Grantee Stories

SCENIC Expands Rural Impact at Trinidad Water Festival

Arielle Wiedenbeck — Thu, 28 Aug 2025 13:00:00 +0000

SCENIC Expands Rural Impact at Trinidad Water Festival Arielle Wiedenbeck Thu, 08/28/2025 - 07:00

Arielle Wiedenbeck

Last May, ��’s Science‑Engineering Inquiry Collaborative in Rural Colorado (SCENIC) program brought its hands‑on, inquiry‑based science programming to the Trinidad Water Festival. Led by Associate Research Professor Daniel Knight, �� students created an erosion‑focused activity that allowed K‑12 participants to learn about flooding.

The SCENIC program connects �� faculty members and students with rural high schools across Colorado to develop locally relevant science projects. This year’s participation in the water festival was made possible through Knight’s involvement in the PACES 2024 Community Perspectives Tour, where he connected with Linda Perry, a festival organizer.

The Trinidad Water Festival, hosted annually by Trinidad State College, drew more than 1,300 students and teacher attendees this year, with most from schools in Las Animas County and nearby communities in Colorado and New Mexico. Organized with the help of a handful of event leads and about 15 volunteers, the festival included activities from a diverse range of participants including the US Forest Service, a local fly tier and even a Teddy Roosevelt impersonator.

An example of a miniature homestead built by an elementary school participant.

To align with the festival’s focus on water, the SCENIC team adapted an existing module from their Soil Quality Inquiry programming into an “erosion challenge.” Using soil, rocks and legos, K-12 participants designed miniature homesteads and tested how they held up under simulated flood conditions. The activity encouraged students to think critically about how environmental engineering plays a role in protecting communities — especially Trinidad, which is prone to flash flooding due to its location along the Purgatory River.

Percy Smith, a PhD candidate specializing in engineering ethics education, led the activity alongside two other students from the Hannigan Air Quality and Technology Lab, Gabriela Cortes and Julia Harper.

“I hadn’t worked with elementary school kids in a science context before,” Smith said. “They had these really cool projects, and they were all very excited. A couple of them said it was their favorite [activity].”

Reflecting on the experience, Smith emphasized the importance of transferring knowledge beyond the university. “To be able to take [��] students into communities and say, ‘OK, now you have to explain this concept not just to me, but also to the students who don’t have any background,’ it makes your understanding stronger and builds awareness of the work you’re doing.”

Bob Philibin, a longtime recruiter for the festival, said involving college students enriches the experience for everyone involved. “I hung out with them for one of their sessions, and the [�� students] were totally engaged,” he said. “They looked like they were having a really good time…that’s what we want.”

For SCENIC, the water festival helped deepen community ties. Knight said the team was able to establish a new relationship with a teacher in Yuma and is continuing to explore expansion into additional rural regions, such as Gunnison. He also hopes to return to the Water Festival next year.

For Smith, these experiences serve as an important reminder that “these are the people that are impacted by the work we’re doing.”

The SCENIC program is funded in part by the Office for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship. Learn more about the Community Perspectives program.

Engineering students with the Science Engineering Inquiry Collaborative in Rural Colorado (SCENIC) program developed a hands-on “erosion challenge” for K-12 students to learn about the effects of flash flooding on infrastructure.

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Julia Harper sets up SCENIC's "erosion challenge" at the 2025 Trinidad Water Festival in Trinidad, CO.

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�� undergraduate Julia Harper sets up SCENIC's "erosion challenge" at the 2025 Water Festival in Trinidad, CO

Colorado's Marshall Fire survivors find healing, meaning through oral history project

Arielle Wiedenbeck — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 22:46:45 +0000

Colorado's Marshall Fire survivors find healing, meaning through oral history project Arielle Wiedenbeck Mon, 07/28/2025 - 16:46

The Marshall Fire Story Project was started to preserve the stories of people affected by the 2021 fire that killed two people and destroyed over 1,000 structures. Read from CU experts Kathryn Goldfarb and Lucas Rozell on The Conversation.

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Faces of Community-Engaged Scholarship: Amanda Giguere

Arielle Wiedenbeck — Thu, 17 Jul 2025 19:03:54 +0000

Faces of Community-Engaged Scholarship: Amanda Giguere Arielle Wiedenbeck Thu, 07/17/2025 - 13:03

Gretchen Minekime

“This is not the time for siloed knowledge, and experts agree that violence is a complicated issue that will require innovative and collaborative solutions. How can violence-prevention researchers harness knowledge from other disciplines to translate research into practice, and how can we bridge the gap between research and the daily lives of real people? Enter Shakespeare.” ~Amanda Giguere, Shakespeare & Violence Prevention: A Practical Handbook for Educators

Amanda Giguere is a pioneer or, at least, the leader of a team of pioneers. Giguere is the director of outreach for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival (CSF) and the founder of the Shakespeare and Violence Prevention Program. Since 2011, she and her colleagues at CSF, ��’s Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence (CSPV), and other community partners in the violence prevention field have adapted and staged Shakespeare’s plays to see how the content and approaches can reinforce violence-prevention skills in K-12 students. To date, the program has reached nearly 140,000 students in 30 counties and more than 300 schools across Colorado, garnering national attention.

Giguere just published Shakespeare & Violence Prevention: A Practical Handbook for Educators to help educators everywhere apply the lessons of the world’s most famous bard.

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The first play CSF adapted for this violence prevention program was Twelfth Night. What sparked your initial idea to incorporate an anti-bullying message into the play?

As someone who works with Shakespeare, I am always thinking about how the plays resonate with the present moment. Tim Orr, CSF’s current producing artistic director, and I wanted to produce Twelfth Night in K-12 schools because that title was slated to appear in CSF’s upcoming mainstage season. This was 2011, and we were hearing a lot in the news about bullying. It was becoming a prevalent issue. There was even a new term coined for suicide deaths caused by bullying: “bullycide.”

In the play, the character Malvolio spoke to the present moment [2011]. This character is the target of a prank that escalates over the course of the play. His last line of the play is “I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you.” The play’s scenario reminded us of present-day issues with cyberbullying. Malvolio’s story unlocked a connection to the present.

While we started this as an anti-bullying project, we’ve learned that Shakespeare’s plays invite engaging conversations about violence overall.

