U.S. Department of Education awards UNM-Valencia grant for ENROLL Program

The U.S. Department of Education recently awarded The University of New Mexico-Valencia Campus, a four-year grant to establish its ENROLL Program.  

UNM-Valencia will receive funding under the Rural Postsecondary and Economic Development Program through December 2027 to implement multiple aspects of support for potential and current students, while benefiting the community from early education to collegiate degree and certificate credentialing.  

The ENROLL Program — Early, Non-academic, Revitalize, Outreach, Learning support and Learning — will provide numerous services like Early College Summer Camps to prepare students for a fall semester start as first-time students, non-academic support including personal, financial, social and behavioral health needs and transfer opportunities.  

“UNM-Valencia is honored and excited to be one of the recipients. It’ll support our work and initiatives targeting current and incoming students in our rural service area, ensuring incoming students are fully connected with the college through our new Success Team model,” said Samuel Dosumu, Ph.D, UNM-Valencia chancellor. “We’ll provide wrap-around services such as advising, career counseling and exploration, and transfer services that ensure our students stay on track to completion and lead to four-year institutions, while providing access to basic needs resources, such as social and emotional well-being support.”  

ENROLL will also revitalize career and technical education (CTE) programs — such as construction trades, robotics, drone technologies and criminal justice, among others — to be offered at the Tomé campus and Workforce Training Center on the west side of Los Lunas, which is beneficial for commuting employees, local businesses and training partners of the university.   

“We know that high-wage, high-skill, high-demand CTE programs such as cybersecurity, entrepreneurship, transportation and logistics, health science and nursing programs get students into jobs that improve economic growth, and this grant will boost our work to reach more students and deliver the learning skills needed to succeed in today’s economy,” Dosumu said.   

The funding will help the university establish a regular schedule of outreach to local industry and kindergarten through senior level schooling. Local industry outreach will identify internship and scholarship opportunities for students as outreach to K-12 will help expose future students to options for postsecondary education and to create a seamless transition to college.  

“The summer camps will connect students with new skills through exploration and hands-on learning, as well as preparing them for college in the fall semester so they do not come in ‘cold’ from either just graduating high school or having been out of school for more than a year,” said Brittany Padilla, senior program manager. “The camps will be skills-building and have college preparation tutoring, as well as career exploration to attract students into high-demand, high-wage fields.”   

The ENROLL Program will provide learning support to current students through class embedded and assigned tutoring while also presenting students with the opportunities to learn through experience, specifically through undergraduate research and internships.  

Through the U.S. Department of Education grant funding, the ENROLL Program was created to increase the number and proportion of underserved students, who enroll in and complete, postsecondary education programs.   

“We believe the outcomes from our ENROLL Program will benefit our communities tremendously,” Padilla said.  

For more information about ENROLL, call 505-925-8550 or visit valencia.unm.edu for degree and certificate courses the campus and WTC offer.