Life Skills Are Back in the Classroom at SENMC

Community Forum welcomes Shannon Newton, the new Life Skills instructor for community education at Southeast New Mexico College. The conversation covers a three-part course she’s built from the ground up — and why she believes the skills it teaches are ones most people had to figure out the hard way. The program is divided into soft skills, financial literacy, and digital literacy. Newton told Hattie that soft skills come first for a reason — how someone manages themselves under pressure, reads a room, or responds rather than reacts in a tense workplace moment shapes everything else. The class tackles empathy, servant leadership, work-life balance, and what Newton calls the “Triggered” game: real workplace scenarios where participants practice staying grounded when things go sideways. Day two moves into adaptability, the elevator pitch, and the physical mechanics of confidence — body posture, nonverbal communication, and how to walk into an interview without freezing. The financial literacy section speaks directly to a local reality Newton named plainly: workers entering the oil and gas fields with strong incomes and no framework for managing them. The digital literacy portion covers resume-building, Microsoft Office, and how to use AI tools without losing the human element. The in-person workshop runs Wednesday and Thursday, July 22 and 23, from 8 AM to 5 PM at Southeast New Mexico College. The online portion begins Monday, July 6, and remains accessible for up to a year. The course fee is $100. To register or for more information, contact Maria at [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) or call 575-234-9268. Aired on KCCC 930 AM Radio and available through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and through the Eddy County Dispatch (kccc930am.substack.com) or our website (www.kccc930am.com (http://www.kccc930am.com) ). Get full access to KCCC Eddy County Dispatch at kccc930am.substack.com/subscribe (https://kccc930am.substack.com/subscr...)