The Colorado College Bulletin - Spring 2020

Creating Synergy on Campus, p. 17

SPRING 2020

Ian Sanborn ’20 holds a leather football helmet worn by an Amache high school football player while visiting the Amache Museum and former internment camp in Granada, Colorado. Students visited the museum and former camp, where more than 7,500 Japanese Americans were held during World War II, as part of Ryan Buyco’s Introduction to Asian American Studies class during Block 5. Also pictured are Jio Chang ’20, Jia Mei ’21, and Josh Raizner ’20. Photo by Jennifer Coombes

A publication for alumni, parents, and friends. Vice President for Communications: Jane Turnis • Assistant Vice President for Communications and Creative Director: Felix A. Sanchez ’93• Co-editors: Jennifer Kulier, Leslie Weddell • Production and Editing: Kirsten Akens ’96 • Photo Editor: Jennifer Coombes • Designer: Lesley Houston • Copy Editing: Helen Richardson • (719) 389-6603, bulletin@coloradocollege.edu

CONTENTS

10

CC Wishes President Jill Tiefenthaler Bon Voyage

24

Reaching Across the Aisle

28

Juggling ‘Flat Hats’ and More

ON THE COVER In January, CC celebrated reaching its goal of carbon neutrality by 2020.

One element that contributed to this achievement is the Synergy House program, a living community for students who want to work toward environmental sustainability. Learn more about Synergy and CC’s goal in the package of stories that begins on page 14. Photo by Jennifer Coombes

From the President

2

On the Bookshelf

34

Campus News

5

Alumni and Family Activities

36

First Person

39

Class Notes

40

Milestones

48

Athletics

12

Feature Stories

14

Student Perspective

22

Point of View

24

Peak Profiles

28

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FROM THE PRESIDENT

PHOTO BY JENNIFER COOMBES

Dear Alumni, Parents, and Friends, While this time of year is usually marked by celebration as our seniors prepare for Commencement, the past few months have been filled with anxiety and disappointment as the Coronavirus has taken hold in our communities. Colleges have suspended face-to-face instruction and emptied campuses to slow the virus’ spread and organizations are taking necessary precautions to protect our most vulnerable populations. At this time, we are continuing to deliver the academic program via distance learning and serving the students who must remain on campus. Our hearts go out to those who have been directly affected by the virus. I am grateful for the opportunity to thank you, our alumni, parents, and friends, for all you have done to strengthen our community during this difficult time, and for your continued support.

On a completely different note, I announced in January that I will be departing CC in August to take a new position as chief executive officer of the National Geographic Society. It has been a joy to be a part of our students’ journeys, to witness their accomplishments during their time at CC, and celebrate the leaders they are becoming. Our students’ curiosity and passion inspire me! A highlight for me has been experiencing the Block Plan firsthand by co-teaching the Economics of Higher Education each year with my husband Kevin Rask. My classroom experience affirmed my love of teaching

and commitment to the liberal arts, and educated me on the Block Plan’s incredible pedagogical advantages.

I believe in Colorado College’s commitment to holistic, residential education and am grateful for the engagement from faculty, staff, alumni, parents, and friends of the college.

From the Dynamic Half Block to the Wellness Resource Center to the Butler Center to the Student Activities and Advising Hub, I am proud of new campus initiatives that strengthen our living learning community. You have helped make our dreams a reality, whether visiting to teach a Half-Block course, joining us for Homecoming, welcoming our students on Tiger Trek visits, or donating to the college.

Throughout my nine years as president of CC, we have celebrated many impressive milestones. We have seen improvements to our campus thanks to the generosity of donors, from the addition of the Adam F. Press Fitness Center and renovation of El Pomar Sports Center, to the renovation and expansion of Tutt Library, to the alliance with the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. In February we broke ground on the new Ed Robson Arena, scheduled to open in Fall 2021, which will enable us to host home hockey games on campus for the first time in the program’s more than 80-year history.

Both the FAC alliance and Ed Robson Arena and its City for Champions funding help us to connect with the

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wider Colorado Springs community in new and exciting ways.

Just as importantly, we have come together to address important challenges. Students have called for change, asking us to create a more inclusive and equitable community that enables all students to thrive. Our antiracism initiative builds on the many contributions of marginalized CC students, faculty, and staff since CC’s founding, and this work continues. Our efforts for equity are supported by CC’s new access initiatives, including the Colorado Pledge and Stroud Scholars.

Prior to my tenure, students pushed for a response to the climate crisis, setting the ambitious goal to become carbon neutral by 2020. Thanks to the efforts put in place by my predecessor President Dick Celeste and to the dedicated efforts of many students, staff, and faculty, CC reached our goal of carbon neutrality in January 2020, becoming the eighth institution in North America, and the first in the Rocky Mountain region, to achieve this goal.

None of these initiatives would have been possible without the success of the $435 million Building on Originality campaign. With more than $405 million raised to date, we are closing in on the end of our campaign.

As we wrap up in 2021, fundraising for scholarships remains a top priority as we focus on reaching our 50% alumni participation goal. Building our endowment is critical for the long-term

sustainability of Colorado College, and will ensure stability as we weather future challenges. Thank you to all who have contributed — through your volunteerism, monetary donations, and leadership — to our campaign goals and our many community-building efforts.

While the pandemic, continued disruption in higher education, and changes in leadership result in feelings of uncertainty, I have no doubt that Colorado College will continue to thrive in the years to come. I am grateful to Provost Alan Townsend, who will serve as interim president during the search for CC’s next president. Dean of the Faculty Claire Oberon Garcia, who has been on the faculty since 1990, has further strengthened our incredible leadership team this year and will serve as interim provost during the search. The Board of Trustees has been supportive as we have made difficult decisions in the wake of the Coronavirus, and their continued leadership, along with the efforts of our dedicated and talented faculty and staff, will keep CC strong in the years to come.

It has been an honor to serve as your president for the past nine years, and I look forward to my continued engagement in this wonderful community as a CC parent.

Best regards,

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

To the Editor: True empowerment to the individual, or institution, comes through learning, listening, and personal responsibility, not pessimistic finger-pointing by the politically rabid. Good job, CC.

Just a quick note to say how pleased I am to see Eric Sondermann’s Letter to the Editor in the most recent Bulletin.

It is a thoughtful, sophisticated, and broadminded commentary on a pervasive issue in contemporary education and I, personally, think it should be required reading for all students, staff, and CC administration. Bravo for making space for this invaluable perspective. I hope CC never becomes an institution that censors speech or opinions when that very censorship is deemed “fashionable” or “woke” by self-identified identity fanatics.

take us very far. What takes us pretty far is a quote I really love from my avatar Bob Dylan. In his most recent Netflix movie, “Rolling Thunder,” Bob says, “Life isn’t about finding yourself; or finding anything. Life is about creating yourself.”

Christophe Olson ’87 Dear Bulletin, I enjoyed reading Eric Sondermann’s letter in the winter 2019 Bulletin (pg. 3).

I couldn’t agree more, I believe an emphasis on color and identity doesn’t

With the premise of “creating yourself” firmly in hand, I expect some really good classes on “individual agency” to be offered soon — I look forward to hearing about them. Might even want to attend.

Rory Donaldson ’66

We welcome your letters to the editor. Please send them to: Bulletin/Communications Colorado College 14 E. Cache La Poudre St. Colorado Springs, CO 80903-3294 Email: bulletin@coloradocollege.edu

TIGERS CROSSING PATHS CC CONNECTIONS

By Leslie Weddell

Rochester, NY Philadelphia, PA

From left, Chelsea Schmidt ’10, Daniel Boron-Brenner ’07 (with Einstein, the Einstein Medical Center’s mascot), and Wes Paulson ’11 are currently training, or have just completed training, in emergency medicine at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia. Chelsea is in the first-year resident class, Dan is a second-year emergency medicine resident, and Wes recently completed the physician assistant residency program in January.

I had a chance meetup with CC alum Michelle Gabrieloff-Parish ’00 at the New York State Sustainability Conference in Rochester, New York, in November. She gave the keynote address on Friday, while I presented about my funded project in a concurrent session on Thursday. We got together for this selfie. — Mark Bremer ’01

Daniel Boron-Brenner ’07 writes, “It was a pleasant surprise for us to discover how small the world is, and how much of an impact CC has made on us as people as well as healthcare providers,” says Dan. Additionally, a fourth CC grad is at Albert Einstein Medical Center: Lily McKoy ’13 is a medical student currently rotating through the hospital. “We thought this was an interesting coincidence,” says Dan.

Have you unexpectedly encountered a fellow Tiger somewhere in the world?

Let us know!

Please send digital photos (JPGs at 300 dpi and minimum of 3.5 x 5 inches) or good quality prints at a similar size. Include complete information about the location, date, and circumstance, and identify people in the photo left to right.

Bulletin/Communications Colorado College 14 E. Cache La Poudre St. Colorado Springs, CO 80903-3294 E-mail: bulletin@colorado​college.edu www.coloradocollege.edu/bulletin | 3

COLORADO COLLEGE RESPONDS TO PANDEMIC

Amid the global Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Colorado College’s response is not only based on prioritizing the health and safety of the college community, but also that of Colorado Springs and the nation and world at large. The president’s cabinet and the college’s multi-disciplinary COVID-19 Emergency Response Team continues to meet regularly (via web and teleconference services) to assess the situation and plan for impacts to the campus community.

CC has taken the following actions: • Block 7, 8, and summer classes delivered via distance learning. Most students left for Spring Break and remained off campus. A small number of students — about 175 by Block 7 — who were unable to return home were approved to remain on campus; these students have been provided with housing, meals, and technology support.

• Adjusted block schedule: Spring Break was extended by one week, through Sunday, March 29. On Monday, March 30, CC began Block 7 with distance-learning classes only, in a revised schedule. Most classes were adapted; only a very few were canceled if an online alternative was not possible. Advisers helped students navigate the impact of these changes and the Vice Provost’s Office and advisers worked with seniors to make sure they have pathways to graduation as planned.

• Social distancing: Employees who could telecommute were asked to work from home beginning March 18, and hold meetings virtually. On March 26, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis issued a stay-at-home order, requiring all employees to work from home except those who provide essential services.

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• The campus was closed to visitors beginning March 18, including family members and job candidates. Admission open houses have been canceled. Only faculty, essential staff, and students approved to remain living on campus have key-card access to a limited number of buildings.

• Commencement postponed: President Jill Tiefenthaler announced on March 31 that Commencement 2020 could not be held as planned in May. While she said she could not promise a later celebration, students and parents have been surveyed for their input on what would make a postponed celebration meaningful.

• Summer changes: CC-sponsored study abroad programs, summer athletics and theatre camps, Summer Music Festival concerts, the Pre-College Program, and other summer programs, events, and activities, are canceled.

If local, state, and federal guidelines allow, August activities, including the Bridge Scholars program, early athletics training, New Student Orientation, and the beginning of the academic year, will resume as usual.

RESOURCES FOR SUPPORT AND ASSISTANCE: The COVID-19 outbreak has caused anxiety and distress for many. The college mobilized and promoted numerous resources for support and assistance, including the Student Health Center, the Counseling Center, the Chaplain’s Office, Employee Assistance Plan, the Butler Center, Student Opportunities and Advising Hub, and Wellness Resource Center. A Coronavirus (COVID-19) Emergency Response Fund was created; faculty, staff, parents, alumni, and friends continue to donate to the fund to help students and the college respond quickly to the challenges brought by the pandemic.

Because the COVID-19 response has changed rapidly based on circumstances, note that this information was current as of press time, but may have changed subsequently. For updated information on Colorado College’s Coronavirus response, visit: coloradocollege.edu/other/coronavirus.

If you have additional concerns about COVID-19 or the campus response, email covid19@coloradocollege.edu; please leave your phone number if you prefer a personal call back.

By Leslie Weddell

'Nonprofit Initiatives at CC' Provides Lessons in Leadership

CC Named a 2019-20 Top Producer of Fulbrights CC has been named a Fulbright top-producing institution for the 2019-20 grant year and has gone on to have 11 Fulbright semifinalists for the 2020-21 grant year, with more than half of CC’s 19 Fulbright applicants, or 58%, advancing to semifinalist status. CC’s 202021 Fulbright semifinalists are:

Maddi Schink ’23 attends a meeting held by the Career Center's Nonprofit Initiatives program in Tutt Library. Schink and other students participating in the program discuss their progress and next steps. Photo by Patil Khakhamian ’22.

Nonprofit Initiatives at Colorado College was launched in the fall of 2019, with eight CC students taking a seat on the board of directors at three separate area nonprofits. The nonprofit sector is one of the fastest-growing in the country, with approximately 12.3 million jobs in the workforce.

“We believe it’s important for students to understand the purpose, impact, and opportunities this sector provides,” says Assistant Professor of Economics and Business Kat Miller-Stevens. Miller-Stevens and Director of CC’s Public Interest Fellowship Program and Nonprofit Initiatives Cari Hanrahan oversee the program. The two share a mutual passion for engaging students in experiential learning opportunities in the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors.

“The NPI serves as the primary bridge between the CC student experience and the Colorado Springs nonprofit community, with our local nonprofits and philanthropic institutions greatly benefitting from the depth and breadth of viewpoints, experiences, skills, and knowledge that CC students have

to offer,” says Heather Carroll ’89, a member of CC’s Board of Trustees and president and executive director of the Joseph Henry Edmondson Foundation, which is funding the Nonprofit Initiatives at Colorado College program.

The three nonprofits and the CC students on their board of directors are: Creek Week Steering Committee: Maitland Robinson ’21 Jennifer Lam ’22 Maddie Perigaut ’23 James Hanafee ’22 Katie Wang ’22 Downtown YMCA of the Pikes Peak Region Advisory Board: Maddi Schink ’23 Mountain Song Community School Board: Jamyoung Dorji ’19, MAT ’20 Laurel Sullivan ’20

• Emma Carlson ’20, University of Sheffield study award in medical sciences, United Kingdom • Kenneth Crossley ’19, research award in materials science, Spain • Spencer Daigle ’20, English teaching assistant award, Russia • Allison Gish ’20, English teaching assistant award, Czech Republic • Natalie Gubbay ’20, research award in economics, Argentina • Bita Kavoosi ’20, research award in international relations, China • Daniel Lopez ’19, research award in ethnomusicology, Indonesia • Charlotte Majercik ’20, English teaching assistant award, Nepal • Sarah Pokelwaldt ’20, research award in biology, Panama • Willa Serling ’20, research award in public health, Indonesia • Naomi Tsai ’19, study award in marine biology, New Zealand Being named a Fulbright top-producer is based on the four Colorado College grantees awarded in Spring 2019 and who were in the field during the 2019-20 academic year. They are: • Beka Adair ’16, research award in economic development, Kyrgyz Republic • Claire Derry ’19, English teaching assistant, Moldova • Camilla Fuller ’19, English teaching assistant, Thailand • Amanda Martin ’19, research award in biology, South Africa

DISCOVER MORE ONLINE To read about our students’ Fulbrights and other awards, go to: coloradocollege. edu/newsevents/newsroom/awards

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Finalists Pitch Ideas, Earn Seed Money at Big Idea Event

Students Elected to Leadership Positions Five CC students were elected to leadership positions for the 2020-21 academic year.

Four were elected to the Colorado College Student Government Association and one was elected a student trustee. Elected are: Sakina Bhatti ’22, CCSGA student body president; Sophie Cardin ’22, CCSGA vice president of outreach; Lilly Davis ’22, CCSGA vice president of finance; Anusha Khanal ’21, CCSGA vice president of inclusion; and Elliott Williams ’21, student trustee. Additionally, Saluja Siwakoti ’21 will continue as vice president of student life and Ian Roberson ’21 as vice president of internal affairs, as their terms run through the end of the 2020 Fall Semester.

Wait a Sec: What Did That Sign Say? Prakhar Gautam ’20 of Infinite Chemistry presents with his team during the final pitch presentations of the Big Idea 2020 at Celeste Theatre. Photo by Jennifer Coombes

Four 2020 Big Idea finalists presented their venture ideas in late February at CC’s Big Idea competition, now in its eighth year. Receiving $7,500 in seed funding to continue to develop their ideas were: Noah Weeks ’20, Benedict Wright ’20, and Kobi Bhattacharyya ’20 for Journalista, a community marketplace connecting journalists directly with readers in order to promote the ideals of robust local reporting and ethical journalism.

Lauren Weiss ’21, Melissa LaFehr ’20, Sara Hanahan ’21, and Maddi Schink ’23 for Geek Girl, which works to close the gender gap in technology by identifying young girls who have taken an interest in computer science and providing them with mentorship opportunities to maintain their enthusiasm for technology.

Tony Mastromarino ’23, Saigopal Rangaraj ’23, and James Dollard ’22 for MemorMe, an app based upon the premise that objects are often homes for our memories and feelings. This app uses psychological association to ensure that memories outlive their physical shells by providing them with a new digital home.

Prakhar Gautam ’20, Paul Price ’20, Cameron MacDonald ’20, Tian Lee ’20, and Pietro Giacomin ’20 for Infinite Chemistry, software that allows users to import molecules from any online chemical database and manipulate them in virtual reality, providing an opportunity to get data on the molecules’ symmetry and observe molecules interacting and reacting in real time.

CC’s Big Idea competition, part of Creativity & Innovation at Colorado College, invites groups of students to develop new, innovative ideas and pitch their proposals in front of local investors for seed funding in a traditional business-pitch format. This year saw a new format, with student teams competing before a panel of judges in the semifinal round for four spots in the final event.

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Driving to or from Colorado College through Ohio? Don’t be surprised if you see a section of roadway signs that say “Governor Richard F. Celeste Highway.” Former CC President Richard Celeste, the college’s 12th president who served from 2002-11, had a portion of I-90 west of Cleveland, Ohio, dedicated to him in November 2019 in tribute to his “long and distinguished career as a public servant.” Celeste served as a state representative, lieutenant governor, and then governor of Ohio from the 1970s to 1991. He also served as U.S. ambassador to India (1997-2001) and director of the Peace Corps (1979-81).

Design Thinking in Healthcare

Author Ibram X. Kendi Speaks on Campus

PHOTO BY JENNIFER COOMBES

Ibram X. Kendi, historian and New York Times-bestselling author of multiple books, including “How to Be an Antiracist,” visited campus in February. He met for a conversation with a group of students (pictured) gathered

by Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature and Arabic Ammar Naji and Professor of Comparative Literature Bill Davis; many of the students were enrolled in Naji and Davis’ Block 5 class, Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity. Kendi also attended a faculty and staff reception before giving a public talk titled “How to Be an Antiracist Institution.” “To be antiracist is simultaneously to recognize sameness of people genetically while acknowledging and respecting their ethnic/cultural differences without bringing judgment from our own ethnic/cultural framework,” he told the full-house audience in the Kathryn Mohrman Theatre. “It is critical to hold yourself accountable and to create mechanisms and structures through which others can hold you accountable as well.”

