Lisa Johnson receives her Associate of General Studies degree June 22 in the Tivoli Turnhalle.
“I was a single parent of three kids, and it was very, very hard. But I did it.” — LISA JOHNSON, A RECENT GRADUATE
To a great degree Lisa Johnson, a 59-year-old grandmother of six, was “overwhelmed” when she learned she would receive her degree. “I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I’m the first one to graduate from college in my family. It took me a long time.” Johnson is among 336 former students who accepted Associate of General Studies degrees from Metropolitan State University of Denver this year, thanks to a 2021 bill passed by the Colorado legislature. The degrees were awarded to students who had accumulated at least 70 credit hours but stopped short of completing
their bachelor’s degrees. Twenty-seven of those former students, including Johnson, were recognized in a first-of-its-kind event in June. More than 200 people attended the celebration, held on the Auraria Campus. The University does not usually award associate degrees — it last did so in 1973, said Shaun Schafer, Ph.D., MSU Denver’s associate vice president of Curriculum, Academic Effectiveness and Policy Development. But the Colorado Re-Engaged (CORE) Initiative, established through House Bill 21-1330, allows ALYSON McCLARAN
below: Associate degree graduates celebrate with their families, friends and faculty members in the Tivoli Turnhalle in June.
ALYSON McCLARAN
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RED MAGAZINE | FA L L 2024