What research and evidence did you incorporate in Twelfth Night? What led to adapting more plays?

Research about the power and effectiveness of upstander behavior to address harm gave us an entry point to the plays. Shakespeare’s plays would be very different if the characters operated in a culture where upstander behavior was normalized and respected.

A 2001 study found that 57% of the time, bullying stops in 10 seconds or less if someone acts as an upstander (someone who takes action to protect others). There’s no one way to be an upstander, but if witnesses choose to take action, it’s often really effective. When bullying occurs, young people are usually more aware of it than adults are. Students can practice their own upstander strategies before they need to use them in real life.

When we first staged Much Ado About Nothing in 2014, our CSPV colleagues were concerned about the plotline of spreading a rumor that someone had died. We didn’t know how depicting a rumor of someone dying would impact young audiences. Would there be any chance that depicting the behavior could encourage the idea? So, we changed the play to “Hero has fled” rather than “Hero is dead.” That was 2014. In 2019, when staging Romeo and Juliet, we worked with the Colorado Office of Suicide Prevention and learned that the research had shifted. We know now that talking about suicide, for example, does not plant the idea in someone’s brain. The latest recommendation is that it’s important to ask someone directly if they are having thoughts of suicide. That’s an example of research evolving and, therefore, our approach.

Every time we produce a play we start from scratch, look at what has shifted in the world, and what has shifted in the research. The second time we adapted Julius Caesar was right after the January 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol. So, a play about a planned attack at the capitol resonated differently.

In response to data that show youth are struggling with mental health needs, we’re currently adapting Hamlet and analyzing the mental health themes in the play. The 2023 Healthy Kids Colorado survey revealed that 28% of youth reported poor mental health most of the time or all of the time during the past month.

It’s neat to see how these plays written more than 400 years ago can bring the latest research to life.

How many students has Shakespeare & Violence Prevention reached, in how many schools, and in what areas of Colorado?

Since 2011, the program has worked with schools in 30 of Colorado’s 64 counties and reached 139,919 students from 315 schools. I should shout out to my colleague at CSF, Dr. Heidi Schmidt, for developing the processes we use to keep track of these statistics!

How do you know this program is making a difference?

With our very first Office for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship grant in 2011, we set up four or five weeks of touring, and it booked up quickly, which suggests there was demand for this kind of arts programming that addressed schools’ needs. After that initial 2011 tour, we repeated the tour due to continuing demand. Then, at the 2012 annual conference of the Shakespeare Theatre Association, we gave a presentation about our anti-bullying approach to Twelfth Night. Colleagues were intrigued about the connection between Shakespeare and violence.

We kept exploring more titles and realized Shakespeare’s plays have so many overlaps with the violence-prevention field. Since that initial production, we have adapted nine Shakespeare plays for the violence prevention program. The upcoming Hamlet will be our 10th.

When our actors visit schools, audiences are surprised by how fun and accessible Shakespeare can be. Teachers tell us that students who are not very engaged otherwise are surprisingly so during our visits. This program is also the first time many students see a play. Teachers and administrators frequently express appreciation for how our work aligns with and reinforces the school’s existing work. My favorite anecdotes are from teachers who report hearing the characters and the stories sneaking into students’ everyday language with one another. An elementary school teacher recently reported overhearing a student on the playground say: “Hey, remember Malvolio.”

The arts offer a powerful kind of learning. I think the idea of taking a play and seasoned professional actors and letting kids watch them work, in and of itself, is highly engaging. I believe any exposure to live theatre is violence prevention because you’re practicing empathy, thinking about the world from other perspectives, and you’re physically around other people.

The most important question we ask after workshops is whether students are likely to act as an upstander the next time they witness mistreatment, and historically, between 85-90% of students say yes.

My hope for this project is that we’ll be able to eventually stop doing it because we have a world of upstanders, and it will no longer be necessary.

Why your book and why now?

The program had been running for about seven years, and we were all excited by how effective the work is. I knew we were onto something here in Colorado—reaching 6,000-10,000 students per year with our in-person performances and workshops. But I wondered how we could reach beyond where our little van could travel. How else could we empower more people to integrate violence prevention into a theatre or language arts curriculum?

CSF, as part of ��, has an amazing connection to world-class research. Not every theatre company has a violence prevention research center right next door! Plus, it’s CSPV’s goal to get the research into as many hands as possible. So, I started writing the book in 2018, with a goal of sharing this work more widely and getting this kind of applied Shakespeare into classrooms everywhere.

Although it is written for educators, the content is approachable for a wide readership, regardless of whether you’re a classroom teacher or someone with an interest in Shakespeare.

Really, the book offers a model for how we can consume a lot of different art forms through a violence prevention lens.

How has working in partnership with communities influenced your work?

Over the years, we’ve learned to leave more room for participants’ voices and solutions during workshops in K-12 classrooms. Our actors are trained to facilitate activities, rather than teach any predetermined outcomes. Their job is to get curious about the existing wisdom in each classroom they visit. They ask questions and use students’ ideas to reframe scenarios from the plays, inviting students to step in with their own strategies as upstanders.

Dr. Beverly Kingston, director of CSPV, says that we have a lot of scientific information about violence and preventing violence, but that information alone will not get us there. We need human connection and human stories. The actors who work on this project show up in schools, perform plays that depict a wide range of emotions and experiences, and then they work directly with students to talk about what they saw in the play. When people can authentically connect with others, slow down, and have a discussion about violence in our world, this builds really healthy connections and promotes social and emotional skills. Working with Shakespeare’s plays reminds us about what it means to be human—and this kind of community engagement helps us recognize our shared humanity.

Why do you think community-engaged scholarship is important for this campus?

From my perspective in the theatre world, it’s an important way to expose young people to the arts. The arts are the balm to the soul. Our actors performed in a rural community this past spring, and many of the kids had never seen a play. Afterwards, a student who had not been participating much in the post-show activities approached an actor and said: “That was the best day of my life.”

We truly never know what's going to stick with a kid. It's easy to forget we’re in this bubble on campus where, of course, we value learning and research and the arts and the sciences and the humanities. But, that’s not a given everywhere.

I see this type of work as a pipeline and a way of building excitement about higher education and meaningful work. It’s exposure to �� for many young people and an important reminder for our staff, students, and faculty that we are not alone in our research and creative work. Through community engagement, we are building the next generation of scholars, artists, teachers, and citizens.

