Metropolitan Denver Magazine - Winter 2018

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WINTER 2018

METROPOLITAN DENVER MAGAZINE WINTER 2018

ROADRUNNERS ROADRUNNERS TAP TAPINTO INTO BOOMING BOOMING BREWING INDUSTRY BREWING TO BECOME TOPS INDUSTRY IN HOPS TO BECOME TOPS IN HOPS

First FirstLook “Journey” by Michael Brohman is a sculpture that shouldn’t be missed. Located outside the library, it is based on the plans of a slave ship that transported Africans to the Americas. The vessel form is composed of more than 500 figures, a haunting reminder of a history too often overlooked.

PHOTO KYLIE HENSON

Need another reason to visit MSU Denver’s Auraria Campus?

WINTER 2018 VOL. 6 NO.3 RED.MSUDENVER.EDU

METROPOLITAN DENVER MAGAZINE PHOTO ALYSON MCCLARAN

ON A ROLL Alumnus Jesse Freitas had a big idea – but he couldn’t have known that Saul the Sticker Ball would wind up a 300-pound paradigm of supersticky marketing. Read the story on Page 24.

08 12 16 FEATURE

25 YEARS OF PRIDE

How Colorado’s first on-campus LGBTQ support organization has made a difference and what’s next.

02 THE FIRST WORD

Trustee Michelle Lucero writes about the importance of sharing the Roadrunner story.

03 IN YOUR WORDS

Alumni share the advice they would have given themselves at the start of college.

04 NEWS

MSU Denver continues to have an impact on and off campus.

ON THE COVER Raise a glass to the Roadrunners barreling through the beer industry and the program helping current students follow in their footsteps. Drink it up on Page 16.

FEATURE

FEATURE

CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE

BEER HERE

Roadrunners tap into booming brewing industry to become tops in hops.

What if you could create a map that led to future success? These graduates did.

22 THE ZIGZAGGY ROAD TO

28 THIRD-GEN TEACHER

24 STICKING TO THE MESSAGE

30 PEOPLE

SPRINGFIELD Rebecca Totman of “The Simpsons” uses her arts education to keep the famed nuclear family drawn together.

How a marketing hotshot found his career mojo – and set a Guinness World Record in the process.

26 REFLECTIONS ON A CAREER

IN WATER Alumna Trina McGuire-Collier has been making waves in public relations for 30 years.

SPEAKS KIDS’ LANGUAGE Jacqueline Lujan gives kindergartners “wild curiosity” by reaching them where they are.

Alumni share news and notes.

31 PEOPLE IN MEMORY

We remember those who are no longer with us.

32 THE FINAL WORD

Angela Marquez, Ph.D., talks about how becoming a Hispanic-Serving Institution will benefit all students.

WINTER 2018

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the

FIRSTWORD Telling the Roadrunner story I’ve been a member of MSU Denver’s Board of Trustees for the past decade and served as chair for several of those years. In that time, I’ve had the great pleasure of watching this University grow in prestige and in its programming. Under former President Stephen Jordan, Ph.D., and current President Janine Davidson, Ph.D., the institution has truly blossomed.

These days, I can’t seem to stop running into Roadrunners. They are leaders in business, law, civil service, health and so many other fields. And they are living testimony to the extraordinary career- and community-focused education that students have been getting at MSU Denver for so many years.

This issue of Metropolitan Denver Magazine highlights some of those incredible alumni. Inside, you’ll find stories of Roadrunners tapping into Colorado’s beer industry and making an impact in education, public relations, the arts and more. We have an alumnus who is on a roll in business, thanks to an unconventional marketing idea. Hint: It revolves around a giant ball of stickers (no kidding). We also have an alumna working to produce the country’s longest-running sitcom, “The Simpsons”!

Metropolitan Denver Magazine is published three times a year by the Metropolitan State University of Denver Office of Marketing and Communications. © 2018 Metropolitan State University of Denver. All rights reserved. Address correspondence to: Metropolitan Denver Magazine, MSU Denver, Office of Marketing and Communications, Campus Box 86, PO Box 173362, Denver, CO 80217-3362. Email: magazine@msudenver.edu.

The opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect the policies and opinions of Metropolitan State University of Denver nor imply endorsement by its officers or by the MSU Denver Alumni Association. Metropolitan State University of Denver does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, national origin, sex, age, sexual orientation or disability in admissions or access to, or treatment or employment in, its educational programs or activities.

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I hope you’ll read these success stories and feel inspired to share your own. Because every time you tell the tale of your journey and achievements, you show the world the value of your alma mater.

Every time you stand up and proudly announce where you went to school, you help change the minds and hearts of the few people who still don’t quite understand the high-quality, high-value education students are getting at MSU Denver. And everyone needs to know!

This December, my tenure on the Board of Trustees will come to an end. I’ve been honored to be associated with this mission-driven University for so long and thrilled to see how that mission is lived every day. And even though I won’t be involved in the leadership of MSU Denver anymore, you can count on me to keep telling your stories, to keep singing the praises of this remarkable University.

With gratitude,

Michelle Lucero Trustee

PUBLISHER CATHY LUCAS | EDITOR DAN VACCARO | ART DIRECTOR SCOTT SURINE | PUBLICATION DESIGNER CRAIG KORN | LEAD PHOTOGRAPHER ALYSON MCCLARAN | EDITORIAL ASSISTANT KYLIE HENSON | CONTRIBUTORS JOHN ARNOLD | MARCUS CHAMBERLAND | LINDSEY COULTER | MARK COX | CLIFF FOSTER | SARAH HUNSINGER | DOUG MCPHERSON | DAVE NELIGH | CORY PHARE | MARK STAHL | JULIE STRASHEIM | JESSICA TAVES | MATT WATSON | EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD: DEBORA GILLIARD, PROFESSOR OF MANAGEMENT | BRIAN GUNTHER, SCHOOL OF EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY AND PROGRAM COORDINATOR | JAMIE HURST, DIRECTOR OF ALUMNI RELATIONS AND GIVING | TRACI MCBEE ROWE, DIRECTOR OF DONOR RELATIONS AND ADVANCEMENT SPECIAL EVENTS | SAM NG, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF METEOROLOGY | KIP WOTKYNS, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF JOURNALISM

Your WORDS In

We asked you this question on social media:

If you could go back in time to your first days at MSU Denver, what advice would you give yourself?

Stephanie McCoy | When you’re

struggling because of life circumstances, don’t be afraid to reach out to your advisors!

Katherine Hartzler | Get more

involved in student government and athletics.

James Curry | 1. Pick a degree you are passionate about and not something that is just a good challenge. 2. Practice what you’ve learned and practice often. 3. Limit the loans. 4. Again, limit the loans.

Allison Riley | Don’t just pursue something because you’re “good at it.” That’s not what “passion” means. Pursue something that doesn’t even make you feel like you’re working because you are SO passionate about it.

Sean DeMarco Garcia | Don’t

stop. No matter what.

Stephen Shrewsbury | Work hard from the beginning! It’s much harder playing catch-up with grades after a year or two.

Lilia Abaibourova | 1. Don’t

underestimate yourself – go for the challenging classes/degrees.

2. Look for internships/relevant work experience as early as possible. Check out opportunities within MSU Denver to start. My first tech-related gig was working at

the Campus Center for Academic Technology, which taught me the basics of web development and launched me into an exhilarating career in technology.

Christopher McGaughy |

Be more involved. Network and get to know as many people as possible.

not one that requires graduate school in order to find work in your field.

interests. Create clubs that support and enrich your interests. Don’t be afraid to think big and share your passion.

David Crumbaker | Breathe.

Sarah Elizabeth | Don’t be

Ansley C. Barnett | Be brave.

Take a chance. Get uncomfortable!! You won’t regret it.

nervous and don’t second guess yourself!

Kathy Doherty | Make certain

You got this.

you understand why you are taking this on. If you think someone else will reward you, that your company will reward and/or promote you for your effort, realize they may not. Do this for yourself because YOU want it, otherwise you risk a big disappointment.

Landis Craig |

Joe F. Flores | Never, EVER

Tim Indermuehle | Keep doing what you’re doing.

Brittany Binder | Pay off your student debts as you go!

Aaron Lovato |

I was older and a “nontraditional” student, so: “You belong. No one is judging you.”

Denise Gonzalez | STUDY

ABROAD!!

Bill Bateman | Learn the bus

and light rail schedules well. Get to campus early during the day, and review your day each night right before bed.

Linda Atty | Choose a major

that pays right out of college –

Cynthia La Minimalista | Use the free tutoring center! Nothing beats one-on-one for grasping a concept you’re having difficulty learning in class.

Muayad Fouad Aldargazaly | Think about the job, try to find a job from the first day at the University.

Dani Christian | Don’t park a mile away in the winter.

lose sight of your end goal; use it for motivation to keep plugging away, day after day. The reward will be so very worth it in the end. Also, soak up every lesson, every minute you’re in the classroom, and every word uttered by your professors.

Olivia Oona | Ask questions until you’re extremely clear about what you need to know.

Scott Andrew Lachenmaier |

original plan.

Dance in the quad.

Jen Stauch Pacher | Push

yourself and get done faster. You are stronger than you know.

Phil McGehee | Stick to your Brian Macias | Focus. Hit the

books. Get your work turned in.

Go to class!

Michael Suazo | Join clubs

that support and enrich your

Note: Some responses have been lightly edited for clarity.

SHARE YOUR STORY

Everyone has a story to tell, and we want to hear yours! Email us: magazine@msudenver.edu.

See the

in action.

