Spotlight: Shari Jones

Shari Jones often thinks of New Mexico State University as her second home. Her family moved to Las Cruces from Oklahoma when she was five. Both of her parents worked at the university and when she was growing up, the family regularly attended Aggie football and basketball games.

After graduating from Las Cruces High School in 1976, Shari enrolled at NMSU to study accounting. Between her classes and her part time jobs there wasn’t a lot of extra time for college activities. “I am more involved with the university as an alumna than I was as a student,” she admits. “I just wasn’t a joiner then although I went to football and basketball games.”

One of her fondest memories of college is the men’s basketball game in 1978 between the NMSU Aggies and Larry Bird’s Indiana State Sycamores. The Aggies hung tough but lost that game on a last second half court shot.

Her other favorite is the graduation ceremony when she received her Bachelor’s of Accountancy in 1980. “Even though I had made the decision to continue on for my master’s, reaching this milestone felt very special,” she states.

Shari was awarded a graduate assistantship while pursuing her MBA degree with an emphasis in accounting which she completed in December 1981. “I have always felt that my NMSU education put me in a good place to be successful and now it is time to provide similar opportunities for future students.”

To that end she established an endowment in the Accounting Department which supports upper-class students from Las Cruces/Dona Ana County.

In recent years Shari has become much more involved in the university. She served on the Alumni Association Executive Council for four years, including a year as its president, and is now on the President’s Associates board and the Aggie Athletic Fund’s executive council.

She also serves on the steering committee for the WAC 2007 and 2008 basketball tournaments and the executive committee for the New Mexico Bowl which is played in Albuquerque, featuring football teams from the WAC and Mountain West conferences.
In October 2007 she received a Spirit of Service award from the NMSU Foundation for her work on the WAC basketball tournament steering committee.

Shari recently translated her enthusiasm for Aggie Athletics into two naming opportunities in the Stan Fulton Center. The reception area outside the athletic offices has been named for her family, recognizing her mother’s long career in this department. She also named one of the student athletes’ study carrels.

“NMSU definitely improves the quality of life in Las Cruces,” Shari declares. “I think it is important to get alumni to come to campus and feel the excitement across campus. You can’t help but want to be a part of it.”