UNM’s Alumni Association and Parent Association are partnering to host “Summer Sendoffs” Saturday, Aug. 1, in six New Mexico cities and towns and at one location in Colorado.

Designed to celebrate freshman acceptance to UNM for the fall semester, Summer Sendoffs will be held in Las Cruces, Roswell, Clovis, Farmington, Santa Fe, Gallup and Colorado Springs.

New UNM students and parents will have an opportunity to meet families in their area and mingle with experienced UNM representatives, alumni, parents and students who can serve as a support network back home and on campus. Each student receives a gift. Door prizes and refreshments are also part of the festivities.

Registration by Monday, July 27, is required for the free event. To RSVP and for more information on the event time and location, visit http://www.unmalumni.com/. (more…)

One of the goals of the new UNM Parent Association is to establish UNM Parent Clubs throughout New Mexico and across the country to allow parents to connect with other families of UNM students in their areas. 

Whether students attend the UNM main campus, a branch campus, or a bachelor and graduate education center around the state through the Distance Education programs, parents should know that their student has a great support network to help them succeed.

UNM Mom Marilee Petranovich, grants coordinator at UNM‐Gallup, is launching a Parent Club in the Gallup greater area. She is from Gallup but as the daughter of a Public Health Service dentist moved around the country during childhood.

“We lived everywhere from Baltimore, Maryland,to Mt. Edgecumbe, Alaska, and many places in between,” she shared.

Petranovich graduated from Gallup High School and then UNM main in 1984. She returned to Gallup when she and husband Steve, also a Gallup native, planned to marry. Steve, also a UNM graduate, is a private practice CPA.

“My husband and I like to joke that we ‘bleed Lobo red.’ Between both of us graduating from UNM, my work with UNM, Steve’s position on the Board of Directors for the UNM Foundation, as well as us having two happy UNM students, we have a very strong bond with this institution,” she shared. “We love to share this passion with other parents who already have students at the University, or who might be considering UNM as an option. Go Lobos!!”

The couple’s oldest son Sean graduated from UNM this year with dual degrees in economics and philosophy. He will continue on in the fall at the university pursuing master’s degrees in both fields. Daughter Kaitlin has completed freshman year as a member of the new combined BA/MD program. Youngest daughter Colleen will be a senior at Gallup High School in the fall. (more…)

By Kim W. Jarigese

Many individuals are faced with the difficult decision of whether or not to leave the hometown they have known their whole life to move to the “big city” to get their degree. The community of Taos is fortunate to have a UNM branch campus that offers lower division, upper division, and graduate programs.

While working full‐time and taking a full‐time course load, Kim Covington recently graduated with her Bachelor of University Studies (BUS) degree through the UNM Taos Bachelor and Graduate Programs.

What encouraged Covington to return to college was a parent orientation session she attended for one of her sons, who was enrolling at the UNM Taos Campus. As a single mom of two sons, she was motivated by the words of Tracy Skipp, associate dean for undergraduate studies and director of the BUS degree program at UNM’s main campus in Albuquerque. At the orientation session, Skipp told parents to be a good role model for their children and earn their degree. Greatly inspired, Covington enrolled her son, and also herself. (more…)