What’s next for you?

I’ll be speaking about and signing the book at Boulder Bookstore on July 29. And in the fall, I’ll teach an online course for CU’s Applied Shakespeare program (Teaching Shakespeare), oversee the school touring productions of Hamlet and The Tempest, and I’ll visit Australia to speak about the Shakespeare & Violence Prevention Program at the University of Melbourne. But in the meantime, we are in the midst of the CSF summer season (two beautiful productions of The Tempest and Richard II now open—everyone on campus should see them!)

Amanda Giguere is the director of outreach for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival (CSF) and the founder of the Shakespeare and Violence Prevention Program. Since 2011, she and her colleagues and other community partners in the violence prevention field have adapted and staged Shakespeare’s plays to see how the content and approaches can reinforce violence-prevention skills in K-12 students.

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How a High-Altitude Observatory Shaped Colorado’s Story

Arielle Wiedenbeck — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 18:45:47 +0000

How a High-Altitude Observatory Shaped Colorado’s Story Arielle Wiedenbeck Thu, 06/05/2025 - 12:45

Elaina Caywood

“A place can be understood as an earthly reality defined by longitude and latitude, with physical features to be detailed by geologists, geographers, and documentary photographers. At the same time, place is affective, defined by a series of experiences in time and their impact on those who linger.” – Hanna Rose Shell, Artist’s Statement

The �� strives for innovation, continually looking towards the future. But envisioning the future requires remembering the past. Colorado is home to numerous sites dedicated to scientific advancement—but what were the origins of these places, and what can they teach us about our path forward?

Hanna Rose Shell explores this question through the remarkable story of Walter Orr Roberts, drawing on her background in both historical scholarship with mixed-media artmaking. Shell is a professor in the College of Arts & Sciences, jointly appointed in the Department of Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts and the Department of Art & Art History, and recent faculty director of the Stan Brakhage Center for Media Arts.

In 2017, Shell moved to Colorado to teach at ��, where she was able to transition from a Social Sciences-oriented department at MIT, called Science, Technology and Society, to a new academic home more explicitly in line with her artistic and creative scholarly inclinations. Shell’s transition from Massachusetts to Colorado echoed that of the young astrophysicist who Shell has since made the center of her community-engaged and scholarly projects: Walter Orr Roberts.

Roberts, a graduate student, and his wife, Janet Smock, moved to Climax, Colorado in 1940 to establish North America’s first coronagraph—a specialized telescope used to study the sun’s gaseous halo. Built atop a vast molybdenite mine on the Continental Divide, the small observatory served as a hazardous but groundbreaking scientific base for seven years. During that time, Roberts not only conducted pioneering research on the solar corona but also contributed significantly to the World War II effort. His ionospheric observations enabled him to forecast solar disruptions days in advance, which proved crucial for maintaining radio communications. This achievement, alongside the mine’s role in weapon production with molybdenite, created an unlikely but powerful alliance: the miners of Climax and a Harvard scientist working together to support the Allied Powers. During his time in Climax, Roberts formed strong relationships with the miners, bridging the academic and industrial worlds.

“The kind of project that occurred at Climax in those years brought together so many different kinds of backgrounds, types of expertise and political leanings. It is an inspiring model for how we can find ways to engage with people from a wide range of stakeholders, with distinctive political ideologies,” said Shell.

Through extensive archival research in Colorado and Massachusetts, Shell became captivated by Roberts’ story. With support from the Office for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship (PACES) and the Research and Innovation Office, she created a multimedia project that explores Roberts’ legacy while prompting reflection about themes such as nature and technology, innovation and destruction, communication and connection.

Shell’s PACES-supported work debuted in April 2025 during Boulder Art Week at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Mesa Laboratory’s Art-Science Gallery. Set against the stunning backdrop of the Flatirons, the exhibit featured photographs of the Climax observatory and mine alongside Shell’s contemplative reflections on Roberts’ achievements and the broader history of scientific exploration. The photos range from personal snapshots by Roberts or Smock, to photos of the observatory, to the actual photos Roberts took of the corona.

Across these materials, the story of the Climax Observatory shines through in all its glory. In the exhibition, beside an archival photograph from the inside of the old Climax observatory, was a pensive statement from Shell: “For me, both the historical legacy and present-day reality of the former site of the Climax Observatory exemplifies a kind of liminality: between darkness and light; between the reaches of the heavens and the depths of the earth; between the vital energies that prompt scientific discovery, and the potential hazards that accompany the human drive for material extraction.”

Hanna Rose Shell presents her work at NCAR Mesa Lab, April 25, 2025.

On April 25, Shell presented her work at the Solar Nexus event, also held at NCAR’s Mesa Lab. Supported by her PACES grant, the event—livestreamed for broader access—brought together researchers from diverse fields of solar science.

Shell discussed Roberts’ life and work, describing the challenges and triumphs he and Smock experienced. The talk featured photos, letters, and archival materials illustrating Roberts’ work and experiences. In a segment titled “Conversations of the Plurality of Worlds,” an actress read Smock’s letters aloud, offering insights into the observatory and the mine and their influence on the surrounding environment. Shell concluded her presentation with a clip from a documentary filmed by Roberts, sharing his solar observations and reflections. The clip was composed of time-lapsed photographs of the corona halo stitched together to showcase the changes Roberts was tracking. Reflections about the future of solar research and nuclear power accompanied the corona visuals.

The presentation was followed by Sarah Gibson, who presented current initiatives at the High-Altitude Observatory (HAO), and Alexandra Lockhart, a dancer who fuses heliophysics with performance art.

Shell’s interdisciplinary exploration of Roberts’ story integrates photography, film, music and letters to illuminate a compelling narrative. “One of my goals for the project is to bring this history to Boulder and to the world of atmospheric and environmental science,” she said. “It's so interesting that the seed of NCAR originated from this great collaboration between the biggest mine in the country, at the time, and a Harvard researcher.”

A central theme in Shell’s work is the idea of generative collaboration—between disciplines, communities and even ideologies—and how it shapes Colorado’s identity. Although the state has diversified beyond its mining roots, many towns still carry that legacy. For Shell, this community-engaged project offered an opportunity to “engage and learn about the history, geography and communities of Colorado,” while connecting people across divides through a shared scientific heritage.