Schedules available at roadrunnersathletics.com

THANK YOU TO OUR ROADRUNNERS ATHLETICS SPONSORS AND PARTNERS Hilton Garden Inn Denver Cherry Creek

Panorama Orthopedics & Spine Center

Holiday Inn Denver Cherry Creek

Winter Park

Holiday Inn Denver Lakewood

Brooklyn’s

SpringHill Suites Denver Downtown

Tivoli Station

Regency Student Housing WINTER 2018

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News

MSU Denver continues to have an impact on and off campus.

Nine events. Four days. More than 2,000 people.

The numbers are impressive. But Metropolitan State University of Denver’s first-ever Inauguration was about more than that.

The events not only celebrated the official installment of Janine Davidson, Ph.D., as president of the University but shined a light on MSU Denver’s work and gave the community a chance to look forward to the future together.

“Any way you look at it, the Inauguration was a tremendous success,” Davidson said. “We created a buzz in Denver and put our best foot forward in the community.”

The Sept. 4-7 festivities included three panels on pressing issues in higher education – workforce development, cybersecurity and the future of colleges and universities. Panel discussions showcased local and national experts from organizations such as Lockheed Martin, Kaiser Permanente, Comcast and multiple universities.

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PHOTO ALYSON MCCLARAN

FIRST-EVER INAUGURATION SHOWCASES UNIVERSITY’S BEST WORK The week also included the introduction of Next Peak, an Inaugurationinspired beer brewed by students in MSU Denver’s Beer Industry Program, as well as two campus barbecues.

Davidson delivered a rousing keynote address in which she championed MSU Denver as the model urban university for opportunity, diversity, excellence and transformation.

The University’s annual Soirée was also wrapped into the celebration. The gala drew more than 450 people from across the state and included remarks from Lt. Gov. Donna Lynne. More than $162,000 was raised at the event.

She stressed the urgency of its mission, calling the University a “vehicle of social mobility,” and promised to continue offering opportunities for all students regardless of economic status or background. She asked the audience to join her in that work.

The Investiture ceremony, in which Davidson was officially installed as president, featured several notable speakers, including Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock, University of Denver President Rebecca Chopp, Ph.D., and Gen. Darren W. McDew, who served with Davidson in the Air Force.

Hancock read portions of a proclamation that named Sept. 7, 2018, as President Janine Davidson Day in Denver. “She is the right fit for this University, for our city, at this time,” Hancock said. “And so, I wanted to send a very strong, very clear message to the Board of Trustees: You got it right.”

“Great universities are built by a community that supports them, stands by them and inspires them to be even better,” she said. “Communities must engage and invest in this kind of institution, the kind that does what American universities were meant to do – support the American dream.”

SEE MORE PHOTOS on Pages 7-8 of the Roadrunner Development Report inserted at the center of this magazine.

OWOW CENTER TAKES LOCAL WATER CONVERSATION GLOBAL A local partnership between MSU Denver and Denver Botanic Gardens will soon have a global impact.

The One World One Water Center was recently invited to join the United Nations’ Global Framework on Water Scarcity in Agriculture (WASAG).

The invitation followed a meeting with the U.N.’s Food and Agricultural Organization in Rome, during which OWOW Center Co-directors Jennifer Riley-Chetwynd and Tom Cech shared the mission of the center and brainstormed potential collaborations.

WASAG is a collective of organizations seeking more sustainable agricultural water-use methods to combat climate change, increase food security and achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’s goal of eliminating hunger.

The center will be the first Colorado-based organization to add its voice to the global water-scarcity conversation.

“We are certainly honored to be a member of the United Nations’ efforts, and this speaks highly of MSU Denver’s growing international education role,” Cech said.

SET FOR SUCCESS: VOLLEYBALL TEAM CELEBRATES 50 YEARS This fall, the Roadrunners volleyball team turned 50.

The team came together in 1968, before the founding of the Auraria Campus, and practiced at the Downtown Denver YWCA. First head coach Pat Johnson recalls having only one criterion for recruiting in those early days: She looked for tall women students and asked if they’d be interested in joining the team.

The program has come a long way in the interceding years, maturing into one of the most consistently successful NCAA Division II teams in the country.

For current head coach Jenny Glenn, competitive excellence is only part of the winning formula. “We want to use the sport of volleyball to learn about life, to prepare us to be successful the next however many years we have on this planet,” she said.

PHOTO JOHN ARNOLD

Among many achievements, the team has made 18 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and has won five regular-season Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference titles and six RMAC tournaments.

News RUN WITH PRESIDENT DAVIDSON By now, you may have seen or heard about President Janine Davidson’s video series “The Rundown.”

Each episode, she visits an office or department on campus and talks to faculty, staff and students.

Recently, she spoke with Will Simpkins, Ed.D., the new vice president for Student Affairs, about his work to implement Davidson’s top initiative, the Classroom to Career Hub. Another great episode featured Davidson talking with her former colleague Gen. Darren McDew. They visited MSU Denver’s Robert K. Mock World Indoor Airport and talked about inclusive leadership.

PHOTO JOHN ARNOLD

The Oscars are just around the corner, so you’d better catch up on some of the top short films of the year.

FIND the full archive: msudenver.edu/rundown

COMING TOGETHER TO EASE PILOT SHORTAGE A new partnership between MSU Denver and Colorado Northwestern Community College aims to keep aspiring pilots’ costs down while getting them into commercial cockpits faster – and at the same time, helping to stem a nationwide scarcity of airline pilots.

Jeffrey Forrest, Ph.D., chair of MSU Denver’s Department of Aviation and Aerospace Science, said he thinks students who take advantage of the option could save 15 percent to 20 percent on flight training and that it could serve as a model for cooperating with more community colleges.

READ MORE about how MSU Denver is working to stem the pilot shortage at red.msudenver.edu/2018/head-in-thebooks-career-in-the-clouds.html

PHOTO ALYSON MCCLARAN

The University’s new Aviation Academic and Flight Training Partnership with CNCC allows students from CNCC’s associate degree in aviation technology to transfer course credit into one of MSU Denver’s bachelor’s degrees.

The two schools will jointly offer flight training as well, from the airport near CNCC in Rangely and in metro Denver at Colorado Air and Space Port (formerly Front Range Airport).

PHOTO MARK STAHL

Martha Nussbaum, Ph.D. (left), one of the most distinguished philosophers and public intellectuals of our time, delivered a lecture Sept. 27 titled “Anger, Powerlessness and the Politics of Blame.” The Denver Project for Humanistic Inquiry hosted the event.

Bryan Caplan, Ph.D. (top right), professor of economics at George Mason University, presented on the hot topic of whether education is worth the money.

The Sept. 27 event was the latest in the College of Business’ Exploring Economic Freedom Lecture Series.

Award-winning author Luis Urrea (bottom right) visited MSU Denver on Oct. 25

PHOTO JOE MAZZA

PHOTO ROBERT TOLCHIN

AS SEEN ON CAMPUS

SCOUTS HONOR: DAVIDSON NAMED “WOMAN OF DISTINCTION” Girls Scouts of Colorado honored President Janine Davidson, Ph.D., as one of its 2018 Denver Metro Women of Distinction. She received the award at an Oct. 2 ceremony.

She was one of 10 extraordinary women recognized by a committee of peers for “contributions to the community, both professionally and personally.”

“They are shining examples of corporate, civic and philanthropic leadership and serve as role models for our female leaders of tomorrow,” the committee said.

“I am extraordinarily grateful to be honored by an organization that does so much to empower future women leaders,” Davidson said.

to discuss immigration issues and his Pulitzer Prize-finalist book “The Devil’s Highway.” The Tijuana, Mexico-born Urrea was this year’s Richard T. Castro Visiting Professor.

WANT MORE? Keep up to date with MSU Denver news at red.msudenver.edu.

Years of Pride

C

HOW COLORADO’S

FIRST ON-CAMPUS LGBTQ SUPPORT

ORGANIZATION WAS FORMED, HOW IT HAS

MADE A DIFFERENCE AND WHAT’S NEXT. STORY MATT WATSON

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Can you truly have your cake and eat it too? In Colorado, it depends on who’s eating it.

In a state that legalized recreational marijuana before same-sex marriage, the conversation moved from cannabis to cake as an area baker made headlines for turning away a transgender customer just months after winning a Supreme Court case over refusing to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.

It’s been 26 years since Colorado voters passed Amendment 2, preventing municipalities or government entities from enacting civil-rights protections based on sexual orientation. The amendment that earned Colorado the “Hate State” moniker was struck down by the Supreme Court four years later.

That was the backdrop of the establishment of the state’s first on-campus LGBTQ support organization, and one of the first 30 or so nationally, at what is now Metropolitan State University of Denver. A Sept. 13 soirée celebrated the 25 years since the 1993 hire of the first staff member dedicated to gay, lesbian and bisexual student services and all the people who have benefited from the center in the years since.

PHOTO ALYSON MCCLARAN

History grounded in hate

If anyone has context for how that LGBTQ office got started and how it’s operated since, it’s Tara Tull, who co-wrote the proposal to create GLB Student Services. Tull recently retired as an associate professor in MSU Denver’s Department of Human Services after 28 years at the University.

Between her retirement and her chairing of the center’s Silver Soirée planning, Tull had plenty of time to reflect on the LGBTQ rights movement on campus and beyond.

“MSU Denver was always super open and friendly to gays and lesbians. There have been a huge number of heterosexual allies in the faculty, staff and leadership positions.

It was very welcoming in my experience,” Tull says. “The Health Center had been doing AIDS walk for quite some time before this started – in the ’80s, if you were in the gay community, you were going to funerals all the time.”

