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CNM President Kathie Winograd is definitely pleased by the early results of the college’s coding boot camp, which, since it opened in September, has ushered more than 40 students through its doors, including several who developed their own software company.

A coding boot camp is designed to train students for a full-time job as an entry-level developer through an immersion learning program in a relatively short period of time. In other words, it provides computer coding skills local employers want as quickly as possible.

Central New Mexico Community College’s boot camp hosts local and out-of-state students. At least 10 New Mexico companies are involved – all in two rooms at CNM’s Stemulus Center downtown.

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“It’s amazing what has been accomplished,” Winograd said.

The president was definitely in anniversary mode Wednesday morning in a packed room at the Albuquerque Country Club where she was the featured speaker at the Economic Forum’s monthly breakfast meeting.

Topics covered included:

— She is in the midst of celebrating CNM’s 50th year in Albuquerque.

— Just a day earlier, friends and acquaintances recognized her eighth year at CNM’s helm.

— She has been an educator for 40 years now.

Winograd talked about CNM’s past, present and future, generally in glowing terms.

In describing the college, she noted that two-thirds of its 40,000-plus students attend school on a part-time basis; the average age is 29; and 57 percent of the student body hail from minority communities.

In five short years, 62 percent of the jobs in Albuquerque will require an associate’s degree or certificate, she said. Hence the need for agility by the college, the largest in the state, she said.

“There will always be a group of individuals that has been disenfranchised from education,” Winograd said. It is her job and that of the audience, the community and the college to reach out to that group.

“We’re trying everything we can to be as agile and flexible as the community demands,” she said.