Thursday, Oct. 30, the New Mexico State University Dairy Products Evaluations Club (DPEC) met for their fall semester bi-monthly club meeting. The club invites students to the opportunity to expand skills in a niche job market of quality control and taste testing.
The NMSU DPEC team won the dairy product development category at last year’s Collegiate Dairy Products Evaluation Contest with a yogurt-based snack that incorporated southwest flavors. Joe Holles, department head of Chemical and Materials Engineering and the sponsor for DPEC, said the 100-year anniversary of the competition made the win even more special.
DPEC president Jazmine Arreola said dairy competitions allow students to network with industry professionals “from walking the fields” to meeting sales representatives. Through these events, they learn key skills in quality control and sensory evaluation.
Dr. Stephanie Clark advises the student organization which has been active since Jan. 2024. Formerly a tenured professor at Iowa State University, Clark holds an affiliated faculty position at New Mexico State University in the college Chemical, Materials and Engineering where she specializes in dairy products. Clark emphasized the importance of commercial distribution, the role taste testers play and the importance of practice in the field.
“We want the products to taste good when they’re out of commerce. If somebody complains that they had a bad experience with a product, we have to be able to identify t hat product so that we can prevent it from happening again. So, we need this kind of training. It’s practical,” Clark stated.
Arreola, a chemical engineering major, started her position as president of DPEC in the end of spring 2025. She described efforts for outreach during Aggie Orientation and funding challenges.
“I tried to do outreach towards everyone. I made little posters. We went to where everyone comes in [for] Aggie orientation; we tried that. I talked to my co-workers, you know to everybody around like, you want to taste milk?” Arreola said.
Along with the club’s challenges to expand student members, Arreola gave some insight into efforts to gain funds for the club.
“I talk to my co-workers in regard to funding, we mostly get it with this guy, Joseph Holles, he’s the department head.” Arreola. “I’m hoping to maybe talk to other people around for more funding so we can get more products, so they [club members] have a more broad range, instead of trying the same things over and over.”
Arreola said she hopes to work in the dairy industry despite current challenges. She emphasized that dairy work goes beyond milking cows, involving safety, packaging sales, and engineering roles. Through competitions and networking, she said she has seen how broad and science-driven the field can be, connecting with disciplines like civil and mechanical engineering.
Holles described Clark’s role at NMSU and explained the importance of an agricultural science club hosted in the college of engineering building.
“The reason that she’s [Dr. Clark, is] in this department is that we as a department are striving to build better relationships between the engineering college and the ag school, agriculture, consumer and environmental sciences, ACES.” Holles said.
Looking at the broader picture, Holles noted that food companies attend the NMSU Career Fair each year. These companies often hire a small number of chemical engineers. Because of this, Holles explained the club can help students enter jobs after graduation.
Recognizing that “New Mexico’s the 10th largest dairy state in the country as far as milk production,” Holles emphasized the importance of supporting diverse student -interests. Holles said DPEC aims “to encourage different groups and activities so that everybody has a group to be part of their interest.”
