School of Education

Building Colorado’s Classrooms

Anna Tolette — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 21:59:18 +0000

Building Colorado’s Classrooms Anna Tolette Mon, 07/20/2026 - 15:59

Science Discovery brings STEM learning to K-12 students.

Patricia Kaowthumrong

Science Discovery brings STEM learning to K-12 students.

On a summer day in 91��Ҹ� in the early 1900s, students and teachers traveled from across the state to gather on the 91��Ҹ� campus. For many of those students, this event, “High School Day,” marked the first time they had ever set foot on a college campus. Teachers attended lessons and lectures, students embarked on campus tours, and a sense of excitement stretched far beyond the foothills.

This festive gathering was part of a much larger university-led effort to build a first-of-its-kind primary education system and expand the availability of college preparation across the region. When Colorado became a state in 1876, access to schooling past the primary grades was limited and uneven.

“There were no more than a handful of high schools — possibly just two,” said David Meens, CU 91��Ҹ�’s assistant vice chancellor for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship (PACES).

Through its Extension program — now the Division of Continuing Education — CU 91��Ҹ� connected communities to the university while helping lay the foundation for Colorado’s high school system.

“The university was seen as the head of the public school system, and they felt responsible for the quality and accessibility of the entire K-12 education system,” Meens said.

Building the System

That vision of connection between schools and the university was shaped by James Baker, CU’s president at the turn of the 20th century. Before his leadership role at the university, Baker spent 17 years as principal of Denver High School.

In the 1890s, he joined national leaders — including Harvard president Charles Eliot — on the Committee of Ten, a group tasked by the National Educational Association with standardizing the American school system. Their 1894 report outlined a familiar structure: eight years of primary education followed by four years of high school, all designed to prepare students for college.

Baker carried that framework back to CU, where his “fondest dream” came true in 1912 with the creation of CU Extension. The division connected Colorado’s growing secondary education system to the university’s broader public mission: to broaden access to CU 91��Ҹ�’s resources and provide learning opportunities beyond traditional degree paths. By the 1920s, Colorado high schools numbered in the hundreds, according to reporting and archives reviewed by Meens.

Through its high school visitation and accreditation program, the university sent faculty and staff to cities throughout Colorado to evaluate schools and determine whether their graduates were prepared for college. Accreditation meant students could matriculate to CU 91��Ҹ�, giving communities a strong incentive to establish and improve their schools. In the 1923–24 academic year alone, Extension staff traveled over 10,000 miles to visit 210 high schools in all 64 Colorado counties.

That growth was made possible in part by Congress’s 1875 Enabling Act, which used public lands to fund the university and Colorado’s “common schools” — though, as Meens notes, those lands had been taken from Indigenous communities.

“It was this collaboration between communities and the university that laid the foundations for the educational systems we all take for granted today,” Meens said. “While the state and the university can be tremendously proud of our school system and its successes, we should never lose sight of the fact that this was made possible by some very profound injustices.”

Expanding Access

By the mid-20th century, the statewide system was firmly in place, thanks in large part to the university. But the structure of CU’s outreach was evolving too — shifting from building Colorado’s educational infrastructure to widening participation within it.

As CU 91��Ҹ�’s reach grew, Extension was renamed the Division of Continuing Education in the 1970s. The name changed, but the mission endured as the university continued extending its resources to communities from the Front Range to rural Colorado.

One example is the High School ACCESS program, which allows high school students to take CU 91��Ҹ� courses. Through advanced coursework in subjects like math, science and foreign languages, these students can begin to envision a college future. This reflects what Suzanne Claussen, assistant dean for strategic engagement in Continuing Education, describes as a broader mission to serve those “outside the box” of a traditional university path — students who may not otherwise see a place for themselves at CU.

High School ACCESS serves a wide range of learners, including students from traditional, homeschooled and marginalized backgrounds. And the results are visible: Of the 158 participants over the last three years, 25% were first-generation students, 30 of whom were accepted to CU 91��Ҹ�. As Claussen said, the goal is to ensure that “not just wealthy kids come to CU 91��Ҹ�. … We’re trying to open up opportunities for any student.”

Continuing the Legacy

Across Colorado, programs now connect students and teachers to CU 91��Ҹ� in ways that echo the

original goals of Extension. Among them is Science Discovery, a 43-year-old program that brings hands-on STEM learning to K-12 students and educators. Through summer camps, after-school programs and classroom partnerships, the program serves 8,000 to 10,000 students each year statewide.

“We really see ourselves as a connector, helping STEM professionals share the current science, math and engineering they’re working on with the community,” said Stacey Forsyth, director of Science Discovery.

The program, which works to overcome geographic barriers, particularly in rural communities, supports educators through professional development, classroom resources and access to new technologies that can be diﬃcult for schools to provide on their own.

“Not everybody is able to get here to campus,” Forsyth said, “so [we’re] trying to bring resources from campus out to schools and communities.”

As CU 91��Ҹ� continues to push for an increasingly innovative future when it comes to research, technology, arts and humanities, a sharp focus on student success remains foundational. Now 150 years later, the original vision of access and excellence in education remains integral to its mission.

“We see ourselves as a capacity-building partner that helps communities realize their own ambitions through the kinds of resources we can bring to bear,” Meens said. “So that model from the 1910s is still the model that we operate on today.”

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Photos courtesy of Science Discovery

Inside CU 91��Ҹ�’s lasting impact on K-12 education.

