April 25, 2007 Extension Update
Dear Extension Faculty and Staff:
Last week a meeting was held with the College of Education and CE to start the discussion on how best to collaborate across campus-and the state, with the many youth development and education efforts that NMSU has to offer. There were some excellent discussions about working together across campus with programs such as STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), SEMAA (Science, Engineering, Mathematics, and Aerospace Academy), our own LGI (Learning Games Initiative) and 4-H. The NMSU youth development and education "team" will eventually be composed of representatives from all six colleges (each college has some youth programming), as well as leaders from our 4-H youth development department-their was discussion about forming a university-wide Self-directed Youth Development and Education Team. Gerald Chacon and Dr. Michael Moorhead, Associate Dean in the College of Education have agreed to take a lead on drafting a concept paper/proposal to share with the Provost Deans and CEO's at NMSU, to get their support. We will keep you posted on this evolving effort.
The annual REDTT (Rural Economic Development Through Tourism) Conference starts tomorrow, April 26 and 27, at the Pecos River Village Conference Center in Carlsbad. REDTT, an NMSU Cooperative Extension project, helps rural communities in New Mexico strengthen their local economies through tourism. The event, hosted annually by the REDTT Project, is expected to attract more than 180 conference attendees. Agritourism and nature tourism, as an alternative business for farmers and ranchers, will highlight the conference schedule. Star gazing, downtown revitalization, cultural tourism and how to market rural tourism resources are a few of the workshops set for those attending the conference.
There have been some exciting agriculture and natural resource programs happening in Northern NM recently. Our Alcalde team has secured $300,000 to fund an agent for the eight Northern Pueblos; an agent for the ten Southern Pueblos and an agent to (probably) be housed at Alcalde to work on business plans and risk management issues.
Kids, Kows, and More Programs are in full swing with Chaves, Santa Fe, San Miguel, and Bernalillo Counties reporting a combined reach of over 6,000 youth. McKinley, Torrance, and Curry are coming up in early May, and Valencia, San Juan, Lincoln, Colfax and Lea will follow in the fall. KK&M is an extremely popular program that has a proven impact on helping youth understand agriculture.
Paul