NNMC NEWS RELEASE
A generous donation of $299,257 from Jemez House, Inc. to the Northern New Mexico College (NNMC) Foundation Endowed Scholarship Fund will provide scholarship support for generations of area students.
“When Dr. Rick Bailey and I initially discussed a possible donation with the Jemez House Board in 2019, we never imagined this significant gift of nearly $300,000 that impacts our current and future generations of NNMC students.” said NNMC Major Gifts Officer Judith Pepper. “Our NNMC family is so grateful to those who generously volunteered and contributed to Jemez House over the past 20 years. From our hearts to yours, we thank you!”
Jemez House Thrift Store, in operation for more than 20 years, was located in White Rock, New Mexico. An out-growth of the Jemez House Group Home, it was founded to support the higher education of state group-home alumni. The mission of the store was furthered through donations from local residents and unpaid volunteers who took on the store’s operation. From 2006 to 2020, proceeds from the non-profit thrift store provided $610,385 in scholarships to more than 145 students.
The hard work of the thrift store volunteers also prevented tons of material from being dumped in the landfill, provided the sale of low-cost necessities and even small luxuries to patrons, and filled the needs of those devastated by disaster. The thrift store closed in 2018 and the Jemez House, Inc. Board of Directors voted to donate the remaining proceeds to the Northern New Mexico College Foundation Endowed Scholarship Fund.
“Everyone who donated, served or bought through the Jemez House Thrift Store in the past can be confident that the good work of educating young people will be carried on by Northern New Mexico College in Española,” said Jemez House board member Roberta Fine.
About Northern:
Northern New Mexico College has served the rural communities of Northern New Mexico for over a century. Since opening in 1909 as the Spanish American Normal School in El Rito, NM, the College has provided affordable access to quality academic programs to meet the changing educational, economic and cultural needs of the region.
Northern is an open-admissions institution offering the most affordable bachelor’s programs in the Southwest. Now one of the state’s four regional comprehensive institutions, with its main campus in Española, Northern offers more than 50 bachelor’s, associate, and certificate programs in arts & human sciences, film & digital media, STEM programs, business, education, liberal arts, and nursing. The College has reintroduced technical trades in partnership with two local unions and five public school districts through its new co-located Branch Community College, the first of its kind in the state’s history. Northern is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) and has earned prestigious national accreditations for its engineering, nursing, education, and business programs.