Future of the West Debated at Symposium

PHOTO BY JENNIFER COOMBES

PHOTO BY ANDY COLWELL

Dr. Bon Ku, a practicing emergency medicine physician and director of the Health Design Lab at Thomas Jefferson University, created the first design thinking program at a medical school. Ku held a lecture and question-and-answer session in early March, followed by a convergence class the next day. The class included students from Amanda Bowman’s Advanced Inorganic Chemistry class, Kristin Moore’s Molecular Biology class, and Rachel Paupeck’s Art Studio class. Ku’s program tackles healthcare inequalities as a form of social justice and teaches future physicians to apply human-centered design to healthcare challenges. The lecture and convergence class workshop were sponsored by Creativity & Innovation at CC.

State of the Rockies Project Faculty Director Corina McKendry, far left, moderates an expert panel on the future of public lands during the 2020 Future of the West Symposium, held in late February. Panelists include Maite Arce, president of the Hispanic Access Foundation; Len Necefer, founder of Natives Outdoors; Collin O’Mara, president of the National Wildlife Foundation; and Jennifer Rokala, executive at the Center for Western Priorities. Montana Gov. Steve Bullock delivered the opening keynote address, and New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall gave the closing keynote address, titled “A ‘Quiet Crisis’ No More: Conservation and Climate Change in the West.” Results of the 10th annual bipartisan Conservation in the West Poll also were released.

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FAC U LT Y U P DATE S

Six Faculty Members Awarded Tenure; Four Granted Emeriti Status Following the board’s annual February meeting, six Colorado College faculty members were approved by the Board of Trustees for tenure and promotion to associate professor, effective July 1.

CC President Jill Tiefenthaler, Provost Alan Townsend, and Dean of the Faculty Claire Oberon Garcia visited each promoted faculty member, congratulating them and bestowing a gift. Faculty promoted and granted tenure are:

Rebecca Barnes Receives Major NSF Grant for Carbon Watershed Research

• Rebecca Barnes, Environmental Studies • Amanda Bowman, Chemistry and Biochemistry • Elizabeth Coggins, Political Science • Kevin Holmes, Psychology • Pamela Reaves, Religion • Christiane Steckenbiller, German, Russian, and East Asian Languages Additionally, the trustees awarded emeriti status to four professors who are retiring at the end of the academic year. Between them, they have 131 years of teaching at CC: • Victoria Levine, Professor Emerita of Music; started in 1988 • David Hendrickson ’76, Professor Emeritus of Political Science; started in 1983 • Jeff Noblett, Professor Emeritus of Geology; started in 1980 • Dave Mason ’78, Professor Emeritus of English; started in 1998

PHOTO BY JENNIFER COOMBES

Dean of the Faculty Claire Oberon Garcia, President Jill Tiefenthaler, Christiane Steckenbiller, of the German, Russian, and East Asian Languages Department, and Provost Alan Townsend. Photo by Andy Colwell

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Rebecca Barnes has received an $849,234 CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation for a project titled “The Legacy of Wildfire on Carbon Watershed Biogeochemistry.” The highly prestigious award, from NSF’s Faculty Early Career Development Program, is CC’s first CAREER grant. Her project aims to understand how severe fire alters the movement and fate of carbon from land to water over multiple timescales and forest types. The five-year award, which begins in May, will provide a multitude of research opportunities for students both within and outside the classroom.

Manya Whitaker, Jake Eichengreen Receive Mayor’s Young Leader Awards Associate Professor of Education Manya Whitaker and Jake Eichengreen, executive director of the Quad Innovation Partnership, were recognized by Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers in December with Mayor’s Young Leader Awards. Whitaker’s emphasis on educational equity and social justice in her courses and her leadership on nonprofit boards were cited in her win in the Education category. Eichengreen, who has doubled the size of the four-school collaborative Quad Innovation Partnership, won in the Community and Economic Impact category. Tony Rosendo ’02, CC trustee and president and CEO at the Lane Foundation, and Zac Chapman ’13 of Colorado Springs Food Rescue, were finalists for the Community and Economic Impact category.

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FAC U LT Y U P DATE S

Lynne Gratz Named Lead Principal Investigator on $1.6 Million NSF Grant

PHOTO BY SCOTT MAJORS

Idris Goodwin Named Director of the Fine Arts Center Idris Goodwin, an accomplished playwright, poet, director, educator, and organizer, has been named the next director of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College, effective May 1, 2020. He will lead strategic direction and manage operations for the FAC, serving both Colorado College and the Colorado Springs community.

Goodwin, who most recently worked as producing artistic director of Stage One Family Theater in Louisville, Kentucky, has strong connections to the Colorado Springs and Denver arts communities.

He taught for six years in the Department of Theatre and Dance at Colorado College. During that time, he wrote plays and poetry, directed, and performed at the Fine Arts Center; CC; University of Colorado, Colorado Springs and its Gallery of Contemporary Art; Colorado Springs Philharmonic; on 91.5 KRCC’s “Critical Karaoke”; and in Denver at Denver Center Theatre, Curious Theatre Company, and MCA Denver.

“During my time as a professor at Colorado College, I engaged with the Fine Arts Center in many ways, from co-planning a hip-hop festival, to teaching classes, to receiving an award, to wandering its galleries lost in inspiration,” Goodwin says. “The Fine Arts Center is a bridge between the campus and community, with great potential to be the defining multidisciplinary arts space of the 21st-century West.”

PHOTO BY JENNIFER COOMBES

Assistant Professor of Environmental Science Lynne Gratz is the lead principal investigator on a $1.6 million, multi-institution National Science Foundation grant. The research project, a collaboration between Colorado College, Utah State University, University of Colorado Boulder, and University of Utah, will focus on the chemistry of atmospheric mercury, a hazardous air pollutant of both local and global importance. The project will develop improved methods for measuring oxidized mercury and then utilize the measurement system at the Storm Peak Laboratory in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. CC’s portion of the grant, $254,471, will support two student researchers each in the summer of 2021 and 2022, as well as Gratz’s participation in the fieldwork and data analysis over the next three years.

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From Building on the Block to Exploring the Planet CC Wishes President Jill Tiefenthaler P'21, P'24 Bon Voyage

By Valerie Hanna ’18

President Jill Tiefenthaler meets with a student during her open office hours in February 2017. Photo by Jennifer Coombes

The end of President Jill Tiefenthaler’s nine-year tenure at Colorado College has taken an unexpected turn.

On Jan. 14, Tiefenthaler announced her Aug. 1 departure to serve as the chief executive officer of the National Geographic Society, assuring sustained momentum in current initiatives, and reflecting on her time serving as president, which she described as “the greatest honor and joy of my long career in higher education.” In recent months, teamwork and engagement have taken on a new meaning for Tiefenthaler and the CC community.

As concerns around the Coronavirus heightened, Tiefenthaler and her leadership team made the difficult decisions to switch to distance learning for Blocks 7 and 8 and summer classes to minimize the spread of the virus. But the president is just as committed to the CC community as ever before as she finishes her final few months with the college. Tiefenthaler’s leadership has resulted in record fundraising achievements, increased community involvement, sustained expansion of campus resources, and access initiatives designed to serve dynamic, highpromise learners.

Tiefenthaler’s expertise on the economics of higher education has taken her across the country and the globe to speak on the topic.

She has implemented transformative changes in financial aid and admission to increase access at CC, including the Colorado Pledge, Stroud Scholars, and the new test-optional admission policy.

These impressive initiatives are backed by countless hours of community discussion and collaboration. “Jill is one of the great listeners I’ve met. She gathers all viewpoints and uses them to inform her decisions, and made the effort with alumni of all ages. I feel so grateful for her dedication and connection,” says Chris Schluter ’65.

YEAR ONE AND BEYOND Tiefenthaler dedicated her first year at the college to soliciting input, which she called her “Year of Listening.” This ultimately yielded “Building on the Block,” CC’s strategic plan. Reflecting on the many changes Tiefenthaler brought to life during her tenure, Director and Associate Professor of Feminist & Gender Studies Heidi Lewis says, “I shook up the campus in so many ways alongside Jill Tiefenthaler and most often with her support. And we’ve disagreed, laughed together, and lots in between. She’s

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been an incredible mentor, and I’m glad I got to bear witness and help move the needle.”

Tiefenthaler also experienced the Block Plan firsthand as a professor, co-teaching each year with her husband, College Research Professor Kevin Rask. Students who took their upper-level Economics of Higher Education course attended field trips to University of Colorado Colorado Springs, Pikes Peak Community College, the Colorado Department of Higher Education, and the State Capitol to learn from experts in the field and better understand public, private, and community college stakes in higher education.

“As a professor, she encouraged us to ask difficult questions and facilitated an exciting and fast-paced classroom environment,”

She cares about so many issues, but most importantly, she cares about people, about learning as a community.

Lily Weissgold ’20

Jill captured the energy, the here-and-now urgency that prevails in the Block Plan at Colorado College, the minute she arrived on campus.

Ted Sulger ’84, P’19

reflects student trustee Lily Weissgold ’20, who took Tiefenthaler and Rask’s course her junior year. That year, Weissgold also attended the COP-24 climate conference with Professor Mark Smith’s Economics of International Climate Policy course, along with Tiefenthaler, Provost Alan Townsend, Director of Sustainability Ian Johnson, and trustees Marc St. John ’80, P’17 and Kishen Mangat ’96 in Katowice, Poland.

“Part of what makes Jill so phenomenal is her connection to students both in and outside of the classroom,” says Weissgold. “She cares about so many issues, but most importantly, she cares about people, about learning as a community.”

Student engagement has always taken priority for Tiefenthaler. She hosted regular open office hours and a President’s Council that met each block to discuss key issues for students on campus, in addition to attending countless athletics competitions, plays, music, and arts performances, and many other student events. She could even be found at Tutt Library handing out study snacks during fourth week. “CC students are inspiring. They’re imaginative, hardworking, and funny. It’s been a true privilege to get to know them,” says Tiefenthaler.

FROM RURAL IOWA TO THE NATION’S CAPITOL One of four children in her family, Tiefenthaler grew up on a popcorn farm in rural Iowa. She learned the importance of partnership and hard work early on, doing her chores on the farm and showing her two younger siblings the ropes. Tiefenthaler discovered her passion for economics while attending Saint Mary’s College in South Bend, Indiana. After earning her M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Duke University, Tiefenthaler joined the faculty of Colgate University in 1991, where she served as professor, department chair, associate dean of the faculty, and senior adviser to the president. She then served as provost and professor of economics at Wake Forest University, and joined CC in 2011.

For Weissgold, Tiefenthaler’s move to the National Geographic Society is fitting.

“At National Geographic, Jill will continue

to push the envelope further on sustainability and equity issues, while connecting communities.”

The National Geographic Society’s mission is to illuminate and protect the wonder of our world. National Geographic identifies and supports dynamic explorers — scientists, innovators, educators, storytellers, youth — and educates and engages a global audience through classroom resources, museum exhibits, events, and social, film, and printed media. As CEO, Tiefenthaler will create a strategic plan, head fundraising, and lead the Society’s team to execute the plan, as she has done at Colorado College. Tiefenthaler plans to approach this process as she did at CC; by listening and learning first.

Townsend will serve as CC’s interim president during the college’s search for the next president, and Dean of the Faculty Claire Oberon Garcia P’07 will assume the role of interim provost during that time.

“It’s been a challenging semester, but this community has come together to learn and grow time and time again,” says Tiefenthaler.

“I’m confident that the next president will bring new ideas and perspectives to ensure a promising future for CC.” For the Colorado College community, Tiefenthaler’s move is undeniably bittersweet.

“Jill captured the energy, the here and now urgency that prevails in the Block Plan at Colorado College the minute she arrived on campus. Her efforts have ensured the college [will have] an enviable and bright future going forward,” says Ted Sulger ’84, P’19.

“More than anything, I’ll miss her warm smile and friendship,” says Gordon Aoyagi ’67.

But it’s only goodbye for now; both of Tiefenthaler’s and Rask’s children, Owen and Olivia, are CC Tigers, so their ties to the college will remain strong.

“We’re so excited to come back as CC parents,” says Tiefenthaler. “This is an incredible community, and one that we’re grateful to be a part of throughout our lives.”

Major Initiatives

2011-2020

Through President Jill Tiefenthaler’s leadership, the college has achieved significant advances and further strengthened its ties with the community. Major accomplishments and initiatives include: ■ Becoming a carbon-neutral institution of higher education — only the eighth in North America and the first in the Rocky Mountain region, to achieve this goal.

■ The envisioning and construction of the Ed Robson Arena, part of the City for Champions partnership. The arena will be a multipurpose, state-of-the-art, sustainable sporting event venue that will benefit both the college and the City of Colorado Springs.

■ Construction of the East Campus Housing Community, with housing for 154 students and buildings named for notable CC alumni.

■ Increasing access to a college education through three initiatives: The Colorado Pledge, a pilot program designed to ensure Colorado College is as affordable for Colorado students from low- and middle-income families as the state’s flagship public university; a test-optional admission policy, in which applicants can choose whether or not to submit standardized test scores, such as the SAT or ACT; and the Stroud Scholars Program, a three-year program aimed at providing a pathway to college for high-promise students from communities historically excluded from higher education.

■ Persistently and effectively advancing the college’s ongoing effort to become an antiracist institution.

■ Construction of the expanded and renovated Charles L. Tutt Library, the largest academic library to be a carbon-neutral, net-zero energy facility and the recipient of numerous awards.

■ The announcement in 2016 of an alliance with the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, with the organization becoming the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College the following year. The alliance provides innovative, educational, and multidisciplinary arts experiences for the campus and Colorado Springs communities.

■ Construction of the Adam F. Press Fitness Center and renovation of El Pomar Sports Center, used by campus and community members.

■ The launch and continued participation in the Quad Innovation Partnership, a joint initiative among four institutions of higher education in Colorado Springs, which serves the immediate needs of area businesses and organizations while offering professional development opportunities to students and recent graduates.

■ Unparalleled fundraising success through the Building on Originality campaign and successfully driving increases in resources for faculty and students, increasing the diversity of the faculty and student body, and selectivity in admission.

■ The creation of Creativity & Innovation at Colorado College, which oversees The Big Idea competition in which students receive seed money to develop venture projects.

■ The renovation of many campus buildings, including South Hall, Cutler Hall, and the William I. Spencer Center.

— Leslie Weddell

www.coloradocollege.edu/bulletin | 11

By Jerry Cross ’91

A TIGER CAN CHANGE ITS STRIPES CC Athletics Unveils Refreshed Logos and Mascot

S

everal different versions of a tiger have found a home on Colorado College athletics uniforms, facilities, and offices throughout the history of the school. In addition, two interlocking Cs as well as many forms of wordmarks have been sprinkled around campus.

In 1938, when the hockey team made its debut, the squad’s uniforms had a running tiger in between the words Colorado College. The national champion team in 1950 had its tiger running the other way, but still in between the words. When the 1957 NCAA team won the national title, the uniforms didn’t even have a tiger on them, just the players’ numbers with the school’s name on the front.

From the late ’80s through the mid-’90s, the teams wore a version of the two interlocking Cs for several years before dropping the logo for the tiger shield everyone has been familiar with since then.

Earlier this year, the Colorado College Department of Athletics unveiled refreshed logos and a new mascot.

Former Tiger Shield

Updated Tiger Shield

12 | COLORADO COLLEGE BULLETIN | SPRING 2020

Talia Cloud ’23,left, and Jordan Meltzer ’20 react to their new jerseys when they were revealed in their locker room before a game. Photo by Katie Klann

On Feb. 7, several events were held to show the updated logos around El Pomar Sports Center, including giveaways, updated merchandise in the bookstore, signage changes, and the launch of a new logo video.

It had been three decades since the most recent tiger shield logo was designed. A lot has changed at CC in 30 years and it was time to refresh the logo to reflect that progress. The dated logo had lost adaptability and flexibility in some applications like embroidery and digital communications.

“This is an exciting day for the Tigers,” Colorado College Vice President and Director of Athletics Lesley Irvine said on Feb. 7. “The logo refresh speaks directly to the momentum of CC Athletics on campus.

It also allows us an opportunity to build on visibility and identity in a focused and consistent way. We love the new look!”

The refreshed logo and accompanying visual identity system provide the opportunity for all CC athletics teams to appear unified and consistent in their uniforms and sports gear. This allows the teams to look their best during competition, and promotes

Updated Wordmark

New Interlocking Cs

a modern, professional-looking presentation to our opponents and the public.

The development of the Ed Robson Arena also provided an opportunity to consider what is possible with an athletics logo update; the construction of the new building could coincide with the unveiling of the refreshed logo to the CC, Colorado Springs, and regional community fans.

CC stakeholders like alumni, students, faculty, and staff worked with Joe Bosack and Co., a leader in sports team logos and identity. Last spring, the firm held a series of focus groups with student athletes, athletics staff, student leaders, faculty and staff, local alumni, and the Board of Trustees to review logo versions and discuss the essential elements that the updated logo needed to express. Athletics and Communications staff and the Board of Trustees weighed in on options at the board's summer retreat and the stakeholder group selected the final logo.

The new logos are reflected in multiple athletics venues. Specifically, the interlocking CC logo was displayed at center ice at The Broadmoor World Arena and center court in Reid Arena beginning Feb. 7.

One month later, on March 6, a new mascot was unveiled during the hockey game against in-state rival Denver. With the long-time mascot “Prowler” graduating, we welcomed “RoCCY” to the family.

Nearly 1,300 votes were cast in an online vote, and RoCCY narrowly defeated Roary. Not only did our new Tiger have a name change, but a new mascot costume was unveiled as well.

Faceoff at Falcon Stadium The CC hockey team played the second outdoor game in program history on Feb. 17 in the “Faceoff at Falcon Stadium” against the U.S. Air Force Academy. The contest was held two days after the Colorado Avalanche and Los Angeles Kings played on the same rink as part of the NHL Stadium Series.

Grant Cruikshank ’22 posted the first hat trick of his career and Matt Vernon ’23 finished with 27 saves to lead the Tigers to a 4-2 victory over Air Force.

More than 7,000 fans attended the game.

Nearly four years earlier, the Tigers played the University of Denver in the “Battle on Blake” in front of 35,144 fans at Coors Field.

“It just doesn’t happen and may not happen again if they play 10, 15 years after,” Colorado College head coach Mike Haviland says. “I was certainly excited. It brings you back to being a kid. It was cold, it had snow flurries, it had everything. This is something that will last a lifetime.”

The Colorado College hockey team faces off against the Air Force Academy during an outdoor game at Falcon Stadium.

Photo by Jennifer Coombes

Cruikshank scored the first two goals of the game, then put the icing on the cake with an empty-netter in the final minute as the Tigers completed the weekend sweep of the Falcons. On Feb. 14, CC retained the Pikes Peak Trophy with a convincing 6-2 victory over the Falcons.