“�� is located in one part of Colorado, so it’s very important to find ways to bring in the local community, and also people from other parts of the state,” she said. “Roberts’ work inspires us to work together on a single interest, despite our differences.”

Shell hopes to bring her exhibit to other Colorado communities, such as Leadville. With its mining history and proximity to the Climax site, Leadville offers a perspective “from the mining extraction side,” reconnecting Roberts’ work with the mining community and extending it beyond the academic community of Boulder.

“This can achieve a number of important things,” Shell explained. “One is to spread the story. Two is to get people thinking about how their perspectives and histories are more connected to those of others—people who may have different jobs, upbringings or political opinions. I really want this work to bridge the state, so to speak. I think that’s an exciting opportunity.”

Beyond its academic and public significance, the project resonates deeply with Shell on a personal level. Like Roberts, she left Massachusetts to pursue an academic career in Colorado. “I felt a lot of connection to this young astronomer and his wife,” she reflected. “Roberts came to Colorado from Massachusetts to build this observatory. He stayed here his whole life and became incredibly impactful to the state. He found direction, meaning and inspiration in a new place. That is what drew me—and continues to keep me—with this story. This project has become a wonderful way for me to connect with Colorado, as Roberts did.”

Looking ahead, Shell hopes her work will inspire Coloradans to transcend cultural and class boundaries in the name of collaboration and progress. Through visual storytelling, she encourages us to reflect on the “historical legacies” and “present-day realities” of the places we inhabit. Her work challenges us to consider not only how scientific progress is achieved—but by whom, and for what purpose.

To learn more about Shell’s project, read her NCAR Mesa Lab Flyer or explore her film project through her article, “Conversations of the Plurality of Worlds."

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Opening Conversations: Empowering Youth with Complex Communication Needs

Arielle Wiedenbeck — Mon, 19 May 2025 16:05:54 +0000

Opening Conversations: Empowering Youth with Complex Communication Needs Arielle Wiedenbeck Mon, 05/19/2025 - 10:05

Elaina Caywood

Communication is one of the most important aspects of life, yet many of us take it for granted. Those with complex communication needs (CCN) secondary to different neurological conditions and/or medical diagnoses, such as cerebral palsy, Angelman syndrome and autism spectrum disorders (ASD), typically have co-occurring conditions such as hearing and vision impairments. They face numerous challenges that prevent them from accessing the help they need to communicate effectively with the world. Compounded with economic disadvantages, these difficulties can feel insurmountable, as assistive technology can be expensive.

For the past six years, Sherri Tennant, assistant clinical professor of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences (SLHS) at ��, and her team have worked in Denver with CCN students who experience economic disadvantages and use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems. AAC systems are various low and high-tech methods for communication that can help those who are unable to speak verbally, such as picture-based communication books, iPad apps and speech generating devices (SGDs). These systems are customized to meet individual communication needs.

In 2019, Tennant began consulting in Denver Public Schools, visiting classrooms and guiding staff who worked with students unable to verbalize through natural speech or reliably use touch screens. Without AAC systems or trained professionals with the knowledge to use them, many students lacked a consistent way to communicate.

Seeing that the growing need was more than one consultant could handle, Tennant and her colleague, Associate Professor Christine Brennan, decided to apply for a grant from the Office for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship.

“We had a couple of goals in mind with different emphasis,” said Tennant. “One was to train our graduate students in the speech-language pathology program in AAC assessments and intervention, as there is a great need in our field, public schools and healthcare settings.”

During the last six years, Tennant and her team have trained more than 38 graduate students and 30 general education peers in AAC systems, many of whom have gone on to work in public schools.

“Second goal, of course, was to meet the needs of the Denver School of Science and Technology (DSST), helping those students and empowering them by giving them access to AAC systems through Medicaid,” continued Tennant. “As of now, we have assessed and procured AAC systems for 12 students total.”

“Our third goal then was to do professional development for all the educators, paraeducators and speech language pathologists that work in the school district. And then, finally train the family members to use these systems at home with the AAC users, the adolescents,” explained Tennant.

The project has now involved two high schools and one middle school within the DSST school network. The DSST team of educators has continued to support the project, writing letters of support that demonstrate the need for this kind of work and help in the grant reapplication process.

While some paraprofessionals and teachers initially felt apprehensive about using AAC systems due to their cost and complexity, many have now fully embraced them, actively participating in Tennant’s training and advocating for AAC systems in their schools.

“Seeing the change in attitude and progress [from educators] through consistent teaching, patience and modeling has been one of the biggest rewards,” reflected Tennant.

The team is working to organize and lead a larger workshop in summer 2026 to introduce critical AAC information and provide advanced training to professionals who are new to AAC as well as give more information to families who may be struggling with adopting the AAC systems. This will continue to increase the number of people who will benefit from this grant project.

Alongside professional training for paraeducators and teachers, the team created multimedia training modules to assist with AAC system use, and they plan to expand this online resource into Spanish. Marcella Manzur, a Spanish-speaking collaborator in Mexico City, has frequently assisted the team by interpreting and translating content for family support and training groups. She is also working with her team in Mexico to translate the multimedia training modules into Spanish. Due to the linguistic importance of this work, Tennant ensures that the team remains sensitive to cultural and linguistic identities when interacting with students and their families. Manzur supports this goal by acting as a translator during therapy sessions, helping students and their families feel as comfortable as possible while learning about how to use an AAC system.

Despite the wide scope of their goals, Tennant and her team have achieved great success, giving a voice to economically disadvantaged adolescents with complex communication needs in the community while helping educators and �� students gain critical hands-on experience with AAC systems. In February of 2023, Tennant, Brennan and five graduate students presented the outcomes of this work at the Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) national conference in Orlando. The team plans to present their findings again at ATIA in 2026. Graduate students working on this project not only get the chance to present their work at important conferences in the field but also gain extremely valuable experience in a relatively niche area, leading to great opportunities.

“I’ve received emails from [past students] saying it’s because of this grant project that they were able to get their position or that they felt so comfortable and confident working with the school team. That has been really rewarding,” remarked Tennant.

The collaboration between many different professionals across the SLHS and education spheres provides a uniquely impactful experience for the program’s youth participants. This work is inherently community engaged, heavily depending upon consulting and interacting with the community; Tennant stressed the importance of “family-centered treatment as much as possible.”

