Mar. 26—Highlands to host business pitch competition

New Mexico Highlands University will host the second annual Cowboy Up! Business Pitch competition April 20.

A group of 10 competition finalists — selected from business ideas submitted by Highlands staff, students and community members — will be judged by a panel of professors and business owners, after five weeks of free workshops in business development. The top five competitors will win a total of $5,000 in cash awards to provide seed money to launch their businesses.

“It’s a way to get members of the community to see NMHU and the Department of Business Administration as a resource,” said Rodney Sanchez, chair of the Department of Business Administration. “It’s a way to work together to strengthen local businesses and hopefully spark economic development in New Mexico.”

Public Education Department to provide free early literacy, sixth grade math tutoring this summer

The New Mexico Public Education Department will provide 10 weeks of free high-dosage tutoring in early literacy to incoming first, second and third graders and in math to incoming sixth graders this summer.

Students will participate in three online 45-minute sessions per week, including instruction designed to ensure they’re ready for next school year’s reading and math content.

To learn more about or sign up for the program, visit webnew.ped.state.nm.us/bureaus/curriculum-instruction/high-dosage-on-demand-tutoring/.

Santa Fe High School student to participate in national debate competition

Santa Fe High School senior Nandi Strieker will head to Arizona this summer to compete in the 2023 National Speech and Debate Tournament, representing New Mexico in humorous interpretation.

Two more Santa Fe High students, state champion in dramatic interpretation Josh Almeida and first-time debater Jane Gonzales, will serve as alternates for for the national competition.

The team’s coach, Santa Fe High School teacher Lisa Goldman, was also honored by the National Speech and Debate Association as the New Mexico District New Coach of the Year.

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Art fund to grant $90,000 in awards to 11 N.M. artists

The Fulcrum Fund, the grant funding arm of contemporary art museum 516ARTS, will provide $90,000 in grant funding to 11 New Mexico artists this year in partnership with The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Frederick Hammersley Fund for the Arts and the Albuquerque Community Foundation.

Several Northern New Mexico artists were included among the recipients, with each artist awarded between $4,000 and $10,000.

Mira Burack, a Cerrillos-based artist working on a project centered around imaginative bed designs and sleep as a portal to intimacy, rest, healing and connection to the earth, received funding, as did a Taos-based collective of five artists working on a project called “The Land is a Verb” intended to develop non-colonial myths in several media.

Roger Montoya, co-founder of arts nonprofit Moving Arts Española, also received a Fulcrum Fund award to create a mural at the Española Pathways Shelter inspired by hope and belonging. Although Montoya was selected as an independent artist he plans to engage emerging local artists and former students of Moving Arts Española in the project, the organization’s Marketing and Communications Coordinator Carmelita R. Archuleta said in an email to The New Mexican.

Thirty N.M. students among 2023 Daniels Scholars

The Daniels Fund, a scholarship program established by cable television pioneer Bill Daniels, announced its 2023 class of Daniels Scholars, including students from across the Mountain West and 30 from New Mexico.

The scholars receive up to $100,000 over four years, depending on financial need, toward their undergraduate degree. At any given time, fund officials said in a news release, nearly 1,000 scholars are attending colleges and universities throughout the U.S.

“It’s an honor to support the educations of these outstanding young people with such great potential, strong character, and big dreams,” said Hanna Skandera, president and CEO of the Daniels Fund. “We know they will go on to do amazing things and have a tremendous impact on their communities.”