Cruikshank opened the scoring with a power-play goal at the 13:18 mark of the first period. He redirected a pass from Bryan Yoon ’22 past the Falcon’s Alex Schilling from the slot for his ninth goal of the season.

The sophomore captain posted his second goal of the game at the 11:49 mark of the middle period

for a 2-0 lead. After taking a pass from Yoon, Cruikshank’s initial shot from the right circle was saved by Schilling, but the puck went right back to him and he placed a backhander past the Falcon netminder.

The Tigers regained their two-goal lead when Chris Wilkie ’20 scored the eventual game-winner at the 3:21 mark of the third period, and Cruikshank scored his third goal of the game with 37 seconds remaining.

“It was an outstanding event that Air Force put on,” Haviland says. “I cannot thank Frank [Serratore] and the whole athletic department enough to include us in this.”

Colorado College invited alumni, students, community members, and stakeholders in the Ed Robson Arena construction plans to campus to celebrate Robson in person and hold a ceremonial groundbreaking.

In attendance were, from left, Richard Skorman ’75, President Jill Tiefenthaler, Ed Robson ’54, Mike Slade ’79, Coach Mike Haviland and Vice President and Director of Athletics Lesley Irvine.

Photos by Jennifer Coombes

www.coloradocollege.edu/bulletin | 13

CC Hits 2020 Carbon Neutrality Target

By Leslie Weddell

C

olorado College has achieved carbon neutrality, a goal it set in 2009 when it committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2020. After a decade of work, the ambitious target has been met — even as the college increased its building footprint by more than 10% during that time. CC is only the eighth institution of higher education in North America, and the first in the Rocky Mountain region, to achieve this goal.

“This achievement is a shared effort; the result of the hard work, commitment, and resourcefulness of the entire Colorado College community,” says President Jill Tiefenthaler. “We thank all those who helped make this happen: former President Dick Celeste, the Board of Trustees, the students and young alumni who have worked on these initiatives, and CC’s faculty and staff, particularly those on the Sustainability Council, whose work and leadership has been invaluable.”

Colorado College stands out among other schools that have reached carbon neutrality in an important way — it has made the greatest emission reductions on campus while buying the fewest offsets than any other U.S. campus.

A JOURNEY TO CARBON NEUTRALITY ENACT FORMED

COLORADO ENERGY GRANT

MARK SMITH HIRED

Professor Howard Drossman founds the Environmental Studies Program. Today, the program includes faculty from natural science, social science, and humanities disciplines.

As a response to the Working Group on Campus Sustainability, the Board of Trustees adds an explicit focus to CC’s core values: “... nurture a sense of place and an ethic of environmental sustainability.”

CC builds its first LEEDcertified building, the Russell T. Tutt Science Center, to give departments more space and adequate laboratories for teaching and research.

2000

2003

2003

CC’s student environmental club begins.

Facilities Services obtains a Colorado Energy Grant to insulate heating lines in tunnel to save energy.

1970

1985

1988

1980

1973 ENERGY CRISIS The Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries declares an oil embargo, throwing the U.S. and other countries into an energy crisis.

CC installs Interlight's Phantom Tube lamps to reduce energy consumption as a response.

FIRST LEEDCERTIFIED BUILDING

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES PROGRAM FOUNDED

Colorado College receives the annual award for contributions to sustainability in 2007 due to the work of Professor of Economics Mark Griffin Smith.

1970

CORE VALUE: ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

1990 1987-88 ENERGY-SAVING FEATURES

1992 CAMPUS-WIDE ENERGY EFFICIENCY

State-of-the-art energy-saving features are installed during the renovation of Worner Campus Center and construction of Barnes Science Center.

Facilities Services installs a central-cooling distribution system to improve campuswide energy efficiency.

14 | COLORADO COLLEGE BULLETIN | SPRING 2020

2000 2003 FIRST WORKING GROUP ON CAMPUS SUSTAINABILITY FORMED Professors Walt Hecox and Howard Drossman work with President Dick Celeste, and, at the demand of students, form a Working Group on Campus Sustainability to make recommendations to the president.

2003 SYNERGY HOUSE The Synergy House, which later becomes a net-zero energy building, is designed as a prototype for students to study and live carbon neutral. It is so popular that a second Synergy House is added in 2012.

From left: David Amster-Olszewski '09, founder and CEO of SunShare, toasts with Office of Sustainability Director Ian Johnson at the celebration for reaching the college's carbon neutrality goal. Photo by Jennifer Coombes

How does the Rocky Mountain weather make moving toward carbon neutrality easier or harder?

carbon footprint and the efforts necessary for it to reach carbon neutrality, including reducing the college’s emissions of greenhouse gases, cutting energy use, using more renewable energy, and emphasizing the importance of sustainable energy sources.

“This means we’ve done the difficult work of reducing our on-campus emissions first, rather than what some see as ‘buying our way’ to neutrality through offsets,” says CC Director of Sustainability Ian Johnson. Colorado College has done this in a replicable and scalable way, meaning nearly any other institution could apply the strategies used by CC to achieve its goal of carbon neutrality.

Colorado College embarked on its journey to carbon neutrality in 2009, when then-president Richard F. Celeste signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, now known as the Second Nature Carbon Commitment. Celeste chose not to sign in 2007, preferring first to have more information in hand, including the college’s

“

Since the college’s baseline year in 2008, CC has reduced on-campus emissions by 75%. Colorado College achieved neutrality through a variety of initiatives, including efficiency upgrades, building renovations, campus engagement, on-site renewable energy and local renewable energy purchases, reducing its carbon footprint even as its physical footprint expanded by 10% with the alliance with the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center in 2017. Between the Fine Arts Center and the Bemis School of Art, CC added more than 142,000 square feet to its building footprint.

Well, our sunshine affects it in a positive way.

Solar is pretty financially viable in most places in the world anymore, but in a place like Colorado where we’ve got on average 300 days of sun, it’s especially good.

However, it’s challenging in that we’re still a heatingdriven climate. Most of our buildings need more heating than cooling throughout the year and that requires a substantial source of energy.”

Because climate change is linked to and influenced by many different factors — from environmental racism to human health and income inequality, clean water, food production and access, and more — achieving carbon neutrality impacts far more than just the college’s operations, says Johnson. The college is undertaking many new initiatives, including adding more sustainability courses and finding new ways to make the college more accessible to students from diverse geographic, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds, increase students’ literacy and understanding across majors, and strengthen the institutions that build the resilient society that will be needed to adapt to impacts from climate change.

EARTH TUB COMPOSTER

BRENDLE REPORT

FIRST GREENHOUSE GAS INVENTORY

The Earth Tub, a fully enclosed composting vessel featuring power mixing, compost aeration, and biofiltration, is installed at Worner Campus Center for on-site composting of campus food waste.

The Brendle Group helps CC determine what it would take to become a carbon-neutral campus.

They recommend a goal of 2020, achievable by renewable energy, energy conservation, and offsets.

The first greenhouse gas inventory is conducted by the Office of Sustainability. This data is used as the baseline for CC’s emissions going forward.

2004

2008

2008

SUSTAINABILITY PLAN

— Ian Johnson, director of sustainability

14 WEEKS - 14 HABITS 14% REDUCTIONS

The Campus Sustainability Council drafts the CC Sustainability Plan, which is accepted by CC’s Board of Trustees.

The “aCClimate14” effort is initiated — a campus-wide resource conservation campaign designed to achieve a 14% reduction in electricity, heat, and water use through behavioral change.

It saved CC nearly $100,000.

2009

2009

2010 2004 CAMPUS SUSTAINABILITY COUNCIL

2008 FIRST SOLAR PV SYSTEM

President Celeste establishes the Campus Sustainability Council. In the first year, the group of students, staff, and faculty advises President Celeste to establish an Office of Sustainability with a full-time director.

A group of students, donors, and staff collaborated with David Amster-Olszewski ’09 to install the first solar PV system on campus on the Edith Gaylord House just prior to Commencement on May 19.

2008-11 EMILY WRIGHT '04 LEADS SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS

2008 PRESIDENTIAL ADVISORY COUNCIL FOR SUSTAINABILITY

Emily Wright ’04 is hired as a consultant to oversee the Office of Sustainability. By 2010, Wright is hired as CC's campus sustainability coordinator.

President Celeste forms the Presidential Advisory Council for Sustainability to address the question, “How can we create a sustainable campus now and in the future?”

2009 CC COMMITS TO CARBON NEUTRALITY

2012 CAMPUS ENERGY MANAGER

Following approval by the Board of Trustees, President Celeste signs the President's Climate Commitment, formerly known as the American College & University President's Climate Commitment (ACUPCC).

Under the leadership of President Jill Tiefenthaler, Facilities Services hires Mark Ferguson as the first campus energy manager.

www.coloradocollege.edu/bulletin | 15

CC’S NET EMISSIONS How can alumni get involved?

“

Join Tiger Link (coloradocollege.edu/ tigerlink). Once on the website it will take only seconds to copy your LinkedIn profile to Tiger Link. Once copied, join our first group – Climate Change Professionals — with over 200 members.

Tiger Link will allow you to connect with other alumni working in this space as well as current students who may be interested in connecting with you for information, help with research, internships, and jobs. Your human capital is valuable.”

Year

Net Emissions

2008

36903.38

2009

29941.31

2010

30041.22

2011

28781.27

2012

28970.12

2013

27307.60

2014

27197.31

2015

28256.15

2016

24692.00

2017

27084.18

2018

22335.65

2019

5935.89

2020

0

CC’S REMAINING EMISSIONS (FY19)

(Metric Ton CO 2 Equivalent)

18,159

Metric Tons CO2 Equivalent

is the equivalent of ...

2,315,857,622 smartphones charged

CC’S EMISSION SOURCES

Emissions are organized into three main categories: Emissions directly created on campus

Emissions from electrical consumption

Emissions created beyond campus that CC does not own or control

CC’s remaining emissions are from: mT: Metric Tons CO 2 e: Carbon Dioxide Equivalent

Business Travel:

6,707mT CO e 2

— John L. Knight Professor of Economics Mark Griffin Smith

Study Abroad:

2,780 mT CO e 2

Waste Water Treatment:

14 mT CO e

Student, Faculty, & Staff Commuting:

2,946 mT CO e 2

2

Solid Waste:

823 mT CO e 2

Remaining On-Campus Emissions:

To account for remaining emissions, which include difficult-toavoid emissions such as college-related air travel, study abroad, commuting, and wastewater, Colorado College is investing in carbon offsets — innovative projects that reduce or eliminate greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere. Specifically, CC has invested in a methane destruction project at the Larimer County landfill in Northern Colorado. This project prevents methane (CH4), a very potent greenhouse gas, from entering the atmosphere, and instead uses the CH4 to generate electricity directly to the Larimer County community.

Although CC has met its carbon neutrality goal, that does not mean the work is finished. President Tiefenthaler and the Board of Trustees have put together a Climate Change Task Force, led

by Provost Alan Townsend, to take on a “What’s Next” project looking at operations, leadership beyond CC, academics and the co-curricular, and the endowment.

“Addressing climate change will take strong, consistent work from institutions of every kind. CC has shown that significant progress in the climate impact of operations is possible in a relatively short period of time, and we are committed to showing that can be done in other sectors as well,” says Townsend.

6,609mT CO e 2

More information about Colorado College’s progress is available at: coloradocollege.edu/carbonneutral2020.

A NEW SUSTAINABILITY ERA

CARBON ACTION REPORT

BACA CAMPUS SOLAR ARRAY

EAST CAMPUS HOUSING

CLIMATE CHANGE TASK FORCE FORMED Under the direction of President Jill Tiefenthaler, the Climate Change Task Force is formed. Led by Provost Alan Townsend, the CCTF is comprised of students, faculty, and staff who will advise the president on next steps for Colorado College.

Ian Johnson is hired as the campus sustainability manager.

Two years later, he becomes the Office of Sustainability's first director. During this time, Johnson appoints the first student sustainability interns.

The Carbon Action Report is published, designed to move CC toward achieving carbon neutrality while allowing for the inclusion of developing marketing opportunities.

A group of students on the New Student Orientation Priddy Trips help build and install a solar array at the Baca Campus.

A gift from Sue Woolsey P’97, P’98, P’99, former chair of the Colorado College Board of Trustees and a life trustee, made the array possible.

The new East Campus Housing is completed, becoming part of the college’s 21st-century strategy for meeting the needs and expectations of students. The project showcases environmentally sustainable technology throughout.

2013-Present

2013

2016

2017

2010

2019

2020 2013 FIRST EV CARCHARGING STATION

2014 HIGH-PERFORMANCE ENERGY DESIGN GUIDELINES

2017 NET-ZERO ENERGY LIBRARY OPENS

Colorado College installs its first electric vehicle carcharging station. The charging station comes courtesy of Jim Burness ’90, a political science major and CEO of National Car Charging.

Led by Campus Planner George Eckhardt, major guidelines are created: HighPerformance Energy Design, Facility Design Guidelines, Facilities Services Sustainable Operation and Maintenance Guidelines, Facility Life-Cycle Design Guidelines for Sustainability, and Sustainable Purchasing Guidelines.

Tutt Library is completely renovated as a net-zero energy building, making it the largest academic building to achieve this distinction. Later, it is awarded one of three 2017 Innovation Awards from the National Association of College and University Business Officers.

16 | COLORADO COLLEGE BULLETIN | SPRING 2020

2018 ‘WE ARE STILL IN’ Colorado College says “We Are Still In” after the U.S. pulls out of the Paris Agreement on Climate.

2020

CARBON NEUTRALITY REACHED Colorado College achieves carbon neutrality.

Lily Epstein ’22, Abby Gray ’21, and Liza Scher ’22 sit at the dining room table at Synergy House where they talk over plans for break and taste test Scher’s latest culinary experiment, roasted artichokes with lemon aioli. Students at the houses are encouraged to make the space their own and to embrace living in community.

T

ucked between the sorority houses and North Weber Street on the east side of campus, two houses are visibly indistinguishable from the others around them — but what happens inside and out is unlike any other community on campus.

First Net-Zero Energy Building Continues to Contribute to CC’s Carbon Neutrality Goals

By Sarah Senese ’23 Photos by Jennifer Coombes

These buildings are home to Colorado College’s Synergy Program, a living community for students who want to work toward environmental sustainability, create a sense of community for both Synergy residents and the greater CC student body, and live independently and responsibly.

www.coloradocollege.edu/bulletin | 17

RIGHT: Naomi Ablao ’22 washes her dishes in New Synergy House where a compost bucket is kept below the sink and students are asked to conserve resources through food waste and reusing jars for storage as a shared value.

The kitchen is decorated in photographs, something the housemates say make the space feel like it is theirs.

BOTTOM: Liza Scher ’22 anxiously waits while her friend Lily Epstein ’22 decides to taste test her recent culinary creation, roasted artichokes with lemon aioli. The students live in the Synergy and New Synergy houses where they experience what it is like to live in a community with others who value sustainability lifestyles.

What else do we all need to consider when it comes to environmental challenges, on-campus and off?

“

I’ve come to believe that our primary barriers to solving environmental challenges do not lie in the technical details of how the world around us works or the solutions we require. To be sure, both of those remain vitally important, especially the latter. And yet, I fear none of those solutions will take hold at the scale and pace that we require unless we focus above all on our increasingly decaying community bonds. Last year, when asked to write a think piece on my field for one of its core journals, I concluded with this: ‘The path our country and world follows will not rest upon the next article any one of us publishes. It will rest upon the community we all choose to build’.”

— Provost and Professor of Environmental Science Alan Townsend, quoted from “The Community We All Choose to Build,” for Inside Higher Education

About a dozen students strive to reduce their footprint while living either at “Old” Synergy House at 1018 N. Weber St., or “New” Synergy House at 1006 N. Weber St. Established in 2003, “Old” Synergy became CC’s first net-zero energy building in 2014, and has been a prototype for student life and study as the college moved toward carbon neutrality.

Now that Colorado College has achieved its 2020 goal of carbon neutrality and become the eighth higher educational institution in North America to achieve such a feat, the Synergy Program is to thank for its contributions and initiatives creating sustainability awareness through its own community and the greater student body.

Synergy House residents can use an on-site greenhouse and garden, and have the freedom to transform and shape the spaces in whatever way they please. Because of their access to the greenhouse and garden, residents are not on a meal plan and rely on those resources and group meals to further create a sense of community. The garden is operated solely by Synergy members, producing vegetables to supplement their sustainable lifestyle. The houses also have their own compost piles (available for use by all CC students), where residents turn food scraps into useful mulch.

In 2014, the original Synergy House added a 7kW solar panel system. Students also utilize natural solar energy to heat the house during winter and natural ventilation to cool the house in the summer. Unique features like a heat pump water heater — which concentrates heat from the ambient air to make hot water — and a water collection system devised by the residents are other unique features of Synergy. (By recycling already used water for the garden or irrigation, there is barely any wasted water.)

But Synergy doesn’t just function as mechanically sustainable residential buildings; residents often host blockly events to create environmental awareness and a sense of community for all students, such as open mic nights or sustainably focused films open to the CC public. The events always have an environmentally responsible context, like recycled craft day or potlucks, in an attempt to bring other members of the CC student body into their home. Synergy strives, as much as possible, to be an open and accessible space, regardless of whether students are residents. Though living in the Synergy houses is a competitive and selective process, all students are welcomed and encouraged to attend events and be a part of the community.

18 | COLORADO COLLEGE BULLETIN | SPRING 2020

The autonomy that we have at Synergy makes it a special space, as well as the experience of sharing a small space with a small group of people.

Amy Raymond ’21

MIDDLE LEFT: After fixing herself a salad, Cameron Bacher ’22 sits at the table at New Synergy House and discusses a paper topic she has to write for her course. Those who live in the Synergy houses have planned meals where they cook or eat together so that food waste is minimal and communal living is maximized.

BOTTOM LEFT: The colorful New Synergy House kitchen is kept organized and clean for group and individual meals and food storage.

“As a community, we have been pretty active about trying to get people into our house by advertising our events through posters in public spaces. There is an idea that you need to know somebody to live here or attend events, but in reality, we want a wide range of people to come through our space and hopefully apply to live here,” says Jasmine Linder ’22.

Amy Raymond ’21 appreciates Synergy for the independence the program offers residents, allowing for them to run their own space and decide how they want it to be operated (such as in areas of food waste and shopping habits). “The autonomy that we have at Synergy makes it a special space, as well as the experience of sharing a small space with a small group of people.

In addition, the intentionality of the space makes it really special,” she says.

Linder’s favorite aspect is the bond formed among all the residents. “Learning how to live closely with people in such a tight-knit space who we may not know otherwise is really special; a kind of family tends to form here,” says Linder.

Bethany Grubbs, director of the Residential Experience, says over the years she’s seen students take great pride in the community built in the Synergy houses by crafting their own unique, sustainable experiences.

Synergy, she says, “is one of the only communities on campus that chooses their own students during the theme housing selection process. They read, interview, re-read, and re-interview about 100 students a year for roughly 10 spots.”

