Scholarship

Back-to-Back Rhodes Scholars

Anonymous — Sat, 01 Feb 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Back-to-Back Rhodes Scholars Anonymous (not verified) Sat, 02/01/2020 - 00:00

Christie Sounart

For the second year in a row, CU Boulder can claim a Rhodes Scholar.

In November, Boulder native Jake Reagan (PolSci, Span’20) was awarded a 2020 Rhodes Scholarship. Prior to 2018, when Serene Singh (Jour, PolSci’19) received the distinction, a CU Boulder student had not received the prestigious scholarship in 25 years.

Reagan will join 31 other American students for a fully funded master’s degree at the University of Oxford in the fall. He intends to study international relations and ultimately return to Colorado to serve his community.

“I’m hoping to study how communities like Boulder or Denver can respond through policy to the changing economic environment of our world,” said Reagan, citing such changes as job offshoring, education funding and increased migration.

His call to public service began his freshman year. In October 2016, Reagan was in Spanish class in the CU humanities building when a mass student text suggested an active harmer was possibly on campus.

“I’m hoping to study how communities like Boulder or Denver can respond through policy to the changing economic environment of our world.”

“We tried to find a room with a lock in the building and couldn’t find one,” said Reagan.

While the active harmer situation that day was ultimately not the result of someone with a firearm, the experience changed him.

“I thought we needed to improve the safety protocols at CU,” said Reagan, who was elected one of three CU Boulder student body presidents in 2018, and became a staunch advocate for gun violence awareness and civil discourse.

Reagan interned with Senator Michael Bennet through the CU in D.C. program, founded a student group on campus called The Dialogue Initiative to discuss key campus issues and was mentored by Nobel laureates involved with the PeaceJam Foundation. He also volunteers as a Spanish translator for families involved with Boulder’s Emergency Family Assistance Association.

“[Reagan is] a remarkable young man with deep integrity, a clear vision and the capacity for action that will allow him to continue to make a difference on campus, in the state of Colorado and beyond,” Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano wrote to the Rhodes selection committee.

As he wraps up his time at CU, Reagan plans to enjoy his home state.

“I want to hike some more 14ers before I leave,” he said.

Photo by Glenn Asakawa

CU Boulder’s Jake Reagan is off to Oxford in the fall.

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CU's Jake Reagan Named a Rhodes Scholar

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Nov 2019 18:55:12 +0000

CU's Jake Reagan Named a Rhodes Scholar Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/25/2019 - 11:55

Senior Jake Reagan (PolSci, Span'20) has been named a 2020 Rhodes Scholar, becoming the second CU Boulder student to win the prestigious scholarship in as many years.

A Boulder native and honors student majoring in political science and Spanish with a minor in philosophy, Reagan learned of the award on Saturday following an interview in Salt Lake City. He shared the news by phone with his parents, his twin sisters who are also CU Boulder students, and his younger brother, who were gathered together in Boulder awaiting his call.

“It’s surreal,” Reagan said while waiting to catch a flight back home to Colorado on Sunday. “I just feel so deeply grateful to all of the so many different people who helped me get to right now. I feel so blessed.”

Read more about Jake in CU Boulder Today.

Senior Jake Reagan has been named a 2020 Rhodes Scholar, becoming the second CU Boulder student to win the prestigious scholarship in as many years.

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Alumni News Briefs — Summer 2018

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Jun 2018 15:00:00 +0000

Alumni News Briefs — Summer 2018 Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 06/01/2018 - 09:00

2019 Trips

Legends of the Nile
Jan. 22-Feb. 2, 2019

Tanzania Migration Safari
Jan. 23-Feb. 3, 2019

Radiant Rhythms
Feb. 10-23, 2019

Wonders of Vietnam and Cambodia
Feb. 12-26, 2019

Dazzling Down Under
Feb. 13-March 1, 2019

For details, email roamingbuffstravel@colorado.edu, call 303-492-8484 or 800-492-7743 or visit our travel website.

South Park Animator Joins CU Boulder Next

When South Park joined Comedy Central’s lineup more than 20 years ago, Eric Stough (Film’95) was the first person hired by creators Trey Parker (A&S ex’93) and Matt Stone (Art, Math’93).

He’s never looked back.

Now producer and lead animator for the taboo-shattering animated satire, Stough has won five Emmys and a Peabody Award for his work — and stands as the inspiration for the beloved character “Butters.”

In April, at the second installment of CU Boulder Next — the university’s large-scale, multiyear road show — Stough regaled the Washington, D.C., audience with tales of his days at CU (where Parker encouraged him to join the film department) through the present day, in which South Park-themed mobile and console games are part of American culture.

