Twenty-eight kindergarten through twelfth-grade teachers will be recognized for completing their master of arts degrees in teaching math and science at a ceremony at 2 p.m. Friday, November 16, at the Nick L. Salazar Center for the Arts at Northern New Mexico College in Española.
The teachers all represent rural schools and are the first to complete an intensive two-year graduate program that blends their three-year involvement in the core Northern New Mexico Math and Science Academy program with online courses from New Mexico State University. MSA is sponsored by Los Alamos National Laboratory in cooperation with New Mexico business and government partners.
New Mexico Lt. Governor Diane Denish is scheduled to deliver the keynote address and U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman and Pete Domenici will provide videotaped congratulatory messages to the graduating teachers. Northern New Mexico College President Jose Griego will welcome the participants to the celebration.
Additional congratulatory comments will be delivered by Los Alamos' principal associate director for science, technology, and engineering, Terry Wallace, and NMSU dean of the College of Education, Robert Moulton. MSA teacher Judy Roybal will be the student speaker.
"The Math and Science Academy's core and masters programs are unique examples of DOE-sponsored programs designed to help enhance the rural K-12 science and math educational infrastructure as called for in the recently enacted America COMPETES legislation cosponsored by Senators Bingaman and Domenici and their colleagues," said David Foster, Los Alamos National Laboratory Education and Postdoc Office program manager.
More than 200 teachers have participated in the Math and Science Academy, now in its eighth year, and collectively they instruct more than 3,500 Northern New Mexico students, primarily from rural, Hispanic, and Native American communities.
For more information, contact Dave Foster at foster_david_r@lanl.gov. A 17-minute DVD about the Math and Science Academy is available on request.
Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, a team composed of Bechtel National, the University of California, The Babcock & Wilcox Company, and Washington Group International for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.