GEAR UP West Pre-Conference Events
 

GEAR UP West Pre-Conference Session

Sunday, October 27, from 1:00 - 3:30 p.m.

Be Pro, Be Proud: Introducing students to technical careers through virtual and augmented reality experiences

Luis Villa, New Mexico Workforce Solutions
Rob Leming, New Mexico Chamber of Commerce

Be Pro Be Proud is an initiative led by the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions in partnership with the New Mexico Center for Economic Opportunity, the charitable foundation of the New Mexico Chamber of Commerce, spearheading the movement to bring a new generation of pride, progress, and professionals to New Mexico's skilled workforce. Be Pro Be Proud is a national workforce development initiative focused on attracting students and young adults to technical careers through exciting simulation experiences, and then connecting them to post-secondary opportunities to include registered apprenticeships and careers. The Be Pro Be Proud New Mexico mobile workshop unit stops at local middle schools, high schools, and community organizations. The Be Pro Be Proud mobile workshop unit can be customized to a variety of professions and industries that are most relevant to specific communities.

The Be Pro Be Proud initiative is addressing a pressing national challenge. There are over 23% of current skilled professionals that are at or near retirement age. The next generation of new talent is not sufficient to fill the demand. The initiative targets many key audiences including high school and nontraditional students, current skilled professionals, legislators, parents, teachers, career coaches, and employers to dispel the myths about skilled trade professions.

Since the first launch in Arkansas in 2016, there have been over 389,610 visitors and over 95,135 individuals who have joined the movement. The Be Pro Be Proud initiative is currently in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. Be Pro Be Proud New Mexico launched on November 9, 2023. 

Luis A. Villa is the Be Pro Be Proud New Mexico Program Coordinator at the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions (NMDWS). He started as the Apprenticeship Advisor in January 2020 focused on assisting apprentices with resources when they faced challenges that may have prevented them from completing their apprenticeship program. In July 2022, he was tasked with developing the Be Pro Be Proud New Mexico program alongside our partners with the New Mexico Center for Economic Opportunity. Prior to working with NMDWS, for approximately 10 years, Luis worked at private and public colleges helping students with financial aid and scholarship opportunities. He's passionate about helping students and constituents further their education and careers and looks forward to introducing them to careers in the skilled trades and help improve students' perception of the skilled trades.

Rob Leming holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from American University in Washington DC. He has served in executive roles on several non-profit Boards around community advocacy, education, and Autism acceptance. He is completely committed to participating in New Mexico's growth and empowerment, and currently serves as the Director of Programs for the New Mexico Chamber of Commerce. In his spare time, he enjoys studying the history of the Second World War, rebuilding and maintaining vintage aircraft, and spending time with his wife, son, and five dogs at home.

GEAR UP West Pre-Conference Session

Sunday, October 27 from 1:00 – 3:30 p.m.

Geographies of Staying: Working with Students Who Want to Stay in their Homelands (for College, for Work, for Life, for Good)

Patricia Trujillo, Ph.D. is the Deputy Cabinet Secretary of the New Mexico Higher Education Department

The academy often presents students with maps -- either tacit or explicit -- about how to navigate educational systems, careers, and success. These maps almost always lead us away from home. For many scholars, academics, and higher education leaders, advancing up the career ladder necessitates cutting ties to one place for many others. Leaving home behind and/or escaping home have become an integral part of how we think and talk about college. Starting in high school (or earlier), many young people are “learning to leave” (Corbett, 2007) their home places and prepared for uprooted and/or itinerant lives. In this discourse, beloved communities and places become deficits to be overcome, rather than grounding spaces for transformative work.

But what about students who want to stay (or return) home? Many students who come from communities of color, working class communities, rural communities or from the intersections of these and other vulnerable places are motivated by their experiences of home. For those of us who seek to come home and stay at home, we often face professional challenges on multiple fronts. We are told to go away so we can come back. When we come home, we may find our relationships to home frayed, complicated, and ambiguous. We may feel pushed to move because “you cannot work at the institutions where you earned your degree.” We may be advised that “You’re ruining your career,” warned that “You’re making yourself insignificant,” and counseled that “You will never be a prophet in your own land.” Even worse, we may be asked why we “just stayed” or “only work” here. We might doubt our decisions and fear we are ruining our careers.

Yet many of us are yearning for and striving to stay home. This yearning can come from a place of power and knowledge, from a desire to help address the challenges our communities face, from a connection to people and places outside the walls of academia, and from a vision of scholarship, service, and expertise that is always questioning itself in its praxis-orientation. This pre-conference session is based on a forthcoming anthology Geographies of Staying: Home and Its Place in the Academy (forthcoming UNM Press, 2025) and will feature the editors and contributors to the book and ask the audience to enter a dialogue about how we can welcome students who want to stay home and pursue higher education.

Patricia Trujillo, Ph.D. is the Deputy Cabinet Secretary of the New Mexico Higher Education Department, appointed by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham in 2020. During her time at the agency, New Mexico passed the Opportunity Scholarship Act, creating the nation's tuition-free college program, established the country's largest higher education trust fund, prioritized funding for student basic needs and championed college equity and access statewide. Prior to the appointment, she was a faculty member in the Department of Languages and Letters for over a decade at Northern New Mexico College and the founding director of the Office of Equity and Diversity. Her work in the classroom, higher education administration, and policy making is rooted in community wealth strategies and racial equity. She has a Ph.D. in U.S. Latina/Latino Literature from the University of Texas in San Antonio, was the Creative Writing editor for the Journal of Chicana/Latina Studies (2016-2021) and has numerous publications in anthologies and journals. She is or has been a member of many boards, including Tewa Women United, LANL Foundation, Rural Opportunities for College Access, and NewMexicoWomen.org.