Mateo Ulibarri, 11, a member of the Pueblo of Pojoaque, was featured on the cover of the November issue of Scholastic Magazine, which is distributed to schools around the world.
Mateo, a Native American hoop dancer from the local Lightning Boy Foundation, was the youth division winner of the 2021 Hoop Dance competition at the Heard Museum in Phoenix.
But he believes traditional dance is about more than just winning competitions.
“It is important to pass this tradition on,” he said. “If it’s not passed on, it will be forgotten and you can lose part of your culture.”
The November issue of Scholastic celebrates Native American Heritage Month.
“We at Lightning Boy Foundation Inc. are proud to have one of our dancers not only featured in this month’s edition, but also the cover,” wrote Steve LaRance, co-chair of the foundation, in an email.
AARP New Mexico has named Othiamba Umi of Albuquerque his new assistant state director for advocacy.
Umi is a Lifelong New Mexican who grew up in Hobbs, Santa Fe, and Cerrillos. He graduated from Santa Fe Preparatory School.
He has double degrees in psychology and Spanish from the University of New Mexico and a doctorate in law from the UNM School of Law.
Umi has several years of advocacy and government relations experience. Before working as a lawyer, he was a deputy trial attorney at the 2nd District Public Prosecutor’s Office. He is also currently a member of the New Mexico Lottery Authority Board.
Outstanding education
The University of New Mexico-Los Alamos recently awarded scholarships to 16 fellows, several of whom received more than one scholarship. Among the recipients were mother and daughter Carra and Webster cadence. Carra Webster received the American Association of University Women Scholarship, while Cadence Webster received an award from the Joe and Stella Martinez Memorial Endowment.
Other recipients are the following:
- UNM-LA Start Here Scholarship: Luke Rainey, Maria Blair
- Benito Garcia Memorial Fellowship: Paul Alcazar
- Agnes Finnie-Grotto Memorial Foundation: Maria Blair
- Joe and Stella Martinez Memorial Foundation: Seth Heatherly
- Merit scholarship for top performers: Jimmy Wheeler
- Jim Sagel Memorial Foundation: Natalia Maez
- HED incentive to complete the scholarship: Aaliyah Sandoval
- Legal equipment: Felicity Ferrell
- Española Women’s Club Foundation: Felicity Ferrell
- The Los Alamos Public Safety Association Scholarship: Eric Girona, Anna Yarrow
- Alice A. Armstrong Memorial Foundation: Jenée Montoya
- Applied Technology Scholarship of Native American Descent: Jimmy Wheeler, Aiyana Gipson
- Final project: Jordan Bowman, Kristy Ortega
Several local students have enrolled freshmen for the fall semester 2021 at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City:
- Natalie Barr, Sylvia Davis, John Geisler, Leyla Sharpless, Leo Smith and Benjamin Timm from Santa Fe.
- Savannah Brown, Annika Fuchs, Frances Laurent and Griffin light from Los Alamos.
- Frances Schneider from Pecos.
Faye Heneghan of Santa Fe enrolled at Montclair State University in New Jersey.
Christopher Coffelt of Los Alamos holds a Masters of Science degree in Materials Science and Technology from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.
Aaron Pital of Santa Fe holds a PhD in Philosophy in Chemistry from the school.
Three Santa Fe area residents were placed on the Dean’s List of Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin: Trinity Lopez, Oscar Loya and Keenan McDonald.
Comments are closed.