The True Stories for New Mexico’s True Talent

As published in El Prospero of the Las Cruces Bulletin

Stories matter. Stories tell us about the world around us. Some stories tell us about ourselves. Across generations, across cultures, across the world, the stories we hear and share very much shape our present, as well as having the power to shape our future.

I’ve contemplated that a lot when I came back to The Bridge in 2016 after my little two-year detour to Washington DC. During that time, I was working with a communications firm whose client was the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Having been a grantee during my first tour of duty with The Bridge (from 2010-2013), I was well acquainted with the foundation and the change they sought to support to improve the lives of children and families in our state and others across the country.

During that time, we were working with the foundation on their Young Men and Boys of Color grantmaking that was seeded in two of their other priority places – Mississippi and New Orleans. Part of what we were doing was studying and understanding the narratives around young men and boys of color and the impact of those narratives.

The most profound lesson for me during that time was how persistently negative narratives didn’t just affect media stories and community perceptions around these young people, it negatively affected the way they viewed themselves. So part of changing the future trajectories of these young men and boys had to be changing the stories, the narratives, that surrounded them, helping them instead embrace their value and the gifts and strengths they had to offer the world.

When I returned to the New Mexico I had come to love and see such potential in (and I did let those DC folks know how special New Mexico was), and later The Bridge, I really understood how important it is for us be better storytellers for our own children and youth. 

Our stories need to be rooted in reality, but they also need to highlight what’s possible here…because I personally have seen that New Mexico offers unique opportunities that you won’t find in those large metropolitan areas across the country that siphon off our young people and young families.

New Mexico True Talent is that story that we are very intentionally weaving throughout the work of The Bridge of Southern New Mexico and the Workforce Talent Collaborative. Focused primarily on education and employment options available right here, we can combat the narratives (stories) about “there are no jobs here” and “some students just aren’t college material” among others. 

New Mexico True Talent is a true story about our own people – that, in fact, they are the state’s greatest resource, and it is they who will build the future New Mexico we all get to live in. Their promise and potential is unlimited, and it is our role to do all we can to connect them to the very real opportunities that lay before them.

We started our efforts by focusing on a community resource – a portal to information – for our students, our parents, our teachers, and our businesses. NewMexicoTrueTalent.org is now available in both English and Spanish and provides an unparalleled set of resources for career exploration, educational options, and employment opportunities that are here in Dona Ana County. 

We owe a debt of gratitude to those who invested in The Bridge and the Collaborative’s efforts to build and grow this site: the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, El Paso Electric, Union Pacific, US Bank, Virgin Galactic, Dona Ana Community College, and Mountainview Regional Medical Center, as well as KRWG, who contributed some awesome Fronterasprograms to the community and this website.. They are directly contributing to this new, information-driven narrative that stands in stark contrast to the deficit-based stories we’ve told about ourselves for far too long.

Many people have heard me say that we need to be better storytellers – every single one of us! 

We need to talk about the quality of life of our region, but there’s just so much more. The unparalleled opportunities that are present here in our burgeoning healthcare community – new buildings for new opportunities are shooting up all over Las Cruces! The golden diamond of opportunities in national defense, space exploration, and commercial space travel that do and will attract talent from all over the world…but our young people can be just as qualified as anyone by taking advantage of the complete set of educational opportunities that are already here, including the districts, DACC, and New Mexico State University.

Film is coming to Las Cruces in a big way. Digital media (virtual reality and augmented reality) are changing the way we see the world in a host of fields. Cross border trade is generating a huge revenue stream in a state that’s long been dependent on oil & gas and government to drive its economy. The new focus on renewable energy is going to build off what is already here in this place where the sun shines an average 350 days a year – DC and Seattle can’t complete with that!

NMSU’s new focus on Food Safety and the state’s commitment to boost value-added agriculture will unleash more opportunity in an industry that already contributes significantly to our county and our state. 

We want our New Mexico True Talent to step into these and the opportunities we don’t even yet know are coming. The better 

So, yes, this story is real. And we each are ambassadors of this story. The better we become in telling these stories, the better and brighter our future becomes.