Online Criminology Master’s Program to Launch Fall Semester

New Mexico Highlands University’s brand-new Master of Arts degree in criminology is ready to begin enrolling students for the fall semester. Designed to provide students with a comprehensive academic foundation, the program will help professionals working in criminal justice and social service fields to pursue federal jobs, gain promotions, and increase their salaries. The criminology program will be offered through Highlands University’s Department of…

NSF Grant to Study Microbes and Tree Diversity

Las Vegas, N.M. – New Mexico Highlands University is a partner in a National Science Foundation grant that will explore how microbes like fungi and bacteria influence forest diversity and health. The four-year NSF grant is for $913,236 and will involve a partnership between scientists from Highlands, the University of Maryland and the Smithsonian Environmental…

Professor Recognized for GLBTQ Advocacy

Las Vegas, NM – As PJ Sedillo stood on the pitcher’s mound, he was “scared as heck.” All eyes, it seemed, were on him as Sedillo held the baseball in his hand, ready to make the first pitch in the minor-league matchup between the Albuquerque Isotopes and the Las Vegas, Nevada Aviators. There was a time…

New Course Helps Parents Navigate Online Learning

LAS VEGAS, NM – Parents and guardians of school-age children can develop skills on navigating online learning with their students thanks to a new summer course offered at New Mexico Highlands University. Scholarships are available for 20 participants in the Supporting Online Schooling course, which will begin June 4 and meet weekly online through June…

Competition winners receive business idea seed money

LAS VEGAS, NM – Five people won a combined $5,000 in seed money for their business ideas during Highlands University’s Department of Business Administration’s first ever business pitch competition. The awards ceremony for the competition, COWBOY UP!, was conducted virtually April 19. “We were amazed reviewing the submitted pitches, which ranged from initiatives to help…

Dolores Huerta to HU Grads: Education is the Key to Change

Las Vegas, NM – Be engaged in your communities, labor activist Dolores Huerta told the classes of 2020 and 2021 during a virtual commencement ceremony May 15. “We never know what our destiny holds for us,” Huerta told the 1,610 Highlands graduates participating in the virtual ceremony. “The one thing we do know for sure…

Student Art Exhibition Highlights Social Justice

Las Vegas, NM – The current virtual exhibition at New Mexico Highlands’ Ray Drew Gallery explores the concepts of justice, resilience, identity, and growth through the artwork of the university’s social work students. The virtual exhibition, Envisioning Social Justice, on display through June 18 on the Ray Drew Gallery webpage at http://galleries.nmhu.edu/ray-drew-gallery, began as a…

Tilson Uses Data to Drive Student Success

Las Vegas, NM – For Heather Tilson, data is more than numbers and trends. Data is a story about real people and their successes and struggles. For Tilson, who joined Highlands May 3 as the university’s director of institutional effectiveness and research, the institution’s data and the lives reflected in the numbers painted a compelling narrative. “The…

Partnership Provides Bus Service Between Mora and Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS, NM – A ten-month pilot project for a bus route between Holman, New Mexico and Las Vegas will begin Dec. 17 thanks to a partnership between Highlands University, the city of Las Vegas, Mora County and Luna Community College. The North Central Regional Transit District’s Blue Bus will service 11 stops along the…

Highlands to Install Electric Charging Station and Add Electric Vehicle to its Fleet

Las Vegas, NM – New Mexico Highlands is continuing to adopt more green energy technologies with its planned installation of an electric vehicle charging station and purchase of an all-electric vehicle for the university’s fleet. The charging station will be installed in the parking lot next to Highlands’ Sala de Madrid Building on University Avenue…

Student Lobbying Secures Funds for New Gym Equipment

Las Vegas, NM – New Mexico Highlands students have new exercise equipment in the campus’ Archuleta Fitness Center thanks to legislative funding secured by participants in the university’s Legislative Fellows Program. The Legislative Fellows Program, launched during the 2019 New Mexico legislative session, gives Highlands students first-hand, practical experience on how the legislative process works…

HU Program to Improve Social Work Access for Native Communities

Las Vegas, NM – The new director for Highlands University’s Native American Social Work Studies Institute will help improve access to trained professionals in Native communities. Melissa Riley, who was hired as the director of the institute July 20, began her career as a lay social worker and brings broad experience in education, social services,…

Athletes Join Forces With Area Students To Beautify Riverwalk

Las Vegas, NM – Approximately 100 Highlands athletes joined forces Oct. 3 with students from Las Vegas’ other educational institutions to clean the Gallinas River Park and paint its historic bridge. The project was part of Las Vegas’ new community-based volunteer organization, Vecinos Juntos. Vecinos Juntos, meaning, “neighbors together,” is a partnership between the City…

Professor’s New Book Poetically Explores Movement

Las Vegas, NM – A memorable journey is never limited to the physical act of leaving one place and arriving at another. It is often a hard-to-describe recipe of our experience, sense of place in the present, reflection, and our hopes and ambitions. It’s a path worn by those who have stepped before us, where…

HU Student Unearths Post-Civil War Injustice

Las Vegas, NM – A new window into the lives of post-Civil War African Americans in Texas has been opened thanks in part to the work of a Highlands student. Reign Clark, a graduate student in Highlands’ Southwest Studies program, is the project lead for an excavation project of Texas prison cemetery, which was forgotten…

HU Professor’s Book Explores Vigilante Mob Violence Against Women

Las Vegas, NM – The likelihood of vigilante mob violence against women increases when economic inequality rises and governments discontinue enforcing gender norms, according to a recently published book by a Highlands University sociologist. Rebecca Álvarez, an assistant professor in Highlands’ Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice, studied cases across the globe where women…

Students help preserve important wetlands

Las Vegas, NM – A wetland habitat near Watrous, New Mexico, is healthier thanks in part to Highlands student volunteers. Along with members of the Hermit’s Peak Watershed Alliance, the Albuquerque Wildlife Federation and Ft. Union Ranch, the students helped restore a section of Wolf Creek approximately 20 miles northeast of Las Vegas. “Our most…

Grant Helps HU’s Social Work Program Expand Access

Las Vegas, NM – Hispanic and low-income students will have increased access to social work fields thanks to a pilot project funded by a five-year grant at New Mexico Highlands University. The $3-million Developing Hispanic Serving Institution grant from the U.S. Department of Education will help the university’s Facundo Valdez School of Social Work undertake…

Highlands Joins Citywide Volunteer Effort

Las Vegas, NM – Las Vegas’ educational institutions joined forces with the city’s government to promote volunteer opportunities for the community’s students. Representatives from the City of Las Vegas, New Mexico Highlands, Luna Community College, the United World College and the two city school districts signed an agreement during a small ceremony Sept. 11 to…

Highlands Joins City Volunteer Effort

Las Vegas NM – Las Vegas’ educational institutions and government will officially join forces to promote volunteerism from the community’s students. Representatives from the City of Las Vegas, New Mexico Highlands, Luna Community College, the United World College and the two city school districts will sign an agreement to formally create Vecinos Juntos de Las…

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