** 2024 Commencement Updates **

** 2024 Commencement Updates **

Becca Sharp Forever Cowboy Student Award for Homecoming

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Becca Sharp

Las Vegas, N.M. – Becca Sharp is an exceptional leader and student in the Media Arts and Technology Department who graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in summer 2020 with an emphasis in multimedia and interactivity.

A trio of media arts and technology professors joined forces to nominate Sharp for the Forever Cowboy Student Award.

“Becca Sharp is an outstanding student who demonstrates leadership through kindness and enthusiasm daily,” said Miriam Langer, Media Arts and Technology Department chair and professor. “Becca has been at the center of a biweekly cohesive, supportive and inclusive cohort of students who have stepped up through very difficult times, such as the accidental death of a peer in 2018, numerous high stress projects in high profile museums, and the derailment of our face-to-face classes due to COVID 19. During this crisis, Becca brought students together through Zoom videoconferencing technology so they could support each other.”

Professor Mariah Fox Hausman said: “Becca Sharp is a Highlands citizen of the highest caliber who works hard in schoolwork and performs in the top of her classes. Becca spends her days encouraging and uplifting, inspires ambition in others, and helps bond our students into a stronger team. She tutors anyone in need.”

Professor Angela Meron said: “Becca is an excellent student and a leader who gathers students in solidarity for the things they believe in. She was our Media Arts Club president and brings students and faculty together in many ways. As an essential worker during COVID-19, Becca supported our BFA students in completing their work and graduating.”

“The Highlands media arts and technology program means more to me than I can put into words,” Sharp said. “It is my home away from home. This program has given me so many opportunities that I never thought possible for myself. It has transformed me into a confident multimedia professional.”

Sharp, a 25-year-old from Albuquerque, is also a leader in media arts and technology installations. She was the project manager for the program’s 2019 redesign of the New Mexico Jemez Historic Site through its one-of-a-kind Program for Interactive Cultural Technology, or PICT.

“This Jemez project was important in helping the Jemez community bring new technology to the visitor’s center while showing deep respect for the Jemez culture and hardships,” Sharp said.

Sharp was a 2018 intern at the Meow Wolf immersive and interactive art installation in Santa Fe. She tested and researched technology for the new Denver Meow Wolf exhibits.

“Meow Wolf was a phenomenal growth experience,” Sharp said.

Sharp said the professors in media arts are “some of the greatest people you will ever meet. They care for each and every one of their students and strive to help them succeed in everything they do.”

Sharp has been accepted into the new Master of Fine Arts in cultural technology degree program at Highlands.

“I want to become a university professor, preferably at Highlands. That would be my dream job. I would love to be part of the Highlands family as long as I can,” Sharp said.