Northern New Mexico College will be hosting a Community Day on Friday run by the nonprofit Service, Employment, Redevelopment (SER).
According to SER’s website, the event will mostly focus on helping students find, navigate and afford a career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.
Taking place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., the event includes three different workshop hours available to students, including job fairs with New Mexico State Police, the federal Environmental Protection Agency and Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Students can also attend sessions about financial aid and literacy, the latter of which will be hosted by a representative from Wells Fargo.
An estimated 1,500 to 2,000 local high school and middle school students are expected to attend the event, Northern President Rick Bailey said.
“It’s going to be a very exciting day at the College,” he said.
While the day’s activities will take place in various locations at the Española campus, the main event can be found in the gymnasium — an appearance from former NASA astronaut Jose Hernandez.
Bailey said Hernandez’s speech will focus on showing students that kind of opportunities one can find in STEM careers.
Sponsors for the event include Verizon and the United States Army.
While this is the first event of its kind at Northern, Bailey said he is open to it becoming a regular feature at the College.
“I like the idea of having events that bring more students to the Española campus,” he said.
A full schedule of workshops and events can be found at SER’s website.