In 1992, Tull advised two of the student groups that presented the University president with a list of demands surrounding GLB issues. She served on the task force that wrote the proposal for GLB Services, fought for domestic-partnership benefits for faculty and staff, and personally persuaded speakers, including activist Angela Davis, to come to the Auraria Campus in spite of Colorado’s “Hate State” reputation.

For Tull, working toward social justice and marriage equality was the easy route.

She started her college career in environmental conservation and wanted to save endangered species such as the Panamanian golden frog.

While the frog went extinct in the wild, LGBTQ rights have come a long way.

“There’s been a huge cultural shift between 1993 and now. Public opinion has shifted from the majority being uncomfortable with gay marriage to the majority supporting it, and transgender issues are a bigger piece of the picture now,” Tull says. “It’s been institutionalized now. Early gay pride was revolutionary and in your face, and now we have the Coors Light PrideFest Parade.”

The bake sale based in bias

As a student in the early 1990s, Jody “Lucky” Andrade was a founding member of MSU Denver’s Feminist Alliance, a participant on the University’s GLB task force and the first paid director of the Anti-Violence Project housed in the GLBT Community Center of Colorado.

Andrade, whose career has taken her to a U.S. senator’s office, a governor’s office, a queer performance-art cabaret and now a rural hospital in New Mexico, made local news in Denver when she hosted a Feminist Bake Sale with variable pricing based on the identity of the consumer. White cisgender males paid the highest prices, based on demographic earning power listed in U.S. Department of Labor statistics.

“If I remember correctly, the last item said something like ‘African American woman in a wheelchair – we’ll give you a free cookie and a quarter.’ The bake sale got a small mention in the Denver Post,” Andrade says.

For her work with the Anti-Violence Project, Andrade found an even bigger platform.

The AVP tracked reports of hate crimes and provided services to victims. It was inundated during the fight over Amendment 2, which went well beyond the ballot box.

“It was nuts. Suddenly, a group of self-taught activists and volunteers were responding to interview requests from the likes of (ABC News anchor) Sam Donaldson and the BBC,” Andrade says. “Congresswoman Pat Schroeder’s Denver-based press secretary offered to walk me through how to handle myself during a press conference.

“Talk about learning how to fly a plane in midair.”

Notable dates in LGBTQ Student Resource Center history October 1991: Student government President Chip Wiman hands down executive order that would withhold funding from any student organization that discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation.

February 1992: Metropolitan State College of Denver President Thomas Brewer distributes a letter prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation with regard to employment at the college or student activities and organizations, with exemptions for religious organizations and ROTC. April 1992: Student groups, including the Auraria Lesbian and Gay Alliance, protest exemptions to sexual-orientation protections, providing Brewer a list of demands that include the creation of an Alternative Lifestyles Office and GLB issues task force. The task force is co-chaired by Karen Thorpe and Vice President Emeritus of Student Affairs Yolanda Ortega, who was then assistant dean of Student Life. Karen Raforth is also an instrumental member of the group.

November 1992: Colorado voters pass Amendment 2, preventing civil-rights protections based on sexual orientation.

November 1992: A proposal to fund a half-time coordinator of GLB Services is submitted to the Student Affairs Board on behalf of a campus GLB task force; the task force sends a letter to Brewer asking him to support the position.

December 1992: Brewer approves the funding of a half-time coordinator of GLB Services.

February 1993: Sue Anderson is hired as the first coordinator of GLB Services.

Fall 1994: Community College of Denver approves funding to support the program.

Fall 1995: UCD Student Government approves a proposal to fund the GLB program, upgrading the half-time coordinator position to three-quarters time and making the program tri-institutional.

Fall 1997: “Trans” is added to the title of the Office of GLBT Student Services.

2016: GLBT Student Services is renamed the LGBTQ Student Resource Center.

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Five offices, four weddings and three schools

Karen Bensen has more than one 25th anniversary to celebrate this year. August marked a quarter century since Bensen, the LGBTQ Student Resource Center’s longest-serving director, first married her partner Cindy.

That’s right, “first married.”

Bensen has married the same person four times: once “for real,” once after it became legal in Colorado and twice in public ceremonies on the Auraria Campus as part of Bensen’s advocacy for same-sex marriage. You could say she was fully invested in the job.

When Bensen, now an associate clinical professor in the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Denver, took the job leading what was then GLB Student Services in 1994, she was a recent graduate of the same school at DU, finding her way just as the students she served were.

Tara Tull (left), Steve Willich (center) and Rachel Green (right) march in the 2016 Denver PrideFest parade holding posters memorializing victims of the Orlando Pulse nightclub massacre, which happened one week prior. Tull co-wrote the 1992 proposal to create what is now the LGBTQ Student Resource Center on the Auraria Campus, while Willich has been the director since 2010.

PHOTO SARA HERTWIG

“I teach a course called Power, Privilege and Oppression from a Critical Multicultural Perspective. As I teach it, I’m learning some more of the theory that I was doing but didn’t really have a name for it back then,” Bensen says. “I knew how important it was to empower groups of people who were oppressed and find their strength.

“I didn’t really have a road map. I knew that it was my job to work with students who came to me.”

She could’ve used a map just to find the five office spaces she occupied in her 11 years on campus, starting in an office small enough that she and her work-study student shared a desk. But no matter where she was, students found her. Even before the center became triinstitutional – MSU Denver funded the program in 1993, while the Community College of Denver and the University of Colorado Denver joined in 1994 and 1995, respectively – students from all three schools came knocking on Bensen’s door, and she never turned anyone away.

One of the highlights of her tenure was giving students a voice through a speakers bureau.

Bensen coached students to give guest lectures about their personal stories, often in sociology, psychology or human-services classrooms.

Karen Bensen, left, and her partner, Cindy, center, marry in a ceremony on the Auraria Campus in 2004.

“Figuring out how they wanted to tell their stories was really empowering. To actually stand up in front of a class to tell their stories would transform them. That was often a turning point for students,” Bensen says. “They would start to really engage and learn how to use that newfound empowerment and turn it into some action on campus.”

A veteran of LGBTQ issues

Coast Guard veteran. Undercover narcotics agent. Vegan chef. Massage therapist. 2018 Social Worker of the Year for the state of California.

Zander Keig has held many titles. But that last one came with professional recognition in the country’s most populous state after two decades of transgender advocacy, which includes chairing the National Committee for LGBT Issues, serving as a board member for the Transgender American Veterans Association and writing about his life as a transgender man in The Washington Post.

Kaiba Linthicum is a student program assistant and safe zone coordinator at the LGBTQ Student Resource Center, located in Room 213 in the Tivoli Student Union.

PHOTO MARK STAHL

That advocacy started in earnest while Keig was a student at MSU Denver. He started working for GLBT Student Services around the time the “T” was added for “trans.” As outreach coordinator, he oversaw the Safe Zone Project, GLBT Awareness Month activities and the speakers bureau. For his work on the last, he was honored as the Colorado Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce Professional Business Woman of the Year.

He was on campus when GLBT Student Services organized a vigil after University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard was brutally murdered and died in a Fort Collins hospital; Shepard’s name would be added to federal hate-crime legislation in 2009.

Keig also co-founded the Auraria Queer Alliance, which successfully lobbied to have the student health-insurance plan cover domestic partners. For his many efforts on campus, he was named a Student to Watch and given the Giraffe Award (for sticking one’s neck out for

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As an MSU Denver student from 1996-99, Zander Keig worked in GLBT Student Services, co-founded the Auraria Queer Alliance and co-chaired the local Lesbian Avengers chapter.

PHOTO EVELYN HOCKSTEIN, THE WASHINGTON POST.

Erin Durban-Albrecht was the first recipient of the Gill Foundation Scholarship in 2001, given to students with involvement in LGBT issues who are attending Colorado colleges and universities.

PHOTO JACOB VAN BLARCOM, COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA.

others). Since graduating, he has been honored with MSU Denver’s Alum of the Year Award for Work Ethic and Distinguished Alumnus of the Year recognition for 1990s grads.

As a former lesbian feminist who has worked predominantly with male veterans and transgender U.S. military service members, Keig considers his past work with homeless veterans as instrumental in his current work.

“My increased empathy toward men grew out of my transition from female to male and my experience serving homeless men as a Veterans Health Administration social worker. I realized that much of what I had been told about men, mostly by women, lacked full understanding of the lived lives of men: their struggles, burdens, strengths and responsibilities.

I believe I have become a much more compassionate man through my direct interactions with men,” Keig says.

Railing against repression

Whom would you call to bail you out of jail?

Erin Durban-Albrecht, who was thrown out of her home in high school when her mother learned she was a lesbian, was bailed out by a faculty member after being arrested for blocking Denver’s Columbus Day Parade over the explorer’s treatment of indigenous peoples.

The 2006 graduate created her own degree in individualized studies (International Politics: Race, Class, Gender and Liberation) and is an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. She’s made a career of activist scholarship, shining a spotlight on statesponsored repression in the form of imperialism, immigrant detention, Islamophobia and racism.

“What surprises me is that very few people think of any of these things as ‘gay issues,’ so I have focused a lot of my education efforts on making connections for people between state repression of different groups of people,” Durban-Albrecht says.

As a student, Durban-Albrecht provided the Auraria Campus with a public gender education when she ran for Homecoming king, nominated by co-workers at GLBT Student Services.

“It made some people really mad that someone who was designated female at birth could be in the running for Homecoming king, and conservative students leaked the story to the press. I was so nervous by the time I went out on the court with the other people in the running – I thought it would be a scene like in ‘Carrie,’” Durban-Albrecht says. “But it came and went, and no one dropped a bucket of pig’s blood on me.

“A lot of people found me afterward to say that the whole thing made them start thinking differently about gender. The University changed the categories from ‘queen’ and ‘king’ to ‘Homecoming royalty’ the following year.”

