NNMC News:
ESPAÑOLA — Northern New Mexico College (NNMC) students Chris Mae Palalon and Dominick Martinez have received $5,000 scholarships for the 2022-2023 academic year from Longenecker & Associates (L&A).
In December 2021, L&A committed to donating $10,000 annually to the Northern New Mexico College Foundation for two scholarships for students pursuing a career in a field that supports L&A’s mission at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).
The objective is to graduate students in fields ranging from environmental science to project management and business who are better prepared to practice their craft. Recipients are eligible to have the scholarship extended a second year provided they continue to meet eligibility requirements.
“I was the first person in my family to go to college with an academic scholarship, and I know the benefit. I couldn’t have gone to college without that scholarship, and it changed my life,” L&A Chief Executive Officer John Longenecker said. “So we understand the impact this can have.”
Chris Mae Palalon
Mae Palalon, a resident of Española, is the first student to receive the scholarship for a second year. She holds an Associate of Science in Pre-professional Health Sciences from the University of New Mexico – Los Alamos and is pursuing her Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science at NNMC. She anticipates graduating in Spring 2023. In addition to taking up to 19 credit hours a semester, Palalon has been working full time as an educational assistant in the Special Needs Room for Española Public Schools
“I am super thankful to Longenecker & Associates for giving me the second opportunity to have the scholarship,” Palalon said. “I think what motivates me the most is getting my degree and finishing on time. And family back home that I want to help. And, of course, God giving me a healthy body all the time, as well as the scholarship that I’m getting.”
At a job fair held by LANL legacy cleanup contractor N3B at Northern in August, Palalon interviewed with L&A and was offered a full-time position as Contractor Assurance Systems Specialist.
“She’s a tremendous talent and we’re eager to work with her,” said L&A Los Alamos Project Manager Lindsay Wallace. “We didn’t have the right type of work available for her, but we’ve kept her resume active and every time we start to staff something new, we’ve been looking for the right home and I believe we may have just found it.”
Dominick Martinez
Martinez is a mathematics major in his junior year at Northern. He grew up in Alcalde and now lives in Española. Martinez anticipates graduating in 2024.
Martinez has had an internship with New Mexico Idea Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) since his freshman year, working with Dr. David Torres, NNMC’s Department of Math & Physical Sciences chair, to study the movement of T cells using Python and MATLAB. This summer he took on a second internship with Sustainable Research Pathways for High Performance Computing (SRP-HPC), again working with Dr. Torrez and with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientist Dr. Damian Rouson. He has also done projects for the Alliance for Minority Participation (AMP).
After graduation, Martinez is considering pursuing a master’s degree in applied math or computer science, preferably at UNM, or working at a Department of Energy national laboratory, such as LANL or Sandia National Laboratories. Inspired by Rouson, he wants his future to be anything with coding.
“I really enjoy coding. I lean towards science, not towards web applications or commercial products,” Martinez said. “I generally like artificial intelligence and computational physics.”
Martinez was surprised and grateful to be one of two students receiving the L&A scholarship. He had been augmenting his income by tutoring at NNMC but decided against that this fall due to time constraints. The scholarship will help to fill the gap.
“This will give me more opportunity to work on what I love: my studies and my research,” Martinez said.
In addition to scholarships, Longenecker & Associates provide internship opportunities through a deliberate process. “We want to make sure that we really have the capacity to mentor and grow,” Wallace said.
“When we talk about interns, it’s making sure there’s a good fit. We’re not just bringing them into the office to do administrative tasks and make work. More than anything, this is about building our leaders of the future,” Longenecker said.
“We’re employee owned, and it’s exciting for us to meet these young people, get their ideas on how we can improve as a team, how can we be a better company and how can we solve problems faster, better, smarter and avoid problems. They make us better and it’s just exciting for the whole team. They come in with fresh eyes and different perspectives and backgrounds.”
L&A is committed to maintaining and improving the scholarship program.
“We just celebrated 33 years in business, so we take the long view of where are we’re going to get the people for the next three decades,” Longenecker said. “We view this as a long-term relationship, and we’re hoping every year we can find a way to make it better and more productive for both sides, so that we’re helping even more students.
“It’s so rewarding to be able to have that concrete impact in our own community,” Wallace said. “Northern New Mexico is my home, so being able to do something that’s right here has been a tremendous opportunity here for us. We’re appreciative of Northern New Mexico.”