The Bureau of Land Management NEWS |
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The Bureau of Land Management NEWS |
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Last updated: 04/04/03
For release: November 25, 1997
The Bureau of Land Management has offered full-time, permanent jobs to two New Mexico college students upon their graduation and successful participation in a career experience program, BLM Deputy Director Tom Fry announced today. The students, Jose P. Carrillo of Chama and Alma Lively of Ruidoso, attend New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, New Mexico.
"Jose and Alma are highly talented individuals, and the BLM would very much like for them join to our agency," Fry said. "We can't wait for them to get started once they have graduated and completed their career training." Carrillo, a senior, is studying environmental engineering; Lively, also a senior, is a mass communications major.
BLM Director Pat Shea expressed his enthusiasm for Carrillo and Lively, saying he hoped they would join the BLM. Shea, who has made workforce diversity one of his top priorities, noted that the two students attended the BLM's recent Executive Leadership Team meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, where they heard a briefing on the BLM-managed Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah. The students also got to meet with Assistant Secretary Bob Armstrong, who oversees the BLM, an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Deputy Director Fry said he was pleased that Carrillo and Lively, who are Hispanic, would not only bring their talents to the BLM, but also would add to the diversity of the agency's workforce. "Recruiting and hiring a diverse workforce is one of our agency's top priorities," said Fry. "It is only fitting that the BLM, which manages 264 million acres of public land on behalf of the American people, should reflect America's ethnic diversity."
Fry said the BLM is working to attain five diversity-related goals that the Interior Department has set for all its agencies. Those goals are: (1) to recruit a workforce that reflects the diversity of the American people; (2) to retain that workforce; (3) to institutionalize accountability for ensuring diversity; (4) to educate managers and rank-and-file employees about diversity; and (5) to carry out a "zero tolerance" policy toward discrimination, harassment, and hostile work environments.
"To make progress in reaching these goals," Fry said, "the BLM must overcome its past. The fact is, our agency has not been as aggressive as it should have been in recruiting minorities. We are taking steps to remedy that situation, and one of the ways we are doing that is by strengthening our partnerships with Hispanic-Serving Institutions." Fry noted that the BLM recently joined with other Federal agencies and the Hispanic Association of Universities and Colleges (HACU) in co-sponsoring the Second International Conference on Natural Resources and Cultural Heritage in Tempe, Arizona.
"As the BLM diversifies its workforce, its real challenge is not to attain certain percentages in the workforce but to change underlying attitudes and beliefs that thwart diversity," Fry said. "One way I am trying to do that is by getting out the message that a diverse workforce is one with a broad base of knowledge, experiences, and talents. These characteristics are crucial to an agency like the BLM, which serves a wide array of customers who use and enjoy the public lands."
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