The students spend nearly two weeks each year going through the interview process, perpetuating the students’ value in those who live in the community. Synergy members highly value diversity in the houses, as well as applicants’ willingness to invest time and energy in living as sustainably as they possibly can.

How did the campus geography lend itself to geothermal on Tava Quad?

“

The fact that we have open spaces without buildings on them, and ones that are designated to remain that way forever, make it feasible. Something like the library needs a fairly large geo-exchange field. We needed to be able to access that fairly readily in order to drill. It tore up the quad for the duration of a summer, but beyond that, you can’t really see the impacts of the installation.

That quad remains largely the same visually as it did before. If that had been slated for development, that would have made it more difficult.”

— Ian Johnson, director of sustainability

On the outside, the houses appear to be close communities with tight group values, but Synergy’s importance radiates further than to merely those who live there. The residents are extremely proud of the values perpetuated in the community, as well as all they’ve accomplished.

“Synergy is a special housing option,” Grubbs says, “because its mission statement extends to environmental justice and activism work, attracting a community of caring, ambitious, and socially engaged people who are excited to make lasting change on campus and beyond.”

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Sustainability in the Classroom

By Brenda Gillen Photos by Jennifer Coombes

Crestone gardener Ginny Ducale discusses her garden with Cass Kennemur ’22 and Clara Martinez Dunbar ’22 during a lesson on food sustainability for Anthropology Professor Sarah Hautzinger's First-Year Experience course.

A

t Colorado College, sustainability is a core value that is evident in classrooms across campus and in field study locations near and far.

According to CC’s Office of Sustainability, most CC students are involved in sustainability classes or activities. In addition to its renowned Environmental Studies Program, 23 other academic departments are offering sustainability courses in the 2019–20 academic year. Altogether 80% of departments provide such courses, totaling 8% of all courses offered at the college. Outside the classroom, a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program serves 77% of CC students. This focus on sustainability reflects the reality that for today’s students, climate change is not an issue that they will have to face someday; it’s here.

In the 32 years he’s taught at CC, Economics and Business Professor Mark Smith has helped students gain real-world knowledge by introducing them to people working on the front lines. In Block 1 last fall, students in Smith’s Managing the Impacts of Climate Change on the Colorado River course went to Denver, Glenwood Springs, the Grand Valley, Grand Junction, and Gunnison, where they met with six members of CC’s alumni community, including water resource managers, a farmer, a rancher, and other experts in the field.

“I like introducing students to people who are on the ground. I call it kicking dirt clods. They’re actually walking in the fields, seeing the water being turned out into a field of alfalfa, or peaches being grown,” Smith says. “And, I also like confronting students with various stakeholders who are all sympathetic. I think there’s a certain intensity of the experience that they appreciate.”

20 | COLORADO COLLEGE BULLETIN | SPRING 2020

Economics major Diellza Muriqi ’22 took Smith’s course because she has an interest in environmental economics. For the first two weeks, students read about water in the West, sustainability, market successes and failures, and public choices.

They took to the field during the third week.

“I had no idea what the water crisis was here in Colorado before taking that class. Because at CC, we have enough water, we have every source that we need. But going to that field trip, talking to all these organizations in Colorado, made me understand how big of an issue water is,” Muriqi says.

People from organizations they met with talked about many things, including sustainable usage of water and how they’re encouraging farmers to replace flood irrigation with sprinklers.

Farmers talked about their family farms being affected by drought. Muriqi plans to specialize in environmental economics in graduate school, and she believes a variety of career opportunities will be available for her, including some that address water resources.

“I come from Kosovo, and we have different issues there. Here the issue is not having enough water, but in Kosovo it’s the treatment of water. So I could work with sewage treatment plants to make it possible for the water to be treated in a way so that it can be used again. That’s a possibility,” Muriqi says.

How is CC working with and leading the local higher education community?

“

During Professor Sarah Hautzinger's First-Year Experience course, students visit a Baca Grande, Colorado, home that was built from the wood of an old barn and is entirely off-grid to learn about sustainability decisions in the home and how these choices impact day-to-day life.

Associate Professor Corina McKendry teaches environmental politics and political economy in the Political Science Department and for the Environmental Studies Program.

McKendry says environmental courses are in demand at CC. Introduction to Global Climate Change is offered five blocks per year; it’s usually full and often has a long waiting list. A new course called Environment & Society was offered four blocks this year, and it too has been full.

“I think there’s a broad interest and concern among the faculty from across the disciplines about teaching classes that really engage with questions of sustainability, of environmental justice, and of climate change,” McKendry says. “And students are interested in the intersection of environmental problems with social equity and economic vitality.”

McKendry also directs the CC State of the Rockies Project, whose mission is to enhance understanding of and action to address socio-environmental challenges in the Rocky Mountain West through collaborative student-faculty research, education, and stakeholder engagement. Last summer, six State of the Rockies fellows conducted research on climate adaptation and inequity in the Front Range. All of the fellows are presenting their research at academic conferences.

Natalie Gubbay ’20, a mathematical economics major, conducted quantitative and qualitative research that resulted in a paper she’s submitted for publication. Her paper, “Spiraling Up Through Drought Responses in Colorado’s Agricultural Communities,” explores how 15 Colorado farming communities respond to drought, the strategies they’re using to do that effectively, and the implications of that adaptation.

“One of the things that attracted me to this opportunity was that it straddles the world of independent research, but also engages

with local communities, and it produces and disseminates information that could be applicable and of benefit to the area around our college,” says Gubbay.

Gubbay looked at traditional economic measures, like county gross GDP, income, and education statistics and she researched social capital and social networks for all 15 counties.

Additionally, she produced case studies for Kit Carson and Conejos counties, which involved interviewing community leaders.

“I was asking questions about strategies and resources that were important in enabling these different community members who were really central to community resilience in both counties, and asking them what strategies and resources enable them to do their work successfully. I learned a lot more focusing on the ways in which they are actively addressing drought and climate change, even in communities where people don’t believe in climate change, than I would have just understanding the constraints,” Gubbay says.

We've begun some conversations with the United States Air Force Academy and their climate change club. The demographics of CC and the Air Force Academy are different as well as the demographics of people who might attend events at either of these institutions and so we’re looking for ways to send more of a common message through institutions that appeal to different community members. We are also just in the very beginning stages with the University of Colorado Colorado Springs as well — I’ve always had counterparts there, but we’re formally starting to work on a relationship with them. This is all part of the thought leadership piece of the Climate Change Task Force: how to engage more with some of these other institutions.

— Ian Johnson, director of sustainability

CC’S ACADEMIC FOCUS

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Her report back to the community leaders was well received.

Kit Carson County included it in their community health improvement plan, which will be submitted to the state of Colorado.

courses are sustainability-focused or -inclusive

Sustainability in the classroom is augmented by a variety of co-curricular experiences. Through Pikes Peak Workshop, teams of three to four students are paid to research a topic that addresses sustainably managing outdoor and recreational assets near campus. Sense of Place trips deepen students’ knowledge about regional sustainability issues. Through academic coursework and co-curricular experiences, Colorado College impresses upon students both the serious challenges that they must face and their ability to be the ones to make positive changes.

80% of academic departments have sustainability course offerings

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out of departments offer courses related to sustainability

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The Athletics Department unveils the new CC logo and subsequent new look in Reid Arena before the men's and women's basketball games in February. Photo by Josh Birndorf ’20

ABOVE: On March 1, Colorado College's Outdoor Education department held Snow Day, an opportunity for students who are new to winter sports to spend a day learning to ski/ snowboard at Monarch Mountain ski resort. During a needed break Amy Raymond ’21 and Sally Hedderman ’21 embrace for a photo. Students could choose from skiing, snowboarding, tubing, and snowshoeing activities. Photo by Chidera Ikpeamarom ’22

RIGHT: Sheila Kennedy and Frano Violich of KVA Architecture host a workshop at Cornerstone Arts Center exploring the creation of large playful, action-based paintings in which students use their own bodies as paint brushes as Ethan Klickstein ’22 does with Kieran Blood ’22 and his ponytail paintbrush. This workshop was part of the Art Department’s Design Week 2020: Agent for Change. Photo by Vivian Nguyen ’20

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STUDENT PERSPECTIVE

LEFT: Colorado College ballet dancers participate in a Theatre and Dance Department adjunct ballet course. The performance was staged by Debra Mercer in Kathryn Mohrman Theatre. Photo by Patil Khakhamian ’22

BELOW: Daya Stanley ’20 (center) planned this year's annual Black Women's Formal, which brought together and celebrated black women from Colorado College, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, and within the community for an evening at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College. Photo by Rachel Delley ’20

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POINT OF VIEW

Reaching Across the Aisle

By Emma Gorsuch ’21

T

he Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE, has given Colorado College a yellow rating for free speech. In 2012 and 2016, CC was listed in the top 10 worst schools for free speech.

PHOTO BY JENNIFER COOMBES

To be fair, most small liberal arts schools have a tumultuous history with free speech.

Big news stories have covered restrictive administrative policies that limit or ban conservative student organizations, prevent students from taking resident advisor or other campus positions because of their political affiliations, suspend or take other punitive measures against students who have been vocal about their political stance in their school paper or on social media, censure professor publications, and fire or otherwise punish professors whose views don’t align with the left-wing culture prominent in most liberal arts institutions.

While administrative policies remain the focus of most national conversations, the question I get asked by prospective students has nothing to do with how CC’s student policy and resource guide, The Pathfinder, or President Jill Tiefenthaler

I have found the students at CC and the professors within the Department of Political Science to be respectful, and in many cases encouraging, of diverse opinions both inside and outside the classroom.

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address free speech. When new or potential students learn that my political views ... deviate from the general trend at CC, I’m frequently asked what that is like, if I’m able to make friends, if other students are OK with it, if I’m isolated by beliefs, and if I’m still able to develop a connection with my professors.

None of these questions can be answered by reading a free speech code or legalistic policies; they are about the social culture at CC. Thankfully, most students don’t have to deal with direct censorship on their campus. The news stories, although significant, make up a minority of students’ experiences, but a far greater number of people are affected by peer pressure, professor biases, and the pervasive culture in their school on an almost daily basis.

Although I cannot speak for the majority of students on campus, in my personal interactions I have found the students at CC and the professors within the Department of Political Science to be respectful, and in many cases encouraging, of diverse opinions both inside and outside the classroom. I’ve found most students to be curious about my ideas instead of dismissive. When politically divisive topics come up in class, students come up to me afterward wanting to understand more about my perspective. Though teachers and peers may push back on my ideas, very few have ever made me feel attacked because of what I believe.

Student Discourse

By Kirsten Akens ’96 About 50 students participate in Forensics on one of three teams: Speech and Debate, Model United Nations, and Mock Trial.

Unfamiliar with competitive communications?

Here are the basics, per CC’s Speech and Debate Coach Sarah Hinkle.

Emma Gorsuch ʼ21 delivers the opening statement for the defense during a mock trial practice at the El Paso County Combined Courts. Photo by Katie Klann

When I am asked what it is like to be a conservative on campus, I tell students that it is hard.

It can get lonely to be in an environment where even your core values are challenged.

It is also the greatest opportunity I have ever had and has helped me grow so much as a person. I’ve never felt unsafe or unfairly treated because of my beliefs. I sincerely hope that will continue to be the case.

In fact, I’ve found some of my closest friends in the extreme left. Though we have dramatically different political views, we share the same passion about current events, the same desire to be involved, and the same goal of improving the country and helping people. Many of those individuals I have met through Mock Trial, a place I have found to be open for political discussion. Students from every ideological background come together and leave their bias at the door to research and construct arguments based on the merits of the case. At some point we are all forced to defend a position we totally disagree with and argue for it persuasively. As a team, we learn to respect each other while debating over controversial topics on a regular basis.

For example, last semester, the three communication teams on campus — Mock Trial, Model UN, and Speech & Debate — hosted a debate on the value of “callout culture” on college campuses with the hope to promote the values we have learned in our respective events and model academic discourse on campus. Each side argued the merits of their case, regardless of the speakers’ personal beliefs, and teams were determined by a simple coin flip.

The three main points in defense of “callout culture” discussed how it acts as a platform for marginalized voices, the influence it can have on the social and institutional cultures that create the high sexual assault rate that plagues college campuses, and how “callout culture” promotes accountability.

The team arguing for the resolution, that “callout culture” is problematic, showed how the shame associated with callout culture stagnates social change; precludes more effective alternatives, such as calling in; and reinforces privilege at the expense of the marginalized groups for whom it claims to advocate.

This article has been slightly edited from the original version, which initially ran in the Dec. 14, 2019 issue of The Catalyst, CC’s independent student newspaper. Find Gorsuch’s unedited version at thecatalystnews.com/2019/12/14/reaching-across-the-aisle

SPEECH AND DEBATE: This team offers 11 different competitive public speaking and performance-based events. Students choose up to six events to design and write for competition and travel one to two times a block to universities around the nation. This year, the team of five varsity members and five JV/ club members earned numerous sweepstakes awards and qualified in 17 events to the American Forensic Association National Individual Events Tournament, the most rigorous nationally qualifying tournament in the nation. In addition to forensics events, the students routinely compete in tandem in International Public Debate Association-style debate. Learn more about the team’s recent successes online at 2cc.co/speechdebate (though the Tokyo trip was canceled due to COVID-19).

MOCK TRIAL: Mock Trial is highly structured and involves two teams acting out a civil or criminal trial in which they argue either the prosecution or defense side of a case. The trial is observed by actual judges, who vote on which side had the more compelling argument. The students fluctuate between playing trial attorneys and witnesses, depending on a coin flip. Coached by Regina Walter ’80 with assistance from Chad Miller — both 4th Judicial District Court judges — each team had nine members for the 2019-20 tournament season and both won their regional tournaments.

MODEL UNITED NATIONS: Model UN is an academic simulation of the United Nations where students play the role of delegates from different countries and attempt to solve real-world issues with the policies and perspectives of their assigned country. Once a team has registered for a conference, it receives a country to represent.

At CC, it is unique in that it’s the only club where students immerse in this aspect of public policy engagement. Model UN provides the tools for students to translate the needs of a broader community into substantive policy solutions, and fight for these solutions to be implemented through diplomacy, compromise, and debate.

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Students from the Block 5 class Economics of Higher Education take in the Hall of Presidents during a tour of the State Capitol building in Denver. President Jill Tiefenthaler and Professor Kevin Rask took students to visit with alumni who work in government. Photo by Jennifer Coombes

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“That evolved into an interest for sharing history with people and making it interesting to everyone so that they would want to learn about great things that happened in America,” she says. It also evolved into her first book, “What Dreams We Have: The Wright Brothers and Their Hometown of Dayton, Ohio,” which became a sales item to help promote the park.

Honious stayed put for 15 years in Dayton, unusual for park service staff, she says. “People tend to move a lot. Parks are small and if you want to do something different or move up the ladder, you often need to move to gain that experience.”

JUGGLING

But then an opportunity did arise and she landed in St. Louis to be the chief of museum services and interpretation of what is now Gateway Arch National Park.

It was another chance for her to create museum exhibits and a park that would interest people and foster their curiosity about history and America.

‘FLAT HATS’

CC Alumni Protecting and Preserving Our National Parks

AND MORE

“When I got there, there was the beginning of an international design competition to redo the park, and the kickoff of a $380 million dollar public-private partnership. … I helped with the development and design of a new 55,000-square-foot museum that’s underneath the arch and then the redo of the building and how it would operate and be staffed.”

By Kirsten Akens ’96

Photo by Melissa Lyttle

If your picture of a National Park Service employee is a ranger with green pants, a gold badge, and a broad-brimmed, quaddented flat hat guiding people through the wild outdoors, you wouldn’t be wrong. Assigned to 419 designated areas and more than 150 related areas across the country, many of the more than 20,000 permanent, temporary, and seasonal employees still greet visitors in this uniform. But park service properties go way beyond our natural heritage — as do the jobs (and clothing) of a handful of CC alumni we spoke with who steward our national park system.

A N N D E I N E S H O N I OUS ’87 Twenty-eight years ago, Ann Deines Honious ’87 (pictured above) began her employment with the park service as a historian for the National Capital Region in Washington, D.C. She spent two years surveying structures along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park; documenting them, their locations, and the condition they were in; and conducting research to determine their eligibility for the National Register of Historic Places.

From there, she headed to Dayton, Ohio, to be the historian at the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park.

“I was lucky in that it was a brand-new park. I was the second employee there,” she says. “I started two years after it was authorized by Congress and I got to experience the development and the creation of a national park.”

Honious also got to tackle a wider variety of tasks than is typical for a historian, from planning storytelling and exhibits to helping develop management documents.

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Five years ago, Honious moved once again, to take on the role of deputy superintendent at National Capital Parks-East, an administrative unit of parks that cover more than 8,000 acres and includes more than 90 sites within Washington, D.C., and Maryland, including the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, Carter G. Woodson Home National Historic Site, Baltimore-Washington Parkway, and the one Honious calls a “hidden gem,” Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens.

The history of the gardens goes back to Civil War-veteran Walter Shaw and his daughter who purchased the property in the 1880s. The two planted water lilies in a pond on the grounds that Shaw had brought with him from his bachelor home in Maine. What was first just a hobby for the family evolved into a business, growing and selling lotus and water lily flowers. In the 1930s the land was to be condemned, but Congress authorized a purchase, and the gardens were saved. “We have a large number of lily ponds,” Honious says.

“They bloom in July and it is spectacular.”

While Honious, a history/political science major at CC, says working for the park service was something she “fell into,” she’s loved the experience because she’s been able to share the country’s historical culture in new ways.

“I had really good high school teachers, and then my CC experience, that made history interesting and focused on everyone, not just the traditional history of the Great White Male. I wanted to be able to find ways to share that and inspire others to learn about American history, the great people and places.”

PEAK PROFILES

“One of the people who started that program, Maynard Miller, was a compatriot of Eiler Henrickson ’43, who was the head of the Geology Department in ’95 when I started. Partly because of that program, I was interested in science and then looked at schools specifically for geology, and CC just stuck out as a great place.”

Part of that, he says, was the opportunity on the Block Plan to go out into the field and “learn your geology in the place where the rocks are, rather than fully in the classroom and then with little field stints.”

E RI C B I LDE RBACK ’99 Eric Bilderback ’99 doesn’t keep a formal tracking of all the park service sites he’s visited for work, but as a park service geomorphologist in the Geological Resources Division based in Denver for the past seven and a half years, he thinks the list is closing in on 50 locations.

Photo credit: National Park Service

“There’s been spectacular, huge landslides up in Alaska that I’ve gone out in the field to look at and worked on papers for — and then the eruption of Kīlauea last year has kept me busy because there were tens of thousands of earthquakes that affected the park area … Last year in February, I got sent to Golden Gate National Recreation Area at the drop of a hat. … There’s been some really incredible science to work on.”

