2018 Is Off to a Great Start!

Community Learning Network is committed to “real-life learning,” and through our New Mexico TechWorks initiative, we are working collaboratively to expand Tech access and education and increase Tech enterprise and employment in our region, especially for rural, underserved, and underrepresented community members.  

 Thanks to support from Verizon and the global Internet Foundation, as well as LANL Foundation, PNM, Santa Fe Community Foundation, the City of Santa Fe Office of Economic Development, Nusenda, and George R.R. Martin’s nonprofit Stagecoach Foundation, New Mexico TechWorks is gearing up for an exciting Tech-filled, Techsavvy year of inspiration, innovation, and learning!

January marks the launch of a series of community-driven and school-based Coding Training programs, plus Tech Career outreach and Family Coding events, for rural, underserved, and underrepresented students throughout Northern New Mexico. 

While Jicarilla Apache youth are learning to code as far north as Dulce, on the Colorado border, high school students in the rural communities of Jemez and Pojoaque will also be developing their Tech skills this semester. In Santa Fe, students at the Santa Fe Indian School, Tierra Encantada Charter School, and the Academy for Technology and the Classics will be learning to code, as well.  Meanwhile, Zuni students will enjoy a Rasberry Pi coding training pilot at Zuni Middle School, plus the Santa Clara Pueblo library is slated to start a coding education initiative this year, too!

With Tech Career outreach and Family Coding events scheduled in tandem with regional Coding Training programs, plus a “Summer of Tech” on the horizon full of camps, classes, workshops, and bootcamps, we are beefing up outreach and education efforts to “get kids to see possibilities they never dreamed of.” And teachers, too! Thanks to partnerships with the Computer Science Teachers Association and numerous training partners, students, as well as educators, are enjoying opportunities to improve their technology skills.  CSPD Week in June will kick-off a range of professional development intensives specifically developed for teachers and designed to strengthen the quality and quantity of long-term Tech educational opportunities in our state.

Plus, we are hosting local Tech working group meetings to develop a network or regional Tech coalitions,  launching a Tech Corridor at the upcoming Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce Business Expo and Job Fair in April, hosting the first annual New Mexico APP Awards and Showcase in the fall, and producing our first coding and Tech skills promotional video for New Mexico with help from our many community partners. Stay tuned! For news and updates on what is happening in our state, visit www.nmtechworks.com and follow New Mexico TechWorks on Facebook!