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SILVER CITY, NM— Recent Interdisciplinary Studies graduate Evan Leyva chose to attend WNMU based on an email exchange he had with a faculty member prior to enrolling.

“I sent emails out to faculty I thought sounded interesting and could tell me more about the school,” he said, “and one [WNMU faculty member] gave me the most engaging answer.” That exchange propelled him to become an online student at the university, where he completed an interdisciplinary  bachelor’s degree in Psychology, Sociology and Writing in May.

Originally from California, Leyva moved to New Mexico in 2022. His family’s move to the state was prompted by historical family ties to the area. “My father was doing a lot of research into our genealogy and learning a lot more about where our ancestors came from,” he explained, “and a lot of ties really come from this part of southwest New Mexico—the Chihene Nde Apache and the Gila. There’s lots of ties to our forefathers on these lands. So it just feels like this was the natural place to go.”

His experience at WNMU has been an equally good fit. WNMU, he said “really offered the right curriculum for me to be able to handle my work remotely. I have been going pretty hard on the grind ever since I started taking classes here. … I have appreciated the flexibility of the online courses. It really helped me to get the most out of every course that I took.”

Leyva stated that he also appreciated the small size of the university. “It seemed like every person I referenced as I was getting integrated, everyone knew who I was talking about,” he said. “That seemed very warm and engaging.”

His decision to pursue an interdisciplinary degree was prompted by his interest in human perception. “One of the things that is most interesting to me is looking at how other human beings perceive the world,” he explained, “and I find that you can do a lot of that through looking at human output. And when you look at the social context of why they wrote what they wrote and the mindset they have when they are writing it, you can tell a lot about what is going on in the head and the heart of the human being. So this pronged angle [of studying Writing, Psychology and Sociology] allowed me to be able to tell what I am internalizing from other art forms with more depth than I was before, to make me a more well-rounded thinker and to build a lens of understanding.”

In addition to learning a lot about the human experience from his Psychology and Sociology courses, Leyva said that he also honed his communication skills at WNMU. “I have really enjoyed taking classes under [Professor of English and Writing] Dr. Heather Steinmann, who is in the Interdisciplinary Studies program also, but she teaches a lot of the professional writing classes, like Editing,” said Leyva. “Those courses made me feel like I could level-up as a writer. “

After earning his bachelor’s degree, said Leyva, he hopes to eventually earn a master’s degree. In the meantime, though, he plans to build on the knowledge he takes away from WNMU. “In general, I would like to be able to put into practice that understanding that I have acquired,” he said. I have done some writing consultant volunteering work and professional work in the last few years, so I would like to help students with that while I boost up my own side projects that I want to work on. There are tons of ways that I feel like I am going to grow and explore—taking what I have already built and expanding further.”