Silver City, N.M.- Most students in their time at WNMU accomplish a good amount given that they have the drive to want to make a difference on campus. But there is one particular student that has done this and much more in his time here, and will continue to do so even as he gets ready to graduate this coming Friday. Ryan Ruiz is the perfect example of an outstanding student at WNMU that has proven himself time and time again in that he has earned every recognition he has under his belt because of the type of person that he is.
Having arrived in Silver City in 2012, Ryan was a former high school football player that broke several records at Riverside High School. While he was there, he broke the top 5 for most career carries in his senior year. But after high school, Ryan decided that football wasn’t going to be his main focus once he came to college.
Ryan made his main focus at WNMU to be on the education he was going to need in order to help others out. The first part of his bigger plan has been achieved. Ryan is going to be graduating with a double major in Cell Molecular Biology and Chemistry, along with a minor in Math. He will also be graduating with Honors. Ryan mentioned that he also graduated high school with honors, and that “to be able to do it at both locations in my academic career is an amazing personal accomplishment for me.”
A pretty big honor for Ryan recently was his induction into the Student Hall of Fame for 2017, and he said it was a massive honor to be recognized for all that he has done and the hard work put into his time here at WNMU. In his career as a student, Ryan has worked as an event specialist with the Office of Career Services, as well as a tutor for the Center for Student Success. He recently organized the spring career fair a couple of weeks ago where he also delivered the keynote speech due to his supervisor being gone on maternity leave right before the event was to take place. Ryan explained that responsibility as an “incredible thing to pull off personally because Vanessa had enough trust in me to run it smoothly, which it did.”
Adding on to his many titles, he has also been a lab assistant for chemistry in Harlan Hall, and amongst all of these accomplishments, Ryan was recently inducted into the National Society of Leadership and Success this past weekend.
His future plans include attending graduate school in the fall, and as of this article, he isn’t quite too sure where at yet, but said that Dr. Isaac Brundage, his family, and friends have been pushing him to apply to an Ivy League school for his masters.
In the spirit of truly embodying a hard worker and a genuine person, Ryan Ruiz’s college career has been one that will hopefully inspire many others in whatever field they want to pursue. As he goes on to reach his ultimate goal of having a PhD in Biochemistry, he has already helped so many others at WNMU that there is no doubt his reach will eventually find the rest of the world.