Tennant shared an example of a teenager whose progress depended on being consulted within her natural setting outside of highly structured therapeutic activities with a community- and family-centered approach. While being assessed in a local hospital to demonstrate how she could benefit from an AAC system, the teen exhibited noticeably aggressive behavior. However, at school, the teen had successfully communicated and responded with the trial AAC systems. The teacher, with whom the student had built trust, asked to be included in the hospital assessment but was denied due to post-COVID policies. The hospital’s assessment incorrectly concluded that she would not benefit from an AAC system due to her behavior, which was a result of the teen’s trusted companion, her teacher, being unable to assist. Tennant’s team was then able to assist in completing the AAC assessment at school where the student was comfortable and included her mother as well. The student was very cooperative, using the AAC system effectively with a smile.

“Sometimes these policies in outside organizations can be obstacles to what’s beneficial for a client or a patient. The beauty of our grant project is it allows us to go into their [the patient's] most comfortable setting. If that’s home, if that’s school, we can do that. When we do that, we get a clear picture of their potential,” explained Tennant. “ We were able to procure a system for her [the teen] through Medicaid, and she was using it really effectively. She ended up graduating and moved on and out of the school. That conveys one very powerful benefit of this grant project.”

Students who may have been resigned to silence in their classrooms can now communicate and even make jokes in class, happily surprising the educators who have watched them grow and progress.

The work of Tennant and the rest of the team has provided hope to these teens and opened doors for them to participate and interact with the world around them. In a world so consumed with communication, everyone deserves access to the human flow of connected ideas—thanks to this grant project, those with complex communication needs can overcome economic barriers to join in on the conversation, too.

This crucial work continues on. For more information about the multimedia modules, SLHS pathology trainings for graduate students, family-centered trainings at DSST or information on future conference presentations, visit: Empowering Economically Disadvantaged Adolescents with Complex Communication Needs.

For the past six years, Sherri Tennant, Assistant Clinical Professor of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences (SLHS) at ��, and her team have worked in Denver with CCN students who experience economic disadvantages and use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems.

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Outdoor Recreation Offers a Path to Community Resilience

Arielle Wiedenbeck — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 12:54:33 +0000

Outdoor Recreation Offers a Path to Community Resilience Arielle Wiedenbeck Wed, 04/30/2025 - 06:54

Arielle Wiedenbeck

��’s Rural Technical Assistance program helps rural Colorado towns use their natural assets to strengthen local economies, deepen partnerships and define their own futures.

In small towns across Colorado, where economic challenges and limited resources often run deep, a new kind of planning is taking root — one that blends grassroots visioning with technical support, and centers outdoor recreation as a tool for long-term resilience.

The Colorado Rural Technical Assistance Program, or RTAP, was informed by a growing interest in outdoor recreation as a driver for rural economic development — an interest reflected in national-level programming, such as the Recreation Economy for Rural Communities (RERC) planning assistance initiative. More than 100 communities applied for the RERC pilot program in 2019, with many Colorado communities among them. While several were strong candidates, the program aimed to achieve a broad geographic distribution with only a limited number of spots available. As a result, many Colorado applicants were not selected despite the strength of their proposals.

This information was shared with the Colorado Outdoor Recreation Industry Office (OREC) and Natalie Ooi, a teaching associate professor in the Masters of the Environment Graduate Program (MENV), who saw an opportunity to create a Colorado-specific initiative that could support more communities across the state. In partnership with Matt Nuñez, senior program manager at the OREC, RTAP began to take shape. Using RERC as a model, they designed an accelerated timeline that enables MENV graduate students to co-create, facilitate and execute a community action plan with a community-driven process in a one-semester course.

“It kind of came together sort of perfectly,” Ooi said.

Although the course lasts one semester for students, for Ooi and her partners, it’s a yearlong endeavor. From July to December, they work closely with the selected communities to lay groundwork before students begin. This includes building relationships, forming a steering committee and completing a self-assessment.

“Communities need time to decide if this program is right for them. This isn’t a marketing plan; it’s not a trails development plan,” Ooi said. “At a broad level, we’re really focused on what outdoor recreation means to the community and what they would like to see in terms of tying together outdoor recreation and economic development. We want to give every community the attention they need.”

Emily Glass, a graduate student in her final year of the MENV program, said she joined the 2025 RTAP cohort after many recommendations from peers.

“I have always been intrigued by how durable outdoor recreation can be in the midst of the complex social and environmental issues we find ourselves facing,” Glass said. “I believe that a love of being in nature can be a universal human experience, and the joy from that helps bridge our own divides.”

Community members from Lake City, CO, attend RTAP's two-day community visioning workshop in 2024. Photo credit: Natalie Ooi

In Colorado, outdoor recreation is a powerful tool for economic development, Ooi explained. Outdoor recreation assets and amenities encourage people to spend time and money in these communities — but it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. According to Glass, this makes outdoor recreation “a great moldable option for rural communities to build resilience around.”

In the workshops, which were held in mid-March, topics such as community-identity, sustainable development and responsible recreation, environmental concerns and infrastructure capacity often underpinned the conversations about outdoor recreation development. Sometimes, the focus was on better aligning economic development and tourism initiatives to avoid duplicative efforts.

“In Leadville, one of their biggest challenges was that it’s a really dedicated bunch of people. But … it’s the same group of 20 to 30 people who do everything,” Ooi said. “Some of our focus was on how do we better coordinate [everyone] to come together and identify who is doing what?”

In La Junta, RTAP helped connect community organizations with regional partners working toward similar goals, like the broader Regional Partnerships Initiative from Colorado Parks and Wildlife. In Rangely and Dinosaur, RTAP facilitated a joint effort to organize a clean-up day and strengthen the towns’ relationships with the Bureau of Land Management.

“Part of the work we did was bringing key stakeholders from across the two communities into the same room … and realize, ‘Hey, we have common aims and interests and previous misunderstandings,’” Ooi said. “It’s helped to establish kind of this precedent of ‘we work together out here, even if we’re in different counties.’”

Now in its third year, Ooi said she is blown away by how communities have shown up to the workshops.

