by Kaitlin Bos

On May, Feb. 6, from 1-3 p.m., Colorado State University-Pueblo’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion will sponsor the Tunnel of Oppression campus event in the psychology building room 153.

The event will be held in honor of African American History Month and will be an interactive theater experience lasting from 20-30 minutes that will highlight biased behaviors and racist stereotypes that people have faced.

Participants will walk through multiple theaters that will display oppression. The event originated from Western Illinois University and now is a nationwide held event at many different colleges and universities.

by Kaitlin Bos

Tackling multiple issues on campus, including over 10 years of no salary adjustment for professors, the American Association of University Professors has been working on campus at Colorado State University-Pueblo since 2003.

The association working on campus currently has 11 members.

The AAUP is a national organization that has been around since 1915 and according to CSU-Pueblo history professor and vice president of the local CSU-Pueblo AAUP, Jonathan Rees, the AAUP is an organization meant to promote academic freedom across the country.

The AAUP stands to defend rights for professors in ways that will benefit the student population as well.

“The more academic freedom and respect the faculty and institution receives, the better the quality of education will be for the students,” said Rees.

The AAUP has been vocal when it not only comes to quality of education for students, but also with quality of professors salaries and experiences at CSU-Pueblo.

“The AAUP was very vocal in 2014 when the financial crisis struck because we were disturbed about the fact that the financial cut was too severe for everyone at CSU-Pueblo,” said Rees.

Another member of CSU-Pueblo’s AAUP chapter and professor at CSU-Pueblo, professor Jonathan Portiz, one major problem that professors at the university face is that there is no cost adjustments, which something that other universities tend to have nationwide.

“I’ve been working here at the university for the past 10 years and the university hasn’t had any cost adjustment for professors. This can cause problems because more universities, including our sister school in Fort Collins, tend to factor this into their budgeting,” said Poritz.

“This means that over the pas10 years, I’ve made the exact same number figure even though the price of living increases every year, so really, I’ve been making less and less as a professor the longer I’ve been here. This is something that we fight for with the AAUP,” said Portiz.

Poritz noted that this is something that can this is something that can cause controversy because usually cost adjustments are added onto student fees which can upset people.

Poritz also said that all though the AAUP is usually arguing against the CSU-Pueblo administration, the administration recognizes the importance of the AAUP and includes the group in important matters.

Both Poritz and Rees feel that it is important for CSU-Pueblo to have this organization because if your professor can’t each what they think is important due to politics within a university, the students are being denied of a quality education experience.

“Professor’s working conditions are student’s learning conditions,” according to Rees.

The AAUP tends to meet once a semester and the meetings are open to all facility on campus as well as any other supporters.

The meetings may be more periodic if they feel it is needed.

For more information about the AAUP as a national organization, visit www.aaup.org. To find out more about the AAUP specifically at CSU-Pueblo and what it does for both the students and staff, visit https://www.csupueblo.edu/calendar/2017/01/25-aaup-information%20.html.

by Alexandra Purcell

There was a concern about a lack of student events last semester according to the team in the office of Student Engagement and Leadership. That’s exactly what a group of people representing different clubs on campus met to discuss Thursday Jan. 26.

More than 70 representatives of student organizations at Colorado State Universtiy-Pueblo met at the Student Organization Summit. The meeting, put on by CSU-Pueblo’s Student Engagement and Leadership, was hosted on campus from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the General Classroom Building.

The focus of the summit was to encourage students to think about planning events to be hosted by their respective organization or club.

“A big part of life on campus is our student organizations,” said Juliette Mogenson, a graduate assistant in the office of Student Engagement and Leadership. “We have lots of funding available to help the clubs put on events.”

This funding, however, expires at the end of the academic year. “If we don’t use it, we lose it,” Mogenson said. “We want to make sure that the organizations utilize the resources we can provide.”

A lack of student organization events prompted Mogenson, who is in charge of coordinating agendas for the semiannual summits, to shape the meeting around informing and encouraging clubs to take advantage of the assets available to them through Student Engagement and Leadership.

