The birds were not released due to poor weather conditions, so the birds will be released at a later date. One simply has to call Lake Pueblo or read the local newspaper for the upcoming release day. Photo courtesy of Marla Vivoda

With a little looking, CSU-Pueblo students can find relatively inexpensive activities in the Pueblo area such as the 18th annual Eagle Days, which took place last weekend.

The event, held at Lake Pueblo State Park, included bird viewing, Native American dancing, “bat talks,” kid programs, Air Force Academy “Flight and Meet and Greet,” presentations, photo contests, field trips and treats.

The birds were not released due to poor weather conditions, so the birds will be released at a later date. One simply has to call Lake Pueblo or read the local newspaper for the upcoming release day.

Last weekend, the weather did not stop the human observers from participating in the events.

The opening event on Friday evening allowed the participants to view and vote on photos from the contest in a slide show presentation from the local Audubon club. Still shots hung on the wall in the Lake Pueblo Visitor Center. Community members, including CSU-Pueblo students, are free to enter the contests.

On Saturday, people learned about eagles, owls, falcons and hawks while they had a chance to see the birds of prey up close during the expert talks.

The Air Force Falconeers also presented a talk about their training birds. Only 12 spots for cadets are available for training the birds. The one seen in the picture was the original mascot, Destiny.

“She’s a gyrofalcon, an arctic species falcon. Her job now is to be a mother,” said Cody Nelson, an Air Force Academy student, about the white falcon on display.

Three other falcons were available to view up close. The handler-students answered questions the majority of the day. Later, they provided a demonstration with a flight.

Native Americans danced several dances during the event including the Eagle Dance and the Friendship Dance where audience participation was encouraged.

On Sunday, an open house at the Raptor Center provided another chance to see the birds and additional species at the rehabilitation facility.

Raptor centers are needed for birds that fall victim to accidents or human interference and may depend on human help for the rest of their lives. People can use the raptor center to see some of these great birds up close without risk of fines or endangering themselves or others. This educational opportunity may lead to other opportunities such as volunteering.

“We only have one paid position here, the rest is volunteer work. We do have a wish list. We would love to put up webcams, but it will cost us $10,000 to get Internet out here. The wish list is on the website,” said Diana Miller, director of the raptor center.

Miller went on to talk about the uses for the birds.

“We have some birds that we use for education. Others are used for foster parents when we get babies in,” Miller said.

All the weekend events were free to the public; however, a day pass is always required at the reservoir. The $7 pass allows visitors 24 hours to view the park.

“As many as 400 visitors attend the flights,” said Miller, in regard to the upcoming event.

The raptor center is open to the public on weekdays. This is another free activity for CSU-Pueblo students.

Victoria Markowski, long-time CSU-Pueblo music professor, passed away Jan. 26 at the age of 83. Photo courtesy of http://chass.colostate-pueblo.edu/

Victoria Markowski, long-time CSU-Pueblo music professor, passed away Jan. 26 at the age of 83.

After receiving her degree in piano from Wyoming Seminary, in Pennsylvania, Markowski went on to earn a bachelor’s in music form Boston Conservancy. Her talent in her profession led her to be an accompanist, instructor, vocal coach and professional musician.

Eventually, she became an artist in residence in 1969 at Southern Colorado State College, which eventually became Colorado State University-Pueblo. Markowski officially retired in 1999 but remained an adjunct instructor until last year.

She acquired a list of credentials including Master Teacher Certificate, International Who’s Who in Music, World Premier, Delta Omicron’s International Competition For Women Composers, appointment by the governor as an Ambassador for the State of Pennsylvania,, a concerto for one-piano-4 hands, Baldwin Artist, Concert Artist Guild award winner and the Outstanding Woman Faculty Award from CSU-Pueblo

“Markowski and her former husband, Frank Cedrone, were renowned pianists who began their lives and musical careers together as students at the Boston Conservatory of Music,” said Cora Zaletel, spokesperson for CSU-Pueblo, in a news release. “Favorable reviews of their debut at Carnegie Recital Hall in 1957 led to tours throughout the country.”

Markowski released the duo’s CD, “Two Piano Magic” in 2000.

Retired professor Michael Beck, owner of Elledge Music, recalled affectionately that Markowski was quite a task masker, but her students loved her.

“She was loved by her students and many were quite successful,” Beck said.

Beck explained that Markowski “brought attention to the medium of two-piano-four-hands and one-piano-four-hands literature” in which the duo each played their own piano or both would sit side-by-side and play on one.

“We were both interested in fishing before she married Rod Townley. We shared many fishing stories, too” Beck said.

“She was a classy lady. We’re going to miss her,” Beck said.

Memorial gifts in Markowski’s honor will be donated to the CSU-Pueblo music department, according to Rachel Vigil of Montgomery and Steward Funeral Directors. At her request, no service or viewing will be held.

Jennifer Moreno, one of Markowski’s last music students at CSU-Pueblo, will miss her greatly.

“She was cute. People would help her walk into the building because she weighed all of 90 pounds. We were worried that the wind would pick her up,” Moreno said.

Every music major that went through CSU-Pueblo’s program had to take Markowski at some time or another.

“I would not have graduated if it wasn’t for her,” Moreno said. “She was incredible, absolutely a wiz at playing and teaching.”

