-= NMSU PANORAMA - Summer 2006 =- Around Aggieland: Myrna' Children's Village Dedicated

Around Aggieland

This department contains multiple stories. Please make a selection:
› Remodeled Pan Am Center scheduled to open in November
› New regent brings legislative, business, ag background
› Martin honored by MSU, Mankato
› Myrna's Children's Village dedicated
› Honoring outstanding students
› Aggie Day
› Horseshoe Tales
› NMSU awards honorary doctorates
› Gutierrez, Catlett selected for key posts
› GM supports NMSU Engineering
› High honor bestowed upon NMSU professor

Myrna' Children's Village Dedicated

Gov. Bill Richardson, from left, honored Myrna, Jim and Danny Villanueva in April. Photo by J. Victor Espinoza

When Myrna Villanueva first came to New Mexico State University as a newlywed in the late 1950s, she saw it as “quite an adventure” and today she says being on the NMSU campus “always makes me feel good.” She was back on campus on Thursday, April 20, for the dedication ceremony for Myrna’s Children’s Village, which was named in her honor last fall as a “belated happy birthday” gift from her husband Danny Villanueva, who pledged $1 million for the village.

The gift will help expand programs at Myrna’s Children’s Village, located in a section of Cervantes Village at the corner of Sam Steel Way and Williams Avenue. The village opened its doors in October 2003 and eventually will provide care to about 150 children, mostly the children of NMSU’s non-traditional students.

Danny Villanueva said he decided to make the gift as part of the university’s comprehensive “Doing What Counts” campaign, after Myrna had taken an interest in the program on a previous visit to campus. Villanueva, a former NFL football star and Spanish language television pioneer who now heads a venture capital firm in Los Angeles, is chairing the university’s five-year fundraising campaign.

“I was very impressed with the village when I saw it the first time,” Myrna Villanueva said. “Child care is so needed and necessary. This is a wonderful facility and so well organized.”

When she was a young working mother living in married-student housing, she said, there were no child care services on campus and she had to hire someone to help her while she worked, which strained the young couple’s budget.

“So many young parents want to go to school – that reason alone makes this program so very important at NMSU,” she said. “Danny and I have a deep belief that early childhood is a critical time where children’s values and beliefs are formed, which makes quality care like the village essential. The effect is extended when programs like this serve as educational labs to train teachers.”

The village was established to incorporate all child and family services available at NMSU including the pre-school programs that were part of the Dove Learning Center housed in the basement of O’Donnell Hall for many years. The village also strives to make child care more available for students and to serve as an educational lab Myrna’s Children’s Village open house and dedication was hosted by the College of Education and the Aggies for Kids volunteer group. Aggies for Kids, which formed in 2004, is a group of mostly women who volunteer to help increase the capacity and services of the village.

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