Adventures in Admission

Diversity Summit on Inclusive Excellence

Last week the University of Denver hosted hte 11th Annual Diversity Summit on Inclusive Excellence. It was a packed event featuring keynote speaker Jeff Johnson, workshops around the theory and practice of inclusive excellence, a TEDxDU salon luncheon, roundtable discussions and a chocolate fountain networking event!

I've attended for several years now and have been impressed with the quality speakers and the challenge to the community to truly think about how the concepts of diversity and inclusion can be embedded in our daily lives. The Chancellor kicked off the event this year with an analogy from the world of chemistry (he began his career at DU as a chemistry professor and is still very much an academic!) about the type of energetic reaction that occurs when you mix hydrogen and oxygen. If we have hydrogen and oxygen on our campus, but they do not mix, there will never be a reaction. And if they only intersect along the fringes there will only be small reactiosn. However, if they mix completely there will be a huge reaction that will propel us all even further. So the challenge to the community is to not just have representation of diverse groups, but to have a truly inclusive community that values and honors the various perspectives and backgrounds in a way that takes us all to the next level.

Jeff Johnson, our keynote speaker, was not out to make people feel good. He told us up front that he wanted the audience to leave the day and actually make changes, not just feel good about participating in a one day event. He shared inspring stories and brought in recent examples from our own campus community. There was a buzz in the air as people left his session and went off to a variety of workshops around campus.

Our office was particularly excited about the TEDxDU salon during lunch as our own admission counselor Claudia Hernandez-Ponce spoke about her journey of bringing together two worlds. Dr. Gregory Anderson, dean of the Morgridge College of Education, spoke about being challenged more by a question from his 5-year-old son than anything he's ever faced in life. We also have a speaker who introduced himself only as "Mega Man" to get people thinking about the judgments they make before ever getting to know someone. All in all it was a powerful session and each speaker honed in on particularly challenging situations in relation to this idea of inclusive action.

While I always enjoy my time at the Diversity Summit, I am even more encouraged by the fact that it is not just a one day event at DU. It truly is being embedded into the fabric of who we are. We are quick to acknoweldge that we still have a long way to go in creating a truly inclusive community, but we are committed to moving forward and making this an excellent place to live and learn and grow.

Emily Forbes

Director of Communication

Counselor Workshop Update

 For the past week our admission counselors have been traveling around the state of Colorado updating high school counselors about all the new, exciting things happening on campus.  We welcomed the smartest, most diverse class of students to DU earlier this month and are excited about the ways in which they are already getting involved and making a difference on campus.  For the third year in a row, DU enrolled the highest number of Boettcher scholars (13 just started classes last week) in the state.  The Boettcher Scholarship allows 40 Colorado students to attend any college or university in the state by providing them with a full tuition, room and board, books and expenses.  This is always an exciting group of students for us to interact with because they tend to be excellent students and leaders in their communities.

We launched a new sustainability minor this year focusing on three pillars: the environment, economics and social equity.  This minor will complement much of the work already happening on campus around sustainability and will allow students to formalize this emphasis and learn new ways to apply these concepts in their studies.  We also formalized another dual-degree opportunity for students studying natural sciences, mathematics or engineering at the undergraduate level to pursue a master's in engineering - and they will be able to complete both degrees in just five years!  Quite an accomplishment when many students around the nation struggle to finish a bachelor's degree only in five years.  The dual-degree in engineering will join our current program offerings in business, education, social work, art history, international studies, public policy and geographic information science.

This past year we saw many student-led initiatives focusing on how we truly fufill our mission of being a private university dedicated to the public good.  Our student senate worked closely with the city of Denver to launch the bike share program which will eventually have over 1000 bikes available throughout the city with bike stations on campus for students to pick up a bike, ride it downtown for an internship or down to the Cherry Creek Resevoir on a nice Saturday afternoon, then return it for free.

 

Photo by Wayne Armstrong

The environmental team partnered with Denver Urban Gardens to launch a new organic garden next to campus open to both students and community members.  Throughout the year they will host free workshops about composting and the benefits of organic gardening.  We had students serving not only in the Denver community, but around the world through International Service Learning projects or while they were studying abroad through Cherrington Global Scholars. 

It is so exciting for us in the office of admission to learn more about the ways in which our students are engaging in the community and truly tackling the big issues of the day!

Emily Forbes, Assistant Director of Admission

They're here!

All of our first year students moved onto campus yesterday and were officially welcomed as the class of 2013 earlier this morning.  Continuing students return to campus later this week and then classes begin on Monday, so campus is abuzz with excitement!  This is such a fun time for our new students, but we realize that it can also be an emotional time as families start their treks back home, leaving their sons and daughters here at DU.  The Pioneer Passage event marks the transition time for our office - we say hello to all the students we recruited last year and then hit the road again to start meeting new students and families.  Our staff has spent a lot of time together over the summer - both in the office and out (two counselors got married, we attended concerts and Rockies baseball games and had a few office get togethers after work), but now we say goodbye because we won't all be together again until November!

Emily Forbes, Assistant Director of Admission