“We’ve had the best attendance at our community workshops than we’ve had historically,” Ooi said. She credits the rise in attendees to improvements in RTAP’s process and more engaged community contacts.

Despite strong engagement, Ooi said gaining community trust remains an ongoing challenge — one RTAP is uniquely positioned to meet.

“The key point of difference [for RTAP] is this plan is entirely community-driven,” Ooi said. “The graduate student team and our partners, we’re just facilitators. We’re not here to say, ‘this needs to go in the plan.’ Nothing should be in there that the community or someone in the community isn’t passionate about.”

Although not every community member attends the meetings, Ooi said the steering committees are composed to provide a “broader and more representative cross-section" than what is typical in community planning.

One of the most frequent questions RTAP gets is about funding. While RTAP currently doesn’t have the capacity to provide funds to implement the community action plans, the team hopes to work with OREC to establish seed funding in the future. For now, representatives from Great Outdoors Colorado, Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s Regional Partnership Initiative and other state agencies attend workshops to help guide long-term funding strategies. In addition, the community action plans developed by students include tools and tips for finding funding and resources, setting priorities, measuring impact and identifying timelines. Colorado State University Extension has recently partnered with RTAP to provide implementation support for the following 12-24 months.

Despite the challenges, community feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

“It has brought communities together. It has gotten them to understand what meaningful stakeholder engagement can look like, and it’s helped them go for other grants in areas they otherwise wouldn’t have,” Ooi said.

Like the communities they serve, RTAP has had a lasting impact on students.

“The RTAP project directed my career after school,” said Conner Borkowski, former MENV student who worked with Leadville in 2023. Borkowski now works as the program and special projects coordinator with the Pikes Peak Outdoor Recreation Alliance.

Glass shared that working with the Beulah community shaped her understanding of what impactful community-engaged scholarship looks like.

“When designed meaningfully, community-engaged work is an opportunity to weave together different perspectives, ideas and expertise that otherwise may not have come together … the backbone of community-engaged work is collaboration.”

The Colorado Rural Technical Assistance Program is funded in part by the Office for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship. Applications for the 2025–26 cohort open Summer 2025.

��’s Rural Technical Assistance program helps rural Colorado towns use their natural assets to strengthen local economies, deepen partnerships and define their own futures.

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MENV graduate students Abigale Purvis, Emily Palanjian, Jessica Hertzberg and Sarah McLaurin help facilitate the Keystone Workshop, March 12-13, 2025. Photo Credit: Natalie Ooi

Announcing the Spring 2025 Tier 1 and 2 Grantees

Arielle Wiedenbeck — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 19:32:03 +0000

Announcing the Spring 2025 Tier 1 and 2 Grantees Arielle Wiedenbeck Tue, 03/18/2025 - 13:32

Arielle Wiedenbeck

From an AI literacy platform to a community short film, 13 total projects received over $50,000 in funding. See the full list of grantees below.

Tier 2 (formerly Community Impact Grants)
Spring 2025 Recipients

Colorado Climate Seal & Resilient Futures Teacher Workshop
Tory Nau, Program Manager for the We Are Water Project
CIRES Center for Education, Engagement, and Evaluation (CEEE)

Community-Driven LGBTQ+ Creative Technology Workshops
Shaz Zamore, Assistant Teaching Professor
The ATLAS Institute

Co-designing Compassion & Dignity Professional Learning for PK-12 Educators
Ashley Potvin, Research Associate
Renée Crown Wellness Institute

Toward Community-Informed Science Teaching & :earning
Erin Marie Furtak, Professor
School of Education

Building a Tangible Platform for AI Literacy
Krithik Ranjan, PhD Student
The ATLAS Institute

Cognitive Health and Aging: A Multi-generational, Community-based Study
Analicia Howard, Predoctoral Trainee
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience

Mentoring Indigenous Students in Wolf Conservation Research
Alma Rose Sanchez, PhD Student
Department of Environmental Studies

Building Community Capacity to Reduce Heat & Smoke Risks
Valentina Serrano Salomon, PhD Student
Department of Sociology

Tier 1 (formerly Micro Grants)
Spring 2025 Recipients

Cherry Yogurt: An integrated community short film
Francesca Hiatt, Undergraduate Student
Cinema Studies and Moving Image Arts

Community Roundtable on Indigenous Reparations and Restoration
Christina Stanton, Clinical Associate Professor
School of Law

Evaluating water lead risks in transitional housing communities
Riley Mulhern, Assistant Professor
Department of Environmental Studies, Institute for Arctic & Alpine Research (INSTAAR)

Public Art Event at National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
Hanna Shell, Professor
Department of Art & Art History

Rendered Embodiment of Social Interaction (RESI)
Cass Bliss, Undergraduate Student
Creative Technology & Design

From an AI literacy platform to a community short film, 13 total projects received over $50,000 in funding.

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Words of Hope: Revitalizing the Zapotec Language

Arielle Wiedenbeck — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 19:40:53 +0000

Words of Hope: Revitalizing the Zapotec Language Arielle Wiedenbeck Tue, 02/25/2025 - 12:40

Elaina Caywood

There are currently 7,164 languages worldwide; however, this number is decreasing each year. According to Ethnologue, a research center for language intelligence, about 44% of languages are endangered, and more than 90% of current languages will be extinct by 2050.

But, there is an effort to fight against language extinction. One of these efforts is based at the �� (��).

With a grant from the Office for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship (PACES), Associate Teaching Professor Rai Farrelly and Assistant Professor Ambrocio Gutiérrez Lorenzo are working together with community members and �� students to support and sustain efforts to revitalize the use of the variety of Zapotec within Teotitlán del Valle, Mexico.

Designed for elementary students, this poster illustrates the Zapotec translation for the English word “blue” in the center, surrounded by other Zapotec translations for places and things that are also blue, such as the sky and a butterfly. The places and things were selected based on what students would recognize in their communities.

Beginning with her graduate studies in Utah, Farrelly was involved in efforts to revitalize Shoshone and Goshute through developing materials and training teachers. Farrelly realized not only the importance of language documentation and revitalizations, but also the difficulties involved with such an endeavor. For example, due to the oral tradition of most Indigenous languages, there is often a lack of a written form—and therefore, a lack of written teaching materials. “The pedagogy piece is important,” said Farrelly. “You have to document the language, write the grammar, write the dictionary. And, without a way to teach it and materials through which to deliver it, it’s kind of just a place for linguists to learn about the language.”