Although Markowski was loved throughout the music community, she was not always an easy teacher.

“She was hard and strict but an outstanding teacher. You always strived to do your best because you didn’t want to disappoint her because you loved her,” Moreno said.

Barbara Beck is trying to organize a recital in Markowski’s honor.

“I hope there is a recital, she deserves to be remembered,” Moreno said.

RMPBS and the Colorado Springs Library District hosted workshops for high school and university students and citizen journalists prior to the entrance period, which closed in December. Photo courtesy of http://www.rmpbs.org/

The ever-evolving world of technology allows everyday people to be the first to get the news out, and the new Citizen Journalism Contest allowed students with majors other than mass communications to share their stories too.

Rocky Mountain PBS, a sister station to KTSC in Pueblo on Colorado State University-Pueblo’s campus, provided workshops and created a contest, called “Raise Your Voice,” which wrapped up its first workshops and awards presentation on Thursday evening at the Tim Gill Center in Colorado Springs.

“The goal is to encourage citizen and student journalists to share stories that could otherwise go untold,” said Amanda Mountain, Southern Colorado and Western Slope Regional Director and Station Manager of Rocky Mountain PBS.

RMPBS and the Colorado Springs Library District hosted workshops for high school and university students and citizen journalists prior to the entrance period, which closed in December.

Instructors in the workshop series presented on audio visual techniques, storytelling, ethics and audience. These were free to the public and located in venues around Colorado Springs.

“One of our goals is to connect people with experts and resources,” Mountain said.

There are several local resources available to people, Mountain said, one being the new technology library opening at Chapel Hills and Jamboree, which devotes 40,000 square feet exclusively to creation of content.

The site houses an audio/visual center, editing center and entrepreneurial center. The library will open on June 1.

The Tim Gill Center is another resource people can use. It houses eight bays for media production and wants to add mobile production kits for people to check out.

Pueblo’s public library is working on it too.

“We plan to open a ‘maker space’ on the second floor once renovations are complete in the upcoming months,” said Kaycie Barnett, circulation manager.

Three categories for the contest included middle and high school, college and community. The areas to enter consisted of audio/visual, written stories, and photojournalism. Contestants also competed for a prize for entering multimedia works in a separate category.

The judges looked for quality, fairness, relevance to the community and accuracy of content.

The contest awarded monetary prizes in the amounts of: $500 for first, $350 for second and $150 for third. The hostess handed out two additional $250 special awards.

All CSU-Pueblo students are welcome to participate in the event next year. Additional information can be found through the mass communications department at CSU-Pueblo or at rmpbs.org/timgillcenter. Winners and their works are also posted on the site.

Some adjunct teaching staff and groups such as Senior-to-Sophomore, a dual-credit program, learned last year that staff may be cut if they do not meet certain requirements.

With the many cuts currently looming at Colorado State University-Pueblo, instructors want to know how those cuts were determined, and whether they relate to the current cuts.

STS is a program designed to reach high school students who demonstrate aptitude at the college level. These students must meet enrollment qualifications with ACT scores, recommendations and, at times, entrance level tests. All these requirements must be met while the student also meets the requirements for high school in order to complete their senior year.

The STS teachers went to additional training and meetings, enrolled in university classes and submitted portfolios. The portfolio included items like resumes, proof of classwork, experience, letters of reflection and letters of proposals.

Teachers involved in this program come from places such as Colorado Springs, Canon City and Pueblo.

Many teachers were told they could no longer teach courses because they did not hold a master’s degree in the area they were supposed to teach. For example, an English teacher with a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s in science is not allowed to teach English classes for the university any longer.

In some cases, teachers have been teaching in these programs for the university the majority of their careers.

“Unfortunately, we had to let a few members go because they did not have their master’s in chemistry. They were with us for quite some time,” said David Lehmpuhl, chair of the chemistry department.

Lehmpuhl went on to say that “the mandate came from Rick Kreminski, dean of science and math. Provost Carl Wright met with the deans of various departments to deliver this mandate.”

There are exceptions, however, according to Tanya Baird, assistant to the provost, in a statement released from the provost’s office.

“Yes, adjunct teachers have to have a master’s in their endorsed area of teaching, but we do make exceptions,” Baird said.

Lehmpuhl said the mandate was to meet audit concerns occurring in the next few years. The audit comes from the Higher Learning Commission of Accreditation, so his department is complying with the provost’s mandate.

The Health Academy, housed within a high school in Pueblo, is for those students interested in pursuing occupations in health-related fields. The curriculum is designed to focus on science and medicine. When students walk into the first classroom, they see hospital beds with mannequins lying there. Further back are several labs. When students exit the program they have the opportunity to leave with an Emergency Medical Technician certification.

“STS is a great program; it promotes college readiness. We have liaison instructors from the college who help us and we get additional training. Our syllabus requirements are the same, and must be approved by the department chair at the college,” said Jim Benedetto, a teacher in the Health Academy.

“It’s kind of sad that some opportunities will be lost to those students,” Benedetto said. “It’s the students who benefit from this program. We did lose our English STS teacher.”

“The program creates good will in the community. I think those students are college ready when they enter any university. Our university gets credit for those entry level classes,” Lehmpuhl said.

Lehmpuhl said he did not see any changes in class size, but that the students simply went into the next class in the sequence.