$375,000 GM grant latest in key partnership

    New Mexico State University has received $150,000 of a five-year, $375,000 grant from General Motors Corp. to support under-represented minorities and women. The grant benefits the colleges of business and engineering and the placement and career services office.

    Grace Lieblein, engineering director for engineering design at the GM North America Car Group and the key executive for the GM/NMSU college relations team, said NMSU is among the universities selected by GM as key institution partners. GM focuses its recruiting and donations on those institutions, Lieblein said. In the past GM has supported NMSU with two five-year grants totaling $500,000.

    The current grant will develop areas mutually beneficial to NMSU and GM. "For example, some of the grant is earmarked for scholarships, and these students are given an opportunity to intern with GM. The students get great work experience, and GM benefits from their new ideas," Lieblein said.

    In the College of Business Administration and Economics, the grant supports scholarships for master of business administration students. The scholarships will be primarily for students with technical backgrounds, particularly in areas including supply chain management, finance, information systems, marketing, mechanical engineering and industrial engineering. In the College of Engineering, the grant will support scholarships, senior courses and special projects including the mini-Baja program, where students build and race dune buggies. In addition to undergraduate engineering scholarships for minorities and women, funds also will be available for manufacturing engineering students at all levels.

    A portion of the gift will support senior-level design courses in which students create an intensive project under real-world constraints. A GM representative will be invited to participate on the review board that evaluates the projects and to become involved in the courses. The funds will help purchase course equipment and materials.

Rachel Kendall
 

Place to Play NMSU has a new outdoor fine arts stage for concerts and other programs thanks to the generosity of Edwin Bruce Firkins, '56, and his wife Jan of Deming, N.M., at left. They stopped by the construction site with Ron Jordan, NMSU assistant vice president for University Advancement and executive director of University Development. Located between University Avenue and the Music Center Recital Hall, the new facility will be dedicated at 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 14, following the Homecoming Parade. Firkins made the gift to honor the many contributions of William Clark, retired head of the NMSU music department, in bringing music to the community at large.  Photos by Deja Cloud

El Paso resident receives McKee Fellowship
 

Leitch

Keith Leitch of El Paso, Texas, has received the first Robert E. McKee Fellowship in Electric Utility Management at NMSU. He is a graduate student in the Electric Utility Management Program in NMSU's Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Leitch received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from NMSU in 1997. He is a member of Tau Beta Kappa Engineering Society, Eta Kappa Nu Electrical Engineering Society and Golden Key National Honor Society.

    The fellowship was created by the Robert E. and Evelyn McKee Foundation, a nonprofit charitable corporation established in El Paso in 1952. Robert McKee owned a construction company that served as the major contractor on projects including the Los Angeles International Airport, the Los Alamos Atomic Energy Project, military installations in San Diego and Hawaii and many buildings in El Paso. He died in 1964.

    The fellowship supports students through three semesters of study in the Electric Utility Management Program, which leads to a master of science degree in electrical engineering. The program, established in 1968 and funded by the power industry, provides graduate level study in the "planning, operation and management of electric power generation, transmission, distribution and utilization." It is designed to prepare students for management positions in the electric utility industry.

Scholarships honor students' dreams
 

Many scholarships awarded at NMSU are created by family members and friends to preserve the memory of lost loved ones. Two new scholarships honor students who passed away before achieving one of their dreams - completing their degrees. Michael Corpening, an honor student in electrical and computer engineering, died in a traffic accident in Las Cruces in May 1999. A native of Las Cruces, Corpening was an Eagle Scout, a soccer player, and a recipient of several scholarships and awards for academic excellence in high school and college.

Corpening

Campbell

     His degrees in computer science and mathematics from the College of Arts and Sciences and electrical and computer engineering from the College of Engineering were awarded posthumously at the December 1999 commencement exercises.

    To honor his legacy and support the work of students in the electrical and computer engineering department, a new endowed scholarship fund carries his name and will be awarded annually to a junior or senior with a grade point average of at least 3.5. Preference will be given to students from a Las Cruces high school pursuing degrees in multiple disciplines and active in student professional organizations or the community.

    Randy Campbell died in December 1999, one semester short of completing his MBA in finance. He returned to college after working in restaurant management for several years. A 4.0 student at all levels of his education, Campbell planned to be a stockbroker. He previously earned a bachelor's of business administration from NMSU in 1991.

    At the time of his death Campbell was working as a graduate assistant in the College of Business Administration and Economics and a substitute teacher with the Las Cruces Public Schools.

    To remember his kind, gentle, happy nature and preserve his love of education, the family created an award in his name for a student studying for a master's in finance. The award will be made annually through the MBA office.

Ann Palormo

Friends and classmates of Randy Campbell and Michael Corpening can make gifts to support the new scholarship funds.