October 2023–March 2024
The Mines Heritage Society honors individuals who have committed a gift to the Colorado School of Mines Foundation from their wills, retirement plans, life income gifts or other deferred gift arrangements.
Skip ’63 and Jean Snyder
Supports the Geophysics@100 Endowed Fund
Joseph M. Cornell
Supports the Joseph Madden Cornell Scholarship Fund and the Joseph Madden Cornell PASCAL Fund
John Gould ’80, MS ’95 and Dianne Woodruff
Supports the Craig Van Kirk Endowed Scholarship Fund
Melanie K. ’87 and Edwin H. Westergaard
Supports Alumni Engagement
Anonymous
Dr. Robert ’64 and Exie Lundquist To be decided
Robert Michel ’84
Supports the Michel Endowed Scholarship Fund
Ron Wolf ’66
Supports the Mines Fund, Entrepreneurship & Innovation Fund, Geology Education Fund and the Mines Museum of Earth Science
Learn more about the Heritage Society online at plannedgiving.mines.edu/mines-heritage-society
Michael ’07, MS ’09, PhD ’13 and Kari Sanders ’97 understand what it feels like to be a graduate student whose trajectory is put in jeopardy because of a financial crisis.
In 2015, having led successful careers, they started Mines’ first graduate student emergency fund. The Michael and Kari Sanders Endowed Graduate Student Support Fund provides financial support to full- or part-time Mines graduate students who face hardship-inducing, unplanned personal expenses.
“When your safety nets are gone and you have to pay for your education on your own, things can come up that make or break your experience,” said Kari. “We feel that this type of support is critical to retaining graduate students.”
The couple financed the fund through a “blended giving” approach. They currently make monthly contributions. After their lifetimes, a gift from their estate will strengthen the fund.
(continued on page 4)
(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3)
“We liked the way the fund is structured and that it will have a long-term impact,” said Kari. “The largest impact you can make is by giving through an estate gift. That has allowed us to give more money than what we have accessible in cash right now. Additional monthly giving also helps bolster the position of the fund by slowly growing it over time.”
The Sanders’ love story began at Mines during Kari’s 1993 campus tour. Michael— then a metallurgical and materials engineering undergrad—was pulled in to answer Kari’s questions. He ended up staying for the whole tour. When Kari started at Mines, they ran into each other again. They’ve been inseparable ever since.
As a Golden native with an engineering aptitude, Mines was a natural fit for Michael. He started a degree in physics at Mines in 1990 but dropped out in 1994. He and Kari lived together while she earned BS degrees in physics and electrical engineering.
Following Kari’s graduation, the two moved to California for Kari to pursue her PhD. However, financial stress forced her to drop out. She found a job at Hughes Aircraft, which paid for her master’s degree in electrical engineering at UCLA.
After five years, the couple came back to Colorado for Kari to continue her career in aerospace and for Michael to return to Mines to finish what he’d started.
“I basically walked into Hill Hall in 2003 and haven’t left,” said Michael, who went on to earn a BS in metallurgical and materials science and an MS and PhD in materials science.
Kari now owns an engineering services business, Orion’s Belt Engineering. Michael is a research assistant professor with the Colorado Center for Advanced Ceramics, where he works with master’s and PhD students.
“I’ve had plenty of graduate students who would have benefited from our fund,” said Michael.
The fund’s average $1,500 grants help students keep their heads above water when an emergency occurs, such as family illness or medical expenses. The Sanders’ intent is to minimize students’ stress and help them stay focused on their studies.
“If once or twice a year we can help even one student alleviate stress and keep them in school and focused, that’s all we’re looking for,” said Kari.
As Mines celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2024, you have a great opportunity to help position the university for excellence today and for the future.
Planned gifts are an especially meaningful way for you to provide the critical support required for future success.
However, most planned gifts aren’t realized until after a donor’s lifetime, so donors aren’t able to experience the satisfaction of seeing their gift in action.
The Legacy Match for MINES@150 is an innovative matching gift program that focuses on raising funds through planned gifts while also making a current impact. Leveraging a $1,000,000 estate gift from Blanche Moreno as the matching pool, new and increased planned gifts are eligible for matching funds of any amount that can be directed to the area of your choice immediately. Your matched gift at any level will support Mines’ distinctive mission and programs.
There are several ways you can create your legacy with a planned gift to Mines. Some popular gifts include:
Making a gift in your will or living trust
Naming the Mines Foundation as a beneficiary of your retirement plan, an insurance policy or a commercial annuity
Establishing a life income gift, such as a charitable gift annuity or charitable remainder trust
Creating Transfer on Death or Payable on Death agreements
Naming the Mines Foundation as a beneficiary of your donor advised fund
Contact us to learn how this match can work for you!
Brilliant, curious, hard-working and innovative: four words that describe Mines graduate students. They tackle towering challenges, gain global perspectives and stand out in their fields. Master’s and doctoral students are pivotal in the impact Mines can make on the world.
Students enroll in Mines’ 55 graduate degrees because of standout interdisciplinary programs, a team-oriented culture of excellence and the focused research intensity that earned Mines the Carnegie R1 Certification.
Perhaps the biggest attraction is Mines’ expert faculty, who also see high-quality graduate students as a top reason to come to Mines and stay here.
Mines has offered master’s degrees and PhDs since the 1920s. Over time, the school added graduate programs that cater to working professionals, including 20 offered online.
PhD and traditional master’s degrees. Multiyear programs where students conduct original research at the leading edge while working to write and defend a thesis.
Professional non-thesis master’s degrees. Designed for academics and working professionals to gain advanced knowledge in their fields without conducting original research.
Graduate certificates. Short-duration, careeradvancing certificates in 35 specialty areas, designed for working engineers—many offered online.
Through MINES@150, Mines aims to become the industry partner of choice for continuing STEM education and to raise Mines’ worldwide prestige. Success requires robust graduate education offerings and research programs.
Graduate programs benefit from endowed fellowships and annual graduate scholarships along with teaching stipends, funds for travel and conference attendance, and faculty-led experiences in research, teaching and outreach.
55 Graduate programs
Research faculty
More than
97% of master’s and PhD graduates accept a job within 6 months
PhD Master’s thesis Master’s non-thesis Certificate and non-degree students
769 Graduate degrees awarded in 2023
64% of Americans think having a will is important, however, 1 in 4 of those polled have not created one.
—Caring.com