Farrelly and Gutiérrez Lorenzo, a Zapotec speaker and community member, are colleagues in the Department of Linguistics at ��. They joined forces to develop a Global Seminar based in Teotitlán del Valle, where �� students had a chance to not only learn the variety of Zapotec in the community, but also assist teachers of Zapotec in assembling and creating materials.

Isabelle Altman is one of the master’s students at �� who attended the 2024 Global Seminar, gaining not only valuable insight into language revitalization in practice but also the importance of collaboration on such a project. “I consider myself to be a documentary and revitalization linguist,” said Altman. “However, I didn’t realize the importance of language learning, pedagogy and curriculum design in a revitalization endeavor. I got to collaborate with students with a variety of specialties, including Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), linguistics and documentation. I believe that this collaboration between different areas allowed this project to be especially strong and effective in our creation of materials and connection with the community around us.”

As a prior research collaborator with Gutiérrez Lorenzo, Altman joined the Global Seminar to expand upon her academic career but found she appreciated the community-engaged approach of the project, stating that not only is it “unique” but also “extremely valuable.” Altman reflected, “By connecting and collaborating with the community in question, decisions can be made that involve everyone, but more importantly the community and its speakers. At the end of the day, the language belongs to its speakers.”

This Global Seminar provided Farrelly with another rich opportunity for community-engaged scholarship, an approach she has long appreciated. “The most important thing about community-engaged scholarship is that it’s driven by the community,” Farrelly explained. “A lot of academics come in with an idea of what they want to do, plow into communities and make decisions, then say ‘Thanks!’ and leave. PACES puts a lot of emphasis on mutual exchange, mutual benefit.”

Language Revitalization, especially the approach taken by Farrelly and Gutiérrez Lorenzo, relies heavily on input from the Teotitlán del Valle community. The community determines its needs and goals, guiding the direction of the project while collaborating with �� students to create much-needed materials and strategies for teaching the language. The students, in turn, gain valuable skills and a new level of empathy and understanding of Mexico that “feeds into their awareness and understanding of what’s happening right now” in the U.S.

“With the PACES grant, what we’re able to do is hire two graduate students in linguistics to build this online Zapotec resources hub where we’re having three entrance points: one for linguists or people interested in the language, one for the teachers of the language and one for students,” said Farrelly. “So, it’s going to be this really cool repository of materials and language, hopefully audio files and just different resources for Zapotec.”

The online hub has been a great source of collaborative work, both between �� students from different disciplines and community members within Teotitlán del Valle. Angelica, a collaborator within the Teotitlán community, uses the PACES stipend to continue teaching the Teotitlán variety of Zapotec year-round using the resources within the online hub.

Along with creating colorful posters and books to teach Zapotec, Farrelly, Gutiérrez Lorenzo and their team hope to expand their Zapotec Learning Hub and generate some excitement about the language. On a larger scale, she hopes that the team will create “some model or mechanism that really works with Zapotec” and can encourage other linguists and communities to apply what she has learned for revitalizing other endangered languages around the world.

But why does it matter if some languages are lost?

“Language is such a big part of our identity,” said Farrelly. “What’s encoded in all of those languages is a lot of information—about nature, animals, cures, the history of the world—that will all get lost if we lose the language. We lose the essence of a lot of cultures, of ways of being.”

This summer, Farrelly and Gutiérrez Lorenzo will again lead their Language Revitalization Global Seminar to Teotitlán del Valle, where they will continue to develop materials and teaching approaches to revitalize this specific variety of Zapotec within the community. For more information, visit the Global Seminar page.

As many languages face endangerment or extinction in the coming years, Associate Teaching Professor Rai Farrelly and Assistant Professor Ambrocio Gutiérrez Lorenzo are working together with community members and �� students to support and sustain efforts to revitalize the use of the Zapotec languages within Teotitlán del Valle, Mexico.

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Photo Credit: Rai Farrelly

Applications Now Open for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship Grants, Tiers 1-4

Arielle Wiedenbeck — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 19:13:32 +0000

Applications Now Open for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship Grants, Tiers 1-4 Arielle Wiedenbeck Mon, 01/13/2025 - 12:13

Gretchen Minekime

Applications open on Mon., Jan. 13 for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship (PACES) Grants, Tiers 1-4.

PACES funds public and community-engaged scholarship that connects �� research, teaching and creative work with partners in Colorado communities and beyond.

Tier 1 grants are for public outreach events and partnership development and will be awarded on a rolling basis until funds have been expended this semester. Faculty, staff and all students are eligible to apply.

Tier 2 grants are for seeding or extending public and community-engaged scholarship. Faculty, staff and graduate students are eligible to apply. Applications will be due Sun., Feb. 16.

Tier 3 and 4 grants are for faculty-led public and community-engaged scholarship and support individual or group projects. Applications will be due Fri., April 18.

See our website for more information and application deadlines.

PACES funds public and community-engaged scholarship that connects �� research, teaching and creative work with partners in Colorado communities and beyond.

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In the hands of these actors, theatre builds bridges

Arielle Wiedenbeck — Wed, 01 Jan 2025 18:00:00 +0000

In the hands of these actors, theatre builds bridges Arielle Wiedenbeck Wed, 01/01/2025 - 11:00 Sue Postema Scheeres

The conversation about learning and disabilities began amicably enough.

However, it soon became clear that the two strangers held radically different views about the topic, creating an uncomfortable situation.

While this may not seem like typical material for a theatre scene, the �� Playback Ensemble is using real-life experiences like this one to help local communities navigate difficult, even divisive issues related to social, economic and environmental change.

Known as “playback theatre,” it is improv with a purpose. Audience members contribute true stories and see them “played back” by actors who retell the story in ways that encourage understanding across difference. The ensemble of faculty, staff and students will be taking their show on the road to Paonia from January 8 to 11.

“Our goal is to hold the space, honoring the teller of the story and honoring our shared experiences,” said Jim Walker, a Norlin Scholars Program faculty member, who helped start the campus group this year. “We hope this can help build community in public spaces, to identify the things that we all care about.”

