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me to escape that mentality and get another perspective.”
AnnJanette Alejano-Steele is bringing the scourge of human trafficking out of the shadows through education and volunteerism with the Polaris Project.
Novick, who continues to “hire” Flomberg’s Management Decision Analysis “consultants” each semester, says the collaboration is a “win-win.” “If the people can’t have clean water,” she says, “they have nothing. With clean water, the village can have good health
he recuperated, the 19-year-old Merow decided to embrace the positive lessons he learned as a boy living at Boys Hope, a residential program through which he attended Regis Jesuit High School.
Now Merow wants to spread positivity society-wide. “I want to create a culture where helping each other is normal, where you don’t need to have a Boys Hope to succeed.” Like Merow, first-year English major Eddie Orozco, a PlatteForum alum, looks to give back. As a sophomore at North High School, Orozco became a PlatteForum ArtLab intern, mounting original plays and creating public art under the guidance of visiting artists. This summer prior to starting classes at Metro State, Orozco and other ArtLab youth worked alongside Metro State communication design students to create an exhibition of billboards on the theme of tolerance, called “Create! Don’t Hate.” Visitors to the exhibit voted on their favorite billboard, which
“I realized there has to be something more for me” and the women can cook good food. And Dr. Flomberg’s students can put what they’ve learned to work.” “This is something of consequence,” Flomberg says, of the well’s construction. “These women now have hours every day, which they can use to do something for their families. The students’ involvement has been massively effective. They see the good of what they are doing and they dive into it.”
Full Circle Six years ago, Justin Merow lay in a coma at Aurora’s Spalding Rehabilitation Hospital. In the aftermath of a devastating car accident—Merow had been drinking and driving when he slammed into a light post that crushed the roof of his car—doctors told his mother to expect anything. Two-and-a-half-weeks later, though, Merow came to, paralyzed on his left side with a tracheotomy in his neck and feeding tube in his stomach. As
“Not everybody survives that kind of thing,” he says of his accident. “I realized there has to be something more for me.” Today, Merow is a senior at Metro State on pace to complete two bachelor of science degrees in May, one in marketing, the other in management. He is the founder of an on-campus organization, the Mile High Divine Club, dedicated to promoting Auraria’s service groups, arts organizations and spiritual clubs, and has incorporated a business, Divine, LLC, to promote artists and organizations with positive messages. He raps under the name JSmiley, serves as the president of the College’s Black Student Alliance, volunteers regularly for Boys Hope and is doing a UCAN Serve stint at PlatteForum, a youth arts organization. “I come from a culture that doesn’t recognize going to school as a way to succeed,” he says. “Boys Hope allowed
will be produced by Lamar Outdoor Advertising. Working with the student designers from Metro State “was cool,” Orozco says. “They were open; they knew what they were talking about with Photoshop and Illustrator. They knew their stuff and were really cool” about sharing information. Attending Metro State on a full scholarship, Orozco has been invited to serve on the PlatteForum board. “Since I’m in college now,” he says, “I wanted to give up my spot (at ArtLab) for someone else. Being on the board gives me an opportunity to be a part of it and give something back, instead of being a beneficiary.” And, it’s that dynamic between receiving and giving, that engaged citizenry is all about.
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Metro Magazine llllllllllllllll Fall 2009
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