UNM Student Support Services-TRIO Alumnus Receives Achievement Award
May 28, 2024 - Dorene DiNaro
Demetrius Gloster, UNM Student Support Services-TRIO (SSS-TRIO) and Ronald E. McNair alumnus, was recently honored with the TRIO Achiever award at this year’s TRIO New Mexico conference. The award is given each year to an exemplary TRIO alum who has made outstanding civic, community, and professional contributions.
Gloster will now represent New Mexico, alongside award recipients from each state, at the 2024 fall regional Southwest Association of Student Assistance Programs TRIO-based conference in Little Rock, AK, where he may be selected for the national TRIO Achiever award. “The national award is a big honor,” said Dawn Blue-Sky Hill, SSS-TRIO program manager. “The last TRIO Achiever who made the national list was state attorney Hector Balderas in 2017.”
Gloster earned both his Bachelor’s and Master of Business Administration from The University of New Mexico Anderson School of Management. He currently serves as a senior human resource specialist for the Corporate Senior Executive Management Office, HR and Administration/Operations, Security and Preparedness for the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.
Blue-Sky Hill remembers Gloster as a freshman who came to UNM from Denver as a Daniels Fund Scholarship recipient and demonstrated academic excellence and the TRIO spirit of resilience.
“As an undergraduate, Demetrius served as a project assistant for SSS,” Blue-Sky Hill said. “During that time, he helped organize culturally-relevant educational events including the City of Albuquerque Make a Difference Day by volunteering at the Roadrunner Food Bank, and participating at the UNM Spring Storm event at Watermelon Ranch.”
Blue-Sky Hill said that Gloster was also affiliated with the New Mexico Forum for Youth in Community; was a trained facilitator at the W.K. Kellogg Forum, and served as a project assistant for Project for New Mexico Graduates of Color. “Demetrius made an impact on the UNM student population while in that role,” she said. “He also impacted the greater community by helping them reach out to students to provide scholarships, mentorships, and general resources.”
Gloster reflects on his time with SSS-TRIO as empowering both academically and personally. “SSS-TRIO saw something in me that I did not see in myself and exemplified education as the pathway to success,” he said.
“Seeing students in SSS participate in research programs and travel the world through studying abroad programs, all while achieving high academic standards, inspired me to want the same for myself,” he said.
As a graduate student at UNM, Gloster expanded his professional skill set by completing the UNM New Advisor Training. He subsequently begin his professional career journey as an advisor for SSS-TRIO at Lake Washington Institute of Technology.
From there, he went on to work with the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities Internship Program and was selected as a human resources intern for the Department of Treasury Internal Revenue Service headquarters in Washington D.C. After that he worked for the U.S. Forest Service in New Mexico; the Department of Justice, District of Alaska U.S. Attorney's Office; and the Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management.
“When motivated and talented students harness TRIO resources, they can soar,” Blue Sky-Hill said. “Demetrius Gloster's journey demonstrates this potential and his recognition as the 2024 New Mexico TRIO Achiever underscores the impact of programs like Student Support Services-TRIO.”
