September 8, 2020
Reynaldo Maestas
Las Vegas, N.M. – Reynaldo Maestas is the new director for the Center for Professional Development and Career Readiness at New Mexico Highlands University and will lead an expansion of the office, thanks to additional funding from the New Mexico State Legislature.
The legislative award is for $165,000 and comes from Research and Public Service Projects money.
“We’re very happy about this additional funding from the legislature,” Maestas said. “With the extra funding we will hire two full-time employees and also purchase a new co-curricular transcript software system.”
Maestas said the co-curricular transcript system will be in addition to a student’s regular transcript, showing if they’ve done an internship while in school, participated in a community service project, volunteered, taken professional development courses, and more.
“This co-curricular transcript is a valuable tool when applying for graduate school, provides speaking points for job interviews, and showcases the student’s leadership experience,” Maestas said.
Maestas said his top goal for the Career Services Office is to integrate classroom studies with paid, productive, real-life experience in a degree-related field.
“Students will get the best of both worlds: a high-quality academic degree and an impressive resume of practical work experience. This will benefit Highlands University students greatly by building on skills that will translate into life and job capabilities that will positively impact their future career success,” Maestas said.
Previously, Maestas was the assistant director of admissions at Highlands University from November 2019 to September 2020.
Earlier in his career, Maestas was the associate director of admissions at New Mexico Tech from 2014 to 2019 and was a student recruitment specialist in the University of New Mexico School of Medicine Combined BA/MD program from 2010 to 2014.
Maestas is a native of Rociada, New Mexico, where he grew up on a horse ranch. He is a Highlands University alumnus, earning his bachelor’s degree in business administration in 2006 and his MBA in 2008 with cum laude honors.
“Being on both ends of the spectrum as a student and employee at Highlands, I feel like I can really relate to students, faculty and staff to work cohesively to promote career success for our students,” Maestas said.