Before the meeting began, representatives of individual clubs were asked to fill out a blank notecard with ideas for events their club might be interested in coordinating over the course of the semester. These notecards were then collected by agents of Student Engagement and Leadership for use in a planning activity later on.

“I thought that was cool,” said Jacob Ward, a freshman representing Colorado State University-Pueblo’s Speech and Debate Team at the summit. “In my opinion, getting us involved in a hands-on activity was much better than lecturing us.”

Attendees of the meeting were divided at random into six different groups. Each was given one of the notecards and asked to go about planning the event as though they were the organization interested in putting it on. To do so, they had to consider a budget, possible venues and times, and how to incentivize students to attend.

After the mock planning, the groups were invited to the front of the room to present their ideas to the rest of the group, respond to any questions, and receive constructive feedback regarding their proposals.

“I think it definitely helped,” said Ward. “I learned a lot about planning and organizing events. That’ll come in handy in the future.”

“Events on campus are a great way to get your name out there and gain awareness for clubs,” said Mogenson. “Getting attention and student involvement is what it’s all about.”

Every student organization on campus is required to attend the twice-annual summits, which are held at the beginning of the fall semester as well as the start of the spring semester. Currently, CSU-Pueblo recognizes 55 unique clubs.

Career Twolves, a new campus resource, helps connect students to ideal jobs in their preferred career fields.

by Chianna Schoenthaler

Over 2,300 students and alumni in recent semesters have selected to register on the Career TWolves.

The Career TWolves portal is a resource developed to help current students and alumni find a career in their specific area of study.  

When a student or alumni decide to use the portal, they must first register by filling out information similar to a job application process.

Jackielynn Talbert, a junior in economics, said, “I have signed up for the Career TWolves  and its similar to the Indeed job search site.”

Once the user fills out the information on the site and submits it, the Career Center staff reviews their profile. The review of the profile is to ensure it meets good quality and standards.

Once the profile is approved, the student or alumni are given access to many different resources.

Sarah Zarr, an alumni of CSU-Pueblo, said, “I have heard of Career TWolves, but I do not really know what it does.”

The referrals resource section allows the user to be able to see where their resume is submitted. The submissions can come from three different areas the user submits it themselves, the Career Center or by an employer who has downloaded their resume.

The placements section shows current job openings and descriptions of the jobs. Employers update their placements to make sure students and alumni are able to having accurate job postings.

The schedule section helps the user monitor upcoming events such as interviews, information sessions, waiting lists, and preselected activities that the user has not confirmed or denied attending.  

This tool can assists students and alumni in researching employers. The researching tool allows students and alumni to be able to look into potential employers they could be pursing for a future employment.

Talbert said, “I would find it helpful if the site combined on campus job posting such as work-studies and off campus employment.”  

The Career Center puts up events on a calendar for the users to help keep them informed about events.

The site also hosts a link to a YouTube channel called Career Center. This channel gives current students and alumni access to different videos that could make a great resource when they are searching for jobs.

The YouTube channel has different categories including starting a job search, internships, interview techniques for the different phases, social media and job search, resumes and cover letters, salary negotiation and networking and your personal brand.

Within each of the categories, they break down into a more specific video such as Art of Saying Thank You, the Elevator Pitch or Phone Etiquette.

All of these allow current students and alumni to find a specific video that specialize in a topic for further knowledge.

Four employment search engines are also associate with the site. The employment search engines include College Recruiter, Indeed, Snagjob and Wayup.

All four of these are resources linked to Career TWolves to help as a resource for a current student or alumni who are searching for employment opportunities.

The agenda for the Colorado State University-Pueblo faculty senate meeting on Monday featured typical agenda items such as updates on issues like marijuana research, the strategic plan and retention. Interjected between the usual order of things was a guest the faculty senate welcomed, Antonio Huerta, CSU-Pueblo’s Associated Students’ Government president.