�� Playback Ensemble rehearses for workshops in Paonia that will be held from January 8 to 11. (Photo by Sue Postema Scheeres, ��)

Actively listening to break down barriers

Playback theatre is like a cross between a town hall meeting and an improvisational performance, said Ondine Geary, theatre and dance outreach coordinator at �� and the principal founder of the group.

To introduce and begin a performance or workshop, the actors describe how they are feeling and interpret those feelings through movements. Then audience members are invited to volunteer their own stories and an actor from the ensemble (“the conductor”) asks questions about the audience’s experiences. The actors retell the story through words and movement in a way that focuses on the emotions and tensions of the experience, and the audience member is asked to describe what they noticed about the story.

“We try to playback a person’s experience without judgment or without offering solutions,” Geary said. “Our job is to listen actively and with empathy and to give back what was given.”

Playback theatre started in 1975 and has been practiced in more than 30 countries to break down barriers and move toward reconciliation, frequently in traumatic situations. In Afghanistan, for example, victims of violence have been trained to share their stories as a way to redress the legacies of human rights abuses. In Memphis, a local playback theatre company helped to repair trust between the community and police.

Businesses also have used the techniques to develop management and communications skills and for diversity awareness. Studies have shown that playback theatre can improve relationships, relieve stress, facilitate reconciliation and more, Geary said.

Taking their show on the road

The ensemble will pilot their community outreach project in Paonia from Jan. 8 to 11, leading playback theatre workshops in schools and the community. Susie Lowe, executive director of the North Fork Valley Creative Coalition and the Paonia Creative District, invited the theatre group to Paonia to help facilitate conversations about current economic and social changes.

“Paonia is a town in transition, and as we address issues around economic development, resilience, diversity and change, we have noticed a splintering within the community,” Lowe said of the small rural town nestled in an agricultural valley on the Western Slope. “Our desire is to bridge the gap between the differing perspectives within our town.”

The coalition is fostering economic growth through the arts as part of the Colorado Creative Industries statewide program, and is partnering with �� theatre and dance faculty on different projects, including an annual graduate dance residency that performs and leads dance programs each May.

“Through the playback theatre workshops, which are designed to give everyone a voice to share their stories and opinions, we hope to build understanding, empathy, trust and respect,” Lowe said. “True community building can only be achieved by dismantling the differences that divide our society.”

The ensemble received program support and funding for the Paonia workshops from the �� Department of Theatre & Dance and the Office for Outreach and Engagement, securing a Community Impact Grant and also a �� Outreach Award. The ensemble plans to lead additional workshops in Paonia in 2021, and hopes to expand to other communities.

Finding shared humanity in hard places

Elise Collins, a graduate student in theatre and business, decided to join the ensemble after participating in a workshop with Geary.

“I had done improv before, so I was really drawn to this art form and how it values the power of stories,” Collins said. “Theatre is the purest form of empathy, because you have to listen and understand how someone thinks, recognizing the humanity of everyone else in the room.”

Depending on the scenario, the actors may choose to use symbols to reenact the story in a way that’s different than originally presented by the audience member. For example, when acting out the learning and disability conversation, the actors decided to tell the story as a conflict over the proper way to wear a scarf.

“The scarves really became a metaphor for the disagreement, not to minimize it but to help anchor the playback in universal experience,” Geary said. “We may not get people to change their views, but our goal is to help people recognize shared values.”

While the group acts out stories, Nelson Walker provides a soundtrack for the playback, improvising music on the cello to match the conversational tone.

“The role of the musician is to be a conduit between the audience and the actors, knowing when to yield and when to step forward,” said Walker, a music composition major who became interested in playback theatre through his dad, Jim. “Sometimes, if the actors are all saying things at once and the scene is reaching a peak, I have to make sure I don’t overwhelm them by playing too loudly.”

Jim Walker explained that while playback theatre derives from drama therapy, the goal is to generate collective conversations by providing opportunities for participants to connect their stories to others while also finding new insights into their own.

“Our work is not therapy, although it may have therapeutic benefits,” Walker said. “We do our best to be responsible with people’s stories and honor their experience.”

Interested in attending one of the workshops? Discover dates and times at the North Fork Valley Creative Coalition website.

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Grantee Stories

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Why your book and why now?

How has working in partnership with communities influenced your work?

Why do you think community-engaged scholarship is important for this campus?

What’s next for you?

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Opening Conversations: Empowering Youth with Complex Communication Needs

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Tier 1 (formerly Micro Grants)
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Related Articles

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In the hands of these actors, theatre builds bridges

Actively listening to break down barriers

Taking their show on the road

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Grantee Stories

SCENIC Expands Rural Impact at Trinidad Water Festival

Off

Colorado's Marshall Fire survivors find healing, meaning through oral history project

Off

Faces of Community-Engaged Scholarship: Amanda Giguere

The first play CSF adapted for this violence prevention program was Twelfth Night. What sparked your initial idea to incorporate an anti-bullying message into the play?

What research and evidence did you incorporate in Twelfth Night? What led to adapting more plays?

How many students has Shakespeare & Violence Prevention reached, in how many schools, and in what areas of Colorado?

How do you know this program is making a difference?

Why your book and why now?

How has working in partnership with communities influenced your work?

Why do you think community-engaged scholarship is important for this campus?

What’s next for you?

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How a High-Altitude Observatory Shaped Colorado’s Story

Off

Opening Conversations: Empowering Youth with Complex Communication Needs

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Outdoor Recreation Offers a Path to Community Resilience

����������’s Rural Technical Assistance program helps rural Colorado towns use their natural assets to strengthen local economies, deepen partnerships and define their own futures.

Off

Announcing the Spring 2025 Tier 1 and 2 Grantees

Tier 2 (formerly Community Impact Grants)Spring 2025 Recipients

Tier 1 (formerly Micro Grants)Spring 2025 Recipients

Off

Words of Hope: Revitalizing the Zapotec Language

Related Articles

Applications Now Open for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship Grants, Tiers 1-4

Off

In the hands of these actors, theatre builds bridges

Actively listening to break down barriers

Taking their show on the road

Finding shared humanity in hard places

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��’s Rural Technical Assistance program helps rural Colorado towns use their natural assets to strengthen local economies, deepen partnerships and define their own futures.

Tier 2 (formerly Community Impact Grants)
Spring 2025 Recipients

Tier 1 (formerly Micro Grants)
Spring 2025 Recipients