SOCORRO,N.M. – Two New Mexico Tech students won scholarships from the NMT Foundation for their entries into the “Now and Then” essay contest.

Katelynn Green won first place and $1,000 and Santiago Montoya won second place and $500. The winners were selected for their entries related to how the topic of “Now and Then” and how science and art are related.

The contest was a result of a special retrospective art exhibit titled “Now and Then,” by Santa Fe-based artist Shirley Crow. The exhibit opened in February at the Macey Center Art Gallery on campus. The exhibit was scheduled to be open through April, but was cut short by the pandemic. Crow’s artwork included drawings, color pastels, watercolors, and oil paintings and shows early work through to the most recent. Shirley Crow’s work begins with representational pieces and develops into her current series, “Energy,” which explores abstract ideas of life’s underlying force.

Katelynn Green (pictured) is a sophomore biology major from Los Alamos, expecting to graduate in 2022.

She said, “I play on the women’s rugby team here at Tech and love to play rugby. I love to hike, be outside and I love to take pictures and am really into photography. Forensic science is another big interest for me where I plan to get my degree from Tech and be a forensic pathologist.

A native of Albuquerque, Santiago Montoya is a sophomore in the mechanical engineering department. He enjoys drawing, running, playing guitar, acting and singing. He performed the role of Igor in the fall 2019 performance of “Young Frankenstein” with the Socorro Community Theater.  

Prior to the shutdown, Shirley Crow led discussions in creativity with local and visiting students in conjunction with her exhibit. By attending one of the discussions students were eligible to compete in a "creative expression" contest which could be represented in poetry, essay or an illustration. The New Mexico Tech Foundation donated the scholarship funding for the awards.

NMT instructor Theresa Apodaca, who was then the principal of Sarracino Middle School, brought middle school students to view the works and participate in the discussions about the relationship that exists between art and science. Many of the middle school students were surprised to find out that Macey Center has gallery space as well performing arts space, indicating that many would be back to view the gallery again. The middle school students provided a variety of submissions for the contest: Arnas Urbonas won first place for his poetry and Angel Sedillo won honorable mention for an illustration.

-- NMT --