Whether she’s tutoring students in Adult Basic Education or working to complete her own advanced degree, education is a great motivator for Celina Bryant, Student Services Specialist at the New Mexico State University at Carlsbad’s Artesia Outreach Center.

Bryant began teaching when she went back to college to complete her bachelor’s degree.

"I always knew that I’d go back to college," she said. "I wanted to have a good job, but I knew I’d have to make the time to go to college."

While pursuing her degree in psychology, Bryant began working as a mentor with the New Mexico Coalition for Literacy.

She graduated from Eastern New Mexico University with a major in psychology and a minor in English. She was named Outstanding Psychology Graduate of 2001 and is a lifetime member of Psi Chi, an international honors society for psychology majors.

A year ago, she and her husband moved to Artesia and within a week she was hired to work in the NMSU-C Outreach Office.

She started tutoring students in the General Education Development (GED) program, preparing them for the test and advising them on how to best attain their goals.

She also teaches English as a Second Language (ESL) Classes, which meld together with the GED program.

"The numbers in my GED classes are really up," she said. "Hopefully we’ll get more ESL students. There’s a very real need in this town for that."

"We started the Title V program in this office from the ground up," she said. "It’s really taken off."

The Title V program targets low-income Hispanic students, helping them achieve academic and career objectives.

In addition to tying in with her history of advising and mentoring for her fellow students at Eastern New Mexico, her position fits in well with her plans to pursue a master’s degree in social work from New Mexico Highlands University.

When she achieves her master’s degree, Bryant hopes to pursue clinical social work, hopefully in a hospital setting.

"I’m happy to be doing this because I get to be a mentor, advisor and an academic counselor," said Bryant. "It’s something I really enjoy."

But if mentoring is her motivation, literacy is Bryant’s passion.

"I’ve been involved with the Literacy Coalition for about five years now," she said. "That’s something I’m really, really passionate about."

Bryant feels that literacy begins in the home and in the community.

"It gives me great pleasure when I run into a former student and he or she exemplifies personal growth and development by having furthered their education," she said.

"I feel, as an educator, it is my duty to be instrumental in helping establish an educational foundation in a student’s life. In turn, the student has been given the opportunity to become and effective reader, writer, communicator and life-long learner."

A hiking enthusiast, she enjoys exploring the wilderness areas around New Mexico and in Arizona.

"Every year we try to do a little traveling and do some hiking," she said. "We’ve done Superstition Mountain, Camelback Mountain. Hopefully I’ll get to go in December and do a little hiking.

"I like to do it at least once or twice a year."

Bryant lives in Artesia with her husband, Artesia Police Department patrol officer Dan Bryant and their "baby" Eddy, a four-year-old, 60-pound Soft Wheaton Terrier, whom they rescued from being euthanized at an animal shelter.

Previously owned by a military family, his owner died unexpectedly and the family was unable to care for him.

"Somewhere between their giving him up and our getting him, he’d somehow been out and about.