He nervously awaited his turn to speak, tapping his foot and folding his printed script over and over. On his agenda was not to discuss a lighthearted topic, but to address an issue that concerned him and to open, what he felt was an essential conversation about positive collaboration between faculty and students.

“To gain a better faculty perspective of the university and the results of the equity study, I decided to attend the American Association of University Professors meeting held in early November. Instead of getting a better understanding of the needs of the university through the faculty perspective, I personally felt discouraged and embarrassed because of several comments made during that meeting. I simply couldn’t stay in that room any longer,” Huerta said.

He said that only a few faculty members at the meeting made comments that discouraged him and that the main problem was what he deemed a disrespectful comment that a certain professor made, he did not reveal the name out of respect, regarding CSU-Pueblo President Lesley Di Mare and other aspects of the university.

“I felt hurt that people who work at our university would speak such harsh words about our leadership. What made it worse was that no one at that meeting stood up for our administration. I have grown up that even though you disagree with decisions, we need to trust, respect and work hand in hand with our leadership personnel,” he continued.

Members of the faculty senate respectfully sat and listened while Huerta transitioned from addressing his concern to how the situation he experienced can become a learning one and how to move forward to benefit both students and faculty.

“I would say that the faculty is the face of this university, therefore, we need faculty who support this institution and work with leadership to make it better. The students see you every week, sometimes on multiple occasions and this university needs your support now more than ever,” Huerta said.

“I truly believe our campus faculty, staff and administration love our university and want what is best and if we had millions of dollars to invest I believe our administration would wholeheartedly invest in the faculty and staff.”

Huerta stressed that faculty attendance at campus events, athletics, activities and student organizations would help create a more vibrant, positive campus atmosphere where students love coming to campus and could find a purpose.

He ended his address to the faculty senate with the quote by Rudyard Kipling “For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack” and a reminder that if everyone is on the same page, the university community will prosper.

Several members of the faculty senate nodded after Huerta ended and a few members commented reassuring him that his message was heard and that they care.

Faculty Senate President Margie Massey thanked Huerta for his address and said “There have been faculty that have left because of the lack of raises; however, the faculty that has remained at CSU-Pueblo want to be here and are invested in the students, as well as the institution. In my experience faculty and staff do champion student success and, are student advocates.”

Moving forward, the faculty senate plans to work with the ASG and all students to continue success.

Upon completion of his address to the faculty senate, Huerta was stopped by a few senate members who commented on his speech and invited him to sit in on some strategic plan meetings in the near future.

“It went a lot better than I expected to be asked tough questions and even though I wasn’t, I was prepared to answer them if I needed to. The ASG presidents in the past didn’t really have time to start the conversation. I’m hoping that starting this will help create a collaborative atmosphere,” Huerta said.

Huerta was elected last spring for a one-year term to represent all CSU-Pueblo students that will end May 2017. He sits on 15 university boards and committees, leads the student senate meetings each Tuesday evening and meets each month with administration one-on-one to discuss issues, projects, plans and ways to benefit education and experience of CSU-Pueblo students further.

Edited by: Theresa Wolf

General Classroom Building ~ photo by Dustin Cox

As one walks around the Colorado State University-Pueblo campus, recent large-scale construction projects like the new addition to the Occhiato University Center and the completed general classroom building stand out. Smaller ones like the parking lot renovation behind the library or the sustainable roof of the art and music building are less noticeable.

Large or small, these projects are all parts of updating and maintaining the usefulness of campus.

Last year, CSU-Pueblo administrators spent $1.2 million on maintenance costs and $990,000 on custodial costs, according to Craig Cason, the university’s physical plant director.

“Unfortunately, just like costs everywhere else, the maintenance costs at CSU-Pueblo have increased as well. This is largely due to increased material costs, but as the building systems have evolved, the maintenance needs have increased as well,” Cason said.

