Wednesday
May 19, 2004
Vol 1, No 44

1. Trustee promises college tuition to middle schoolers
2. Faculty, staff garner awards
3. President's Award winner, other top students honored
4. Students to spend summer studying in Guadalajara
5. Do You Know? … Sheryl Luna, English Department

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1. Trustee promises college tuition to middle schoolers

Alex Cranberg, who serves on Metro's Board of Trustees, has promised the 550 current students at Denver's Horace Mann Middle School that if they graduate from high school, he will finance four years' worth of college tuition for each.

According to the May 18 Rocky Mountain News, Cranberg told the students that if anybody tells them they can't afford to go to college, "you tell them that you have a school fund … and that you can't afford not to."

The businessman said that he will pay the equivalent of Metro's annual tuition at the time the students attend college. They can use the money to attend Metro—which would amount to a four-year scholarship—or apply it toward the tuition at any college or their choice.

More than 93 percent of Horace Mann students come from families poor enough to qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. Cranberg said he wants the Horace Mann students to keep their determination to attend college and that people do care about them.

Cranberg is one of the original members of Metro's Board of Trustees. He owns Aspect Resources in Greenwood Village and is an outspoken advocate of school vouchers. He made his promise on Monday at an all-school assembly.

To read more go to
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/education /
article/0,1299,DRMN_957_2894250,00.html

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2. Faculty, staff garner awards

Several Metro State faculty and staff members have been recognized this spring with awards and accolades for their expertise, scholarship or leadership.

Monica Blackmun Visona, associate professor of art, has been awarded a Senior Fellowship from the Smithsonian Institution for a six-month residency beginning this fall at the National Museum of African Art to prepare a manuscript for publication. The tentative title is "Time and Space in the Art of the Lagoon Peoples of Cote d'Ivoire."

Jennifer Wynot, assistant professor of history, has published a book this month titled "Keeping the Faith: Russian Orthodox Monasticism in the Soviet Union, 1917-1939."

Amy Eckert, a Faculty Recruitment Incentive Program (FRIP) candidate in the Department of Political Science, has been selected to participate in a faculty development workshop at Vanderbilt University next month titled "Contested Values and Moral Reasoning in International Affairs."

Zav Dadabhoy, director of student activities, is a recipient of the 2004 Apple Distinguished Educator Awards, a national award given to outstanding educators who integrate technology into their curricula.

Steve Monaco, Student Services, has won the Espiritu de Aztlan Community Award from the Latino/a Faculty and Staff Association.

Derrick Haynes, coordinator of the Pacesetters Scholars Program, has received a Martin Luther King Fellowship Award, which grants him full tuition, fees and a $9,000 stipend for graduate study.

Metro State takes pride in recognizing all award winners and outstanding achievements on campus. If your award has not been noted, please e-mail to @metro@mscd.edu or call Donna Fowler, x65112, and we'll include your achievement in a future @Metro edition.

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3. President's Award winner, other top students honored

Recipients of the Outstanding Student Awards, college-wide awards for Metro seniors, were honored at a banquet Friday.

"The awards recognize students in the areas of scholarship, leadership and service," said Joanna Duenas, interim associate vice president/dean of student life. The awards banquet is sponsored by the President's Office, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Vice President for Student Services and the Office of Student Life.

Kevin Burke, a biology major graduating with a 3.92 GPA, received the President's Award, the highest honor for a graduating senior at Metro State. The award honors a graduate who demonstrates the utmost standards of academic excellence, leadership and integrity both on- and off-campus.

To read more go to
http://www.mscd.edu/%7Ecollcom/@metro/tw@metro_vol1/studentawards_twv1051904.htm

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4. Students to spend summer studying in Guadalajara

Associate Professor of Management Leroy Lopez will lead a group of 10 Metro students on an eight-week international business program this summer in Guadalajara, Mexico.

The group departs June 9 and will spend the first four weeks taking intensive Spanish language courses and a course titled Doing Business in Mexico. The second half of the program will be spent doing an internship in Mexico.

In its third year, the international business program has previously placed students in internships with the Colorado/Mexico Trade Office, Intercontinental Hotels, the American Chamber of Commerce and Hershey's-Mexico.

"Our program is extremely rare because we have professors accompany the students and we find internships for the students," Lopez said.

By next year, Lopez hopes to expand the program into a Central American or South American country, and in three years hopes to take the program to Spain. "Our plan is to continue to offer a consistent yearly international business program so students can plan on it."

For information about the program go to http://www.mscd.edu/~mexico/

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5. Do You Know? … Sheryl Luna, English Department

First-year English Department adjunct faculty member Sheryl Luna is the recipient of the inaugural Andres Montoya Poetry Prize given by the University of Notre Dame's Institute for Latino Studies. The prize, the first of its kind in the country, honors a full-length manuscript by a Latino/a poet who has yet to publish a book.

"Pity the Drowned Horses," a collection of Luna's poetry, will be published by the University of Notre Dame Press next year.

To read more go to
http://www.mscd.edu/%7Ecollcom/@metro/tw@metro_vol1/luna_twv1051904.htm

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@Metro is an electronic news bulletin distributed every Wednesday to all faculty, staff and administrators at Metropolitan State College of Denver.
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