FINANCIAL-AID

have applauded the state for setting the 80% completion goal. e state has reported that every year Colorado students leave about $30 million in federal nancial aid unclaimed.

Colorado has sought to boost FAFSA completion in other ways.

Last year, the state created grants for districts to increase FAFSA completion, but only a handful of districts applied, Staron said. Despite o ering more nancial literacy for students, of that message, but I wished I was the one who thought of the concept. He laughed and then said that it was the best insight and reality check he had heard in a long time. He shared that it made him stop thinking about how high he could climb, and instead start thinking about how high he could help others climb.

Last week my column was a tribute to a friend and colleague Jill. In the past 15 years of writing this column

I had never received the number of emails, texts, and comments on any previous column. And all of the messages had common themes, “I wish I would have known her,” “She must have been something really special,” “I hope people remember training for teachers, and nancial aid planning for students, the state’s FAFSA completion rate remained at about 45%. e state’s teacher union said there are reasons to be cautious about a push to mandate FAFSA completion. e Colorado Education Association said it wants to discuss issues such as whetherthe requirement would burden teachers and students, raise privacy issues, and favor four-year colleges over other options, union President Amie Baca-Oehlert said.

In the upcoming FAFSA cycle, the federal government will launch an me that way,” or “What a legacy she left behind.”

And now I share Brian’s story above because regardless of our role in life, we all don’t have to be a CEO, we can move from being to doing to having to giving and to leaving a legacy. And it starts with a very simple concept that David H. Sandler, the founder of Sandler Training, introduced us to, the idea of focusing on our attitude, our behaviors, and our techniques, in other words building the whole person, to set us on the path to one day moving from success to signi cance and signi cance to legacy.

Is it always about what’s next and how high you can climb? Or application that’s intended to be easier for students to ll out. e new form, however, will be released in December instead of the previous schedule of October, narrowing the window to complete the form.

Financial aid experts expect the form will have unintended consequences, especially for students whose families own farms or small businesses, but eventually will lead to a better student experience and outcome.

“With the streamlined FAFSA form, our hope is that completion rates go up because it’s easier for students and families to navigate the pro- is it about how you can help others climb higher faster, and helping them on their own journey of being, doing, giving, and leaving their legacy? I would love to hear your story at gotonorton@gmail.com, and when we can remember to strive for success so we can move to signicance and then leave the legacy we would be proud of, it really will be a better than good life. cess. But I certainly think Colorado needs to do more,” said Jen Walmer, whose organization Democrats for Education Reform contributed to the report.

Michael Norton is an author, a personal and professional coach, consultant, trainer, encourager and motivator of individuals and businesses, working with organizations and associations across multiple industries.

Amelia Federico, a Young Invincibles policy fellow who attends Metropolitan State University of Denver, said the FAFSA process is overly confusing and students often have little support to ll out the support despite there being some resources at schools.

Chalkbeat is a nonpro t news site covering educational change in public schools.

HOWLAND

Anthony M Howland

October 14, 1947 - November 3, 2021

Anthony M. Howland, 74, of Brighton, CO passed away on November 3, 2021. He was born on October 14, 1947. Anthony is survived by his son, Jarett Howland.

Dominguez

Leonard Dominguez

August 28, 1958 - June 9, 2023

Leonard Dominguez 64, passed away peacefully June 9th. Leonard was born to Manuel Pacheco Dominguez and Mary Reynaga on August 28th 1958. Leonard grew up in Fort Lupton, attended Fort Lupton high school and went on to learn several di erent trades.

In 1999 he married Grace Adams in New Zealand. Leonard enjoyed spending time reading the Bible and volunteering at several ministries with Mark Roggerman. Leonard also enjoyed time he spent in New Zealand with Grace, Esther and her family. Leonard is survived by one daughter Esther (22) and grandson Israel (4) and one on the way, his brother Robert (Sharon) Dominguez and many nephews and nieces. Leonard is preceded in death by his wife Grace, mom and dad Mary and Manuel Dominguez, and brothers Manuel Dominguez, Jimmy Dominguez, John Dominguez and sister Rosalie Roggerman. Services will be determined at a later date.

January 25, 1933 - June 7, 2023 e Katayama Family were interned at Poston Relocation Center in AZ. Upon their release they moved to the Tonville area in Colorado. Mack often told stories of how di cult this time was on their family and they really had nothing. ey eventually settled in Brighton, where he lived till his passing on June 7, 2023 at the age of 90.

Masaru (Mack) Katayama was born in Salinas, California, the youngest of four children. His family had successful farm which was taken away from them with the Executive Order 9066.

Mack graduated from Brighton High School in 1951. (He enjoyed attending his class reunions). He served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War with the 3rd Engineer Company C Battalion 24. He was very proud of his experience and got to meet some relatives in Japan.

Returning home Mack utilized the GI bill and was able to attend some higher education in Kansas City, but was cut short to come back to help his family’s struggling farm.

Mack later worked for Boise Cascade and Component and Construction Company. In the 70’s Bob Hill, Mack and Bill Stephen formed a development company, HKS. Mack built many houses and had his hand in several projects throughout Brighton and surrounding areas.

He helped many people out throughout his lifetime in a lot of di erent ways. He said he missed the days where you knew people around town and people would just help to help one another. To know Mack you were bound to hear a story or learn something. ( ere are so many life stories we could never include them all.)