Intersectional inclusion

Kaiba Linthicum showed up at the LGBTQ Student Resource Center looking for a place to belong. Now, the psychology and history major with plans to teach secondary social studies is helping others belong too.

“I was just someone who came in and was trying to find my community when I was first coming out,” Linthicum says.

He credits director Steve Willich with making him feel comfortable on campus and then pushing him out of his comfort zone to help others, something Willich has been doing for students since 2010.

During his tenure, Willich has seen GLBT Student Services become a fullfledged LGBTQ Student Resource Center with expanded programming, a bigger budget, an office remodel and the addition of an assistant director.

In addition to doing more, the center is doing things differently.

The LGBTQ Student Resource Center was one of several centers and programs consolidated under MSU Denver’s Center for Student Equity and Achievement in 2018 as the University recognizes the intersectional identities of its students. The center is co-hosting an “Undocuqueer” event with MSU Denver’s Immigrant Services in January and has plans for an interfaith LGBTQ conference and an event centered on LGBTQ identity and ability in the spring as well.

Twenty-five years after the center was formed, the Auraria Campus has changed too, with more changes in the works. Family restrooms are being labeled as gender-inclusive restrooms, while plans are moving forward for a gender-inclusive locker room in the Physical Education/Events Center building.

MSU Denver is using technology to better meet LGBTQ needs too: Willich is advocating for the incorporation of preferred personal pronouns into University systems so that faculty can print out class rosters with the appropriate pronouns and not out transgender or gender-nonconforming students in front of their peers.

“We’ve had a change in focus. We’ve spent a lot of years raising awareness, and now we’re more responsive to student needs,” Willich says.

After 25 years, students need the LGBTQ Student Resource Center as much as ever.

WHILE ALL ROADRUNNERS RUN THEIR OWN ROADS, THOSE WHO GO THROUGH THE INDIVIDUALIZED DEGREE PROGRAM START BY DESIGNING THE MAP.

Choose

y ur own

R

adventure

Roadrunners come in all shapes and sizes, in all ages and colors, and from all walks of life. For some of them, walking is life.

In 2010, Jonathon Stalls walked more than 3,000 miles across 14 states from Delaware to California. He left the Atlantic coast with not much more than his dog and a direction and made his way to a San Francisco beach 242 days and eight pairs of shoes later.

Oddly enough, Stalls’ expedition fit in perfectly with the degree he earned at Metropolitan State University of Denver the year prior, a degree he created himself through the University’s Individualized Degree Program called individualized studies: design and entrepreneurship.

STORY MATT WATSON

“I wanted my degree to blend my creative capacity and design experience with hard skills that would support starting a social business, nonprofit or grassroots organization. It was the perfect launchpad for my cross-country walk,” Stalls says.

As part of his course work, Stalls worked with newly resettled refugees at the African Community Center of Denver, which inspired him to traverse the country for a cause. He has done more than 100 media interviews, including with The New York Times, about his selfdescribed “rite of passage,” and he used his platform to raise awareness for Kiva, a microlending nonprofit that has facilitated $1.2 billion in crowdfunded loans to entrepreneurs in 81 countries since its 2005 inception.

JONATHON STALLS Entrepreneur and co-founder Walk2Connect

CAROL JOHNSON Leader in senior services

EFRAIN BUENO

Spanish language specialist Colorado Department of Law

Stalls generated more than $500,000 in loans through his advocacy.

Not long after traveling coast to coast on foot, Stalls co-founded Walk2Connect, a grassroots social enterprise designed to connect people by walking together. The worker-owned cooperative hosts 50-70 connectionfocused walks across Colorado and beyond. He’s also begun a new creative project called Intrinsic Paths that approaches a number of social issues from an artistic perspective.

“It’s all focused on human connection and moving the way we’re made to. It’s about public health, community health, pedestrian safety and education, equity, mental and

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13

emotional health – all of it. It has been a beautiful journey,” Stalls says. “I appreciate the freedom I’ve had to create, imagine and blend a wide variety of interests into a career.”

INNOVATION IN EDUCATION

“I picked out what I thought were the most relevant classes that

MAGENS ORMAN

Mechanical engineer Sierra Nevada Corp.

In the 1980s and ’90s, Bantam Books sold more than 250 million copies of books from its “Choose Your Own Adventure” series, which made readers the protagonists in their own interactive stories by allowing them to make decisions that determined alternate endings by turning to different pages based on their choices.

rounded foundation to

The very nature of a book, a one-way form of static communication that transmits content from a storyteller or subject expert to a passive audience, was turned upside down by this children’s book series that made readers participants in their own adventures rather than observers of someone else’s story.

be a competitive worker.”

That’s what the Individualized Degree Program does for education.

would give me a well-

- Magens Orman

Every year, some 200 students graduate with IDP degrees from MSU Denver, which has one of about 100 fully developed individualized-studies programs with dedicated advisors in the United States.

Kim VanHoosier-Carey, director of the Center for Individualized Learning that houses IDP majors and minors, says students who come through the program are innovators who are studying new, unique or interdisciplinary concepts. It’s the only program on campus with majors as diverse as counterterrorism, screenwriting and polyglotism (the ability to understand or speak several languages).

IDP also acts as an incubator for faculty who want to develop new majors before they’re added to the course catalog.

“We have students majoring and minoring in things like aerospace systems, which is not a regular degree program, but they get it through us and they get jobs,” VanHoosierCarey says.

Magens Orman is one such graduate of individualized studies: aerospace systems design.

JONATHAN ROSE Associate editor Denver Business Journal

“Engineering had theory, industrial design was hands-on, and aerospace had systems and business, but none of them had everything I wanted. Through an IDP, I got to have the best of all these worlds,” Orman says. “I picked out what I thought were the most relevant classes that would give me a well-rounded foundation to be a competitive worker.”

Not long after her May 2014 graduation, she got a call from a recruiting company to ask if she wanted to build spacecraft for Sierra Nevada Corp.

14

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“I started as an engineering technician and worked my way up. I’ve never stopped working hard, and now I am a mechanical engineer,” Orman says. “Some people are concerned that an IDP won’t get them the same thing as a standard university degree. I’m proof that this isn’t the case.”

ELIZABETH HARDEN Financial-wellness coach

Jonathan Rose took a similar path into the journalism industry. The Denver Business Journal associate editor complemented his major in convergent journalism with a minor in individualized studies: multimedia storytelling as “a way to loop in all of the disparate strings I was tugging and produce a solid knot,” he says.

“Without my degree, I never would have had the opportunity to land this job. Full stop,” says Rose, a 2018 graduate who got his foot in the door with an editorial internship at the DBJ through MSU Denver’s Applied Learning Center. “I found it through the school’s job board and had a solid portfolio because of my work there. My previous self-driven experience blogging and reporting stories for news sites gave me the foundation to thrive at MSU Denver, and my time there provided the next level of foundation.”

In her five years in the Center for Individualized Learning, including her first semester as director, VanHoosier-Carey has observed a different edge to IDP graduates: a socially conscious mindset.

She’s seen students create degrees in health equity, LGBTQ advocacy and humanitarian photography. One alumna’s degree in interpersonal violence systems and structures examined the interaction of human-services and criminaljustice systems on victims of domestic violence.

“These graduates represent what MSU Denver is.

MSU Denver is accessible to students with lots of different ideas who have lots of different paths. We have a diverse group of students who are able to take their passion and turn it into a degree and a career path,” VanHoosier-Carey says.

BLAZING A PATH TO GRADUATION – AND BEYOND While Jonathon Stalls walked 3,030 miles to bring his education full circle, Carol Johnson’s journey to a degree may have been even longer. Johnson set out to become a teacher when she started her college career at Loyola University in Chicago in 1960.

“Instead, I decided to get married. Along life’s road, my thoughts were to try the medical field, and I became a licensed practical nurse,” Johnson says. “After looking into the IDP years later, I discovered that I could finally accomplish my longtime goal of actually finishing a degree.”

Forty-five years after first registering for classes, Johnson earned her diploma as the oldest member of MSU Denver’s spring 2015 graduating class at age 72. On that momentous

occasion, one of Johnson’s family members even got to join her on the commencement stage: Her granddaughter graduated the same day.

Johnson didn’t finish college just to keep up with her grandkids. Armed with her degree in individualized studies: elderhood services, Johnson co-leads a Parkinson’s disease support group in Highlands Ranch, participates in a study to develop palliative care for Parkinson’s patients and is an active member of the Philanthropic Educational Organization, which raises funds for women who need financial assistance to complete a college degree.

The Individualized Degree Program is often the most efficient way for those going back to school to get to graduation. For anyone who has changed majors or taken a break from academics only to find their degree has been discontinued, an IDP degree can chart a course forward without starting from scratch. The program also attracts those in the workforce looking to change or enhance their careers.

Efrain Bueno, a 2016 alumnus, double-majored in French and individualized studies: international relations and development and got a new job as a Spanish language specialist at the Colorado Department of Law. “My IDP degree helped me to be a self-learner and to think about and connect big ideas, and in my job that is very important,” Bueno says.

Elizabeth Harden runs her own financial-wellness coaching firm, Elizabeth Starr Harden LLC. She took some night classes in the 1980s at then-Metropolitan State College of Denver and returned to campus to “fill in existing gaps” in her expertise. With a pretty specific vision, she built a degree called individualized studies: interpersonal dynamics and transformative systems.

“I’ve never been a person who fits well into other people’s boxes,” Harden says. “The career of the future will require interdisciplinary knowledge – crossing disciplines is a mind-expanding experience that results in unexpected dividends.

