Thank You Mayor Keller for the Bus!
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller engages with students at Northern New Mexico College
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller visited Northern New Mexico College on February 23, 2024, to engage with our students in their classrooms and during a panel discussion. The mayor donated a retired city bus to the college, which will provide a vehicle for students taking Northern’s CDL training to practice their driving skills, and recruited for job opportunities in Albuquerque. NNMC and ABQ signed an MOU to work collaboratively to establish internship and career opportunities for NNMC students with the City of Albuquerque.
In his pitch to students to consider job opportunities in his city, Keller noted that many Albuquerque residents are from Northern New Mexico. He talked about how the State of New Mexico’s current revenues are funding projects ranging from road repair to new buildings on college campuses, generating even more demand for workers.
“We finally actually have the funding to do that, but we don’t have the workforce to even do things like construction projects,” Keller said. “I think it really presents an opportunity to just stay in New Mexico. There’s going to be opportunity here, and we need every New Mexican to stay here and be a part of the future of the state.”
The visit and the donation of the decommissioned city bus came out of a conversation between Keller and NNMC President Hector Balderas. The two have known each other since serving together in the New Mexico legislature.
“He’s got a lot of jobs to fill but doesn’t have the workforce. I explained that we have a wonderful CDL program and great instructors, but we had never had a vehicle where our students could actually do the hours of practice,” Balderas said. “He said he wanted to come up here, and I joked, ‘Why don’t you donate one of those buses to me?’ And the next thing I know, he’s using a semi and hauling that bus up here.”
During the visit, Keller and Balderas signed an MOU agreeing to have NNMC Career Services and City of Albuquerque Human Resources Department work collaboratively to establish internship and career opportunities for NNMC students with the City of Albuquerque, specifically geared toward students studying to obtain a commercial drivers license. The visit included a job fair to highlight the opportunities available to Northern students
While on campus, Keller visited the Weaving and Spanish Colonial Woodworking classes, part of Northern’s Continuing Education program. The mayor took obvious delight in visiting with the students. He was impressed by the quality of their work and that Northern was offering classes in traditional arts. One of the weavers, Marcia Ronquillo, gifted him with one of her wall hangings. Balderas presented Keller with a pen that woodworking instructor Philip Sanchez created for him.