American Indian Student Services has served a big role in supporting me during my undergraduate degree. I had been a part of their American Indian Summer Bridge program in 2018 aimed to provide support for incoming freshman attending UNM by providing course credits, an on-campus experience, and connecting with faculty. In Fall 2020 I joined the American Indian Student Services Ambassador Program, where I am an active member today. The goal of being an Ambassador is a dedication to service, learning, and academic excellence on campus. These goals are met by attending various outreach and network events for prospective students looking to attend college. As an Ambassador I am honored to represent Indigenous Populations on campus, and subsequently the UNM American Indian Student Services Center.
In Fall 2019 I joined Phi Sigma Pi National Honor Fraternity. The organization focuses on a tripod of ideals those being: Scholarship, Leadership, and Fellowship. During Fall 2020 the organization was hit hard by the pandemic, switching entirely to a virtual experience was a challenging endeavor. Due to the hardships brought on, I took it upon my self to run for an executive board position where I was later granted the position of Treasurer. I was able to help organize virtual events, and attend meetings aimed to help keep our organization proactive despite being virtual. Despite these challenges, moving into Fall 2021 there were new challenges awaiting myself and the organization. In fall 2021, the organization was hit hard with the unexpected absence of our former president. I took it upon myself with the help of my fellow peers to reach out to our members and work together to re-organize and revitalize our shared goal of upholding our ideals of scholarship, leadership, and fellowship. The organization has made improvements and have established foundational efforts to work towards expansion of the executive board, work on outreach events, and become an active member not only on campus but in the community we live in. I will continue being a proud alumni member post graduation, while seeing the growth of the organization due to our members combined efforts.
I joined Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Project as a class offered by UNM in Fall 2021 and have taken the class again in Spring 2022. The aim of BEMP is to provide hands on ecological practices through monitoring of BEMP sites which are scattered throughout the Bosque/New Mexico. A big aspect of the class is a focus on a changing climate and how the Bosque ecosystem has changed in its history. My experiences at BEMP has been exciting, I have gotten to participate in monthly monitoring collections, in which I and fellow staff/students travel to BEMP sites and collect data such as depth to groundwater, litterfall collection, and rainfall gauges. Further, I have gotten the chance to work with middle school children and teach them about the Bosque, as well as show them how BEMP sites are monitored using appropriate techniques while maintaining a safe environment. All of this translates into a data nugget, which is a paper outlining a topic of your choice.
The following artifact is my data nugget on how groundwater impacts total leaf production in the Bosque Ecosystem.