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CU's Precollegiate Development Program Celebrates its 40th Anniversary

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 06:00:00 +0000

CU's Precollegiate Development Program Celebrates its 40th Anniversary Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 07/16/2024 - 00:00

Christie Sounart

This July, CU 91��Ҹ�’s Precollegiate Development Program (PCDP) celebrates its 40-year anniversary. The program gives social and academic resources to Colorado middle and high school students — particularly first-generation students who live in geographically diverse communities — to help them prepare and succeed at the post-secondary institution of their choice.

Over the past 40 years, PCDP has helped approximately 1,800 student and family participants from 60 middle and high schools. Ninety-eight percent of them attended college (73 percent at CU 91��Ҹ�). In 2003, the program’s success led to a partnership with the Roaring Fork Valley School District to create the state’s first rural precollegiate partnership program. In 2009, CU 91��Ҹ� helped create a similar program in Colorado’s Summit County School District.

Here, five PCDP alumni speak out about their experiences.

Tyler Ting (BioChem; MechEngr’15)
Director of Regulatory Affairs at Avio Medtech Consulting
Carbondale, Colorado

“The precollegiate program gave me a lot of confidence that, despite the fact I was a first-generation student, I would have the tools and resources to succeed. Also, I was introduced to two of my lifelong mentors, Herb and Kate Feinzig, through the program.”

Hon. Joseph A. Salazar (Soc’93)
Chief Legal Counsel for Adams 14 School District
Thornton Colorado

“The first day of the summer program, my dad expressed his astonishment that his son was going to attend college classes at CU 91��Ҹ�. He hadn’t finished high school. He was a printer. He grew up in the San Luis Valley, Denver and Brighton. What did he know about this world? His first visit was my third, and I saw myself in his expressions. I was so damn happy that my dad was excited about this journey. My mama was excited, too. She is a fiercely strong woman, and she was my guiding light to seize this moment and do something with it.”

Estefania Vigil (Acct’13)
Financial Reporting and Technical Accounting Wenior Manager at EY
Basalt, Colorado

“The program provided me with the resources necessary to make attending a higher education institution an attainable goal, as well as provided a lifelong mentor whom I can still call upon for advice. I also currently hold a position on the precollegiate advisory board as it instilled in me the desire to pay it forward in the form of mentorship.”

Wenming Ye (CompSci’99; MS’00)
Senior Product Manager Lead for Google Cloud
91��Ҹ�, Colorado

“My family immigrated to the United States in 1992. We lived off Folsom Street, and I was curious about college life and research work that was done at CU 91��Ҹ�. The PCDP program provided me with a comprehensive understanding of the university system, enabling me to navigate the campus more effectively two years later. Most notably, it led to a system administration job with the director of the Center for Integrated Plasma Studies, where I developed a keen interest in high-performance computing systems. This interest played a crucial role in securing positions with the Microsoft HPC team and later at Microsoft 91��Ҹ�, where I developed strong interest in machine learning and deep learning.”

Nicole Lucero-Holub (OrgMgmt’93)
Vice President of Human Resources for the Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Englewood, Colorado

“PCDP gave me the opportunity to experience the challenges of college-level coursework, prepare for the ACT and gain exposure to campus living. I had comfort knowing that I wasn't alone on campus as there were other PCDP graduates and friends, program staff and mentors, and not to mention Hispanic alumni that I’d get to meet at alumni events. … My mom always taught me that through my success I have a responsibility to pay it forward to our Hispanic community. After my freshman year in college, I became a counselor at the CU Denver Precollegiate program in 1989.”

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Illustrations by Ryan Olbyrsh

This July, CU 91��Ҹ�’s Precollegiate Development Program (PCDP) gives social and academic resources to Colorado middle and high school students — particularly first-generation students who live in geographically diverse communities — to help them prepare and succeed at the post-secondary institution of their choice.

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InsideU Helps Kids & Caregivers Build Emotional Literacy

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 06:00:00 +0000

InsideU Helps Kids & Caregivers Build Emotional Literacy Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 07/16/2024 - 00:00

Kelsey Yandura

“Have you ever thought about what’s going on inside your head?”

It’s no small question — and the first one school-aged users are asked to contemplate in episode one of InsideU, a web-based app that uses Pixar’s Inside Out as a platform for social-emotional learning.

Over the course of four animated episodes, a character dubbed “the Mind Worker” guides kids through real-world scenarios. Characters like Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust offer common language and frameworks to build emotional awareness in children and their caregivers.

“It's a platform for understanding some of our most difficult moments,” said Sam Hubley, an assistant research professor with CU 91��Ҹ�’s Renée Crown Wellness Institute, whose vision for InsideU began nearly a decade ago with the release of the movie.

Hubley and his team at the Crown Institute have spent years in partnership with Pixar Animation Studios and the Boys & Girls Club of Metro Denver to create an accessible and free experience that is also fun.

“We wanted something that could be used in schools, as well as in less formal settings like after-school programs,” said Hubley. “I give this to six-year-olds who've never seen it and, within 10 seconds, they know exactly how to start playing.”

According to Marie Olivett, director of mental health programming at the Boys & Girls Club of Metro Denver, the app has become a vital part of their after-school programming.

“Technology is the language of kids,” said Olivett. “InsideU is very experiential and helps them gain control of how they want to make decisions in a way that's really empowering.”

Julia Zigarelli, deputy director of the Crown Institute, has seen tremendous results upon implementation.

“I could see a hundred clients in my office, but we'd never be able to reach this many kids at such a deep level,” said Zigarelli. “That accessibility and reach is really exciting to me. Our hope is that it reaches as many kids as possible.”

CU 91��Ҹ�’s Renée Crown Wellness Institute has partnered with Pixar to launch a web-based application that can help kids better understand their emotions.

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