“The concept of an individualized degree is the wave of the future.”

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PHOTO CRAIG KORN

I

In heaven, there is no beer – if you believe the song, at least. But that’s not the case for Colorado’s ever-expanding brewing industry, where entrepreneurs of elixir continue tapping into opportunity.

The decade-long-plus “craft-beer revolution” is why, in an afternoon in Denver, you can visit three establishments along Broadway that start with the letter B (Baere, Banded Oak, Black Project), a heavy-metal taproom (aptly named TRVE) and wind down with a cold one and crochet at Grandma’s House – all within 3 miles.

And though there are 6,700-plus breweries in the U.S., the market isn’t saturated, says Scott Kerkmans, director of Metropolitan State University of Denver’s Beer Industry Program – it’s hopping.

“We’ve got more than 10,000 wineries nationwide that are doing just fine. There’s still a ton of room for growth in beer,” he says.

ROADRUNNERS TAP INTO

But he adds a caveat: “In Colorado, though, you have to be purposefully placed and marketed to the right customer.

You can’t just come in, put out average product and succeed. You have to do something different; you have to focus on innovation and meaning in what you’re doing.”

BOOMING BREWING INDUSTRY TO BECOME TOPS IN HOPS. STORY CORY PHARE

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The stats behind the boom are staggering. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the number of breweries in the United States increased more than fivefold from 2010 to 2016. During this time, breweries accounted for more than half of the employment growth within the beverage-manufacturing industry and a 135-percent increase in the number of suds-related jobs.

“We knew the latent industry demand for employees was there,” he says. “It was a leap of faith by senior leadership to take a chance on this, but it’s brought us to where we are today.”

The proof is in the mash, so to speak.

With this explosion has come new challenges – and opportunities that Roadrunners are rising to meet.

“The brewing industry is at an interesting crossroads,” Kerkmans says.

“Larger producers are starting to lose market share to mom-and-pop tasting rooms and brewpubs. It’s a challenging time as they have to figure out how to compete against similar craft brands.

“In our program, we give students the comprehensive tools to navigate this new landscape at any level.”

In fall 2015, students could start studying beer at MSU Denver – formally, at least. The program’s launch coincided with the resurrection of Tivoli Brewing Co., which traces its 150-year heritage back to before Colorado became a state.

Today, the on-campus brewery and the University maintain a unique relationship that pairs well together. Students get access to hands-on learning in the 30-barrel brewhouse and bottling operations, while the brewery benefits from collaborations on batches such as Roadrunner Red (see sidebar) and a pipeline for potential employees.

The pairing doesn’t stop there, though. Kerkmans, who was hired to conduct a feasibility study to determine the program’s viability before its launch, found the effort was the perfect recipe for collaboration.

“Our curriculum is unlike anything in beer education, and it’s one of the things we’re proudest of,” Kerkmans says. “What we do better than the vast majority of schools is prepare students with the tangible skills that allow them to add value to an employer the first week they’re on the job.”

The program is different by design: Based in hospitality – instead of, say, chemistry – the focus is on the broad array of careers in the industry. Kerkmans points to his own time with Alaskan Brewing as an example.

“We had about 120 employees, and about seven of them were in the labs and brew deck,” he says. “That leaves 113 other positions, with ample opportunities for our grads to focus on.”

That’s not to say the science of the brew gets overlooked. Far from it – interdisciplinary expertise led to MSU Denver becoming one of only seven universities offering a four-year diploma in beer as certified by the Master Brewers Association of America.

Whether it’s understanding of chemistry to assess the amount of oxygen in a batch, engineering the system or the business sensibilities to succeed, Kerkmans says the need for a deeper understanding is appreciated by the industry.

(STORY CONTINUES ON PAGE 21)

ROADRUNNERS RECOMMEND Looking for a new brew? We tapped into some of the seriously smart beer brains connected to campus for recommendations on what’s pouring.

Stephanie Rayman, director of marketing and strategy, Tivoli Brewing Co.

Bohemian Girl Pilsner, Tivoli

This is my absolute favorite beer we have available year-round. It’s a traditional Czech style that showcases Saaz hops. The result is a light, dry, crisp lager with a slightly bready finish.

Super-crushable and quenching.

18

Scott Kerkmans,

Sean Peters,

Cory Tipton,

Kris Oyler,

Dave Thibodeau,

director of MSU Denver’s Beer Industry Program

founder, Peak View Brewing

vice president, Tipton Law Firm

CEO/co-founder, Steamworks Brewing Co.

president/co-founder, Ska Brewing Co.

One of my first jobs was as a barista at Starbucks. When I found out that there was a nitro beer, it piqued my interest because of the nitrobrew coffee. Most people don’t start out with dark beers, but the thing I love about this is that it’s always good year-round, whether it’s freezing or 100 degrees outside.

Not a beer, but these ciders are amazing.

The whole portfolio from Encore is drier and in the traditional English style. I was pleasantly surprised that the raspberry wasn’t as sweet, since a lot of places that use it as an ingredient overdo it with sugar. It’s nice and tart.

Back in the day, there were beers

by Wynkoop and Breckenridge that made me realize you could get some really delicious results outside of the norm.

Today, I really enjoy well-balanced beers.

There are some great ones out there that are lighter-drinking with lower alcohol by volume without sacrificing the flavor, like Telluride’s rye ale.

For folks who are new to craft beers, this is a great way to make the transition to a really good easy drinker. It’s got a clean, light taste.

If you’re trying to expand your palate, this is a great way to experience more flavor within a nice lager – you really can’t go wrong here.

Winter Ale, Alaskan Brewing Co.

This is my favorite winter beer (and my favorite I’ve personally brewed).

It’s made with spruce tips picked in spring and brewed in the fall for winter drinking. The taste is unique. It’s robust and intense to fit the weather, but the vitamin C tartness is a refreshing kick.

WINTER 2018

Milk Stout, Left Hand Brewing

Raspberry cider, InVINtions Encore Cider

Bridal Veil rye pale ale, Telluride Brewing Co.

Slow Pour Pils, Bierstadt Lagerhaus

Sean Peters UNEXPECTED FLAVOR Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Red velvet cake.

Fried-chicken dinners.

You wouldn’t be surprised to hear someone recounting their day’s meals like this. But beer flavors?

PHOTO ALYSON MCCLARAN

“I’m inspired by whatever I eat,” says Sean Peters, a 2017 graduate in management.

“That can make for some pretty weird flavors for beer, but I figured, ‘Hey – let’s try it.’”

If Peters is used to anything, it’s defying the expected. Eight years ago, he was homeless, living in his vehicle and working in a coffee shop to survive. Today, he’s a distinguished graduate of the Security Forces Academy at Lackland Air Force Base, an MSU Denver Provost’s Award winner and founder of the newly opening Peak View Brewing Co. in Greenwood Village.

“I’ve been living and breathing homebrewing,” he says. “I love trying to figure out how to translate something like the chicken strips I was eating into something you can drink.”

To create that particular recipe, he combined an amber base with honey malts, victory malts and a touch of chocolate.

The Cinnamon Toast Crunch recipe is a cream-ale-based brew with light roast coffee beans. After letting the blend sit for a week, Peters adds vanilla and cinnamon sticks.

“Some folks might just throw the cereal in, but I stayed away from that,” he says.

Another thing he avoids? Extracts.

“I find the more real ingredients you use, the better it turns out in the long run,” Peters says. “That way, you can really make it your beer too.”

PHOTO MARK STAHL

Kris Oyler FLEXING YOUR BEER MUSCLES Before there was a Beer Industry Program, there was … exercise science?

“We covered things like the bloodstream’s oxygen pickup in courses like anatomy and physiology,” says Kris Oyler, CEO and co-founder of Durango-based Steamworks Brewing Co. “When I got into fermentation, those concepts and the terminology weren’t foreign to me.

“And the broad-based liberal-arts education curriculum applies directly into what I’m doing today.”

PHOTO ALYSON MCCLARAN

The 1992 graduate has clearly translated those skills into success, as his company brews more than 1,700 barrels of 30-plus styles annually, with the flagship Steam Engine American-style amber laying claim to the second-most awarded brew from Colorado at the Great American Beer Festival (along with multiple medals at the World Beer Cup).

On top of that, running a 7,500-squarefoot restaurant required a solid foundation in applied skills.

“One of my favorite things about MSU Denver was that most of the professors worked in their fields,” Oyler says. “It wasn’t solely academics – you were getting a real-world education.”

More than that, however, he credited his unorthodox study of breaking a sweat for his success in breaking into the beer industry.

“It definitely wasn’t a straight road, but that liberal-arts approach really helped me be an effective, pragmatic problemsolver as CEO,” he says. “It teaches you how to think.”

Beer Industry students Chris Thibodeau (top) and Rich Van Gilder (bottom) at Strange Craft Beer Co. Recent graduate Connor Cottrill (middle) was an intern at the Tivoli Brewing Co. on the Auraria Campus.

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You could say Cory Tipton, Esq., went from one kind of galaxy to another.

The aerospace-science alumna is now an expert in alcohol and beverage law, vice president of the family-run Tipton Law Firm and a teacher in the beer program at the University she graduated from in 2000.

“My dad’s a lawyer, so I always say I came by it honestly,” she says. “And because of my familiarity with the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), I brought the ability to work with regulations at the federal level.”

One of the hot topics Tipton discusses with her students is the major shift in Colorado’s alcohol laws away from the 3.2-percent cap on alcohol by volume for grocery and convenience stores. Starting Jan. 1, those stores will be able to carry full-strength beer, while liquor stores can hold multiple licenses.

Instruction from the front lines of industry was one of the defining characteristics of Tipton’s MSU Denver experience – a style she brings into her own classroom today.