Cason also said that there are currently 14 employees in the maintenance department and 28 in the custodial department. CSU-Pueblo is currently seeking to fill employment openings within the custodial department.  The average salary for maintenance and custodial staff is $35,000 a year.

Recent projects Cason and the other maintenance and custodial staff have been involved with were the general classroom and Art and Lorraine Soccer/Lacrosse Complex design and construction.

“The goal is to provide a seamless opening of the facility that the maintenance and custodial staff can effectively maintain. Maintenance personnel have also been involved in the development of the campuswide energy performance contract that is about to begin,” Cason added.

Sustainability, another aspect sought after in many departments and areas across campus at CSU-Pueblo, can be beneficial in many ways and complicated in others.

“Equipment and building systems are ever changing and becoming more and more complicated. This can lead to difficulty in operation and maintaining with more training necessary. Sustainability can provide energy savings, but in some cases, can increase the labor needed to perform the work. Making sure the staff is properly trained and have the necessary tools to be successful is pertinent,” Cason said.

Maintenance expenses, as defined by Investopedia, are “the costs incurred to keep an item in good condition and/or good working order,” and operating costsare defined as “expenses associated with the maintenance and administration of a business on a day-to-day basis.” The two combined cover a variety of projects, upkeep and care.

“CSU-Pueblo maintenance and custodial employees start their day making sure that the campus is ready before most people get out of their beds. They do so much more than just maintain and clean the facilities. They work long hours setting up for various events and making sure all goes well during the events. The maintenance and custodial staff members provide a service that many times goes unrecognized,” Cason said.

Edited by: Theresa Wolf

Student veteran Richard Brown sings star-spangled banner at Veterans Day Memorial ~ photo by Pengjiu Liu

Another Veterans Day has come and gone, but the number of student veterans on college campuses across the nation is growing and expected to increase by 20 percent within the next few years, according to data from the Veterans Affairs campus toolkit.

Colorado State University-Pueblo has approximately 300 student veterans currently enrolled who are pursuing degrees, said Dana Rocha, interim director of veterans affairs at the university.

Transitioning from military to civilian life, while trying to complete college is vastly different and can be a challenge for many.

“The academic setting is completely different than the military setting. The personalities, the ideals, the philosophies are completely different. The way people interact with each other is completely different,” Jacobo Varela, director of Veteran’s Upward Bound and former student veteran himself, said

“Being told where to go, when to eat, what to eat to an atmosphere where now you’re all on your own. You need to set up your own schedule, do your own homework and ‘we’re not going to check up on you.’ So, it’s a hard transition for some military people,” York said.

Chris Day, a student veteran majoring in automotive industry management said the change of structure is a challenging aspect of transitioning from soldier to student.

“In the Army, we’re held to a specific standard and that standard needs to be completed at or by a specific time …The good side to that is that for veterans, it’s a really easy way to stand out from your peers, by just doing the work on time to standard,” Day explained.

The same VA campus toolkit states 62 percent of student veterans are first generation college students, only 15 percent fall into the typical college age range of 18-23 years old, 47.3 percent are married and 47 percent have children.

“They’ll come in here with academic issues at first and then you’ll realize that many of their academic issues are maybe mental health issues and that they have something external affecting their schooling. They’re not just dealing with going to class, and maybe they’ve just come back from combat or deployment, and they’re just now readjusting,” Varela said.

Across the board, student veterans are succeeding. A total of 51.7 percent complete their degrees in four to five years, just like the average for other college students.

“The most rewarding part is seeing how well you can change your circumstances. Having traveled to other countries, I’ve seen the extreme highs and lows the world offers. It is amazing to me that we Americans have these opportunities presented to us and that we don’t have to end up in the lows if we don’t want to,” Day said.

Varela believes veterans who return to college has less difficulty with the transition.

“When you finish something you learn a lot more about yourself. You learn how to adjust in a softer setting rather than going straight into a job, which might be more difficult. I think a lot of vets feel stuck when they get out. They don’t know how to move on, and they don’t know what to do,” he said.