His friends and family meant a lot to him. He had saved cards, holiday notes, graduation announcement, thank you notes and funeral programs

Mack was able to travel throughout the US, the only state he never made it to, Hawaii. For many years on Sundays and holidays he and friends could be found up at the “hill”. In his later years you could set your clock on his lunch and dinner routine.

Proceeded in death by his siblings Joe, Jane (Watanabe), Charlie, Yo (Miyoshi) and several friends. He leaves behind his sibling’s families, great neighbors and many friends. (You know who you are.)

We thank all those who cared for Mack during the last few years.

A special thanks to friends and family that were able to visit him over the recent years. He was his very independent self until the end.

We are sorry, per Mack’s request (in capital letters) he did not want any services.

Therapists

BY TAYLER SHAW TSHAW@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

When people think of horses, they might associate them with ranch living, horse racing or recreational riding, but horses can be therapeutic, too. erapy takes many forms, from physical to mental. Some people travel to a ranch to work with horses as part of the therapeutic process.

Equine-assisted therapy was something Arvada native Kelsey Petitt discovered while studying occupational therapy at Pima Medical Institute in Denver. Having grown up riding horses, it immediately caught her attention.

“I just, kind of, was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is the coolest thing ever. I can combine my true passion of horses and really being able to help and assist participants and patients with doing therapy and reaching their functional goals while also having fun with horses and having that relationship,’” Petitt said.

Although she knew immediately that equine-assisted therapy was something she wanted to pursue, she did not do so immediately. Following her schooling and clinical internships, she quickly began working and then had her daughter.

However, in 2021 Petitt, who now lives in Brighton, decided to establish the Brighton-based Prestige erapeutic Equestrian Center, o ering an occupational therapy program that brings the four-legged companions into the practice.

“Now, I’m going on 11 years of being a therapist and so it’s taken me a little bit of time to get back to, really, what I wanted to do,” said Petitt, who also works as an occupational therapy assistant for a company called erapeutic and Rehabilitative Associates.

Her purpose, like many other therapists incorporating horses into their practice, is clear: “Transforming lives through the therapeutic power of horses.”

Bringing horses into occupational therapy

Occupational therapists help people develop skills so that they can perform day-to-day tasks such as bathing, dressing and eating, as well as techniques to aid in memory and concentration, according to the American Occupational erapy Association.

For example, occupational therapists may work on a person’s ne motor skills, such as being able to button a jacket or holding a fork, Petitt said.

ey also work on sensory integration, which she said usually comes up when working with someone who is on the autism spectrum.

Another example of work they do is helping someone with their feeding skills, such as for patients with Parkinson’s disease who experience a lot of tremors. Improving core strength may also be a focus for patients, such as for someone who struggles to put their shirt on due to a lack of strength.

“ ere’s an array of di erent settings that you can get into in the occupational therapy eld, but I think for me, the equine-assisted movement is just something that I’ve always loved,” she said. “Horses are just so therapeutic in general, for anybody.” e term “hippotherapy” refers to how occupational therapy, physical therapy and speech-language pathology professionals use equine movement as a therapy tool, according to the American Hippotherapy Association.

To use hippotherapy in treatment, a person must be a licensed therapist who has completed continuing education in the inclusion of horses and equine movement, per the association. Petitt has gotten her rst level of training with the association, and she plans to continue with her training this fall.

However, Petitt explained that she does not refer to herself as a hippotherapist because hippotherapy is not its own therapy.

“We’re not hippotherapists,” she said. “Hippotherapy is utilizing the horse. All of our treatments are either occupational therapy, speech therapy or physical therapy, and we’re just using the horse as a treatment tool, basically.”

With her clients, she said she is working on all of the same therapy interventions that she would be in a therapy gym or in an outpatient program, but instead she’s now doing it by having her clients get onto a horse and incorporating the horse’s movement into the treatment.

“We work o the horse’s pelvis, so their pelvis is very similar to ours,” she said. ere are di erent planes for the horse in the way that their pelvis moves — the sagittal plane, frontal plane and transverse plane, she said.

“We’re working on that constantly, so when we have our riders on the horse, they’re also working on that. And it’s one of the most multi-dimensional movement(s) that’s rhythmic and repetitive,” she said.

For someone experiencing conditions such as limited mobility, limited core strength, cognitive delays, or sensory processing disorders, “it can really just kind of help bene t and improve all of those elements,” she said of equine-assisted therapy.

According to a study published in the international journal, Physiotherapy eory and Practice, there are “signicant positive e ects” of equine-assisted therapy on exercise tolerance, mobility, interpersonal interactions and quality of life of people with disabilities.

Another study focused on the ef- fects of equine-assisted activities and therapies for individuals on the autism spectrum and concluded that these programs “substantially improve” the social and behavioral functions of people who are on the autism spectrum.

“Communication is pretty key, too … because horses mirror us, so a lot of our participants can learn a lot more speech and communication successfully with the horses, which is really great,” she said.

Petitt has three horses she works with. e horse a client is paired with is dependent on their individual needs, she explained.

“Part of what’s so cool is because we can kind of tailor it to that participant, that patient, and kind of really work on what we need to work on with them,” she said. “ eir postural control, sensory systems, motor planning.”

In a typical therapy gym for occupational therapy, Petitt said there are tools such as a swing, a ball and a mat to use for the session. However, these do not provide the same level of sensory input and rhythmic, consistent movement that equine-assisted therapy can, which she said is great at building overall strength, control and balance.

“We can work in the therapy gym all day but the bene ts and the outcomes that we’re seeing while doing therapy