Archive for the ‘Announcements’ Category

Release courtesy of The Bridge of Southern New Mexico

The first early college high school (ECHS) in New Mexico opened its doors to students on Tuesday, July 6, 2010, when approximately 116 LCPS freshmen began classes. The new high school, the fifth within Las Cruces Public Schools, will temporarily be housed within the Dona Ana Community College (DACC) for the 2010/2011 school year.

LCPS Superintendent Stan Rounds said, “This school is the direct result of community and educational partners coming together to address the future of our local students,” said Rounds. “It began with a dream, molded itself through the Bridge initiative, and now I’m proud to announce we have our first class of students.”

The Bridge (formerly known as the REI – Regional Education Initiative) brought together private business, public and higher education, government, and economic development, to find solutions on reducing the dropout rate and better preparing graduates for the workforce.

“This is a really great day for our community and it shows the impact of people coming together to seek solutions together,” said Suzanne Quillen, chairwoman of The Bridge of Southern New Mexico. “The early college high school is nationally a best practice for reducing the dropout rate and preparing young people to successfully enter the work force.”

Rounds said the LCPS ECHS will offer students the chance to earn not only a high school diploma, but also to graduate from high school with an associate’s degree and credits toward a bachelor’s degree. The ECHS will emphasize science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) classes, entrepreneurship, along with career and technical education (CTE) courses.

Students were selected by completing an application and participating in a lottery drawing. The first class of ECHS freshmen (the class of 2014) will begin their high school careers with “a ninth-grade experience that will ignite their interest in education by providing relevance to their academics through high quality career and technical education (CTE) studies,” said Jennifer Amis, principal. “More than half our students will be the first in their families to attend a college or university.”

“This collaborative project has opened up a new avenue to higher education, one that affords greater access for many of our community’s youth who otherwise might have seen college as just a distant dream. Early College High School is about turning those dreams into reality while, at the same time, strengthening our workforce,” said Dr. Margie Huerta, DACC president. “The opening of this innovative school is proof that DACC, LCPS and NMSU can work together effectively to improve educational opportunities.”

“Nationally, early college high schools have a 90% graduation rate,” said Tracey Bryan, executive director of The Bridge. “They offer smaller learning environments and real-world applications in the coursework. This will give students a firm foundation on which to build a strong future for themselves, their families and their communities.”

By the summer of 2011, construction will be complete on a permanent eight-acre ECHS campus on Arrowhead Research Park on the western edge of NMSU. The state-of-the-art classrooms facilities are currently being designed by Studio D Architects of Las Cruces in collaboration with GenCon Corporation, LCPS, and the Arrowhead Development Corporation.

The New Mexico Procurement Technical Assistance Program (PTAP) has scheduled three seminars in Las Cruces to aid local businesses in doing business with the government.  All seminars will be held at the Dona Ana Community College Workforce Development Center, 2345 East Nevada Avenue.

• June 23, 2010 – Government Contracting 101Workshop; 10:00 am – noon

This informative workshop will introduce local business owners to government contracting and provide valuable information on resources available to help them to market their product/service to the government.  There is no fee for this workshop. Please register for this free workshop by calling William P. Hett-Dobricky at (575)528-7431 or by e-mail: william.hettdobricky@sfcc.edu.

• June 28, 2010 – Wide Are Work Flow  – Receipts and Acceptance; 8:30 am – 5:00 pm

Wide Area Work Flow – Receipts and Acceptance (WAWF-RA) is a Paperless Contracting DoD-wide application designed to eliminate paper from the receipts and acceptance process of the DoD contracting lifecycle. The goal is to enable authorized Defense contractors and DoD personnel the ability to create invoices and receiving reports and access contract related documents.  Businesses must be registered in Central Contractor Registration (CCR) to gain access to these applications. The fee for this training session is $140 per person.  Seating is limited to 20 attendees so please register by calling Barbara Sinha at (800) 281-7232 or by e-mail: barbara.sinha@sfcc.edu.

• July 13, 2010 – Federal Government Accounting Practices Seminar – 9:00 am – 3:00 pm

This daylong and informative seminar introduces business owners and accountants to the methods and processes of government contract accounting.  Topics include establishing a government compliant accounting system, developing a government rate, the government audit process, and more. The fee for this training session is $119 per person.  Please register for this training session by calling Barbara Sinha at (800) 281-7232 or by e-mail: barbara.sinha@sfcc.edu.

For more information about the services available from the Procurement Technical Assistance Program contact:

William Hett-Dobricky, PTAP Advisor

2345 E Nevada Ave, Suite #101, Las Cruces, NM 88001

(575) 528-7431

william.hettdobricky@sfcc.edu

The New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NMMEP) invites you to attend a workshop to reduce manufacturing costs.

July 21, 2010

Location: Dona Ana Community College Workforce Center

2345 E Nevada Ave, Las Cruces, New Mexico

8am Registration

8:30am-3:00pm Workshop (Lunch included)

Who should attend? Everyone who is involved in producing a product — all levels of the company will benefit and be able to apply the Lean Manufacturing to reduce product costs.

