COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO More than 840 students will participate in CU-Colorado Springs 29th Commencement ceremonies at 10 a.m. Friday, May 23 at the World Arena.
The class of 2003 is the largest single class in university history with 1,435 total candidates for degree.
Selected features about the members of the class of 2003 follow.
NURSING STUDENT INTERRUPTS STUDIES TO TREAT WOUNDED IN AFGHANISTAN
Not long after Sept. 11, 2001, Heather Green’s cell phone rang during the middle of her class. The caller informed the nursing student that her alternate status had been changed to primary, and her first mobility briefing was at 1500.
Green was on her way to a nearly six-month deployment to Oman, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The deployment was part of the job for the active-duty Air Force medic, but the timing right after mid-term exams and well past the deadline for dropping classes was less than desirable.
Green had three days to develop a plan with the dean and undergraduate coordinator of the Beth-El College of Nursing and Health Sciences on how she would complete the classes and keep up with her studies while fulfilling her military commitment.
“I have loved every minute of it,” said Green about her military service. “I have nothing negative to say about the military, but I was little frustrated with the timing of the deployment.”
Green ended up working in the main hospital that treated causalities associated with military actions in the Afghanistan region. As a medic, she saw injuries ranging from bomb blasts and land mines to helicopter crashes.
Her service earned her an achievement medal, awarded by the Air Force Surgeon General, and allowed her to fulfill a long-time goal of working closely with Special Forces personnel.
With the help of Beth-El administration, faculty and students, Green was able to keep up with her reading, care plans and case studies and return ready for exams during the next semester.
“They helped me while I was over there. I received frequent e-mails with course notes and many students asked how I was doing,” said Green. “I didn’t fall behind, but I had to more or less repeat a whole class in five weeks after my return in order to prove I was up to par in my studies.”
Green has a four-year service commitment to fulfill after her graduation, but she will continue her education, probably with an on-line master’s program, to become a nurse practitioner.
Ultimately, this self-described adrenaline junkie would like continue her work with the Special Forces, some of the military’s most elite, both in terms of the soldiers and the medical personnel who support them.
HOME SCHOOLED ACHIEVER TO PURSUE INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE
What would one student with two degrees, four majors, one minor and 220 total semester hours do with his academic achievements? If you are Thomas Griffin, the answer is help other people.
Griffin came to CU-Colorado Springs without a high school listed on his transcript because he was home schooled. Obviously, mom and dad did an exceptional job with his preparatory education.
This academic overachiever has been accepted into Pepperdine University School of Law in Malibu, Calif., and has plans to join the International League of Justice, an organization that works to free ideological and political prisoners in China and Third World countries.
“It’s been a lot of hard work and a tremendous privilege to come here and make a difference, and to have other people make a difference in my life as well,” said Griffin.
“I’m a commuter student, and I know that we have a lot of commuter students who don’t feel involved, but the opportunities are here for all students if they want them there is a real sense of community here [at UCCS].”
Griffin who is majoring in philosophy, political science, business information systems, international business and minoring in economics, did not seclude himself in the library during his undergraduate career. He was active in student government and served as the student dean of the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
With aspirations toward possibly teaching philosophy some day, Griffin counts many of his most memorable moments on campus as coming in the many philosophical discussions that he has had with other students. He has an interest in discussing and understanding the higher meaning and purpose of life.
“If I could offer one thing to my fellow students it would be let’s concentrate on helping each other,” said Griffin. “We can make a difference and hopefully make this world a better place.”
VISUALLY-IMPAIRED STUDENT TO PURSUE POLITICS
George McDermith has an interest in becoming a U.S. Senator. This political science major, who will enter the master’s program in education at CU-Colorado Springs next fall, is a self-described Republican with an interest in improving the educational system in the United States.
McDermith, who lost his sight when he was 17, also has an interest in breaking stereotypes that many have about people with disabilities.
“I want to show people that the only problem that blind people have is that their eyes don’t work,” said McDermith.
Like many other students at CU-Colorado Springs, McDermith lived in the Housing Village during his undergraduate career enjoying the pleasures of doing his own laundry and the ability to throw parties “without mom knocking on the door.”
McDermith, a graduate of the Colorado Springs School for the Deaf and Blind and Palmer High School, has been active in student government at CU-Colorado Springs. He has served as the student director of multicultural affairs, in the student senate and the judicial board.
“Working with faculty has been a pleasure,” said McDermith. “What s really nice is when a professor is willing to assist me by giving me all of the material that they would give a sighted person but without giving me too much slack in other words giving me just enough rope to hang myself but not any more.”