“They don’t have the authority that they once did or anything like that, but in school there’s a lot of opportunity for leadership, to join student organizations, to join professional organizations so they can do that and become involved again,” Varela concluded.

Across the CSU-Pueblo campus a few resources that will better serve student veterans, are being considered, such as the Veterans Resource Center, Veterans Upward Bound and Veterans Affairs all under one roof instead of in various buildings.

“Our ultimate goal is by spring of 2018 to all be under one roof. Like a one stop shop. It will be nice for them to not go all over campus for different resources,” said Rocha.

In addition to the resources already provided, student veterans at CSU-Pueblo focus on helping each other.

“We’re definitely trying to help lift each other up and make sure that there’s an understanding with the faculty and administrators that there are some veterans specific issues, for example, we really really like to sit in the back of the classroom when at all possible because we don’t like people walking behind us. And sometimes we have appointments that took a year to get that we just can’t miss,” York said.

The Student Veterans of America organization on campus went “homeless” this past Friday and Saturday to raise awareness about the issue among community veterans and additionally collect canned goods year-round to donate.

“They want to go back and help other vets. You’ll find that trend among student veterans,” Varela said.

The Veterans Resource Center provides free printing, computer access and coffee on the third floor of the LARC open to all veterans as well as their dependents.

Veterans Upward Bound, which is a grant-funded program by the department of education, is located in the same office. They accept low-income and veterans with certain academic or financial needs, provided they meet the criteria.

However, Varela and his team try to help anyone they can and don’t turn anyone away even if they can’t become part of the Veterans Upward Bound program.

“I believe that the success of our student veterans is the responsibility of everybody; the school, administration, faculty and staff have to understand that we have a wide variety of people in our student body. I think that helping veterans succeed helps our community succeed,” Varela said.

Image courtesy of www.oit.edu

Colorado State University-Pueblo work-study funds were cut by 20 percent for the 2016-17 school year. It is no secret that $600 is a lot to a college student. It could be one month’s rent at their apartment complex somewhere in Pueblo or a new laptop.

CSU-Pueblo employs about 650 students every year at various campus jobs. Usually, each student qualifies for work-study for an allotted amount of $3,000 a year, $1,500 a semester to earn as a work-study award.

The average work-study earnings out of the original $3,000 for the year ranged from $1,700 to $2,200 with a few exceptions, meaning students were not earning the full advantage of their given awards and only received 56 to 73 percent total of what they could have.

A review of the past year’s work-study trends found much of the money for work-study was not being used up. Due to this, CSU-Pueblo Director of Financial Aid Justin Streater, Assistant Director of Financial Aid Greg Thorsten and Vice President of Enrollment Management and Student Affairs Chrissy Holliday found it necessary to drop many students work-study award allowances to $2,400 a year, or $1,200 a semester.

“We were trying to make more opportunity for students to get jobs on campus and that way we would free up more money for more positions for more students. Typically, in the past we haven’t used all of our federal or state work-study and this way we thought if we could create more positions then more students could work, and we could use it all,” Streater said.

“My work-study was cut by $300 a semester. It makes things difficult since my work-study is my only source of income. Since it’s been cut either my monthly paychecks will be smaller, or I’ll run out of hours,” Payne said.

The cuts across the board did vary, some students still received the full $3,000 for the year, some the $2,400, and others who already have jobs on campus that are not work-study positions, like resident assistants, received even less.

“We’ve tried to grandfather everybody who had $3,000 into the next year, but just some of them with timing, with technical issues, they didn’t all come across, but anybody who has come in and is like ‘hey I had $3000 last year’ we’ve increased those back to $3,000,” he said.

As far as the residence assistants who qualify for work-study, each student is allowed only a certain budget and factoring in that they don’t pay for room and board. Their budgets can end up much smaller for work-study than other students. However, financial aid is still trying to make the work-study situation better.