As a geomorphologist, Bilderback studies Earth surface processes as a subdiscipline of geologists who specialize in “more recent” rocks and sediments — recent as in the last 2.58 million years. With the park service, he says his day-to-day is “helping parks with their geomorphology issues, which many times is some kind of a hazard — rockfall or landslide issues, or streams that are interacting with roads and things like that.” He’s brought in to help figure out how parks can reduce risk or work more effectively with geologic processes.

Geology has been an interest of Bilderback’s since high school and it was the National Science Foundation-funded Juneau Icefield Research Program he attended the summer between his junior and senior years that first connected him to Colorado College.

After CC, Bilderback got his master’s, worked for the Washington State Department of Natural Resources Geological Survey, and then the Washington State Department of Transportation. However, there wasn’t a clear career trajectory there, so he applied for, and was accepted to, a Ph.D. program at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand.

He and his wife, Alexandra Bilderback ’99, sold everything and moved. The Christchurch earthquake in 2010 interrupted his studies to a certain extent because it postponed his date of finishing by about a year, but, he says, “it also increased the scope of things that I worked on while I was doing my Ph.D.” “Scientifically, it was pretty eye-opening from somebody living there and going through all the aftershocks and everything else.”

Once he finished his Ph.D., Bilderback was job hunting again. An opportunity came up in Wellington, New Zealand, as did this position with the park service. It felt like the right time for the latter.

“Like most Americans, I think everybody looks at the National Park Service and it’s one of the few federal agencies that really actually gets bipartisan support,” he says. “I’d always been kind of keeping my eye open if there was going to be openings for geologists or engineering geology-type people in the federal service.”

Not to mention, it was based in Denver.

“To be honest, after the earthquakes in Christchurch, we weren’t all that excited about moving to Wellington or back to the Seattle area,” he says, with a laugh. “They’re both due for earthquakes and, well, we just came from the place that had it and we would rather not move to the place where it’s due.”

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started with the Historic Preservation Act whereby Congress said that any federal government entity can lease historic structures to people as long as it preserves the structure. In 1998, he adds, the park service was given an additional authority that basically said buildings don’t have to be historic structures; the park service can lease any structure they have, as long as it’s in excess to the park’s needs.

“My job is basically to assist parks and others in putting these packages together and trying to get fine folks to lease those facilities and structures,” he says.

GO RDY K ITO ’92 Gordy Kito ’92 worked a lot of odd jobs, mostly retail or guiding in the snowboarding industry, after graduating with a major in economics. Then in 2000 he took a seasonal position with the park service as a mountaineering ranger on Denali in his home state of Alaska. Eight years later he moved from Talkeetna, Alaska, to Washington, D.C., for a park service job running the National Mall’s concessions program.

He would hold this position for five years, until he was selected for the Bevinetto Congressional Fellowship — a leadership program that chooses two permanent park service employees each year for training in how Congress operates and interacts with the park service. Kito spent his first year working as a staffer for the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, then six months staffing for the National Park Service Director, and then six more months working in the park service’s Office of Legislative and Congressional Affairs.

“It was probably the highlight of my park service career — being able to sit inside meetings with senators,” he says.

“It doesn’t always work that way, but Senator [Ron] Wyden [D-Ore.] was the chairman of the committee at that time and I was able to kind of watch the sausage being made inside of smoky government offices right on the Hill.”

Properties he’s worked on include the Hale Bathhouse in Arkansas’ Hot Springs National Park and Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, in Vancouver, Washington, but he says the most interesting has been a former trading postturned-hotel on Navajo tribal lands at Arizona’s Canyon de Chelly National Monument.

Canyon de Chelly was created to save the antiquities of the valley — Navajo country at the time — from being pilfered.

In 1931, he says, the government “in its paternalistic ways, decided that the best thing to do to protect those things was to put them in federal control. We created a monument over top of Indian country, which has never really been done before.”

The park service, Kito explains, was responsible for building trails and providing law enforcement protection, and the Navajo were given the subsurface and land use rights.

Nobody is allowed to go into Canyon de Chelly without a Navajo guide, “but there was a trading post at the head of the canyon that was run by white people and under a federal contract.” The people running the post eventually opened the hotel.

The hotel transferred owners multiple times over the years and ended up being operated under a park service concession contract, since the park service obtained ownership of the post when the national monument was established in 1931. All the while, he says, the Navajo were given the right to run the canyon’s tourism, including horseback and Jeep tours as well as other business enterprises, but the hotel remained in the park service’s hands.

After completing the fellowship, Kito began his current position as the leasing program manager in the park service’s commercial services program.

And in the end, it was Kito’s work that help pave the way for a big change.

As he explains, the park service was given authority by Congress to lease out excess structures — a process that

“[I] got to put the Navajo back in charge of something that they should have been in charge of in the first place.”

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Photo courtesy of Gordy Kito ʼ92

“When I came into the idea, I thought it was kind of an injustice,” he says. “The Navajo were given everything except that one business opportunity.”

It may have been one of his first moments to educate others, but it wouldn’t be his last. After CC, he went on to work in a variety of outdoor education programs and kept hearing about a program at Yosemite that wasn’t run by the park service, but had a great reputation. In 1988 he arrived at Yosemite to be an instructor in that outdoor education program, called Yosemite Institute (now NatureBridge).

It really opened his eyes, Devine says, to the whole universe of nonprofits that support the park service.

“I couldn’t be more astounded by the work that my organization does for Yosemite and how much people love this place and they want to volunteer and they want to give their money … People have these powerful experiences in these places, and they want to give something back. The nonprofits are the way most people do that.”

PE TE D E V I N E ’81 Pete Devine ’81 holds two people responsible for his lifelong interest in the national parks: his parents, who piled the family in a station wagon for cross country drives from their home near Boston to go camping at the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, and Yosemite.

“As a kid,” he explains, “those national parks and the Western landscape made a big impression on me …We went on ranger hikes and campfire programs, and I thought, ‘Man, those rangers seem like they’re having fun at their job.’”

When it came time for college, Devine started in the East, but transferred to CC, specifically because of its location in the West and the Block Plan, where he could study biology in field courses. And when he began hunting for summer work, he applied for ranger jobs.

Photo courtesy of Pete Devine ’81

His first gig was at Colorado’s Mesa Verde, and he still remembers Day 1. In his new uniform, just as Devine was about to get in his truck to drive over to his station at one of the cliff dwellings, he heard something. “I hear a kid in the parking lot go, ‘Hey, ranger!’ And then I hear it again,” he says. “I was like, ‘Oh! That’s me!’”

He sees the boy’s parents encouraging him to come over, and when he does, he shows Devine what he’s found.

Devine looks at the item and makes a split-second decision not to tell the kid it’s just a fragment of PVC pipe. Instead he thanks the boy, and tells him if he finds another cool artifact, to take a picture, draw where it is on a map, and then show a ranger. But to leave the item where it is, “so the archeologists can look at it.’”

“I taught for three years and then became an administrator,” he says, “and I thought, ‘I don’t want to do this for very long — who wants to work in an office?’ But then I ended up doing that for years — about 17 more years.”

While in this role, Devine also started teaching classes for adults for the park’s main nonprofit, which was then called Yosemite Association (now Yosemite Conservancy). This was the impetus for him to switch his job and employer.

“The Conservancy’s a much bigger nonprofit. They raise millions of dollars for the park every year. They organize hundreds of volunteers. They run a lot of programs in the park,” he says. “I ran the education program for about eight years and then semi-retired from that.”

While he still does help out some with administrative duties in “semi-retirement,” Devine’s gotten back to the reason he was originally drawn to the parks: “To be out on the trail, looking at birds and rocks and waterfalls and interacting with visitors.”

And keeping it all in the family.

While at CC, he met Suzanna “Sonny” Montague ’82.

They married in 1992 and while he’s been working on the nonprofit side of things, she’s been Yosemite’s archeologist.

“I feel like we have had this great parallel track of both being interested in this place and feeling so lucky to live here and be part of the community and to contribute to the stewardship of the park,” he says.

Plus, he adds, he’s really proud of Sonny. “She’s one of the few liberal arts anthropology majors you’ll find who actually made a career in anthropology.”

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FROM THE ARCHIVES Lawn Lake Ranger Sta. June 22, 1937 Dear Mother and Dad This is the toughest place to find time to write letters and tougher to get them mailed. The fishing up here is superb. The three of us (Viney Stiles and Ranger Jack Moomaw) caught twenty six and some of them were honeys. Viney caught the biggest trout. This cabin is fine but the Lake is sure a dirty mess. Dad you better hurry up the fishing is perfect. How do you like my partnership with the great Ben East. The deer are thick around here. (Bear Lake the thickest). Sunday Howard and I put out a small forest fire- very very small; but started by a cigarette. I ate eight trout this morning. I’ll send some down Sunday with Vineys – it is almost impossible to send them other times as we aren’t near a post office any time.

Hurry up hereSolong [sic]Bert Stiles

B E RT S TI LE S ’43 (1920-1944) Bert Stiles ’43 is one of CC’s earliest alumni connections to the National Park Service — which we know because Special Collections holds the Bert Stiles Papers, including letters written by, to, and about him; manuscripts; about 70 short stories with reviewer comments and evaluations; and memorabilia spanning his entire life.

Born in Denver, Aug. 30, 1920, the son of Bert Stiles Sr., an electrical contractor, and Elizabeth Huddleston, a music teacher, he attended South High School in Denver, where he was, as he described it, a “victim” of progressive education. During the summers he worked as a junior forest ranger in Rocky Mountain National Park, writing letters (see above) to his family, filling them in on the status of the fishing (“superb”), the deer (“thick as flies”), and his wants (“a Tyrolean hat with a feather”).

He enrolled at Colorado College in the fall of 1938 to pursue an interest in writing. He wrote for the college paper, The Tiger, often expressing his pacifist views. In June 1941, he locked himself in a fraternity house and wrote 27 stories. He sent some of these stories to literary agents Ruth and Max Aley in New York, who asked him to send more. Hocking everything he could, he left CC and began hitchhiking to New York. After being picked up by police and sent home twice, he finally delivered his stories to the Aleys who gave him a job as a handyman, set him up in the loft of their barn in Connecticut, and helped him improve his writing. He wrote 10 hours a day for two months. Finally in September 1941 the Saturday Evening Post accepted his first piece, and went on to accept a whole series based on his experiences as a junior ranger.

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In January 1943 he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, receiving his commission as a second lieutenant in November. He left for a combat assignment in England in March 1944.

In England he flew daily on raids and wrote vigorous, fiery articles for the London Daily Mail, instructive pieces for the Air Force, and his only book, “Serenade to the Big Bird.”

On Nov. 26, 1944, Stiles was shot down in a P-15 while flying a fighter escort mission to Hanover, Germany, dying at the age of 23. The young veteran of 35 bomber missions received the Air Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross, and a Purple Heart. His mother published his book after his death.

Compiled by Kirsten Akens ’96 from CC’s Special Collections materials

The Block Plan 2020 celebration marks the 50th anniversary of Colorado College’s innovative one-class-at-a-time academic system. Block Plan 2020 involves a year of celebratory events and programming, including three interconnected media projects — a documentary film, a podcast, and book — that aim to capture the innovative vitality of the faculty and staff who founded the Block Plan. These will illustrate the impact and sense of unity that the Block Plan has had and continues to have on the faculty, staff, and students, as well as looking at what lies ahead for it in the next 50 years.

BLOCK PLAN STORIES Nelson Hunt ’71 submitted his story about the “real” reason the Block Plan came about.

“

Over the years. I have read with great interest the stories about the success of the Block Plan with many well deserved plaudits, particularly to Professor Glenn Brooks for his role leading the charge for change. During the intervening 50 years there has been nary a word or acknowledgment of my somewhat peculiar but nevertheless integral contribution to not only the process but also to the conception of the plan itself. My time is nearing its end (not immediately, I hope) so it falls to me to salute myself and about 20 of my co-students.

My story commences in my sophomore year when I enrolled in Political Science 101 taught by Professor Brooks. My recollection is that it was a Tuesday/Thursday class for 90 minutes starting at 9:30 a.m. Professor Brooks was his usual enthusiastic self, looking forward to instilling his love of the subject matter into what he hoped was our equally enthusiastic thirst for knowledge.

For our part, we were ready to have our notebooks full of his pronouncements, which we could regurgitate at exam time before departing for lunch and other important diversions. The stage was set for a collision of expectations.

As a group, we were singularly unresponsive to our leader’s attempts to engage us in a stimulating intellectual discussion. Our disinterest was apparent from the first day. Professor Brooks clearly and cordially laid out his plan for us and we politely nodded in agreement but remembered we had heard that before and

settled in for an unstimulating lecture. It was as if we knew that we would win out in the end and that we would not have to stretch our intellect or his.

This stalemate went on for days, then weeks, then months. Professor Brooks’ frustration with our silence was evident, though polite. He tried everything — calling on us, dark humor about current events and politicians (and there was much to discuss in those rowdy days but not for us in a classroom setting), asking us what would work to get the discussion going. He even invited the entire class to his house for dinner and an evening informal discussion. Nothing worked.

Near the end of the semester, rumors surfaced that Professor Brooks was so frustrated with us that he was working on a revolutionary idea: revamping the curriculum!

The Block Plan was born and its success has been well documented except for this totally true story of its birth. I often wonder what would have happened had Professor Brooks succeeded in his desire for us to escape the lecture, notes, exam syndrome and participate in his efforts to get us to think for ourselves. Perhaps no Block Plan — ever.

So, I am ready to accept the credit and thanks due our class for being the genesis of that truly great advancement.

SUBMIT YOUR BLOCK PLAN STORY Share a story of your time at CC on the Block Plan.

To submit a story or video, go to coloradocollege. edu/blockplan50 and click on “Submit Your Story.”

Please include a photo of yourself, or even better, a photo of you at CC as a student! If you have multiple photos to share, email them to communications@ coloradocollege.edu.

”

You are totally welcome. (And yes I did graduate!)

Read stories and watch videos about the impact of the Block Plan at coloradocollege.edu/blockplan50

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By Leslie Weddell

Notes Below the Staff

Christian Pacifism for an Environmental Age

By Herb Beattie ’48 with Lauren Arnest

By Mark Douglas ’89

“Not many people can begin an anecdote like this: ‘Beverly Sills was sitting next to me on a flight from New York to Pittsburgh…’,” and so begins the forward by Dave Mason ’78 to Beattie’s memoir, published by Rhyolite Press, 2019.

Beattie was one of the driving forces behind the founding of the Colorado Opera Festival, along with Donald Jenkins, opera director at Colorado College, and J. Julius Baird, founder and artistic director of the Colorado Springs Opera. Beattie, a preeminent bass who worked with many of the great operatic stars of the 20th and 21st centuries, often doubled as a festival performer and teacher, as did stage director/ choreographer Hanya Holm, and set and costume designer Klaus Holm.

Beattie, a traveling opera singer, sang in the most celebrated opera houses in the world to school gyms and Alaskan fishing villages. He recalls singing in Central City, Colorado, and driving the 1,500 miles from Long Island with his wife and five children, mortifying his oldest daughter, then 13, as he practiced his scales while stopped at a red light in a small town in Nebraska — next to a convertible full of teenage boys.

His memoir is filled with numerous photos, backstage stories, and amusing accounts of working with both the famous and obscure in the world of opera.

The most important article of clothing for an opera singer? Comfortable shoes.

Best food? A private chef in Tel Aviv and a certain trattoria in Rome. Favorite role? Osmin in Mozart’s “Abduction from the Seraglio.” Least favorite? The Bonz in Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly” — in part because of the shoes.

In October 1957 Beattie made his debut at the New York City Opera as Baron Douphol in “La Traviata,” where he sang regularly until 1972 and again from 1980 to 1984. He taught at Syracuse University (1950-52), Pennsylvania State University (1952-53), the University of Buffalo (1953-58), and Hofstra University (1959-82). Beattie passed away in August 2019.

Douglas, a professor of Christian ethics at Columbia Theological Seminary, offers a new vision of the history of Christian pacifism within the context of a warming world.

He narrates this story in a way that recognizes the complexities of the tradition and aligns it with a coherent theological vision, one that shapes the tradition to encompass the new causes and types of wars fought during the Anthropocene. Along the way, Douglas draws from research in historical climatology to recover the overlooked role that climate changes have played in shaping the Christian pacifist tradition and the movement of traditions through Western history. Published

by Cambridge University Press, 2019.

Schooling Multicultural Teachers: A Guide for Program Assessment and Professional Development

By Manya Whitaker, associate professor of education, and Kristina Valtierra, assistant professor of education Whitaker and Valtierra write that the cultural identities of teachers inevitably influence the interactions they have with their students. These relationships, in turn, impact teaching and learning processes, with many low-income, racial, ethnic, and linguistic minority students failing to receive the same quality of education as their more privileged counterparts.

The book offers guidance for enhancing teachers’ inclusive instructional practices by using the Dispositions for Culturally Responsive Pedagogy Scale (DCRPS). Developed by the two CC education professors, this is the only validated scale that measures the diversity-related beliefs, values, and attitudes that underpin multicultural teaching practices. Published by Emerald Publishing, 2019.

Diseases of the Head

Finding Your Voice as a Beginning Marriage and Family Therapist

Edited by Matt Rosen ’20

Co-authored by Dana Stone ’99 and Jessica ChenFeng

This anthology features essays from contemporary philosophers, artists, and writers working at the crossroads of speculative philosophy and speculative horror. A compendium of multi-vocal endeavors and a travelogue of philosophical exploration, the collection centers on the place at which philosophy and horror meet. Employing rigorous analysis, insightful experimentation, and novel invention, this anthology asks about the use that speculation can make of horror and horror of speculation, about whether philosophy is fictional or fiction philosophical, and about the relationship between horror, the demands of our world and time, and future developments that may await us in philosophy. Published by punctumbooks, 2020.

Stone, associate professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling at California State University Northridge, provides support to early career marriage and family therapists in this book. The authors address a lack of resources for therapists during early professional development, particularly for those who have traditionally been marginalized because of their identity and who seek authentic and meaningful connections with themselves, their colleagues, and clients. The authors offer insights on the literature of clinical training as well as stories from early career and seasoned marriage and family therapists. There are exercises and practical skills for active engagement in one’s own development. Published by Routledge, 2020.

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SPRING 2020

We asked Associate Professor of Religion

DAV I D GA R D I N E R

“What’s on Your Reading List?”

“I have long been interested in the overlapping domains of psychology, neuroscience, and religious studies.

Michael Pollan’s latest book, ‘How to Change Your Mind,’ tells the fascinating story of research on the effects of LSD going back to the 1950s. Legal medical research was halted in the 1970s but has seen a new surge. In 2019, Johns Hopkins Medical Center received $17 million to explore therapist-supported use of LSD and psilocybin for maladies such as severe depression and addiction.

Results show success unmatched by other therapies.

Pollan cites neuroscientific hypotheses regarding how the brain regions most affected (the ‘default mode network’) seem responsible for maintaining a strong sense of self. He and I are in conversation about intriguing correlates in Buddhist psychology.”

