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July 13, 2018 • EPE Related News

Las Cruces Sun News: NMSU thrives on private partnerships

LAS CRUCES - It is the longstanding partnerships with industry professionals that keep New Mexico State University at the helm of producing some of the workforce’s most employable talent.

In the last few years, the NMSU Foundation has partnered with various faculty and students throughout the NMSU system to bridge connections between business and education. These vital partnerships assemble opportunities for internships; post-graduate employment; research and co-curriculum building' financial investments and more that put into practice what Aggie students learn in the classroom. In return, companies benefit, helping shape students who will soon graduate into a massive labor pool eager to start a career.

NMSU thrives on these partnerships that, since the start of the Ignite Aggie Discovery campaign in 2013, have totaled more than $15.5 million – not including the valuable time and talent many of these organizations invest in the students and faculty they engage. As one of the campaign’s goals to expand the reach and engagement of corporate and business partners, small, local, large and global organizations across the United States and beyond its borders have shown an interest in NMSU and its students.

Take, for example, some of our larger partners – El Paso Electric, Ethicon and Electronic Caregiver. El Paso Electric not only recruits and hires NMSU graduates but also gives back financially to dozens of programs across the NMSU system, including student-athletes, STEM outreach programs and scholarships. Ethicon, an Albuquerque-based company, focused on improving surgical care, commits its time to NMSU’s nursing students by helping faculty build industry-based curriculum and offering annual scholarship support. In our own backyard, we find Electronic Caregiver, a national company located in Las Cruces, hiring NMSU Creative Media Institute graduates to enhance its senior care notification system. The company has also pledged to invest in two new labs in the Colleges of Engineering and Education at NMSU.

Then, we have smaller businesses like PTS Office Systems that enhance our regional economy while also supporting NMSU through Aggie Athletics contributions. Local farm families, including the Salopek 6U Farms, devote resources to agricultural research at NMSU to not only benefit students but also farmers and ranchers both locally and globally.

Outside the borders of our great state, we see Google’s extraordinary belief in Aggie students. The global company headquartered in California provides NMSU with annual funding, yet its most transformational impact is within an invitation. Every fall, the company calls on a handful of Aggie students for a paid, semester-long industry experience at Google to professionally train in the field they are studying. This special opportunity, provided specifically to our underrepresented students that attend NMSU, gives them an essential advantage in finding and starting a career. 

Partnerships like these, coupled with crucial funding from the state legislature and gifts from dedicated alumni and friends, support the overall mission of NMSU and the NMSU Foundation to prepare our Aggies for a working world in desperate need of highly-qualified innovators. Our partners, regardless of the way they connect to NMSU, establish a unique influence on Aggie students and the economic future.

Thank you to all of our corporate partners and small businesses who continue to invest in our students, and ultimately, the future workforce – one we build at NMSU to advance New Mexico and the world for years to come.

Andrea Tawney is president of the New Mexico State University Foundation.

https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/news/education/nmsu/2018/07/07/nmsu-thrives-private-partnerships/765634002/