“It’s great to have faculty members who live and breathe the material they teach, especially in the beer program,” she says.

“You really get more bang for your buck here.”

And though her path may seem like a winding road, it may have been written in the stars all along.

“My dad’s birthday is Dec. 18 – the day Prohibition began with the passing of the 18th Amendment – and mine is Dec. 5 – the day it was repealed by the 21st Amendment,” Tipton says.

“In that sense, maybe I was predestined to do this.”

PHOTO JESSICA TAVES

TRADING PROPS FOR HOPS

PHOTO ALYSON MCCLARAN

Cory Tipton

Q: What happens when you drop a can of Ska Brewing’s Modus Hoperandi on the floor?

A: You have to pickitup, pickitup, pickitup!

As a music genre, ska is rife with puns.

And from its beginning, Ska Brewing has been equally filled with delicious beer – and an attitude.

“We were just some punk-ass party kids in high school,” says Dave Thibodeau, president and co-founder. “And when we started homebrewing, we had only two criteria: One, we had to drink all our previous batch of homebrew; and two, we had to listen to ska.”

The 1993 graduate in journalism and technical communications launched Ska – the brewery – with childhood friend Bill Graham just as the third wave of ska – the music – was taking off in 1995.

Thibodeau credits MSU Denver for the practical application of skills, including public speaking, media production and marketing in successfully launching the brewery. And as a member of the Beer Industry Program’s Leadership Council, he’s had firsthand experience in crafting the next wave of beer pros.

“The MSU Denver program is comprehensive and hands-on,” Thibodeau says. “Students coming out of it today have a huge leg up on their competition.

As the owner of a long-standing brewery, it’s a no-brainer – if two brewers are equivalent, I’m going to hire the one with this education background.”

Today, the Durango outpost has an upbeat future, producing about 34,000 barrels annually and distributing nationwide. Thibodeau also notes that Sweden surprisingly is the second-largest market for Ska after Colorado.

Not bad for a bunch of punk-ass party kids with a penchant for two-tone.

PHOTO ALYSON MCCLARAN

MUSIC TO MY BEERS

PHOTO JESSICA TAVES

Dave Thibodeau

Students in MSU Denver’s Beer Industry Program.

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“In the past, you’d just hire your homebrewing buddy,” he says. “Today, you need a comprehensive education to advance your product.”

Innovation isn’t just in the classroom, either – several endeavors position MSU Denver as an industry leader and partner. The program now offers fee-for-service options for brewers across the state and country to make better beer.

The result of the first phase of MSU Denver’s program expansion, quality-analysis/quality-control lab services allow brewers to test their wares or run panels in the sensory lab to get insight into taste.

This means clients can pilot a new recipe without potentially wasting resources, along with taking advantage of the intellectual firepower of the University’s experts.

in the program’s all-star Beer Industry Leadership Council lineup.

A 3.5-barrel system featuring student-brewed offerings is coming online at Denver International Airport, in conjunction with the city.

Boasting connections to other lab-service companies and private schools, the program’s strategic alliances go together like water, barley, hops and yeast.

“Students get an unrivaled educational opportunity to test commercial beer, working side-by-side with industry clients, while the University generates revenue from these kinds of operations,” Kerkmans says. “It’s really a win-win-win situation.”

What makes beer so heavenly?

“Things can get cost-prohibitive pretty quickly,” Kerkmans says. “With this setup, brewers don’t have to sink hundreds of thousands of dollars into equipment and hiring of chemists or microbiologists.”

Those clients in the testing phase have included Tivoli and Lincoln Park-based Strange Craft Beer Co. And the program is opening up these services on a larger scale.

Other elements that set the MSU Denver beer program apart include an $85,000 canning line donated by Cask Global Canning Solutions, as well as labeling utilities to showcase packaging, courtesy of Pack Leader USA .

Along with a planned draft-beer service lab, these real-world technologies are key differentiators from solely fermentation-based programs and part of the expansion’s second phase, currently in the fundraising stage.

Similar endeavors are built to scale outside of campus, too. Alums are placed into industry titans such as MillerCoors, which is also featured

Yes, it’s delicious and refreshing, but it goes beyond cracking open a cold one at the end of a long day.

“It’s the perfect lubricant to make ideas and personalities blend together,” Kerkmans says. “And just like MSU Denver students, there’s a unique combination of ages, ethnicities, genders and other identities that come together in the beer business to create something incredible.

It changes the communities it’s in by being part of them.”

Roadrunners have been making their mark for decades this way across industries and within communities. So it makes perfect sense to find success by diving headfirst into a career of making buds in suds.

“I’ve never seen another field where, if you have a problem with your product, you can call up your competitor and they’ll help you solve your problem,” Kerkmans says. “It’s really all about the people.”

And that’s why we drink – and brew – beer here.

STRENGTHEN STUDENT SUCCESS Roadrunner Red In addition to his name on the Jordan Student Success Building, President Emeritus Stephen Jordan, Ph.D., has left a legacy on campus that you can order by the pint.

“Since creating the partnership between MSU Denver and Tivoli in 2013 – before the brewery even reopened – he always wanted a beer called ‘Roadrunner Red,’” says Stephanie Rayman, director of marketing and strategy with Tivoli Brewing Co. Rayman says the relationship has created more awareness for the campus community: “not only that there is a fully functional brewery on campus but that we’re heavily involved with the innovative program with the University.”

Brewed in collaboration with former MSU Denver beer students, the first batch of Roadrunner Red was created in fall 2016 and eventually released to the market on draft this past spring. Portions of the proceeds will come back to the University.

Rayman described it as a “great, easy-drinking beer brewed with El Dorado hops, giving it a semi-sweet, tropical flavor with a malty, biscuit finish.”

It’s available on draft only but has picked up substantial popularity with on-premise markets, with the Regency Athletic Complex and Elitch Gardens being some of the most notable carriers. It’s one of the recipes under consideration for packaging. The brewery will house the upcoming canning line and begin packaging some of the innovative recipes in the next few months, Rayman says.

“Soon, drinkers will be able to take Tivoli brews on all their adventures,” she says. “This will shine a spotlight on the amazing partnership between the brewery and MSU Denver.”

Oh, and those former students who brewed the first batch of Roadrunner Red? Tivoli saw fit to hire them on as full-time brewers.

Talk about putting your money where your malt is.

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The

road to Springfield

Rebecca Totman is proof that art works. And that dedicated students can run their own road – or monorail – all the way to Springfield.

“I didn’t have a direct path. I didn’t even know the job I have existed,” says the animation associate producer of “The Simpsons.” “I just wanted to study art because it fed my soul.”

How does one parlay that passion into leadership at the longest-running sitcom of all time, now heading into its 30th season?

For Totman, it was all about the grind.

As a student at Metropolitan State University of Denver, she worked full time to finance her degree in fine arts with a focus on sculpture and installation. After graduating in 2005,

she worked on feature film productions that came through Denver.

The seasonal nature of the industry eventually drove her to Los Angeles, where she took up in prop departments, costume areas and set design – “wherever I could get paid in the film industry.”

A stint on an animated show for preschoolers led Totman to the building where “The Simpsons” was produced. Drawing on her entrepreneurial ethic, she worked her way into the animated family and, over 10 years, up the ladder to her current role.

She credits her education’s inherent problemsolving as a defining element in her success.

“Studying art really got me to think outside of the box and see opportunities I might have otherwise missed,” she says.

“When I encounter a challenge and don’t know how to move forward, I have to hit it with a

fresh approach,” she says. “Inevitably you’ll fail and have to keep pushing through that. It’s a very similar process to what I’m doing now, scheduling and managing people.”

That’s no small feat, considering there are 180-plus employees, including 13 pre- and post-production directors, working to bring Homer, Marge, Lisa, Bart and Maggie into living rooms each week.

It takes a full calendar year to finish a 22-episode season. Each individual show requires nine months to complete, with a new episode beginning every other week.

After the writers’ initial table read of the script, Totman plays a key role as the animation team breaks down designs and starts sketching out storyboards. Storyboarding takes about four weeks. After that, the writers get an animatic screening to rewrite parts of the script. This editing happens up to a week before airing. The result is a relevancy that keeps the show as

“The Simpsons’” Rebecca Totman uses her arts education to keep the famed nuclear family drawn together.

STORY CORY PHARE

fresh as a Lard Lad donut (with pink icing and sprinkles, of course).

The show’s secret sauce is the nine-week character-layout process: Scene by scene, each pose is planned in a detailed blueprint, rendering about 50 percent of the animation.

This is then sent to South Korea for full animation, including “in-betweens,” “cleanup poses,” digital painting and compositing, which is all then sent back stateside seven weeks later.

The result, Totman notes, is what makes “The Simpsons” we know today. “A lot of our peer animated shows are storyboard-driven,” she says. “But character layout really enhances our episodes.”

That quality has cemented “The Simpsons” as intergenerational icons, commenting on society and occasionally courting controversy as a Krustyland funhouse mirror version of reality reflected back upon itself.

Totman credits the high standards of the writers, producers and showrunner Al Jean for

| PHOTO KATHERINE SEIBERT

this continued relevance and wit. They’re also the story engine behind her favorite episode: “The Mysterious Voyage of Homer,” from season eight, popularly known as “the chili cook-off one.”

When asked the million-dollar question of where Springfield is located, Totman deferred, noting it was show creator Matt Groening’s domain; she followed up by saying it sometimes morphs depending on the episode. “We all can see parts of ourselves there. It’s meant to remind everyone of their hometown – sometimes it reminds me of Denver,” she adds.

But what about those digs at the Mile High City’s beloved football team?