Alumni who have written or edited books, or recorded CDs, are invited to send notifications to bulletin@coloradocollege.edu and bookstore@coloradocollege.edu.

To mail a copy, send to Bulletin, 14 E. Cache La Poudre St., Colorado Springs, CO 80903.

All submitted material will be donated to Tutt Library. Inscriptions inside books are always welcome.

Photo by Jennifer Coombes

Divided Peoples: Policy, Activism, and Indigenous Identities on the U.S.Mexico Border

Climate Change and Regulation: Going Green II

By Christina Leza, associate professor of anthropology

Cicchetti, who has taught energy and environmental economics for nearly 50 years at the University of Wisconsin, Harvard University, and the University of Southern California, scrutinizes the challenges energy utility regulators face. He examines an array of industry-related questions, and notes the most daunting hurdle for regulators is how they will accommodate what policy insiders from both political parties predict are inevitable carbon fees that likely will increase rapidly. The new fees affect utility choices, sharply increasing utility bills, and regulators, utilities, their customers, and competitors need to respond. This book is a sequel to Cicchetti’s 2009 book on energy efficiency. Published by Public Utilities Reports, 2019.

The border region of the Sonoran Desert, which spans southern Arizona in the United States and northern Sonora, Mexico, has attracted national and international attention. But what is less discussed in national discourses is the impact of current border policies on the Native peoples of the region. Leza’s book does just that. She addresses the impact border policies have on traditional lands and the peoples who live there — whether environmental degradation, border patrol harassment, or the disruption of traditional ceremonies and shows how such policies affect the traditional cultural survival of Indigenous peoples along the border. Published by University of Arizona Press, 2019.

By Charles Cicchetti ’65

The Demon Seekers: Book One

Climbing Palestine: A Guidebook to Rock Climbing in the West Bank

By John Shors ’91

By Tim Bruns ’14

Internationally best-selling Shors, whose seven previous novels have been translated into 25 languages, has switched genres.

Known for his Asian-themed works of historical fiction, Shors has released an epic, young adult science fiction trilogy. It’s 2171 and a century since hostile aliens turned Earth into a prison for the worst of their own kind, nearly wiping out humanity in the process. Seventeen-year-old Tasia is a Seeker — a human survivor who hunts down the cruel creatures that conquered and destroyed her world. When Tasia’s brother becomes ill and her family is ripped apart, she must leave all she knows in an attempt to save him. Published by Blackfin Books, 2019

Rock climbing is probably the last thing that comes to mind when most people think of the Palestinian territories. Bruns’ is the first comprehensive guidebook to rock climbing in the West Bank, detailing more than 300 climbing routes in nine different areas. The book also describes how to travel to and within the region, where to stay, what to do on rest days, and where to eat the best local food. Chapters include detailed information on the history and access information for each cliff and routes are accompanied by short descriptions, the difficulty rating, and information on the required gear. Published by Climbing Palestine, 2019.

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ALUMNI ACTIVITIES

Creating Your Own Luck Finance Symposium Reveals Power of a CC Network

By John Wallace

Colorado College’s Career Center hosted a daylong Finance Symposium last semester, where CC alumni and students gathered for panel discussions covering topics ranging from an overview of the finance industry to networking and interviewing to finance and sustainability.

Onyx Bengston ’18 traveled to CC from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where she works in corporate and institutional banking and asset management at PNC Bank. For Bengston, who holds a bachelor’s in economics, networking with members of the CC community has been critical to her ability to forge her career path.

“Just having those people available to develop relationships with is invaluable,” she says. “I don’t know if that’s obvious to students now, but the further you get in your career, just knowing that you can call people who have been there becomes really important.”

The idea for the symposium came from several alumni, including Jason Bogardus ’93, a managing director for wealth management and a private wealth advisor for the 545 Group at Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management in San Francisco.

“The first objective of the symposium was to help students figure out whether a career in finance is right for them,” he says. “The next objective was how to best leverage the alumni network because graduating from CC and looking for a career in finance, you’re competing against students graduating from Wharton, MIT, Chicago, and Columbia — schools that have traditionally fed into Wall Street. So, you need to figure out a way to have your CC education become a strength, not a weakness.

“The third objective — or reason why this symposium came about — was to ingrain the importance of this

narrative that you have to create your own luck. Luck is not going to come find you,” Bogardus says.

He recalls how he landed his first job because he played in a reggae band, leading to a chance encounter with a citizen of the Ivory Coast who became impressed with Bogardus’ knowledge about Félix Houphouët-Boigny, the country’s president from 1960-93.

Bogardus explained that he learned about the president while at Colorado College and his new acquaintance offered him a job on the spot.

“That was total luck, right? But I created it and that’s such a CC type of story,” he says. “You don’t hear those kinds of stories other places, typically. And I think this symposium is going to be full of those stories,” he said prior to the event.

He was right.

Todd Kealthley ’93 spoke about applying the analytical abilities he gained from his Colorado College comparative literature degree to finding success in the finance industry.

He also discussed how he decided to move to New York and pursue a career in finance — making a career change after a stint in political fundraising.

Now, he has a successful career at Virtu Financial in New York City.

Keynote speaker Gillian Munson ’92, currently a partner at Union Square Ventures and formerly the CFO of XO Group, recalled her first job in finance as a classic CC story.

36 | COLORADO COLLEGE BULLETIN | SPRING 2020

Jason Bogardus ’93 (left) and Gillian Munson ’92 (center, left) speak with Zachary Glosser ’20 and Vi Nguyen ’20 at an intermission during the Finance Symposium. The potential of CC's network to connect students and alumni with great careers was a recurring theme during the symposium.

Photo by Josh Birndorf ’20

If I’ve had a rough day at work, I go back to CC people. They seem to understand better than anyone.

After working as a camp counselor — a role that required “24-7” attention all summer — she sold her future boss on her ability to work hard and began a career path she describes as “zig-zagging,” but one always grounded in passion and curiosity. She also reiterated Bogardus’ point about breaking into an industry dominated by graduates from other universities.

“Once you’re in the door, you go shine,” she says. “If you’re working harder and doing better than any other person from any other school, you’re going to be successful.”

Munson did stress the challenges of working in a male-dominated industry and recalled being described as “difficult” and receiving unequal compensation for years earlier in her career. And she recalled the strength she still continues to draw from her CC relationships.

Gillian Munson '92

“If I’ve had a rough day at work, I go back to CC people,” she says. “They seem to understand better than anyone.”

Although she graduated less than two years ago, Bengston noted the abundance of networking opportunities available to students and alumni through the CC community and the Career Center.

“There is so much to pay forward,” she says. “So many people provided connections and time and opportunities to me. There’s an incredible amount that I think I have to give to the next generation.”

For more information about how to connect with CC alumni around professional networking, contact the Career Center at careercenter@coloradocollege.edu

How $10 Million for Scholarships Grew to $43 Million As Endowed Scholarship Challenge 101 Reaches a Successful Conclusion, Will Smith ’74 Announces New Gift

By Valerie Hanna ’18 Photo by Jennifer Coombes For Will Smith ’74, alumni giving is a key philanthropic focus. Smith launched the Endowed Scholarship Challenge 101 in 2015 with a $10 million commitment to inspire others to join him in supporting Colorado College students. The goal of the challenge was to encourage 100 other donors to participate and to raise at least another $10 million, for $20 million total.

The challenge resonated so strongly with the 100 donors who participated that the fundraising wrapped up in January 2020 with more than $43 million raised for CC scholarships, including Smith’s initial commitment.

“This challenge was unique because donors had the option to give through estate commitments, in addition to outright gifts,” says President Jill Tiefenthaler.

“For some donors who had not believed they could establish an endowment, this flexibility allowed them to fund a scholarship and support CC students.”

The challenge was so successful that Smith recently pledged an additional $5 million to initiate a new challenge in which he will match gifts of $50,000 or more for scholarships. His motivation is simple: He wants to make supporting scholarships more accessible for donors and ensure that future CC students can experience a transformative education.

“CC opened my eyes and my mind, both in the classroom and as a community. The college cared for me, and I’m in the fortunate position to give back,” says Smith.

Smith is passionate about inspiring others to give.

Typically, establishing a scholarship endowment requires a minimum commitment of $100,000.

However, through Smith’s new challenge, donors who give $50,000 or more qualify for matching funds, lowering the point of entry for establishing a Colorado College scholarship “The Scholarship Challenge 101 was a tremendous success and ensures that CC can better support students with financial need in the coming years.

We are beyond grateful to Will and the donors who

participated in this effort. I’m excited to see how alumni and friends will respond to this new challenge,” says President Tiefenthaler.

Smith believes that an investment in scholarships today will have a lasting impact.

“Investing in a student’s education is the most valuable gift you can make, no matter the amount,” Smith says. “It lessens their burden, and the impact lasts a lifetime. One day, they’ll pay it forward.”

In addition to his charitable work at CC, Smith also has given generously in his hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, through the William S. Smith Charitable Trust and the Sherman E. Smith Family Charitable Foundation, supporting the Tulsa Ballet, the Parent Child Center of Tulsa, Domestic Violence Intervention Services, the Tulsa Area United Way, the Tulsa Boys Home, Metro YMCA, the downtown Rotary Club, the Salvation Army, the Nature Conservancy of Oklahoma, and the Riverview Lawn at Gathering Place project.

Along with his sister Susie Burghart ’77, who serves as chair of the Colorado College Board of Trustees, Smith made a generous gift in 2011 and named the Interdisciplinary Experimental Arts (I.D.E.A.) Space in the Edith Kinney Gaylord Cornerstone Arts Center.

Since the funds raised through Endowed Scholarship Challenge 101 are invested in the college’s endowment, they will ensure that students continue to benefit from these scholarships in perpetuity.

Investing in a student’s education is the most valuable gift you can make, no matter the amount.

Will Smith ’74

Gifts from those who participated in the Scholarship Challenge 101 and those who participate in the new challenge will count toward the Building on Originality campaign, which has a $100 million goal specifically for scholarships. To date, nearly $70 million for scholarships has been raised during the campaign.

“Throughout my life, I’ve felt how powerful human connection is, and I learned how important it is to give,” says Smith. “Really, I just feel lucky. For those of us who have benefitted from Colorado College, we are the lucky ones.”

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C O LO R A D O C O L L E G E

HOMECOMING WEEKEND

Alumni Across the Country Support CC Students

By Signe Carlson Photo courtesy Tanyu Yuba ʼ13

The City Scholars program, launched in November 2019, provides scholarship funds to Colorado College students who live in specific regions. These 10 funds across the country serve to connect alumni and parents to the on-campus community.

The program already has sparked nationwide interest, with 95 donors spanning 10 cities. CC event attendees have the option to support their city’s scholarship during event registration. Through the recent Hometown Homecoming Happy Hour in San Francisco, 40% of attendees (all young alumni of the past 10 years) gave to the San Francisco City Scholar fund.

My hope is that the fund can help local students discover the unique opportunity of a liberal arts education and options such as Colorado College outside of California, says City Scholars donor Tanyu Yuba ’13. “There’s a huge financial and social barrier to going to school far away and I think the fund is one way of helping chip away at that wall.” According to edpolicyinca.org, only 11% of California high school graduates who pursue a bachelor’s degree attend out-of-state colleges or universities.

Supporting a local student also gives alumni and parents a direct connection to Colorado College.

“The fund is a good start to get local alumni involved with [CC] in causes they support,” Yuba says. He also hopes that donors who support City Scholars will have the opportunity to meet the students they support after the funds are awarded.

Are you interested in getting involved with the Colorado College community where you live?

Check out our off-campus events at coloradocollege.edu/alumnievents. You also can learn more about scholarships and other college priorities at coloradocollege.edu/campaign.

City Scholar funds will be available as early as Fall 2020 to students in the following cities: • • • •

Bay Area Boston Chicago Colorado Springs

• • • •

Denver Los Angeles New York City Seattle

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• Twin Cities, Minnesota • Washington, D.C.

J O I N U S F O R YO U R C C C L A S S R E U N I O N

OCT. 8-11, 2020 1959 & 1960 1964 & 1965 1970 50th 1975 45th 1980 40th 1985 35th 1990 30th 1995 25th 2000 20th 2005 15th 2010 10th 2015 5th

60th 55th

Young Alumni 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020

If you plan to attend your class reunion, please let the Office of Alumni and Family Relations know so we can add you to the list: reunions@coloradocollege.edu or (719) 389-6777.

FIRST PERSON

E X PA N D I N G T H E

By Lynne Fitzhugh, lecturer, director, and founder of Colorado College’s Reading Institute and Literacy Specialist Program I’ve spent my life on a journey of reading: from a child who learned to read early and loved being immersed in a book to a mother who watched her own children struggle with learning to read to a professional instructing teachers of reading — I’ve experienced the reading spectrum. Reading is an invaluable skill for every aspect of an individual’s life. However, not all children learn to read automatically, especially those with dyslexia, and our public school systems haven’t given them a chance. I have a passion and I’m on a mission: changing the future for students with dyslexia.

For more than 25 years, science has informed the field of reading instruction, yet most teachers nationwide are not being taught the science of reading and the underlying linguistic structure of written language in their teacher preparation programs. As a result, millions of children become “instructional casualties” and fail academically.

Teachers need to understand: ■ How do children learn to read?

■ Why do some students struggle?

■ What can we do to make sure that all children learn to read?

Since 2008, I’ve worked to establish Colorado College’s Master of Arts in Teaching – Literacy Specialist Program (MAT-LSP). CC is now one of the few colleges or universities in the United States nationally recognized for preparing highly qualified reading teachers and dyslexia experts.

During my time at Colorado College, I’ve taught more than 120 teachers in this intensive two-year program, the only college or university program in Colorado recognized by the International Dyslexia Association.

DYSLEXIA – TRUE OR FALSE? ■ Language -based learning disability

■ Sees letters backwards

■ Gifted in many areas

■ Attributed to laziness

■ Affects 10 – 20% of all individuals ■ 59% of prison inmates struggle with dyslexia, yet over onethird of world’s most successful entrepreneurs claim to be dyslexic

■ Low intelligence ■ No academic future or professional success ■ A rare disability

Most of those teachers now hold national certification through the Academic Language Therapy Association (ALTA) as Certified Academic Language Therapists.

The MAT-LSP also allows currently licensed Colorado teachers to earn a Reading Specialist Endorsement — and CC is one of only four institutions of higher education in Colorado to do so. The college has worked to ensure that MAT-LSP graduates earn the highest credentials available to Colorado reading teachers.

Our MAT-LSP teachers dedicate themselves to learning how to work with struggling readers, especially students with dyslexia, a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin and characterized by accurate and/or fluent word recognition as well as poor spelling and decoding abilities. Too many teachers earn teaching degrees, then have to pursue additional professional development to become highly qualified in reading.

At Colorado College they can do this all in one place at one time.

Lynne Fitzhugh Photo by Jennifer Coombes

My interest in dyslexia is a personal one: My husband and three of my four grown children are dyslexic.

In 2001, my husband and I founded the Colorado Literacy & Learning Center, a 501(c)(3) dedicated to improving literacy across Colorado with an emphasis on the diagnosis and remediation of dyslexia. Last year, the Colorado Literacy & Learning Center was authorized to open Orton Academy, the first K-8 public school for students with dyslexia in Colorado.

The school will be located in El Paso County and ultimately will serve 360 students identified with dyslexia, at no cost.

My goal? The impact of excellent reading instruction from teachers graduating from CC’s MAT-Literacy Specialist Program and the opportunities provided by Orton Academy will spread across Colorado and the U.S., impacting countless numbers of children who otherwise would “fall through the cracks” because of unaddressed dyslexia. We can change their futures.

Lynne Fitzhugh, Ph.D., CALT-QI, is founder and president of the Colorado Literacy & Learning Center and director and lecturer of the Master of Arts in Teaching – Literacy Specialist Program at Colorado College. A Certified Academic Language Therapist and Qualified Instructor, Fitzhugh is president-elect of the Academic Language Therapy Association and serves on various professional boards. She is a representative to the National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities and a former board member of the International Dyslexia Association.

Fitzhugh received her doctorate in psychology from Southern Methodist University. She completed her CALT requirements through Southern Methodist University’s Learning Therapy Department and her Qualified Instructor of CALTs from the Luke Waites Center for Dyslexia at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Dallas, Texas. She was the 2018 recipient of the Council of Learning Disabilities Floyd G. Hudson Outstanding Service Award and the Colorado Council of Learning Disabilities 2018 Professional of the Year Award.

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On April 26, 2020, Tilman “Tim” Moe and his wife, Ann, plan to start a trip across the U.S. from Wisconsin to San Francisco. They will walk and bike for a total of 80 miles in each of the connecting nine states to raise money and awareness for Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS) and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). Their progress can be followed at timannmoe. com. As of mid April, according to their website they are still following this itinerary.

1962

1979

William “Bill” Charles Guild published his first novel, “Stasis” through W.C. Guild. He found that writing anything for publication takes as much courage as it does time and effort. A year ago, he found encouragement at an Estes Park, Colorado, gathering of 60-plus CC friends age 60 or older. He sends thanks to Sharon Gates Moulton ’79 and Jeff Moulton ’78 for organizing that event, as well as all who attended from Hawaii, Florida, New England, and everywhere in between.

1974

David Drake is back practicing psychiatry in Des Moines, Iowa. He was in a management and clinical role in southwestern Colorado until the position was eliminated. Recently, David was chosen as presidentelect of Physicians for Social Responsibility, focusing on the health consequences of the climate crisis and the critical need to abolish all nuclear weapons internationally. Previously, David and his wife Claire lobbied at the United Nations to help pass the Treaty to Prevent Nuclear War.

On Sept. 30, 2019, Linda Ribnik, MD, retired from a 35-year career as a general pediatrician working for the Indian Health Service. She worked primarily at the Phoenix Indian Medical Center (PIMC), in Phoenix, practicing general pediatrics and coordinating a pediatric neurology clinic. She also staffed many clinics on the Hualapai Reservation in Peach Springs, and on the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Reservation in Scottsdale, Arizona. For the first 30 years of her career, she served as a commissioned officer in the United States Public Health Service, retiring with the rank of captain.

She returned to PIMC to serve an additional five years as a civil servant. “Learning about tribal cultural and religious practices and helping so many beautiful children and their families has been an absolute privilege,” Linda says, “but I won’t miss running to the operating room in the middle of the night for a STAT C-section or going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark, and missing out on some family holidays. I plan to volunteer with several organizations that advocate for children, read a lot, work out, and look forward to grandchildren.”

1976

1977

Rose Harvey (above, center left) was recognized with the 2019 Distinguished Alumni Award from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies for, to name a few accomplishments, establishing the Empire State Trail — “the longest multi-use state trail in the country” — and working with the New City Parks Initiative, creating green space for underserved communities. Jane “Jesse” Sokolow ’72, (above, far left) who has worked with Rose for over 35 years, presented her with the award.

