Making a difference in a challenging year

With the end of the year approaching, I’d like to take the opportunity to revisit a few of the stories from 2021 that highlight the collaborative and impactful ways the Laboratory and its employees are helping make a positive difference in Northern New Mexico across our focus areas of education, economic and workforce development, and volunteering and philanthropy.

Education

• Lab volunteers mentored young students in Española and Ojo Caliente
• Our partners found a way to host a math festival and a robotics competition virtually, with help from the Laboratory. 
• And our Bradbury Science Museum educators brought hands-on activities to in-person summer programs 
• Los Alamos Employees’ Scholarship Fund (LAESF) awarded $753,500 to 106 outstanding Northern New Mexico students as its 2021 4-Year Scholarship recipients. 

Economic and workforce development

• Partnership with UNM creates new mechanical engineering program, allowing students to complete their four-year degree at UNM-Los Alamos
• A new collaboration between the Laboratory, schools in the region, and the NM Building and Construction Trades Council (NMBCTC) offers high-schoolers path to trade apprenticeships
• Through the New Mexico Small Business Assistance program LANL researchers help Navajo entrepreneurs unlock green energy in northwest New Mexico

Giving and philanthropy

• As reported elsewhere is this issue, the 2021 Holiday Giving campaign saw employees raise $2.7m for Northern New Mexico nonprofits
• The first Northern New Mexico Community Data Sprint paired local nonprofit and education organizations with LANL data scientists to solve data-related problems 
• Laboratory volunteers stepped up to save lives with blood donations
• LANL employees provided more than 700 backpacks for students returning to school for the new school year in August 2021

All of us at the Community Partnerships Office and in the wider Laboratory would like to wish you a peaceful and happy time over the holidays. We look forward to welcoming you to the Community Partnerships Office’s new base in Santa Fe, and continuing to partner with you in 2022 to help Northern New Mexico thrive. 

- Kathy Keith is Director of the Laboratory's Community Partnerships Office