High Impact Practices for Undergraduate Students

First Year Experience (FYEX)

Transition Communities are one or three-credit first-year seminars that help students excel in their first year at UNM through fostering skills for academic success and helping students discover and connect to the university. Students who participate in the Transition Community Program can expect to sharpen college success skills, explore their majors, and develop their degree plans. Courses are offered for students in a variety of majors, affiliations, and interest areas.

Student Research

Student scholars shape the future of New Mexico and they make the world more vibrant and just. Undergraduate research is an investigation of a question or a problem where no one is certain what the answer will be. Researchers ask and answer interesting questions. They build upon the work of other researchers, and they develop clear definable processes of inquiry. They value their failures as much as their successes, and they know the importance of their research. At UNM, undergraduate students are surrounded by research experts who love their work, and who are eager to help them get started on their own journeys of discovery.

Undergraduate research improves key student outcomes, including degree persistence, university retention, and graduation. It teaches students important foundational skills, such as critical thinking, information literacy, and data analysis.

Research takes many shapes and varies considerably among UNM’s various academic disciplines. It can be individual, where you launch your own project, or collaborative, where you work with an advisor or a team of other students.

Each UNM college, school or campus offers their own unique pathways to engage in undergraduate research. Students who wish to learn more should contact their major professors, their academic advisors, or the UNM Undergraduate Research, Arts & Design Network (URAD). URAD offers free entry-level research workshops and individual consultations to help students find research opportunities. URAD also offers services to faculty who wish to expand their use of undergraduate research in and out of the classroom.

LoboGrow – Student Employment

With the goal of enriching the student experience, UNM is implementing the GROW® program with key campus student employers. The program aligns with student learning outcomes (UNM 5) as well as the UNM 2040 strategic plan goal two: student experience and educational innovation.

Starting in the beginning of the Fall 2022 semester, the University of New Mexico will be launching the Lobo GROW pilot program with the idea to aid student employees to discover their full potential in a variety of professional settings.

Community Engagement

Experiential Learning

Experiential learning for students is a hands-on approach to education where learning occurs through direct experience and reflection. Rather than passively receiving information, students engage in activities or projects that require them to apply their knowledge and skills in real-world contexts. This method emphasizes learning by doing, encouraging students to actively participate, experiment, and reflect on their experiences to deepen their understanding and develop practical competencies. By bridging theory and practice, experiential learning helps students connect academic concepts to real-life situations and fosters critical thinking, problem-solving, and personal growth.

Come back to find additional information and details about Experiential Learning opportunities at UNM!

Study Abroad

For Students

GEO is responsible for international recruitment and admissions, creates opportunities to study and work overseas through exchange and education abroad programs, offers immigration, orientation, and co-curricular advising services for international students and scholars who study and work at UNM, provides intensive English language programs at the intermediate to advanced level, and develops short-term certificate programs for adult learners.

For Faculty

The University of New Mexico is committed to providing short-term international study opportunities for students. Each year, UNM departments sponsor summer or intersession international courses, field trips as part of semester courses, and a variety of other programs to give students international experience and exposure to other cultures. These programs can be among the most important educational and personal experiences UNM can provide for students, and we appreciate the commitment of faculty and staff members who put in the extra time and energy it takes to plan and direct these programs.