NM Daily Lobo 02 24 2015

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Daily Lobo new mexico

tuesday February 24, 2015 | Vo l u m e 1 1 9 | I s s u e 1 0 9

The Independent Student Voice of UNM since 1895

Robert DelCampo selected as Innovate’s director By Sayyed Shah

Anderson professor appointed to new Innovation Academy program

UNM’s Office of Academic Affairs has appointed Robert DelCampo, a professor in the Anderson School of Management, as the director of Innovation Academy. Innovation Academy, the academic arm of Innovate ABQ, is scheduled to launch in the fall.

The Innovation Academy will essentially consist of a program of ongoing classes across many different majors, with a focus on entrepreneurism, President Bob Frank said. Senior Vice Provost Carol Parker said DelCampo emerged as the top candidate following a rigorous search process.

“His interest and dedication to the Innovation Academy initiative as well as his demonstrated experience in the interdisciplinary and entrepreneurship realm, makes him the right choice for this position,” she said. DelCampo said he is honored to collaborate with his colleagues all across the campus to develop

a cutting-edge set of courses to further develop the entrepreneurial flair of our students. “I am incredibly excited to take on this new challenge,” DelCampo said. “It is rare in academia that we start with a blank slate and I can’t wait to paint this canvas.” DelCampo’s duties will include the development of the Innovation

Academy curriculum, coordination of experiential learning activities within Innovate ABQ, and recruitment of students to the interdisciplinary program across undergraduate and graduate programs, UNM officials said. “He’s a very successful faculty member, he has been one of our

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Innovation page 2

Startup weekend promotes business By Moriah Carty Like-minded teen entrepreneurs set out this weekend to break into an economy normally dominated by adults at FatPipe ABQ. Teen ABQ Startup Weekend is Albuquerque’s rendition of the adult-oriented Startup Weekend, an event geared towards flushing out business plans and solving problems in that entrepreneurial spirit, a teen started the event. Taylor Chavez, organizer and founder of Teen Startup Weekend, said after she attended an adult Startup Weekend when she was 14, she decided she wanted to open it up to her age group. “In 54 hours we get together with people you have yet to meet and you start a business — or at least attempt to,” Chavez said. Albuquerque is the home to the only Teen Startup Weekend, she said, and she is elated to see it happening for a second year. Chavez said she felt intimidated when she was the youngest attendee

Diana Cervantes / Daily Lobo / @dee_sea

Taylor Chavez, founder of Teen Startup Weekend, embraces Gavin Moseher after Chavez gives Moseher an award for his work mentoring students for the event Sunday at FatPipe ABQ in downtown Albuquerque. Teen Startup Weekend focuses on helping young entrepreneurs develop a business plan.

at the adult Startup Weekend, and she thought that other teens might feel the same way. Last year there were 21 participants and this year there were 34, after several dropped due to illness.

“Teenagers are fearless and they have so many great ideas,” Chavez said. At the beginning, participants were allowed to give one-minute elevator speeches about their

ideas, and the teams formed up based on the more popular ideas and got to work, she said. On Sunday the groups had five minutes to lay out their business plans in front of judges.

This year’s winners took home a consulting package. The team Brain Bridge, directed primarily by Michael Allen, took

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Startup page 2

History event highlights professional opportunities By Jonathan Baca

The Department of History at UNM is working to prove to students that the value of an advanced degree in history is not a thing of the past. In partnership with the American Historical Association and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Department of History will be putting on a two-day seminar titled “What Use Is History? Scholarship, Skills and Careers,” from Feb. 26-27. The seminar will feature speeches and panel discussions from distinguished alumni and special guests who have used their history degrees in unique and unexpected ways, like former Vice President of Merrill Lynch & Co., Robert Donia, who will deliver the keynote speech. “We’re trying to give our students more control over their

career, and equipping them with as many diverse and varied skill sets as possible,” said Jennifer McPherson, AHA Mellon graduate coordinator and conference organizer. “Not only are they bringing the research and writing to the stage, they can also develop skills in PR, marketing, data analysis and web design. All of this is part of the history package in the 21st century.” The UNM Department of History was one of four universities around the country to be selected for a major grant from the Mellon Foundation and the AHA, in order to develop pilot programs that would broaden the career horizons for their graduate and Ph.D. students, McPherson said. The conference was meant to address a growing concern among history and humanities graduate students who were finding it much harder to

follow the traditional career track that leads to becoming a tenured college professor. “It’s an attempt to diversify the history Ph.D. program. For so long historians have been perceived, at least by the general public, as just being in the classroom or working a public history role — traditional career tracks,” McPherson said. “UNM is a perfect example where students and Ph.D.s have pursued traditional career tracks, but we also have historians working in business, nonprofits, private and public sectors.” A major focus of the conference will be the larger world of career opportunities that are now available to history Ph.D.s, she said. Twenty-five guest speakers, many UNM alumni, will be discussing how they used their history educations to get jobs in the private sec-

tor, nonprofits, government and other unique places, she said. “There was a feeling among Ph.D. students who were looking in the job market and were not finding jobs, because there is an overabundance of Ph.D.s searching, and there’s fewer and fewer jobs,” McPherson said. “You can either look at it as a glass half empty or half full, and we’re seeing it as half full. Although our students might think there’s a crisis in the job market, we don’t need to limit ourselves to just academic positions. There’s a whole other world available to history Ph.D.s.” Eric Payseur, the AHA/Mellon Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellow for Career Diversity, who also helped organize the conference, described himself as an atypical Ph.D. student.

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History page 2

“What Use is History? Scholarship, Skills and Careers” AHA-Mellon Career Diversity Regional Conference Thursday UNM Main Campus, Student Union Building, Third floor, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday UNM History Common Room, Mesa Vista Hall, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. To register and view a full conference schedule, visit http://history.unm. edu/career-diversity/ conference-2015.html


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