Let’s Read. Let’s Move.” Initiative is being launched in New Mexico as part of the Southwest Youth Services 4^th Annual Indigenous Soccer Cup and Native Youth Leadership Conference to be held at the Santa Fe Indian School, July 20-24, 2010. Southwest Youth Services, in partnership with the Corporation for National and Community Service and the New Mexico Commission on Community Volunteerism, is jointly participating to emphasize the multiple benefits sustained physical activity achieves when playing team sports and how engaging kids in summer reading activities better prepares them for a new academic year!

June 25, 2010

Download PDF

Grant will Engage Students in Service-Learning to Solve Local Problems

ALBUQUERQUE, NM—Governor Richardson announced a $152,362 grant to New Mexico today. The grant was awarded by the Corporation for National and Community Service as part of its Learn and Serve America School-Based Formula grant program. The New Mexico Service Learning Project is built on a long tradition of utilizing service as a strategy for engaging youth in New Mexico communities. The Commission partners with the New Mexico Forum for Youth Community, Partnership Make a Difference and the Jane Goodall Institute to provide service learning in New Mexico.

The $20 million in grants is awarded annually to states, primarily through State Education Agencies, to support local districts and schools to carry out service-learning projects in partnership with community-based organizations. Through service-learning, students use the knowledge and skills from the classroom to address important community problems in areas such as the environment, education, public safety, and other human needs. By using academics for an immediate purpose, students learn why education matters, become more motivated to learn, and conceive of themselves as contributing members of the community.

Heinrich to join UNM Service Corps for project

U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich will receive the first-ever New Mexico Distinguished AmeriCorps Alumni Award for his leadership. Rep. Heinrich is the only member of Congress to have graduated from the national AmeriCorps service program since it took its current form, and he is one of more than 6,300 New Mexico residents to have completed a year-long stint since 1994. The award will be presented Monday, May 17 at a ceremony along with representatives from the Commission for Community Volunteerism, Center for Philanthropic Partnership and other special guests.

Local Teach For America Corps, Supporting State’s Efforts to Raise Student Achievement,
Grows by 20 Percent

May 24, 2010

Download PDF

GALLUP, N.M., — Teach For America announced today that 65 of the organization’s new teachers will come to the state this fall to teach in the highest-need public schools. These local teachers are among more than 4,500 new Teach For America corps members nationwide, the largest incoming corps in the organization’s 20-year history. The 65 new corps members will boost the size of the total New Mexico corps by 20 percent, allowing it to reach more than 7,000 students.

“I am pleased to welcome another corps of Teach For America teachers to Laguna schools next year. The leadership and dedication of these talented teachers are key to helping our students learn and achieve,” said Dr. Anthony Fairbanks, superintendent of Pueblo of Laguna Department of Education.

The new Teach For America teachers were chosen through a highly selective process that attracted a record 46,000 applicants. At more than 120 colleges and universities, more than 5 percent of the senior class applied, including 12 percent of all seniors at Ivy League universities. At the University of New Mexico, more than 50 graduating seniors applied.

Senator Cynthia Nava, recipient of the State Farm Service-Learning Champion Award, was born and educated in Illinois but has made New Mexico her home since college.  During her 18-year tenure in the New Mexico State Senate, she has advocated for and sponsored numerous legislative initiatives that have encouraged and expanded service-learning opportunities for students.  Among  these efforts are the establishment of regional service-learning centers, various appropriations, and the creation of the Next Generation Fund.  Currently, she also serves as superintendent of the Gadsden Independent School District, the fourth largest in the state, where she has worked for the past 30 years.  On a national level, she served as a member of the National Assessment Governing Board from 2004 until 2008.  In recent years, she has received the national Ancor Foundation Community Builder Award and the Albuquerque Journal Sage Award, "Twenty Years... Twenty Women Making a Difference."  Cynthia considers herself a lifelong learner.  She is completing her dissertation work at New Mexico State University and is learning to play the piano.