“I wish we would do that a little differently. I’m trying to get housing to give them a scholarship as opposed to us just removing it from their budget so that way it’s on the books too better,” Streater said.

An increase of work-study funds for the remainder of the 2016-17 year is not likely to occur but is foreseeable for the 2017-18 school year. A reevaluation of work-study will be done at the end of the year, which may result in an increase to the standard award of $3,000 per student, per year.

“We look at how many accepted it, how many worked and then the average work award. So what they actually earned for the full year. That’s kind of what we did before we reduced to the $2,400,” he said.

For now, students who have a lower work-study award, and it is their only source of income, the financial aid department does have resources for them including the SALT program, the financial literacy and budgeting program, along with available grants and scholarships for students who qualify.

Streater hopes to improve financial literacy among students on campus as well as improve the communication between the financial aid department and students, so they know about the resources and opportunities available to them.

“I always try to tell students ‘just come in and ask or shoot me an email’ because I’m always happy to help. I was a student for a very long time, and I’ve been in financial aid for over 10 years and I know how it is so I’m always trying help students as much as possible,” he said.

The financial aid office is located in the Administration Building Rm. 212. No appointment is necessary to meet with a financial aid counselor. Students can contact financial aid by email at financialaid@csupueblo.edu or call 719.549.2753
Edited by: Theresa Wolf

John Lemme with step-mother Tracy and father Don
~ photo by John Lemme

Strategy, technique and practice are just a few things baseball and music have in common. For senior John Lemme, a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan and music performance major with an emphasis on saxophone at Colorado State University-Pueblo, his two passions have been linked since an early age.

“When I consider myself passionate about something, I define it by…that sort of unbridled desire to be the best I can be at that particular task,” Lemme said.

“Baseball and music are two things I am very passionate about, and that passion drives me into the practice room to be the best musician I can be.”

Lemme played outfield and first base in high school baseball. He said his strength was long, accurate throws. However, after a shoulder injury in high school football, his dreams of becoming a major league baseball player faded, but his dreams of making it to the major leagues of music stayed alive.

On Oct. 26, Lemme traveled to the Navy Yard in Washington D.C. where he auditioned for a job with a particular unit of the United States Navy Band called the Cruisers.

“The premier bands in any branch of the armed forces are full of some of the best musicians in the country. They are the people that play at the presidential inauguration every four years and the ones that play on the Fourth of July PBS specials,” Lemme explained.

Leading up to the audition of a lifetime, he practiced with his favorite professor, Ryan Van Gilder, assistant to the director of bands at CSU-Pueblo and a lifelong Cubs fan like himself.

“Being able to both cram on my audition and talk about the Cubs with him has really helped me,” he said.

On Oct. 25, the night before his big audition, the Cubs played the first of seven games in the World Series.

“As a lifetime Cubs fan, I was watching that game on mute while I practiced in my hotel room. It was a very difficult game to watch because we were shutout. So, I really got to focus on the music that night,” Lemme said.

The next day, he performed three of the nine pieces the Cruisers had selected as well as meet certain physical requirements since it was a naval entity.

“The feeling was almost surreal like it was too good to be true, Lemme said. I was auditioning for one of the best bands in the nation. I’m a kid still in my undergrad from a division two school in Pueblo, Colorado, and I’m swinging for fences in the opportunity for the most perfect make that is possible for my career in music,” Lemme said.

The audition did not go the way he anticipated it would, but the Cubs won their first World Series game in 71 years later that day. That win made the bad even out with the good, according to Lemme. The next day he traveled back to Colorado.

The World Series games continued with two losses at home for the Cubs, followed by three consecutive wins, which secured their first World Series win in 108 years.

The win came one year after Lemme’s father died after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Baseball was one of the passions the two shared.

“Since I moved away for school, the time that I got to spend with him was during summer, and we would always watch baseball together,” he said.

When the Cubs made the catch to gain the third and final out they needed in the bottom of the 10th inning to win the World Series, he immediately thought of his father.