40 | COLORADO COLLEGE BULLETIN | SPRING 2020

1980

Jonathan Patz, professor and director of the Global Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, was elected a member of the National Academy of Medicine in October. Jonathan was recognized for his pioneering research showing the risk global climate change poses for human health. Jonathan’s vast body of work and discoveries include how environmental factors impact diseases. He organized the American Public Health Association’s first discussions on climate change, thereby establishing a new field of health science and how to relay its critical role to policymakers as well as the public. Besides testifying on climate change and health in both houses of Congress and serving on a committee of the Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, Jonathan also was the lead author for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a work that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.

1981

Left to right, Paul Miller, Phil Livingston, Jim Madsen, Greg Froese, Mark Stevens (standing) and Dan Buchholz had a mini reunion in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico in October.

1982

In December, Lance Cheslock won the 2019 Trailblazer Award for the state of Colorado, presented by crcamerica.org, for his outstanding work with nonprofits. Lance works at La Puente, a small, rural homeless shelter serving Colorado’s San Luis Valley, where he enjoys creating innovative programs, recruiting talented staff, attracting passionate volunteers, and exchanging lessons learned with other nonprofits. In addition, Lance says every year since 1990 CC students have been going to La Puente for service-learning experiences during block breaks or first-year orientation. Altogether more than 600 students have had such an experience.

1986

1987

As of June 2019, Jeff Blair is happy to announce he is on the roster of Fulbright Specialists. Jeff, a secondary school teacher almost since leaving the CC campus, credits his CC experience with inspiring him both to go into the teaching profession and to focus his professional work on global education. Jeff enjoys every day of classroom teaching at The Northwest School in Seattle (even in his 31st year), and says teaching has given him the opportunity to participate in a number of stimulating projects and activities, such as teaching prospective teachers while on a Fulbright in South Africa (2010) and helping found a school in Ethiopia (2013-14). This past summer, Jeff participated in the development of two online global education courses for teachers sponsored by the State Department. He also has written book reviews for the two most recent editions of NAFSA’s Global Studies Literature Review. Being selected for the Fulbright Specialist Program will give Jeff a chance to contribute his experience to educational projects with international host institutions.

1988

Global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP added Christopher Thorne in Denver as counsel in the Energy & Natural Resources, Real Estate and Environmental practices group.

Alumni gathered in December for the CC/DU hockey game in Colorado Springs. In attendance were Manuel Mestas ’86, Jeff Moline ’86, Kristin Groth ’86, Kevin McDonough ’86, and Lisa Korte.

Matthew Wilson retired in July 2019 after 28 years of service with the National Park Service (NPS). He worked as the director of interpretation and collections manager at the Rosemount Victorian House Museum in Pueblo, Colorado, and his first government job with the Department of Defense was as the museum registrar for the U.S. Army 3rd Armored Cavalry Regimental Museum located at Ft. Bliss, Texas. Matt then completed an interagency transfer from DoD to the Department of the Interior, NPS and began his 17-year career as the staff museum curator in the Cultural Resources Program, in the then-Rocky Mountain Regional Office, now Intermountain Regional (IMR). His work in planning and helping to complete collection moves from numerous small parks and the former regional office in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to the central repository at the Western Archeological & Conservation Center (WACC) in Tucson, Arizona, was a major improvement in the care and preservation of collections from the more than 50 NPS sites located throughout IMR. In 2008, due to management reorganization in IMR, Matt transferred from Cultural Resources to the Recreation Fee Program in order to stay in Colorado, becoming the IMR fee compliance coordinator. In Colorado for the next 11 years, Matt completed programmatic reviews of park fee operations. In retirement, Matt hopes to spend time riding his BMW motorcycles, traveling to Australia and New Zealand, collecting NPS memorabilia to donate to parks, and having the free time to actually clean out his garage so he can see the floor. Read a story on other alumni who work for the NPS on page 28.

1989

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1991

Dana O’Leary Parrish, Shawn Butler Mick, Teri Johnson Wright, Andrea Sunset Weslar ’90, and Sandy Buffett gathered in Moab, Utah, in early 2019 to celebrate turning 50 by mountain biking the White Rim trail.

Melinda “Mindy” Klowden recently was appointed director of strategic initiatives with the Colorado Behavioral Healthcare Council (CBHC) in Denver.

In this role she will provide leadership, strategy, research and analysis, and strategic communications in support of CBHC’s mission. CBHC is the statewide membership organization for Colorado’s network of community behavioral health providers. Mindy also has worked nationally as a consultant on behavioral health and has 25 years experience in nonprofit management and public policy.

1994

Christy Keating, a former deputy prosecutor with the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office in Washington, is now a certified parenting coach putting her knowledge of sexual predators to good use by helping parents keep their kids safe with her companies, The Heartful Parent and Savvy Parents Safe Kids. Christy lives in the Seattle area but coaches parents remotely from all over and just launched an online membership program, The Heartful Parent Academy. Christy also is hired as a speaker, educator, and sexual abuse prevention expert by organizations to “train their educators, caregivers, and parent communities on a variety of parenting topics, including child sexual abuse prevention, consent, and healthy boundaries.”

1995

1992 1996

Erin Kennedy Woods, Nicole Haugland, and Katie Grant Goldman reunited in Cancun, Mexico, during Thanksgiving week 2019 to celebrate Katie and Nicole turning 50. Like they have since starting this annual trip in 1997, the longtime friends ate well, rested much, and laughed often, still trying to figure out how to live life on the Block Plan.

1993

Mark Peterson has been named director of mergers and acquisitions for Insurance Care Direct, a life and health agency headquartered in Deerfield Beach, Florida.

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Aaron Schubach has been appointed the next head of school for Santa Fe Prep in Santa Fe, New Mexico. by their board of trustees. Aaron, who served as head of school at Colorado Springs School since 2014, will begin his term at Santa Fe Prep in July.

Sara Fry and Beau Seegmiller were married on Nov. 21, 2018 in Boise, Idaho.

Mary and Barry Hannigan ’73 hosted a second wedding reception near Estes Park, Colorado, on June 1. Other alumni who joined the celebration were Becca Mayes ’94, Erica Siemers, Jennifer McWeeny ’98, and Sally Wurtzler ’98.

Sara, inducted into the CC Athletic Hall of Fame back in 2011 for her success in crosscountry and track and field, is still running for health and fun. She is a professor in the College of Education at Boise State and ran in the California International Marathon in December. Sara was CC’s first All-American in cross country and, clocking 39 minutes, 8 seconds, set the school record in the 10,000 meters in 1995.

Kristin Yost Taylor is an international spiritual teacher, speaker, author, artist, and medical intuitive based in London. She is working on her second book and is the founder of an online school called the Lightworkers Training Academy. Formerly a corporate lawyer, Kristin speaks at events such as Women’s Health Live and Mind Body Spirit and leads guided meditations on behalf of brands such as Bare Minerals, Harvey Nichols, and the Vistage Group in Manhattan, a training and mentoring group for CEOs of large companies. Kristin also is a practicing visual artist using oil paints and often exhibits in London, where she had her first solo show this past August.

Kristin’s work is held in private collections worldwide, including in London, Texas, Colorado, Georgia, and New York.

1996

1997

1998

Bryce Hach and his wife Sarah started an educational food tour in 2018 called Maine Food for Thought.

From climate change and immigration to food insecurity and urban and rural dynamics, the tours and private events uncover the economic, ecological, and social underpinnings of Maine’s food system and our food choices. In November, Maine Food for Thought was named the Best Food and Beverage Experience globally by the World Food Travel Association in London, UK.

1999

2006 Mausumi Mahapatro, Heather Block Lawton, John Lawton ’96, and their kids met up for lunch in January.

Katharine “Jenny” Ellison, a former Larimer County chief deputy district attorney, was appointed to serve as the newest Larimer County court judge in the Eighth Judicial District. Her appointment went into effect Feb. 22.

Courtney Gibbons recently was tenured as a math professor at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York.

She also became co-chair of the Association for Women in Mathematics committee on Policy and Advocacy, a national professional organization, after serving as a member for two years.

Angela Schillaci married Greg Dihlmann-Malzer in Telluride, Colorado, on Aug. 3. In attendance were Cara Machacek, Jaime Cammack ’07, Anikka Sellz, Annika Davis ’15, Professor Tomi-Ann Roberts, and Kirsten Akens ’96.

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In 2019, Jared Ritvo started his own Colorado family law practice, Ritvo Law LLC. Jared also became a member of the first cohort of attorneys in the Legal Entrepreneurs for Justice (LEJ) law practice accelerator program. As part of LEJ, Jared completed a six-month pro bono residency program in the Family and Children’s Unit at Colorado Legal Services. In his private practice, Jared provides flat rate and unbundled services and, when needed, he assists clients in Spanish and Portuguese.

2006

James Whitaker was hired last year as the principal research and development scientist for SolarWindow Technologies, Inc. James leads a team of scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory through the company’s Cooperative Research and Development with the NREL.

David Amster-Olszewski, founder and CEO of SunShare, one of the nation’s top community solar companies, was interviewed in November by Authority magazine about creating his company and how to pass on a love of the environment to the next generation.

In 2016, David was featured in Forbes’ “30 Under 30” and he is recognized as a national leader in the alternative energy market. While at CC, David was responsible for getting solar installed on campus after personally raising $200,000 in just four weeks and hiring the installer.

2009

2010

Tim Hughes married Erika Keim on Sept. 8 at Kitsap Memorial State Park in Poulsbo, Washington. The wedding party included Laura Davies ’11 (pictured far right).

2007

Dana Cappelloni, Perri Kramer, and Sara Rubin get together frequently and gathered for the 4,621st time since graduating CC. They are pictured here hiking a portion of California’s John Muir Trail over the Sonora Pass.

Annisa Harsha and Matt Kerns were married Sept. 14 in Graeagle, California. Pictured left to right: Russell Clarke, Samuel Bennett, Julie Steeler, Amy Steinhoff, Rachel Schwartz, Bridgette Haggerty, Matt and Annisa, Tristan Kanipe, Lauren Schaefer, Nate Kerr, Danika Conolly, Claire Skrivanos, and Lucy Logan Spears. Alumni in attendance but not pictured: Troy Deichen, Brian Love, Michael “Micky” Shaked, and Josh Hoerger.

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2010

Christina Yong married Nicholas Rouse on June 15 in Littleton, Colorado.

Alumni in attendance were, from left to right: Emily Engelman, Kie Riedel, Cassandra Pagan Araujo, Mariel Honigman Goldenstein, Chelsea Denlow, Marilyn Pease, Nate Flint, Kirsten Gosch, Christina, Amy Howard, Ana Brown-Cohen ’09, Courtney-Rose Dantus, Elisabeth “Liz” Ward, Megan Poole, and Cameron Mansanarez.

2011

Carola Lovering Crane married Rob Crane in September in Manchester, Vermont, with a reception in Pawlet, Vermont. Pictured in attendance were left to right: Charlie Lovering ’12, Charlotte Hardie, Joycelin Hunter, Maren Rhodin, Danielle Hankin, Maggie Seay, Kelsey Morell Massie ’12, Julia Livick, Amelia Russo, Rob, Carola, Sam Barnard, Hannah Thompson, Joanie Choremi, Sophie Evarts Lockwood ’12, Charlotte Pfeffer ’12, Paige Conklin ’12, Jessie White ’12, Virginia Nelson Hendryx ’12, and Jake Melito ’12.

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Helen Anda and James Eichner were married in Santa Barbara, California, at the Dos Pueblos Orchid Farm on Dec. 14. In attendance were Ben Felson, Duncan Louden, Maddie Bollinger, Neal Hustava, Hannah Thompson, Taylor Callahan, Andrew Parks, Derrick Webb, Sam Goldman, and Greg Harbison.

2011

2012

Four alumni showed up for the CC/University of Denver hockey watch party hosted on Dec. 14 , 2019, at the home of Ben Taber and Eve Harburg ’13 (not pictured) in Bend, Oregon. Though the Tigers lost, everyone enjoyed themselves and they are planning to do another alumni get-together in the spring. Topics discussed ranged from college memories to backcountry skiing to US and Eastern European politics. There also were four partners/friends who came to the watch party, including two who went to the Colorado School of Mines and shared in having DU as their “safety school.” Pictured left to right: Peter Skrbek ’03, Andrew Wagner ’11, Caitlin Taber ’17, and Ben Taber ’12.

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Tim Bruns and Will Harris are featured in an article written by Joe Purtell ’18 for Outside Magazine. Tim and Will created an indoor climbing gym in the Palestinian Territories when they noticed the — as of then — virgin climbing territory of limestone cliffs. They put together funds to form Wadi Climbing in Ramallah and continued to bolt some outdoor routes as well. They lead climbing trips on the West Bank and wrote a guidebook called “Climbing Palestine.” (See On the Bookshelf, p. 34.)

2014

Will Harris currently resides in Chicago where he is a partner in his next venture, Lofti, a professional well-being training and development company.

Infusing his background as a collegiate athlete and global fitness entrepreneur with his yoga and meditation teacher training, he co-leads workshops for corporate teams to help enable strong, mindful communication in the workplace.

Anna Naden married Hannah Tilden ’16 on Sept. 7 in Snohomish, Washington. In attendance were pictured left to right: Anne Malecek ’16, Carolyn Nuyen, Charlie Flesche, Alex Meyer, Erika Versalovic, Walt Dubensky, Lou Brand, Hannah, Anna, Evan Craine, Professor TomiAnn Roberts, Chris Banks, Jacob Jones ’17, Stacey Stevens, Maya Webber ’12, Jacquie Tilden ’11, Gretchen Wardell, and Heather Berberet ’91.

2015

2016

Caden MacKenzie and Tommy Riley, along with Caden’s brother, Miles, created an app called Handoff, “a conversational beer, wine and liquor delivery platform supported by mobile, Alexa, and Google devices.”

Tommy and Caden played soccer together at CC and have worked on the joint venture full time since last year. Handoff went live in April 2019 in Colorado and is spreading quickly to Boulder, Colorado, and New York City markets.

2017

Emma Whitehead, Sidharth Moktan ’15, and Dominique Wells ’15 got together in London where they are all studying. Emma is getting a master’s at the London School of Economics. Sidharth also is at LSE pursuing his Ph.D. Dominique is working on her master’s at SOAS University of London. The friends reminisced about their college experiences and how CC helped prepare them for their further studies.

Holly Moynahan, a senior consultant at Ernst & Young, works on the Climate Change and Sustainability Services team in Boston. She landed this dream job by networking with CC alumni and taking advantage of the CC Career Center — through their Instagram account. She found Scott Jarrell ’99, a partner at EY, there and reached out to make a connection. Years later, that connection had a hand in helping Holly get noticed and hired for her current job. Holly gives back by meeting with prospective Boston area students, serving as a remote volunteer for the Career Center and the Office of Admission.

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BIRTHS & ADOPTIONS ’00

’4 4

Rachel DePuy ’00, a son, Theodore “Teddy” Izsak, Aug. 9, 2019, in Missoula, Montana.

WEDDINGS & CELEBRATIONS ’96

Sara Fry ’96 and Beau Seegmiller, Nov. 21, 2018, in Boise, Idaho.

’06

Angela Schillaci ’06 and Greg DihlmannMalzer, Aug. 3, 2019, Telluride, Colorado.

’10

Annisa Harsha ’10 and Matt Kerns ’10, Sept. 14, 2019, in Graeagle, California.

Grace “Bunny” Haff Blood-Smyth Wanner, a member of Delta Gamma, was born, raised, lived, and died in Denver.

She was a Denver lover and historian until her death on Dec. 4, 2019, at the age of 95. She was predeceased by her husband, Jack Wanner, and is survived by daughters, Jan Cody Wanner ’73 and Gail Wanner, Swinson, and four grandchildren.

’45

Christina Yong ’10 and Nicholas Rouse, June 15, 2019, in Littleton, Colorado.

Tim Hughes ’10 and Erika Keim, Sept. 8, 2019, in Poulsbo, Washington.

’11

Carola Lovering Crane ’11 and Rob Crane, September 2019, in Manchester, Vermont.

’46

Helen Anda ’11 and James Eichner ’11, Dec. 14, 2019, in Santa Barbara, California.

’15

Anna Naden ’15 and Hannah Tilden ’16, Sept. 7, 2019, in Snohomish, Washington.

OBITUARIES ’37

Martha “Marty” S. Potter, a Kappa Alpha Theta at CC, worked for TWA as an airline hostess. She was preceded in death by her husband, Grafton Potter, and is survived by daughters Martha Sue Lovejoy, Mary Louise Waye, son Grafton Potter Jr., nine grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren.

She passed away on Sept. 24, 2019, at age 104 in Kansas City, Missouri.

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Penelope “Penny” Ann Corya passed away on July 19, 2019, 11 days shy of her 96th birthday. An English major, she belonged to the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority and earned her master’s degree from CC. Penny was a dance instructor, performing in competitive ballroom dancing well into her 70s. She was also a proofreader for Curtis Publishing and an elementary school teacher.

’48

Miriam “Mimi” Slosky taught elementary school in Denver after volunteering as a counselor at the Fort Carson Army Mental Health Center during WWII. Miriam ended up a counselor at the East Side Mental Health Center in Denver. She was a wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother twice over. She passed away on Oct. 5, 2019.

Barbara Guy Parker died on July 25, 2019, in Grand Junction, Colorado. She was Vail, Colorado’s first postmistress and also a psychiatric social worker for Colorado West Regional Center after working in real estate.

Barbara was an avid painter and is survived by a daughter, a son, and two grandchildren.

Thomas Rallis served in WWII in Augsburg, Germany. He moved to Tucson, Arizona, in 1949 where he owned and operated several popular restaurants. Tom was involved in politics and a community leader in Tucson, where he passed away on Oct. 19, 2019, at age 99.

Janice Long Welty was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma and the Nugget staff during her time at CC. Janice worked for the Raytheon Company and in investment banking. All three of her children are graduates of CC — Linda Welty Teves ’77, Bruce E. Welty ’79, and Russel Welty ’82.

Janice passed away on Nov. 12, 2019, in Denver, Colorado.

’49

’50

Joan Woelflin Thompson passed away on Dec. 18, 2019, at age 92 in Branford, Connecticut. She met her husband, Robert Thompson, at CC and they had three children — Judith Lysaker ’76, William Thompson, and Cynthia Thompson — as well as nine grandchildren. Joan received a BA in sociology from CC and she loved reading, gardening, and playing bridge with friends.

Jeanne C. Davis, age 79, was laid to rest May 19, 2019, in Lincolnshire, Illinois. She was a Gamma Phi Beta and a psychology major at CC and worked as a substitute teacher. Jeanne had three children and four grandchildren and was predeceased by her husband, Harry C. Davis.

Cynthia Milton Weber was a Gamma Phi Beta and art major at CC. She established the Cynthia Milton Weber 1950 Fund to support the Fine Arts Department at CC. She was the owner of Townscapes Fine Art Prints and director and treasurer of the Monterey Historical Society. A beloved mother and grandmother, Cynthia was laid to rest on May 3, 2019, in Monterey, Massachusetts.

