The community partnerships of an urban land grant institution
For a greater understanding of the role MSU Denver plays as an urban land grant institution in solving Colorado’s societal challenges, look at the breadth and depth of our impact through the following programs:
Impacting lives
Summer club sponsored by JTHO and others teach skills and life lessons: The kids who live in Denver’s low-income La Alma/Lincoln Park neighborhood missed out on a rite of summer last year. The city’s nearly century-old outdoor swimming pool at Lincoln Park was closed as crews worked on building a replacement. But some of those kids enjoyed a new rite of summer: a program that mixed activities like swimming and painting and field trips with lessons in leadership, kindness, civic pride and more.
Story: Full Story
MSU Denver in Ethiopia: Denver Sister Cities International has been honored for the work of its Axum Committee, which collaborates with MSU Denver to support a variety of educational projects in the northern Ethiopian city. MSU Denver has partnered with the Axum Committee since 2010 on a range of projects, including the building of an elementary school there. Nineteen MSU Denver students, faculty and staff will spend the summer of 2012 in Ethiopia, including time at Axum University, a partner of MSU Denver's.
Story: Full Story
Giving Back: Nearly 200 MSU Denver and Comcast volunteers joined forces to beautify campus and Denver’s waterways as part of the third annual Roadrunner Give Back Day and Comcast Cares Day, April 21.
Story: Full Story
Food for Thought: MSU Denver and the Hospitality, Tourism and Events (HTE) Department are providing storage and volunteers for Food for Thought, a partnership with the Arvada Sunrise Rotary. The program delivers nutritious food to kids at two Denver Public elementary schools that they can take home over the weekend. Studies show that some kids return to school Monday morning hungry and unable to learn because they haven’t eaten all weekend. The program could become a model that's replicated throughout Rotary International.
Story: Full Story
Blind Spot: You’re in a checkout line and want to pay with your debit card, but you can’t see the number pad. Or you need to get cash from an ATM, but you have trouble navigating the touch screen because you’re blind. Design communications students are working with the Colorado School for the Blind on “Blind Spot,” a project to address visual accessibility issues in public places.
Story: Full Story
Ute Mountain Ute Internship Program: In its sixth year in 2011, the Department of Anthropology’s Ute Mountain Ute summer internship program has exposed nearly 150 University students—the majority MSU Denver students— to life “on the rez.” Students, who live in tents during the internship, contribute by volunteering in tribal law offices, helping on farms and ranches and delivering programs that address diabetes and obesity. The reservation is located in southwestern Colorado just 11 miles south of Cortez.
Story: Full Story
Center for Urban Connections: Dedicated to promoting collaborative relationships between the University and the surrounding community, the Center for Urban Connections is a resource for community partners and for MSU Denver students, faculty, staff and alumni. Successes range from compiling a University-wide inventory of community-based learning classes, the development of an MLK, Jr. Day community service event, in addition to the following initiatives:Project Family
Homeless Connect: Full Story
UCAN Serve volunteer program: Full Story
African Community Center (helping refugees settle in Colorado): Full Story
Gender and Communications class relationship with eight nonprofits: Full Story
Web site: http://www.msudenver.edu/urbanconnect
Impacting Colorado businesses
Open for Business: The Marketing Department’s Open for Business program is in keeping with the business school’s philosophy of tying classroom academics to the outside world and, in the process, giving local businesses fresh, innovative ideas for marketing their products. Students complete about 20 marketing plans for Colorado companies every year.
Story: Full Story
Food and Wine Classic. Every fall about 80 Hospitality, Tourism and Events student volunteers get a taste of real-world event and beverage management when the Denver Food and Wine Classic comes to campus. The event, the second largest of its kind in the state, features 600 wines, signature spirits and cuisine from more than 40 of Denver’s finest restaurants. The food and wine extravaganza brings thousands of people to the Auraria Campus.
Story: Full Story
Innovation Fund Microlending program: A joint-enterprise between MSU Denver’s Center for Innovation and the Rocky Mountain Microfinance Institute provides loans to MSU Denver students and community entrepreneurs seeking capital to grow their businesses.
Website: www.metrostateinnovate.org
Hispanic Leadership Development Program: The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce turned to MSU Denver to design its inaugural Hispanic Leadership Development Program (HLDP). The program includes leadership training to understand cultural differences, focusing on creating dialogue between participants and veteran Latino leaders at the business and civic levels. The goal is to teach emerging leaders how to overcome obstacles that traditionally hinder Latinos from receiving promotions.
Story: Full Story
Impacting P-12 education
Center for Urban Education: An alliance with Denver Public Schools modeled after the nationally renowned Harlem Enterprise Zone puts more teachers who are specifically qualified to teach in the urban environment into the classrooms of Denver’s inner-city schools.
Web site: www.metrostatecue.org
Academy for the Development of STEM-Related Careers: A coalition MSU Denver co-founded to develop tomorrow’s scientists and engineers by inspiring interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) in all students—kindergarten through graduate school, and especially students of color: 30 percent of the University’s biology majors and 27 percent of its chemistry majors are students of color.
Website: www.msudenver/stemresearch/
OpenWorld Learning Partnership: Since 2007, MSU Denver has been partnering with OpenWorld Learning, a non-profit organization that taps technology and peer instruction to teach children. Continuing this relationship, MSU Denver hosted two OpenWorld camps in summer 2010: The first camp taught middle school students leadership, conflict resolution, and decision-making skills. The second camp provided elementary students hands-on experience with Internet search engines, Lego robotics, and computer programming.
Story: Full Story
Comcast Cares Day: On April 24, 2010, the University joined more than 60,000 volunteers across the country in support of the Ninth annual Comcast Cares Day, one of the largest single-day corporate volunteer efforts in the country. One thousand MSU Denver and Comcast employees, including their family and friends, volunteered an estimated 3,700 hours working on more than 45 campus beautification and improvement projects on campus.
Story: Full Story
Building Bridges athletics partnership: A program that links MSU Denver and Denver West High School girls' softball team; it took home the NCAA Division II Community Engagement Award.
Story: Full Story
Impacting artists and the arts
Center for Visual Art: A one-of-its-kind art gallery now in its new home in the Art District on Santa Fe in the culturally rich La Alma and Lincoln neighborhoods, supports MSU Denver’s effort to become an Hispanic Serving Institution and gives the community access to the University’s art faculty, a service that transcends the role of commercial galleries and museums.
Website: www.msudenver.edu/cva
Art Builds Communities: This program offers memorable, interactive art experiences designed to expand life views and provide productive after-school alternatives to art-starved, at-risk children who live in Denver’s low-income housing.
Website: www.msudenver.edu/cva
Department of Theatre Partnerships: The department is taking health awareness messages to the Denver metropolitan area through the following innovative collaborations:
The department has joined with the Speech, Language, Hearing Sciences Program, housed in the University’s Department of Communication Arts and Sciences, to create a 17-member play, “Here’s to Ears,” that toured PK-8 schools to create awareness among youth about hearing loss and to demonstrate ways to protect their hearing.
Story: Full Story
Kaiser Permanente has placed theatre students in classrooms via Kaiser’s Educational Theater Program to teach thousands of Colorado’s grade-school students the dangers of obesity. The program dovetails with First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let's Move” campaign to make healthy living a priority for kids.
Story: Full Story
Website: www.msudenver.edu/theatre