“All facets of my life echo the foundation given to me by CU,” he said during the conference’s closing remarks.

For videos of CU Boulder Next in Los Angeles and D.C. and information about next year’s San Francisco and Denver events, visit colorado.edu/next.

Alumni Association Tidbits

Northern Nevada now has an alumni chapter led by Tiffany Smith (Acct’92). … The Grand Valley chapter in western Colorado, led by Matt Jennings (Hist’05; MPubAd’14) and Katie Larson (Comm, Psych’05), hosts monthly mixers every third Friday of the month at the Ale House on 12th St in Grand Junction.

Plan a trip to Boulder Oct. 25-28 for Homecoming Weekend 2018. Attend the Alumni Awards Ceremony, BuffTalks, reunions, the Buffs on Tap craft beer and wine event, the Parade and Pep Rally on Pearl Street and Ralphie’s Corral tailgate. CU football plays Oregon State Oct. 27 at Folsom Field. Register at colorado.edu/homecoming and receive a free Homecoming T-shirt while you’re here.

The CU Boulder Alumni Association received 1,399 scholarship applications this year, including 385 from legacy applicants. It awarded 96 scholarships, including 41 to legacy students, worth more than $170,000.

The Alumni Association is hosting its first golf outing Monday, July 30, at the Boulder Country Club. Proceeds benefit student scholarships. To join as a sponsor, contact Tricia at tricia.essenpreis@colorado.edu. Visit colorado.edu/alumni/golf2018 to register to play.

CU Boulder Next, Homecoming, 2019 Roaming Buffs trips, Alumni Golf Outing.

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Summer 2018

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To Finland, with Love

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Dec 2017 17:30:00 +0000

To Finland, with Love Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 12/01/2017 - 10:30

Eric Gershon

It was Conor Brown’s first visit to the Finnish embassy in Washington, and he’d brought company: Two violinists, a cellist, a violist, a clarinetist and a singing accordionist. They’d be doing most of the work.

Brown (MMus’18) had largely done his part. Over the prior 18 months or so, he’d composed an original classical musical work the group would perform in a 100th anniversary celebration of Finland’s independence from Russia.

“It’s contemporary classical music inspired by Finnish folk texts,” said Brown, winner of the College of Music’s Finnish Jubilee Composition Scholarship. “The music is all about trying to tell the story in the texts.”

Sponsored by Don Johnson (Arch’62) and his wife, Maria, a dancer and native Finn, the scholarship was intended to inspire an original composition in Finland’s honor while benefiting a promising CU Boulder student.

After Brown, 29, won, he flew to Europe for 10 days of immersive research. He’d never been to Finland; it was a chance to steep himself in the language, landscape and musical tradition.

Brown’s Airbnb hostess in Helsinki, it turned out, was the daughter of Finland’s 2009 two-row button accordion champion, a resident of the far-northern town of Rovaniemi, near the Arctic Circle. Brown had coincidentally made plans to visit Rovaniemi. Once there, he hunkered down with the champion to soak in his knowledge of the instrument’s outsized role in Finnish folk music.

The experience inspired Brown to give the accordion a prominent role in his new piece, a three-movement, 20-minute work that had its world premiere at CU Boulder shortly before the trip to Washington.

“It really isn’t done until it’s on stage,” said Brown, who grew up in Boulder and studied clarinet at CU during high school, working with faculty clarinetist Daniel Silver.

Silver was on hand at the embassy, too — performing the clarinet part in Brown’s piece before an audience of about 150, among them a contingent of fans and friends from CU. Alicia Baker (MMus’17), pictured, played accordion and sang.

“The ambassador and other officials seemed incredibly pleased with how the work turned out,” Brown said.

Days later, he and the musicians recorded the piece for the first time.

Brown again left the clarinet part to Silver.

“I’m just the composer!” he said.

Photo by Daniel Kellogg

A student's musical homage to a nation wins a hearing before the ambassador.

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Loss Leads to Legacy

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 06:00:00 +0000

Loss Leads to Legacy Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 06/01/2010 - 00:00

Michael Hoza (Econ ex’87) had been thriving as a CU-Boulder student. He made great friends through his fraternity, was politically engaged on campus and had fallen in love with Colorado, playing hockey, skiing and riding his motorcycle along the Front Range.

One afternoon Michael and his friend took their motorcycles out for a ride and both were struck by a car. His friend survived. Michael did not.

Following the accident in 1986, parents George and Linda Hoza established the Michael Hoza Memorial Scholarship Fund and have contributed to it steadily over two decades. Aided by a gift match from George’s employer, IBM, the fund has grown to over $80,000 and provides scholarship support to several students each year.