You will see results!

• Ways to work smarter, not harder, and get more done

• Proven Lean Manufacturing techniques to reduce costs through

O Increased efficiency

O Better utilization of resources

O Improved productivity

O Reduced overtime

• How to identify and eliminate the 8 types of non-value added activities (wastes) to save time and money

• How to immediately apply Lean principles in your facility

No charge for attending – The tuition ($350) is subsidized by New Mexico Small Business Assistance for qualified companies. Eligibility confirmation is required prior to the workshop.

Space is limited. Register before July 7, 2010 by calling Jeff Abrams (575)642-3577 or via email: jeffa@newmexicomep.org.

*Must be a NM manufacturer meeting U.S. Small Business Administration requirements for small business.

Article courtesy of the Las Cruces Bulletin

By Gabriel Vasquez

A spark of genius is returning to Las Cruces. The second annual Re-Energize America conference, slated for Thursday and Friday, June 3 and 4, will corral a group of national experts in the energy field to speak on various topics related to short-term planning for long-term energy independence. U.S. Representative Harry Teague is once again the program’s honorary chair.

“Developing a comprehensive energy plan that incorporates both traditional and renewable energy resources is critical in cementing southern New Mexico as a leader in the energy industry,” Teague said, announcing the event.

The two-day conference, to be held at the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum, 4100 Dripping Springs Road, will offer attendees the opportunity to discuss domestic solutions to energy problems with leaders in government, industry and academia.  Job creation will be a focus of the conference.

“This has been one of my top priorities while in Congress, working with great organizations like NMSU to develop research and production programs that take advantage of our state’s unique resources,” Teague said.

According to the program’s agenda, the conference will go “beyond policy discussions,” with a distinct focus on how participants can help develop a short-term plan for long-term sustainability. Participants will listen to panelists speak about creating new energy jobs, jobs through investments in energy efficiency, the technology behind energy independence, new energy jobs for New Mexico, creating new energy entrepreneurs, new jobs in nuclear energy and the role of oil and gas during the transition. Active discussions will be held during panel sessions.

“Energy is one of the most important issues we’re faced with in this country,” said Abbas Ghassemi, director of NMSU’s Institute for Energy and the Environment, announcing the conference. “Energy availability, sustainability, delivery and impact on natural resources like water and reliable and dependable sources of energy are so significant to the sustenance of the way of life that we have.”

NMSU’s Institute for Energy & the Environment is sponsoring the conference with support from the Arrowhead Center’s PROSPER Project, International Relations Institute, Water Resources Research Institute and the College of Arts and Sciences.

At last year’s conference, the event featured an impressive lineup of speakers that included Steven Chu, U.S. secretary of energy; Dick Williams, president of Shell Wind; Diane Denish, lieutenant governor; Jeff Trucksess, president of Green Earth Fuels; Bob Gallagher, president of the New Mexico Oil & Gas Association; Paul Foster, CEO of Western Refining; and Tom Bowles, science advisor to Governor Bill Richardson.

“At Shell, we operate on three hard truths,” Williams said during last year’s conference. “One, our source of energy is going to die. Second, the easy-to-get stuff is gone. Third, anything we do has an environmental stress.”

Panelists and speakers this year include Barbara Couture, president of NMSU; Jim Ford, vice president of federal government affairs for ConocoPhillips; Jason Pyle, CEO of Sapphire Energy; Steve Fischmann, state senator; Russell Schmitt, president of CleanSwitch; Jon Goldstein, secretary of the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department; Jeff Bingaman, U.S. senator; Margie Tatro, director of Fuel and Water Systems for Sandia National Laboratories; and Arun Bose, program manager for the National Energy Technology Laboratory. Several other speakers from various sectors related to the energy industry are also slated to make an appearance.

The conference is free and open to the public, but registration is required and is limited to 400 participants. At last year’s conference, more than 400 showed up for the two-day event.

“We hope participants and audience members alike will participate in coming up with solutions,” Ghassemi said. “Solutions to these problems are very complex in nature. It is not as simple as coming up with a technology … to solve all the problems.

“(Attendees) will be able to participate in developing a plan on how to go about achieving energy independence. We cannot come up with a solution that is forced down; it really needs to be a grassroots, working up as well as the highest level of our local, state and federal governmental policies that meet each other halfway.”

Other conference sponsors include ConocoPhillips, Lockheed Martin, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, Sapphire Energy and the Carlsbad, N.M., Department of Development.

“We have not come close to reaching the limits of renewable energy technologies and now is the time to collaborate our efforts and resources,” Teague said. “Building off the success of last year’s conference, this year’s Re-Energize America will once again bring together policy, industry and academic experts and help move New Mexico’s energy future forward.”

For more information on the conference and to register, visit energize.nmsu.edu or call Karen Mikel at 646-2162 or Aggie Saltman at 646-9323.