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{{/_source.additionalInfo}}SILVER CITY, NM - Western New Mexico University hosted the premiere of a special, WNMU-focused episode of the Amazon Prime TV series "The College Tour" on Thursday, March 21, 2024. The episode was filmed entirely in southwestern New Mexico and showcases WNMU students, the campus, the town of Silver City, and the Gila National Forest. WNMU is the first university in New Mexico to be featured on the series.
The half-hour episode was the result of a months-long planning and production process that occurred last fall. It features the stories of ten WNMU students and alumni: Oscar Arteaga Romero, Stacey Bernstein, Megan Custer, Itzela Darkenwald, Natalee Drissell, Logan Eastman, Antonio Guerrero Ramos, Violeta "Blanca" Jaure, Brooke Rodgers and Ethan Sanchez. The episode also had three understudies: Dorrie Dennison, Keana Huerta and Ariana Medina.
Crooked Forest Institute is looking for land. This newer non-profit based in Silver City is on a mission to create affordable housing using sustainable, local materials, like compressed earth blocks. The key to affordability, they say, is the vocational education and community building program attached to their housing development plan.
"Student and volunteer labor can lower the labor cost of each build," Says Holly Noonan, the non-profit's founder. "Our main role model is Community Rebuilds in Moab, Utah. After ten years in operation, Community Rebuilds is now clocking 30,000 hours in volunteer labor annually, while they are completing sixteen houses a year."
Meet Iris Nolasco
New Executive Director
As I wrap up my first three weeks as the new Executive Director of The Commons, my heart is full of appreciation. The welcome I have received is incredible and indicative of what this community represents and the reason why I choose to help support it through the mission and the work of this organization.
Part of my journey started at The Volunteer Center (TVC) of Grant County as an AmeriCorps volunteer and then staff member from 2007-2009.
Stacey Bernstein is a featured student in the upcoming Amazon Prime TV episode of "The College Tour" that was filmed on campus in November. Link to article at end.
Attending WNMU is a family affair for first-year student Stacey Bernstein. Her mother is also a student at the university, earning her Master's of Social Work, and her younger sister, who is a senior in high school, is a dual-enrollment student at WNMU.
The family of six lives on 26 acres near Silver City with a bevy of animals: donkeys, a cow, chicken, geese, cats, a sugar glider and Saint Bernards, including a recent litter of puppies.
Whether surrounded by animals or humans, community is very important to Bernstein and one of the things she appreciates most about WNMU. "It is very community oriented," she said of the university campus, "Every day I see friends that I went to high school with. It is nice to see familiar faces."
Tour of the Gila applies grant award to highlight event's heritage and impact
while inviting others to the experience
$30,000 from New Mexico Outdoor Recreation Division supports marketing iconic bike race
 Silver City, NM — Recognizing the impact of Tour of the Gila and rewarding the longevity of this internationally renowned cycling event, the New Mexico Outdoor Recreation Division awarded $30,000 to the race's nonprofit, Gila Community and Tourism Development.
Oscar Arteaga Romero will be in the cast of the upcoming Amazon Prime TV episode of "The College Tour" that will be filmed on campus in November. Link to article at the end.
From Venezuela to Colombia to Kansas to New Mexico, Graduate Student Finds a Home in Silver City
Oscar Arteaga Romero expected to spend recent years working on his MBA in Kansas, but when his husband found a job in Silver City, he transferred to WNMU and quickly decided to expand this educational experience beyond business.
While business administration remains one of his concentration areas in the WNMU MA in Interdisciplinary Studies program, he has added two others: sociology and kinesiology.
Natalee Drissell is a featured student in the upcoming Amazon Prime TV episode of "The College Tour" that was filmed on campus in November. Link to article at the end.
It was a bit of serendipitous timing that brought art major Natalee Drissell to WNMU. Drissell moved from Iowa to New Mexico in 2022 after her father, WNMU Assistant Professor of Painting and Drawing Matt Drissell, accepted his position with the university. That same year, New Mexico created the Opportunity Scholarship, which allows in-state students to attend state-funded colleges and universities for free.
But it was not just the prospect of a debt-free education that encouraged Drissell to stay close to home. "I like that WNMU is a small college," she said, "I did not want to go to one of the larger state schools because I am interested in the personal interactions with professors, especially in art. I do not want to be in a huge studio class; I want to be in a class with, like, twelve people I get to know really well."
Megan Custer is a featured student in the upcoming Amazon Prime TV episode of "The College Tour" that was filmed on campus in November. Article link at the end.
The path toward a nursing degree has never been straightforward for nursing major Megan Custer (BAS '22). "I never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up," she said.
What she did know was that she enjoyed playing volleyball. "I got into sports when I was really young and have always kept that going," she said, "It is not something anyone pushed on me; it was an option and I always liked it."
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