McDermith cites professors such as Jim Burkhart, professor, Physics, and Dan Ponder, associate professor, Political Science, as teachers who made things disabled-friendly without making them easier.
Often this meant spending time after class going over class visual presentations or tracing statistical graphs with his finger on a desk with the professor’s help.
McDermith is an avid reader with a love of science fiction and fantasy novels. He checks his e-mail more often than he checks his phone and regularly surfs the Internet with the aid of a speech-recognition program.
McDermith plans to begin his political career on a local level, and perhaps first as a high school social studies teacher, with his goal set on the U.S. Senate.
NON-TRADITIONAL STUDENT KNOWS VALUE OF EDUCATION
Several years ago, the company that employed James Rolland shut down and he found himself at a junction in his life.
As young man, the factors necessary to complete his college degree never came together. Like many people, he took a job that paid the bills but left him wanting more. This time he chose college, and despite approaching 50, he enrolled in the electrical engineering program at CU-Colorado Springs.
“Some goals in life can’t be put off forever you can’t wait until you are 60 to start having kids,” said Rolland. “I told myself that if I do this now, I can get it done, but if I don’t do it now it will never happen.”
Rolland will graduate with honors on May 23 and is currently deciding on a master’s degree program. His parents, both former teachers in their 70’s, will be in the audience cheering.
As a non-traditional student, experience has shaped his perspective regarding the value of his educational experience.
“I compare it to getting a building permit as a homeowner – it costs you $40 and they spill their guts to you. For $40 you buy an architect” said Rolland.
“The school is the same way. My tuition money has bought access to some of the best minds in the country. I could buy a better bargain, so to speak, but you have to stop and think what you are getting for your money. The quality of the professors that you have here [at UCCS] is comparable to any I could find [at other universities].”
The owner of several motorcycles, Rolland describes himself as “biker scum” and enjoys challenging people’s preconceptions.
He is as at home with power tools as he is with differential equations, and his enthusiasm for the “language of mathematics” is addictive.
Rolland has gone out of his way to thank many of the professors he has learned from at CU-Colorado Springs. But that enthusiasm definitely goes both ways as Rolland’s love of learning validates the reason that many faculty members made the decision to pursue teaching in the first place.
SINGLE MOTHER RISES ABOVE STEREOTYPES AND EXPECTATIONS
Challenge expectations, challenge the status quo. Those are the mottos that Stephanie Velasquez lives by.
Velasquez, 22, will have a special audience member cheering for her at commencement, her son, Julian. Julian was born when Velasquez was a sophomore.
As a single mother, many people, including members of her own family, expected her to put her undergraduate career on hold or to forget it all together. However, this Governor’s Opportunity Scholarship recipient remained in school and continued her drive toward her bachelor’s degree while balancing the needs of her infant son.
“I come from a lower socio-economic background with low expectations,” said Velasquez. “Statistically you are not supposed to make it when you come from the background that I have.”
Velasquez describes herself as Chicana. Her father was active in the Chicano “Brown Beret” Power Movement of the 1970s. Part of a family of six brothers and sisters, Velasquez has always had strong role models, but she knows the deck was stacked against her and her desire to advance her education.
A graduate of Palmer High School in Colorado Springs, Velasquez was in the top fifteen percent of her class and active in a wide range of clubs and activities. Her academic achievement and her personality received notice, and she was awarded the scholarship, which offers four years of tuition and fees to deserving students.
Her son’s birth was accompanied with her mother’s relocation to California. This put additional stress on the young mother but did not slow her determination.
“My son was never an anchor in my life,” said Velasquez. “He has only made me better and stronger.”
This organizational communication major and ethnic and minority affairs minor, already is thinking of the future. She will enter the graduate program in communication in the fall at CU-Colorado Springs and her goal is to earn her doctorate before she is 30.
Velasquez credits many faculty and staff members at the university for helping and inspiring her throughout her career. From the Family Development Center to the multicultural affairs mentorship program, CU-Colorado Springs provided her with many of the tools that has she used to achieve her success.
“I want to give back the things that I have received,” said Velasquez.
She plans to stay in Colorado Springs and work with young Hispanic women in a counseling setting.
CU-Colorado Springs, located on Austin Bluffs Parkway in northeast Colorado Springs, is the fastest growing university in Colorado and one of the fastest growing universities in the nation. The university offers 25 bachelor’s degrees, 17 master’s and two doctoral degrees. The campus enrolls more than 7,400 students annually.