“It’s true, but we’ve got some covert Broncos fans on the staff, too,” Totman says. “I think of it all as a little love jab.”

Maybe they were saying “boo-urns” after all.

TO TH St EM

g n i E k G A c S i ES

How a marketing hotshot found his career mojo – and set a Guinness World Record in the process.

STORY MARK COX

| PHOTO ALYSON MCCLARAN

You can’t miss it.

The first thing you see when you walk into StickerGiant’s headquarters in Longmont is a giant ball, made entirely from more than 200,000 stickers. It stands proudly on a plinth. And every week, sightseers drop in to marvel at what is officially the World’s Largest Sticker Ball.© “The idea initially came to me after I realized there was no way to celebrate stickers in this country,” says Jesse Freitas, marketing director at the company, which makes custom stickers and labels. “So first, I worked to get National Sticker Day recognized as an official occasion. Then, I went searching for a wacky Guinness World Record to mark the day that might make a splash in the headlines.”

Not so much a splash, but more of a tidal wave, as it turned out. The giant Sticker Ball (affectionately named “Saul” by Freitas’ team) brought immediate national attention to the small company with big attitude.

Besides making it into the Guinness World Records Book, they secured a studio appearance on 9News KUSA, were featured on ABC News programs across 14 major U.S. cities and were joked about on “Late Night with Seth Meyers.” Saul the Sticker Ball even launched a tongue-in-cheek campaign to run for president (campaign slogan: “Stick together”). And he’s still growing.

INSPIRING STORIES The whole kooky idea is indicative of Freitas’ approach to marketing – always innovate and aim big with your ideas.

Ironically, it seems that big ideas grow best in modest settings.

“Being part of a small company definitely gives you more creative freedom,” he says. “From the day I started here, I’ve been encouraged to try new things without fear of failure. I feel empowered to not only express new ideas but pursue them.”

It also helps that Freitas is inspired on a daily basis by the people who really count: the customers.

“Easily my favorite part of this job is hearing our customers’ stories,” he says. “It’s super cool to see the fantastic business ideas people come up with. Then we dig in and do the research to create precisely the products they need to succeed. That’s what really drives me.”

ONE BIG TEAM Freitas is a 2010 graduate of the Marketing Program at Metropolitan State University of Denver, which provided opportunities to work with outside businesses that were “very beneficial” to his subsequent career. One key thing he learned is that it pays to know where your company is going.

“With a lot of jobs, there’s no overall ‘pie in the sky’ vision for what your company is trying to achieve – and that can sap people’s motivation,” he says.

But StickerGiant uses an Open Book Management system, which basically means every employee is given a concrete role in running the business.

“Everyone here knows exactly how the company is doing financially and how they personally impact on that,” Freitas says. “We have some out-of-this-world team meetings because every employee essentially thinks like an owner. It has made a huge difference.”

ROLLING ON Finally, it’s worth asking: Is there another big, crazily ambitious idea in the pipeline? If there is, Freitas isn’t telling: “The fun thing with ideas like Saul is that you don’t know until you do know.”

Besides, Saul isn’t quite finished yet. Freitas is planning their first joint road trip out of Colorado, all the way to a social-media marketing conference in San Diego next year.

“It’s funny,” he says. “I didn’t really know where this sticker-ball idea would take me, but it has developed along with the growth of the company. I feel blessed to be a part of the journey.”

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on a

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Alumna Trina McGuire-Collier has been making waves in public relations for 30 years.

STORY DAN VACCARO

| PHOTO ALYSON MCCLARAN

When Trina McGuire-Collier started at Denver Water at age 27, she was a bit out of her depth.

“I’ve never been a technical person,” she says. “I didn’t understand the mechanical side of the water industry.

But in a way, that was good because I learned how to take very complicated concepts and explain them in simple ways.”

In other words, she became even better at public relations. She was so good, in fact, that she would spend the next 25 years of her career working her way up the Denver Water pipeline from a humble media-relations coordinator to the director of communications and marketing.

If you’ve lived in Denver for the past decade, you know McGuire-Collier’s work. Her team was responsible for the award-winning “Use only what you need” advertising campaign. Its ubiquitous orange signage, sticky copy and marketing stunts (such as the time someone in a toilet costume

in broadcast communications with a minor in African American studies. She remembers a community that was diverse, respectful and extremely supportive. She could put her daughter in child care on campus, and faculty understood that students were dealing with more than just classes.

Perhaps most impressive to McGuire-Collier was how connected her professors were to industry professionals. As a result, she scored multiple internships, getting her feet wet at a radio station, a TV network, a newspaper and a magazine. They were all great experiences, but it was her work at a small PR firm that ultimately helped her chart her course.

“In PR you aren’t exactly delivering news, but you are making sure that the public has access to the information they need to make good decisions,” she says. “That’s what moved me.”

McGuire-Collier graduated from MSU Denver in 1990. After a few years honing her craft at agencies

career in water ran across Mile High Stadium and was tackled by a security guard to encourage people to “stop running toilets”) made it one of the most memorable advertising campaigns in city history.

McGuire-Collier’s roaring success, however, started as more of a trickle. A graduate of George Washington High School in Denver, she headed off to a state college and what she hoped would be a career in media.

Things did not go as planned.

She knew from the first week that it wasn’t the right decision. Academic probation and an unexpected pregnancy confirmed that feeling. In a year and a half, she was back in Denver, humbled but not deterred.

“If anything, I felt more determined than ever to get my degree,” she says. “I knew I’d have responsibilities that would require more of me.”

McGuire-Collier quickly found a home at Metropolitan State University of Denver. She majored

and nonprofits, she joined the team at Denver Water, where she would work until her retirement in 2017.

Despite developing a passion for and expertise in water over more than two decades, McGuire-Collier assumed she’d move in a different direction after retirement. But that was not to be the case. She was recruited by engineering firm HDR, where she serves as director of strategic communication as the company tries to build deeper connections in the water industry.

And who better to lead that effort than someone who has a proven track record for making waves in the industry?

McGuire-Collier says she picked up that go-getter attitude at MSU Denver.

“There was no way I wasn’t getting an education,” she says. “That kind of scrappiness is something so many Roadrunners have. We will do whatever it takes to make good things happen.”

Third-gen

teacher

speaks kids’

LANGUAGE

Jacqueline Lujan gives kindergartners “wild curiosity” by reaching them where they are.

STORY DOUG MCPHERSON

| PHOTO ALYSON MCCLARAN

It was something Jacqueline Lujan noticed fairly quickly this fall semester – some kindergartners at Holm Elementary in southeast Denver didn’t know how to hold a pencil. Others couldn’t write their names or identify numbers or letters. Others wouldn’t raise their heads after sitting down at their desks, as they were just starting to form their personal identities and developing a sense of confidence.

Mexico, for example,” Lujan says. “It gets them more interested and puts it all on their cultural level.”

But Lujan was fine with that. It’s her job to be fine with that. She’s been teaching just three years, but it’s been long enough to know she can make a difference in all of those kids’ lives.

“Being a teacher is not only about becoming a transmitter of knowledge but also a cultivator of a love for learning and supporting the whole child – their social, emotional, developmental and academic needs,” she says. “I’ve always known I wanted to work with and serve the Latino community in some way.”

She also knows that by next May, they’ll be ready to move on to first grade – knowing their numbers and letters, writing their names and much more, and making friends.

And it’s likely that when they’re older, they’ll also know that their kindergarten teacher cared – a lot.

“It’s why we do what we do,” says Lujan, who completed Metropolitan State University of Denver’s Elementary Education Post-Baccalaureate Licensure program in 2015.

Teaching this way is by design for Lujan. It’s about building authentic relationships with students so that equity and opportunity await them.

For Lujan, the teacher’s apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Her mother and stepfather teach, and her paternal grandparents did too. She grew up spending time in her parents’ classrooms, seeing firsthand the commitment and impact that educators make on their students. She says their care for students and passion for equity were important in her personal growth.

Lujan says her professors at MSU Denver helped mold her as well.

“I hope that my students leave my classroom with wild curiosity and a passion for learning.”

“They taught me that each student is unique (in) their own rich experiences and background,” she says. “It’s our job to figure out

That mission is being accomplished, and it’s easy to see why – the kids are catching that wild curiosity and passion from their teacher.

how to tailor their education to their individual needs and learning styles.”

She’s especially passionate about the kids at Holm, which hosts several language-minority students.

She adds that she got plenty of experience doing just that via several experiential-learning and teacher-residency programs at MSU Denver.

Lujan is a perfect fit there – she’s bilingual and an English language acquisition educator who teaches students in their native language (Spanish) to build on their background and experiences.

“We work to make their lessons culturally relevant. In literature, we make sure the characters are ones they can relate to, from Peru or

“I was able to spend time in classrooms all over the Denver metro area to better understand the span of diversity that we’re fortunate to have in Colorado,” she says. “My time spent in classrooms … was where I learned that teaching is not only a profession; it’s a vocation.”

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People Alumni News + Notes 1987

Kenton Adler (B.A. communications multi-major, visual and psychology, ’87) recently celebrated his 20th year at Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas, where he is director of Advancement Services and Research. He and his wife, Nancy, play bagpipe in the Lyon College Pipe Band. He has also published two books: “The Silver Pipes of Tir nan Og,” and a children’s picture book titled “An Alligator in Your Yard,” as well as a number of poems and short stories.

Janet Henderson (B.S. marketing, ’87) is regional director at Walt Disney World Parks and Resorts in Florida.

1992

Susie Ross (B.A. speech communications, emphasis in theatre, ’92) is chief administrative officer for Pleasant News Inc.