“The fact that the Cubs won the World Series after my dad passed will definitely keep me connected with the sport that I fell back in love with these past few years. And music is my career choice; I have no other option but to grind and grind to become the best I can be.”

He plans to finish his degree and join one of the military’s regional fleet bands that tour the country and continue to keep up with baseball as much as possible.

Edited by: Zahria Sanches-Rogers

Young Women’s Real World Conference ~ photo courtesy of csupueblo.edu

On Wednesday, local teen girls ages 14 to 18, from Pueblo area high schools gathered at Colorado State University-Pueblo to attend the thirteenth annual Young Women’s Real World Conference.

Unlike a majority of conferences held at academic institutions, this one does not solely focus on academia as being the absolute option of success; it also discusses multiple paths of success.

The conference was founded in the 2002- 03 school year by Carol Loats, retired history and women’s studies professor  Loats still participates and helps with the event.

This was the first year that Marina Cunin Borer, CSU-Pueblo organized the conference alongside a planning committee that consisted of Kirsten Taylor, a former employee of the Pueblo Health Department, Kristi Roque from Pueblo Rape Crisis Services and Mary Cristelli from Pueblo Health Department.

“It’s really about giving a space for young women to have one day where they are in the center of their world. They can think about ‘what is positive that I have within me that I can be successful; however, I wish to determine that success?’” Cunin Borer said.

The conference included panelists from a wide range of backgrounds including Colorado Statehouse Representative, Daneya Esgar. As well as peer mentors or coaches that consist of young women who are currently students at CSU-Pueblo or who have attended the conference themselves in previous years.

“Some of the panelists will stress education; others will say ‘look I was a teen mom myself.’ We have a range of women who have these different experiences and are successful. We ask ‘what is positive about what happened?’ Because a lot of times there’s a lot of ‘don’t do this, don’t do that’ and it’s more like ‘well not don’t do this, but OK if you’re going to do this then how can you best do it successfully?’” Cunin Borer said.

Other panelists included: Jodene Muiz and Velia Rincon, of Teach for America-Pueblo, Quatisha Franklin, former CSU-Pueblo health education and prevention program coordinator and Jodene Hasuman, of Sangre de Cristo Hospice.

Juliette Mogenson, a former CSU-Pueblo student and current employee in Student Engagement and Leadership at the university was a peer coach last year before she graduated and continued to work and help plan and mentor the girls at this year’s conference as well.

“Each year, I gain something from this conference. By doing the activities with the girls, I learn more about myself. I am also able to enhance my communication skills by speaking with girls who come from various backgrounds who have different stories,” Mogenson said.

This year, 40 girls attended the conference. The $5 registration fee was waived for participants who were unable to pay it.

“It may well be what we call a transitional year because it’s the thirteenth year that this conference has run and as you know, things move. You know 13 years on, someone who was 14 is now in their late twenties, so we need to move with the time,” Cunin Borer said.

A change made this year was to incorporate more social media use and advertised the conference on Facebook, which Cunin Borer said seemed to work very well.

Facebook was also used for feedback on the day, and all of it was positive in nature. Some of the girls who attended commented things such as “I enjoyed this with being able to meet with many other young women with many other stories that all want to be successful like me,” and “I learned a lot, and you made me a better, stronger woman. I loved the poems and the nice, supporting members and staff.”

The day was filled each hour with different activities for the girls to learn more about themselves and options for their futures.

“The conference ran smoothly, and we had a great turnout of attendees. The atmosphere was intimate, allowing girls to feel like they are in a safe environment to be themselves,” Mogenson said.

She plans to continue to help with the conference in the future.

Regarding the next year’s conference, many updates are being considered.

“It may well be that we restructure the whole conference, even renaming it maybe and using a lot more social media. And more looking at where young women are today because where they were 13 years ago, they’re not there today,” Cunin Borer explained.

There are plans for the conference in the future to have a Twitter page and even a Snapchat story for the girls to use interactively while at the conference.

Edited by: Theresa Wolf