Films, Horses and School. Oh my!

Photo by Daniel Williams. Sylvie is pictured on a horse here with AFL-CIO and IATSE BA Labor Leader Jon Hendry and his trusty companion Bob in the foreground.

Sylvie Mortenson (atop the horse) has a love for the movies. She began her adventure in film wrangling horses in France and was hired to come to New Mexico in the 1990's for the Italian television show Lucky Luke. Sylvie has a myriad of skills from horse husbandry, entrepreneurship, being a Mom, business owner and and now a student of accounting and finance. 

Sylvie joined PROTEC to increase her office skills and seek multiple internship experiences to see what might be a good fit for her as she moves back into the workforce fulltime.

Sylvie split her internship hours between the Santa Fe Film Festival and the New Mexico Film Foundation. What she found is that her appetite for experiences may be bigger than the amount of time she has. "I am going to school full-time for my accounting degree at Santa Fe Community College, I have a lot going on RIGHT NOW!" 

Sylvie did have some exciting internship hours helping shoot a commercial for City of Santa Fe tourism and meeting a lot of wonderful people. "I love working with people!"

Wherever life takes her Sylvie has a positive outlook and trusts in serendipity. "I am just curious to see what happens!" she states about her future. And whatever comes her way Sylvie is ready to roll! 

Behind the scenes in health

Sylvana's selfie with her baby in the Dental Assisting Program teaching lab at Santa Fe Community College

Sylvana Chavez is a new mom who is interested in pursuing training and work in Health Information Technology. Through PROTEC she interned for Dr. Aamna Nayyar in the Dental Assisting Program at Santa Fe Community College. One of Sylvana's main internship goals was to learn more about what goes on behind the scenes in a health clinic. At SFCC students work within a state of the art facility with La Familia Dental Clinic that is open to the public. Sylvana's work utilized MS Excel in organizing inventory for the dental program where she got a chance to see how support systems work in the medical field.

The medical field requires a lot of data management. The state of New Mexico has a vested interest in Health Information Technology and there is currently a statewide consortium through Sun Online where schools are partnering to train workers in the growing Health IT industries. http://www.sfcc.edu/sun

After her internship Sylvana will be spending some time with her new baby and going back to school. "I think I might be interested in Radiology and becoming a technician," she said by phone interview last week. We wish Sylvana the best of luck with her new baby and her future plans!

An Intern beneath the New Mexico Museum of Art

Rebecca Aubin, Head of Education and Visitor Experience with Baji Milici at the New Mexico Museum of Art

The New Mexico Museum of Art is adjacent to the Santa Fe Plaza and when I visited at 9am the area was populated by a few early morning tourists strolling at a leisurely pace. Not so in the basement of the New Mexico Museum of Art. Down a flight of stairs and you are in the working part of the museum where a busy workday has already commenced. Art work is framed, archives are managed and a diligent crew is at work making the revered halls above into the quiet and contemplative art sanctuary you experience when you visit the museum.

Baji Milici is currently interning with the New Mexico Museum of Art under the direction of Rebecca Aubin, the Head of Education and Visitor Experience. Baji participated in work that is essential in bringing our community in touch with the museum and its resources. Using Constant Contact, FaceBook and MS Office Baji updated her skills to help design electronic newsletters and announcements. The most fun however was hosting families at the Museum. "I loved working with the children and families. That is always my favorite, because I am a teacher at heart."

Mary Kershaw, Museum Director and Rebecca Aubin were happy to host Baji for her internship. "We are always busy," says Rebecca. "We always appreciate having help." Baji was excited for this chance to work with education and art. "Just knowing about the collection (of art) that is here is amazing."

Baji will help with an outreach event on September 17th that is close to her own heart; the Teacher Resource Fair. On Thursday the 17th the New Mexico Museum of Art is free to teachers and community educators from 4-5pm and then a resource fair will follow from 5-7pm.

Baji's future plans will be to build her skills in office technology. Her dream job is helping people use technology to communicate about the wonderful things they are doing throughout New Mexico. We look forward to hearing about those things too! Thanks, Baji!

Awarding SFCC Tier 2 Techs

Joven Griego, Finespirit Routt and Mason Kovacs (shown in listed order above) were awarded a certificate for their service to PROTEC, which was above and beyond the call of duty, by the Northern Area Workforce Labor Board on Wednesday, September 2nd at Santa Fe Community College.

The technicians who build and operate the permanent and mobile computer labs at the college helped students and teachers in the two-week PROTEC program, provided much needed assistance with interconnectivity and made the program's computer training possible. The Tier 2 Techs went above and beyond by coming in early, being available after-hours and troubleshooting issues immediately as they rose. The team in the Office of Information Technology continues to assist in software access in the Testing Center for PROTEC graduates to complete their MS Excel and MTA certification exams.

PROTEC staff, students and faculty would like to extend their gratitude to Jovan, Finespirit, Mason, and the many other OIT staff who work "Behind the Scenes" to make technology accessible for learning that provides a gateway to improving skills towards gainful employment.