1999

Zander Keig (B.A. speech communications, ’99) has been selected as the 2018 National Association of Social Workers California Chapter Social Worker of the Year. He was also featured in a Washington Post article titled “Crossing the Divide.”

Gravity of Perception features lens-based work by artists investigating themes of oppression and institutionalized discrimination. These investigations include reflection on the past by reclaiming and re-contextualizing archives, whether from appropriated or newly created archives.

TYA ANTHONY • MARCELLA ERNEST KRIS GRAVES • ZORA MURFF XAVIERA SIMMONS • LORENZO TRIBURGO KRISTA WORTENDYKE

Gravity of Perception is organized by Center for Visual Art and the Center for Fine Art Photography and is curated by Cecily Cullen, Natascha Seideneck and Hamidah Glasgow.

Image: Xaviera Simmons, Sundown (Number Two), Chromogenic color print, 2018

FOR DETAILS VISIT: www.msudenver.edu/CVA

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2000

Jeremy Bauer (B.S. aviation and aerospace science, ’00) assumed command of U.S. Navy Strike Fighter Squadron Nine Seven (VFA-97) at Naval Air Station Lemoore, California, on Sept. 18. He will lead more than 200 “Warhawk” sailors and officers on an around-the-world deployment this fall, as they join the men and women of Carrier Air Wing Nine on the USS John C. Stennis in support of national objectives around the globe.

Derrick Alan Glodava (B.S. industrial design, ’00) is working as a design engineer at EarthRoamer, where he designs and builds luxury solar/diesel hybrid, fourwheel-drive off-road Xpedition Vehicles for people who want to travel on their own terms and seek their own adventures without sacrificing the comforts of home.

2003

Jessica Pliley (B.A. history, ’03) is an associate professor of women’s, gender and sexuality history at Texas State University.

She is the author of “Policing Sexuality: The Mann Act and the Making of the FBI” (Harvard University Press, 2014) and co-editor of “Global Anti-Vice Activism, 1890-1950: Fighting Drink, Drugs, and ‘Immorality’” (Cambridge University Press, 2016). Her articles have appeared in the Journal of Women’s History, the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era and the Journal of the History of Sexuality.

GRAVITY OF PERCEPTION JANUARY 11 – MARCH 23, 2019

People In Memory 2004

Tracey L. Wright (B.S. aviation management, ’04), the special events manager at Denver International Airport, was named to Airport Business’ 40 under 40 list. Candidates for 2018 were vetted on innovation, outstanding attributes and commitment and involvement in the aviation industry.

2010

Parker Sams (B.S. hotel management, ’10) was named general manager of the 226room Le Pavilion Hotel. Sams was general manager for Crescent Hotels and Resorts, with various properties that included the Adolphus in Dallas, and previously managed Remington hotels that included Lakeway Resort and Spa in Austin, Texas; La Concha Key West in Florida; and Melrose Georgetown Hotel in Washington, D.C. Simone FM Spinner (B.S. Individualized Degree Program, the study and enterprise of wine, ’10) is a wine educator, lecturer and professional speaker. She is a doctoral fellow with the Lisbon Consortium, a tri-institute network among Universidade Católica Portuguesa, the University of Copenhagen and the University of Giessen.

She is researching the effects of climate change on the European wine industry and wine culture. Her first book, “Denver Food: A Culinary Evolution,” was released in August.

2013

Portland, Oregon, which is a two-year pharmacy residency in health-system administration, and will be working on her Master of Business Administration at Oregon State University simultaneously.

2016

Maryah C. Medina (B.S. accounting, ’16) is an accountant for a real-estate investment company in Denver. She’s been taking an in-depth look at real-estate accounting for the company’s properties nationwide and attended a business conference in Washington, D.C., in the spring. She says an “MSU Denver degree opened up a world of possibilities in my accounting career!”

2018

Vincent Collins (B.A. music, ’18) works as a physician at the Denver Health Medical Center.

James Petross (B.S. criminal justice and criminology, ’18) is an identification data specialist at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

SHARE YOUR NEWS Email your class notes to magazine@msudenver.edu

Cassandra R. Robertson (B.S. biology, ’13) received a B.S. degree in pharmacogenomics from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and her Doctorate of Pharmacy degree from Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia. She is starting her first job as a pharmacist at the Oregon Health and Science University Hospital in

1970s

Faculty and Staff

Kenneth B. Batson (B.S. marketing, ’74) July 2018

Douglas B. Goodman taught parttime for 10 years in electronics and management. He retired in January 2009. He died in July 2018.

Richard Killough (B.S. political science, ’73) May 2018

Fred Hess, Ph.D., was a tenured faculty member in MSU Denver’s Department of Music. He was a husband and father, as well as a brilliant composer, memorable teacher and creative performer.

He was beloved by his students and colleagues at the University, where he taught for 20 years. He died on Oct. 27, 2018.

1980s

Doretta Philpot (certificate, nonprofit administration) July 2018 Shirley M. Thompson (B.S. computer and management systems, ’84) April 2018

Andrew Lee March taught courses on a wide range of topics, including human geography, environmental science, Latin America through geography and English as a second language. He died in July 2018.

Dana Walters (B.A. psychology, ’80) August 2018

1990s

Catherine F. Beam (B.A. anthropology and history, ’97) June 2018

2010s

Conner Pepin was slated to graduate in spring 2018 with a Bachelor of Science in sports management and a minor in marketing. He played baseball at MSU Denver for three years.

“Conner was somebody that you rooted for,” said MSU Denver baseball head coach Ryan Strain.

“You wanted him to do well. … It was an honor to coach him.” Pepin died in August 2018.

Katherine Senecal was an anthropology student. She died on Sept. 9, 2018.

COR R ECTION

In the last magazine, we incorrectly identified a photo on the inner front cover as being from 1972. We believe it was actually from the late ’70s or even the early ‘80s.

Thanks to all the eagle-eyed readers who wrote to let us know.

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the

FINALWORD Hispanic-Serving Institution distinction is in reach – and Angela Marquez, Ph.D., is leading the charge.

STORY LINDSEY COULTER | PHOTO DAVE NELIGH

M

etropolitan State University of Denver has spent more than a decade in pursuit of Hispanic-Serving Institution status, and thanks to changes in eligibility requirements, that designation is now within reach. Angela Marquez, special assistant to the president for HSI, talked with Metropolitan Denver Magazine about how the designation could open new doors for all students – in the form of multimillion-dollar Title V grants – and how MSU Denver has opened new doors for her.

What brought you to MSU Denver?

I first joined MSU Denver’s Equal Opportunity Office in May 2014 as the associate equal-opportunity director, providing guidance and support in the areas of diversity, affirmative action, Title IX and discrimination, and I have been in my current role since June 2017. Before that, I spent 20 years working on diversity and climate issues, affirmative action, recruitment, and retention in secondary, postsecondary and higher-education leadership.

Why is MSU Denver better-positioned than ever to achieve HSI designation?

MSU Denver serves more Latino students than any other Colorado higher-education institution. We first hit HSI criteria No. 1 – 25 percent Latino-identifying

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student enrollment – in fall 2017, and as of fall 2018 that number has risen to 28.4 percent.

The University also meets HSI criterion No. 2, the core expenses (or regular operational expenditures) per full-timeequivalent student requirement, which dictates that the measure must be lower than the average for the institutional group.

But we still fall short in one area?

Yes. HSI designation criterion No. 3 is a needy-student requirement, which necessitates that 50 percent of degreeseeking students be eligible for Title IV funding such as Pell Grants, work study, Student Education Opportunity Grants and Perkins loans – or that the percentage of undergraduate-degree-seeking students who are enrolled at least half-time and receive Pell Grants exceeds the average percentage of similar-type institutions.

The benchmark for 2017 was 38 percent Pell-eligible students; MSU Denver was at 35 percent. Many students are likely eligible for Title IV funding but may not understand FAFSA and therefore simply don’t apply.

These few percentage points have kept us from proving eligibility and competing for related federal funding, and the HSI Financial Aid task force is currently working on strategies to reach students who may be eligible.

How does this second level of review for eligibility change the game?

This year, we will attempt to apply for eligibility and utilize the waiver process demonstrating how we meet the needystudent requirement. Given that we educate the largest Latino student population in Colorado – our Latino enrollment stands at 5,460 students this fall – I am hopeful we will be approved.

Will potential grants benefit only Latino students?

These opportunities have the potential to impact the entire Roadrunner community. If we improve one system for one population, we’re improving it for others, too.

HSI designation also makes MSU Denver eligible for numerous other funding opportunities and could result in partnerships with companies that have requirements to work with minority-serving populations.

What happens next?

Once we apply in February, we expect to know by April 2019 if HSI designation has been granted. Within this fall semester, we’ll start an inclusive process – talking to various departments and schools to determine how best to use potential funds to meet the needs of all our students. We want to put our most competitive proposals forward.

Get your UGLY SWEATER on Stand out at your office party and show your MSU Denver pride with a limited-edition Roadrunner Holiday Sweater.

They also make great gifts!

Order yours today: advance.msudenver.edu/sweater

Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Permit 2965 Denver, CO

Campus Box 86 P.O. Box 173362 Denver, CO 80217

JOIN MSU DENVER’S DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC FOR

A HOLIDAY CARD TO THE CITY A festive, holiday-themed concert featuring various University performing ensembles.

This year, the Chorale, Women’s Choir and Men’s Choir will be joined by the Symphonic Band, Mariachi los Correcaminos, Gamelan Manik Kusuma and other student groups.

Dec. 7 and 8 7:30 p.m.

King Center Concert Hall

Tickets available through the King Center Box Office at 303-556-2296 or ahec.edu/services-departments/king-center/box-office.