“It’s been very rewarding,” Linda says. “I know Michael would be pleased to support other students at CU — the place he loved so much.”

A scholarship in memory of Michael Hoza provides scholarship to several students each year.

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Alum Heads Gates Fund to Help Students

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 06:00:00 +0000

Alum Heads Gates Fund to Help Students Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 06/01/2009 - 00:00

Scott Holter

Photo courtesy: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

When Bill Gates put up $125 million to fund his own philanthropic foundation in 2000, one of the first employees in the fledgling Seattle organization was Allan Golston (Acct’88), a health care executive working in nearby Olympia, Wash.

Nearly a decade later, the University of Colorado graduate is president of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s U.S. program, which has dispersed millions from the Microsoft couple’s fortune to low-income and disadvantaged Americans.

“Education is a great leader of opportunity,” says Golston, a Denver native. “What we try to do is increase that opportunity for those without access to the same kinds of opportunities that you and I had.”

One of the most vital opportunities Golston speaks of is finishing high school, a personal torch he has carried on behalf of the organization since visiting a decaying high school in the Washington, D.C., area with fellow foundation employee Greg Shaw.

“The moment we drove up to it, we knew by the terrible physical condition of the building that it had to be a difficult place to be,” says Shaw, who reports to Golston as the foundation’s director of policy and advocacy. “Yet what we found inside were wonderful kids. Allan came back [to Seattle] visibly shaken by the experience, having seen all of these students’ eyes light up with the possibility of learning. That’s one thing that has made it personally motivating for him, and all of us. Bringing back stories that remind us of what we’re up against.”

Golston’s motivation early in life stemmed from the work ethic his parents instilled in his working-class family. By age 7 he dreamed of following in his father’s career footsteps until the day the elder Golston, a mailman, took the boy on his route during a blinding Colorado snowstorm.

“Then I thought my mom’s job as a nurse was something that seemed interesting,” he says, “until I witnessed a cataract surgery, and I fainted.”

Infatuated in high school with math and science — and skiing — Golston headed to Boulder and the university that friends and family had been telling him about for years. He brought the same tunnel-visioned approach to college, working full time and immersing himself in community involvement and his studies.

These days Golston wants to see underprivileged students get similar chances. He claims only one-third of American children graduate without a hitch. A second third of students drop out completely, while the final third, having earned a diploma, enter their post-high school years unprepared.

To combat these statistics, the Gates Foundation — America’s largest charitable organization — partners with the government and the nation’s school districts to support high school reform, monitors the work students and teachers are doing in the classroom, empowers effective teachers and plans and implements the next generation of school models.

From his office in the shadow of the Space Needle, Golston oversees domestic giving, a $600 million program that represents one-fifth of the Gates charities. In addition to increasing the number of college-ready high school graduates, his group’s primary focus is to raise the number of college graduates.

Golston takes regular organizational trips to New York, Washington, D.C., and Chicago, but it’s visiting U.S. schools that he treasures most. There he can interact with and gather feedback from teachers and provide guidance and inspiration to students.

Shaw remembers one south Texas trip he took with his boss and the Gateses, when Golston checked in on the foundation-funded Hidalgo Early College High School, where nearly 100 percent of the students are minority and below poverty.

“Allan was almost giddy seeing the population of that school so excited about learning,” Shaw remembers.
The Hidalgo Early College High School was created to ensure all students are prepared for college, which goes along with the motto Golston tells nearly every student with whom he comes in contact: “This is possible.”

“It’s amazing to watch the low-income and minority students that society has basically written off dispel the myth that they don’t have what it takes,” Golston says. “If we continue to do what it takes to make the changes, these students can all do extremely well.”

There’s no doubt the foundation’s founders are on board every inch of the way. Since its inception, the Gates Foundation has given away some $17 billion to health, education and development causes all over the world. Golston counts 22 different strategies covered within the organization and says Bill and Melinda Gates are involved in every one.

“It’s quite clear the impact they want to have with their philanthropy,” he says. “They listen, they learn, they question, and they hold all of us accountable. Their generosity is huge, and to be in this moment in time of opportunity, knowledge and intellectual capital is quite amazing.”

<p>When Bill Gates put up $125 million to fund his own philanthropic foundation in 2000, one of the first employees in the fledgling Seattle organization was Allan Golston, a health care executive working in nearby Olympia, Wash.</p>

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Scholarship

Back-to-Back Rhodes Scholars

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CU's Jake Reagan Named a Rhodes Scholar

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Alumni News Briefs — Summer 2018

2019 Trips

South Park Animator Joins CU Boulder Next

Alumni Association Tidbits

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To Finland, with Love

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Loss Leads to Legacy

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