual event.
"We hope to accomplish a continued conversation around this partnership to continue a higher level of awareness of the urgency and crisis that the entire country faces," Blivin said.
Students also played a part in Engage New Mexico Day and demonstrated their knowledge of science and technology during the daylong event Friday, April 25 at the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum.
The Microsoft Across America truck passed through Las Cruces during Engage New Mexico Day Friday, April 25. Judith Goldfarb, marketing manager for the Microsoft Mobile Event Experience, and Mark Bleakley, higher education account manager, gave conference attendees more information on Microsoft's groundbreaking innovations.
NATISHA HALES | The Las Cruces Bulletin