Wilfred “Will” G. Perkins studied business administration and joined men’s basketball, the Honor Council, and Sigma Chi at CC. Will succeeded his father to become the owner/president of Perkins Motor Company. He is survived by his wife, Bess, four children, 14 grandchildren, and 18 great-grandchildren. Will passed away in Colorado Springs on Oct. 19, 2019.

Richard “Dick” Nash Hall Jr., a Beta Theta Pi and CC golfer, was active duty Marine Corps in Korea. He left the service with a Purple Heart, raised his family, and launched a long career in investment management. Dick died on Oct. 28, 2019, at his home in Boulder, Colorado.

Emma Jane “EJ” Evangelos, a Kappa Kappa Gamma and Spanish major, was the office manager for the Legislative Council Service at the State Capitol in Santa Fe, New Mexico, for 30 years. EJ died on Nov. 20, 2019, and is survived by a son, two daughters, five grandchildren, one greatgrandchild, a niece, and one brother.

’51

’53

Joseph B. Barron was a Sigma Chi and a triple major in zoology, chemistry, and business at CC. Joseph worked as a stockbroker for 48 years. An avid fisherman, Joseph passed away on Sept. 3, 2019, in Colorado Springs, leaving his wife, five children, 13 grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren behind.

Gilbert “Gil” Fellingham Weiskopf, lifetime member of the Colorado College Alumni Association, had a 34-year career with Sears, Roebuck & CO. Gil was preceded in death by his wife, Barbara Jean Trotter ’54, and is survived by his sons, Gilbert George and Thomas Edward.

He died on Oct. 3, 2019, in Denver, following respiratory complications.

Anthony “Tony” M. Kimball, a Sigma Chi, joined the U.S. Air Force where he was a radar observer in the 465th Fighter Interceptor Squadron. Tony then worked in sales his entire career. An avid water, snow, and kite skier, Tony died at home in Rome, New York, on Nov. 30, 2019, after a mighty battle with leukemia.

Milburne Edgar “Mel” Kensinger was a pioneer in the land title business in Colorado after serving in the Navy. He also served on the CC Athletic Board and was a Phi Gamma Delta, men’s basketball player, and senior class president. Mel passed away on Nov. 12, 2019, in Colorado Springs.

’54

’55

’56

Barbara K. Stine passed away in Tucson, Arizona, on Sept. 15, 2019. At CC, Barbara was a Gamma Phi Beta and she met her husband there. She worked as an executive secretary and medical transcriptionist and was an avid volunteer with organizations like the National Association of Rocketry as their secretary/office manager.

’58

Larry DeWitt Thomas studied psychology at CC and then worked as an accountant and social worker. Larry loved camping with his wife in the Rocky Mountains and caring for his many different types of pets.

Larry passed away in Colorado Springs on Dec. 19, 2018. He is survived by three daughters and five grandchildren.

Margaret “Mimi” V. Gravette passed away in Arlington, Virginia, on Oct. 13, 2019.

After college, she worked as a stewardess for United Airlines. She was a devoted military spouse, traveling the world while raising their three children. Margaret’s love of travel led to a long and successful career as a travel agent.

Robert R. Lovejoy was a first-generation student at CC. He enjoyed a long career in hospital administration, including 20 years as president of the Waltham Hospital in Massachusetts. Upon retirement, he started the Evergreen Christmas Tree Farm.

Robert passed away in West Newbury, Massachusetts, on Oct. 24, 2019, just shy of 89.

A men’s basketball player and Kappa Sigma at CC, Culver “Cal” Hooker grew up in southeastern Wisconsin. After college, he found the Superstition Mountains near Phoenix, which he loved and never left.

He also had an infinite love for dogs. Cal passed away peacefully in his home on June 7, 2018.

Gerald Esch was a Charles M. Allen Professor of Biology, dean of the Graduate School and chair of the Department of Biology at Wake Forest University. CC honored him with the Louis T. Benezet Award in 1992. Gerald passed away on Dec. 18, 2019, in Woodland Park, Colorado.

’59

’60

A Phi Gamma Delta, Richard “Dick” Wiegandt played football at CC. Dick worked 37 years for FM Global, retiring as regional vice president. He and his wife hiked the lengthy Buckeye Trail and did a Grand Circle Cruise around the eastern United States on their boat. Dick passed away on Oct. 10, 2019, in Cuyahoga, Ohio.

Francis “Frank” Andrew Lotrich was a high school chemistry teacher in Colorado, on the Jicarilla Apache reservation in Dulce, New Mexico, and in Australia. He participated in men’s track and field and was a Beta Theta Pi at CC. Frank died in Rocky Ford, Colorado, on Oct. 5, 2019.

In Memoriam

W

illiam Becker, professor emeritus of economics, died on Dec. 27, at the age of 84 in Colorado Springs.

William was born on Dec. 24, 1935, in New Orleans, Louisiana, a place that would begin his love of language, arts, and music from cultures all over the world. A self-named “citizen of the world,” he traveled extensively after studying at Tulane and Louisiana State University to follow his spirit of curiosity and wonder and drink in cultural experiences. He turned that wonder

into appreciation of human expression by avidly supporting local arts organizations like the Colorado Council on the Arts and Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts.

With his CC career spanning 26 years from 1970 to 1996, William transferred his love of learning by fostering a wider view of economic history in his students. William’s last wishes were for his remains to be scattered on the Danube River “as it flows through Austria on its way to the Black Sea.” His son, Karl, will undertake this final journey for his father.

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’62

’63

Susan Nabors Fisher passed away on June 30, 2018, in Calgary, Alberta.

Susan loved exploring the outdoors with her family and was always camping, hiking, skiing, riding her horse, or capturing it with watercolors.

Susan traveled to all seven continents and leaves behind a large and loving family spanning to eight grandchildren.

James A. Cotton served as a captain in the Army during the Vietnam War. After CC and law school, he joined the IBM Law Department. After retirement, James became associate professor of law at Texas Southern University’s Thurgood Marshall School of Law. James passed away in Colorado Springs on Sept. 11, 2019.

Dale Shaw played tennis and studied mathematics at CC. He received advanced degrees in math and statistics and had a long career as a professor of research and statistics at the University of Northern Colorado. Dale left a loving family behind on Nov. 16, 2019, in his longtime home of Greeley, Colorado.

’64

’65

’66

Col. Joseph “Mike” Romero, USMC, a resident of Bosque Farms, New Mexico, passed away on Nov. 8, 2019.

He was an outstanding athlete and earned a football scholarship to CC. He had a 40-year career in the Marines going from teaching junior ROTC to serving as assistant to the chief of staff services in Quantico, Virginia.

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Jack K. Emerick earned a MAT at CC and taught in the Air Academy School District for 36 years. Jack was also an active leader in the Boy Scouts and received the “Kadet Award” for his tireless support of Air Academy High School athletics. Jack passed away on Dec. 2, 2019, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Sherill Specht was part of the Mountain Club at CC where she met her husband, Stephen Specht ’68. She worked at the Catoctin Zoo in Thurmont, Maryland, as a docent at the National Zoo, and as a realtor.

Sherrill died due to complications resulting from a prolonged struggle with cancer in Brownsville, Maryland, on Dec. 10, 2019.

’67

Donald Ralph Smick died Jan. 24, 2020, in Rochester, Minnesota. Donald was a math and science teacher at Chosen Valley High School in Chatfield, and a chemistry teacher at Mayo High School in Rochester. Donald also coached boys’ baseball and girls’ softball.

In 1978, he became a senior chemical analyst at IBM and later retired from the company.

’68

Ann Doremus, a member of the Delta Gamma sorority at CC, was a caterer and volunteer. She is survived by her brother, Ted Doremus. She passed away on Dec. 27, 2019, at age 76.

Marta Phipps Talman, a Kappa Kappa Gamma, loved playing sports, including golf, bowling, and skiing. Marta loved the Denver Broncos and the Colorado Rockies.

She was very involved in the Junior League in Denver, along with the Denver Debutante Ball. Marta passed away on Oct. 17, 2017.

James Swann passed away on July 5, 2019, leaving behind his wife, Beverly Tabery.

Anne Foster studied education at CC and taught elementary school. She received a master’s degree in school administration from the University of Colorado and was promoted to principal at Ute Pass Elementary School in Colorado Springs and then Manitou Springs Elementary.

Anne passed away on Nov. 11, 2019, in Colorado Springs.

William Alexander Ferguson, DDS, had a dental practice in Longmont, Colorado. Following retirement and years of travel, he lived in St. Helena, California, where he died on Sept. 11, 2019, at 77 following a stroke. He is survived by his wife, Connie, two children, and four grandchildren. Bill’s father, William Ferguson Sr. had a 20-year career at Colorado College in the Admission Office and as director of student aid.

Rev. Margaret “Maggie” Taylor, Episcopal priest and founder of Holy Apostles Episcopal Church in Hoover, Alabama, retired in 2011 but remained active in several parishes until her death. Her husband, Rev. Charles Taylor, predeceased her in 2013. She is survived by her sister, Kathy Walton, and brother-in-law Larry Walton.

She died at 74 in Birmingham, Alabama, on Nov. 20, 2019, of pancreatic cancer.

’70

’72

’73

Courtney Ellen Martin, after graduating from college, found work in London and used her weekends and holidays to tour Europe. She then served as the librarian for both the San Diego Zoo and the Design Institute of San Diego. She passed away on July 7, 2019, in Mt. Dora, Florida.

Robert “Phyz” Reck, a member of Beta Theta Pi and the men’s rugby club, enjoyed careers as a ski patrolman, heli-skiing guide, and rancher. Robert graduated with a BA in business administration from CC. He passed away July 22, 2019, at the family ranch in Cameron, Montana, at age 70.

Jan P. Janitschke was a professional bridge player. A national champion who won four national titles, he was the highest-rated “grand life master” in the state of Colorado for more than 30 years. He produced educational materials and mentored many newer players. He died on Sept. 29, 2019, in Littleton, Colorado.

Sarah Andrews Brown died in a tragic airplane crash with her husband Damon and son Duncan on July 24, 2019, near Chadron, Nebraska. She was a geologistturned-mystery novel writer, winning seven prestigious awards for her writing, including (as joint recipient) the 2009 Colorado College Louis T. Benezet Award.

Jan E. Bernatz studied education at CC and worked as a director with Business Incentives, Inc., a Minnesota travel incentive company. Jan served as a housemother to the Gamma Phi sorority on the University of Minnesota campus while earning her graduate degree there.

Jan passed away on Sept. 12, 2019, in Minneapolis.

In Memoriam Dennis claimed German military history as his specialty, but others note his influence on worldwide military history was his real claim to fame. As the author of 27 books on military history, Dennis’ love of the subject was shared with more than just his loyal and loving students at CC. He was invited to the Pentagon to brief the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2019 on military doctrine and served in Tokyo as a consultant to the Japanese Ministry of Defense.

R

etired History Professor Emeritus Dennis Showalter, known to many even outside the department as “the most engaging professor at the school,” died Dec. 30, 2019, from complications related to esophageal cancer in Colorado Springs. He was 77.

In 2018, Dennis won the Pritzker Military Museum and Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing. His reaction then was beyond surprise. “I still don’t believe it; it was unexpected,” Showalter said. “I hope it gives both my work and my future line of work a platform.

It’s not merely desirable but necessary for citizens of the United States to study military history.”

Dennis was born on Feb. 12, 1942, in Delano, Minnesota. He attended St. John’s University for undergrad and earned his master’s and Ph.D. at the

University of Minnesota. He married writer Clara Anne McKenna in November 1965, and had two children — Clara Kathleen and John Showalter — who all survive him today.

Dennis also taught at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, the Air Force Academy, West Point Military Academy, and the Marine Corps University. He was featured in multiple military history documentaries and was known for turning “history haters into history buffs.”

Dennis once said, “Ten years of teaching in a liberal arts college stressing classroom interaction have convinced me that the professor who hopes to remain an effective instructor must also maintain himself as a productive scholar.” True to form, he was in the middle of writing his 28th book, “Modern Warfare,” upon his death and expressed wishes for his family to finish and publish it after his passing.

January 8, 2020

To the Editor: I write in reference to the loss of Professor Dennis E. Showalter this past Dec. 30, as reported in a tribute in the Colorado Springs Gazette on Jan. 4. I first heard Dr. Showalter at a lecture delivered in Olin Hall in the spring of 1970. He was a new assistant professor and I was a freshman. His talk was on aspects of Germany’s rise to military power on the eve of World War II. I was not a declared history major at that time, but had deep interest in the field and was enrolled in Dean George Drake’s Survey of Western Civilization to 1700, taught as a seminar in Cutler Hall and at the dean’s home. Showalter’s lecture, as well as meeting him in person, changed my life’s trajectory.

I entered CC with the goal of becoming a high school music director and left in 1973 bound for graduate courses in history at U.C. Santa Barbara. In the interim, classes offered by Tom K. Barton, Arthur Pettit, Susan Ashley, Lewis Geiger, William Hochman, and especially Harvey Carter and Dennis Showalter, directed my focus toward emulating my two most esteemed mentors at CC. Showalter’s zeal for his subject, passion to both inform and entertain his varied audiences from civilian service clubs to officer-candidates in our

military academies, and his oratorical skills as lecturer remain my role model for successful college teaching from the lectern. He was also an excellent advisor and leader in seminars. As a scholar he produced over 20 major works, sharing his research and careful analysis of military issues far beyond Colorado Springs. Unlike many professors, Showalter published the research he shared in classes with colleagues and was always open-minded to peer review, a hallmark of the academy. As Mike Neilberg, professor of history at the U. S. Army War College put it in the Jan. 4 Gazette article, “He was a mentor and role model to an entire generation of military historians.” His 2018 Pritzker Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing (the ceremony for which I attended in Chicago) was both “a combination of an Oscar and a Pulitzer” as correctly reported in the Colorado College Bulletin (Summer 2018, p. 7). But there is so much more to the story of Showalter’s success and influence at the college and beyond.

I have many friends from my CC days who also admired Showalter for his method of teaching; and, I was his colleague as a visiting lecturer during 1977 to 1978, learning much from him

as I taught seven different courses across nine blocks. I would not have made it through that “boot camp ordeal” (as he described it) without his advice and encouragement. Over the past four decades I corresponded occasionally with him and always looked forward to a meal and an update at reunions.

I also own most of his books and have used some in my own class lectures on American military matters.

Many of us who took Showalter’s courses continue to talk about both the classes and the man who brought such unique energy and authority on a daily basis into Palmer Hall. This coming fall I am teaching History of Warfare for the first time after over 40 years as instructor of courses in North American history. My typed notes from War and Society Since the Renaissance (which I took in 1971) will form much of the material on the modern era. I am dedicating the course to the memory of Professor Showalter and trust the college will be celebrating his life with a major event and story in the Bulletin.

W. R. Swagerty ’73 Professor of history and director, John Muir Center University of the Pacific

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Georgia Pinkal earned her MAT at CC and began her career as an elementary school teacher before raising her children as a stay-at-home mom. She was an avid reader and enjoyed singing, playing the piano, and art. Georgia died after a sevenyear battle with ovarian cancer on Nov. 17, 2019, in Colorado Springs.

Nicole Condit Duncan succumbed to metastatic melanoma, passing away Jan. 23, 2020, in England surrounded by family and friends. Nicole worked in business, managing private portfolios as well as investment strategy for new business opportunities and partnerships at various corporations. She was an enthusiastic golfer and an avid amateur photographer who loved depicting her world travels.

From The Archives

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Nicholas “Nick” Roger Mystrom played football at CC and then professionally in the Canadian Football League. An entrepreneur, builder, and developer, Nick often donated his skills and started the Karma Army, with members all over Colorado doing something good — big or small — for someone else. Nick died unexpectedly on Sept. 25, 2019, in Anchorage, Alaska.

Clyde Romero was an English and political science major at CC. He received the Mr. and Mrs. David Packard Scholarship in 1997-98 and Reba Beidleman Pueblo Indian Scholarship for 1998-99. He passed away in the spring of 2019.

Photo courtesy of CC Special Collections.

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Stuart Hackley spent his life in pursuit of academics. He received his B.A. in History from Colorado College and a master's from the University of Vermont. He also attended the University of Edinburgh, Middlebury College, and CU Denver. He taught in China, Colorado Springs, and was a Fulbright English teaching assistant in Germany.

Raised in Conifer, Colorado, he passed away in Vermont on February 5, at the age of 30.

Jeremy Brooks studied environmental science at CC and was an expert fly fisherman. He was the only American casualty of 78 people aboard a Russian flight that crashed on May 5, 2019. Jeremy was on his way to guide fly fishing for eight months with the Ponoi River Company on Russia’s Kola Peninsula.

REACH OUT TO THE BULLETIN We’d like to hear from you! The Colorado College Bulletin is distributed to alumni, parents, and friends. It is published three times a year and seeks to portray the people, events, experiences, and topics that best reflect a CC education. We welcome comments, feedback, items of interest, class notes, letters to the editor, story suggestions, etc.

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When life got too serious on campus in 1912, students used blankets as homemade trampolines, tossing one lucky person many feet into the air. The buildings in the background are Perkins Fine Arts Hall (built 1900, razed 1964) and Coburn Library (built 1892, razed 1964); these buildings stood where Armstrong Hall is now.

These photos are the only known documentation of this pastime, recorded in a scrapbook by Ellen McCaffery ’14. The scrapbook also contains clippings, programs, dance cards, and more. After she graduated in 1914, McCaffery became a teacher in Colorado Springs.

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CONTACT US (719) 389-6603 or bulletin@coloradocollege.edu Bulletin/Communications Colorado College 14 East Cache La Poudre St. Colorado Springs, CO 80903-3294

A N E W B U I L D I N G F O R C R E AT I V I T Y & I N N OVAT I O N

REA C H I N G N EW HEI GHT S F O R C H A N GE MA K E R S

Creativity & Innovation at CC strengthens students’ capacities for creative problem-solving, resilience, and reflections.

Colorado College is raising $15 million for a new building that will provide flexible, unsiloed classrooms, where ideas collide and new thinking emerges, and inspiration becomes tangible in fabrication shops, an experimental garden, a demonstration kitchen, and outdoor work yards.

To learn more about this project that will help us achieve our bold vision for Creativity & Innovation at CC, contact Shannon Balmer ’96 at (719) 389-7665 or sbalmer@coloradocollege.edu.

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Showing a commitment to tradition, some members of the Class of 2020 who were still on campus organized and gathered at the Earle Flagpole to celebrate with a champagne shower on March 11 after CC announced it was moving to distance learning due to the spread of COVID-19. Typically the shower is held on the last day of classes for seniors but students celebrated ahead of Spring Break just in case campusbased classes did not resume before the end of the academic year. Note: the champagne shower took place before state and local authorities began calling for social distancing. Photo by Jennifer Coombes