INVST Community Studies Celebrates 30 Years

For 30 years, INVST Community Studies has been a 2-Year Program at the University of Colorado Boulder that prepares undergraduates to be leaders who work for social and environmental justice. Housed in the Center for Community Based Research and Learning, INVST has been bringing meaningful community engagement and the theories and practice of leadership together to students and the Boulder community since 1990. 

Prior to COVID-19, an intergenerational community of INVST alumni, students, staff, and faculty would have convened in Boulder in June of 2020, to commemorate the 30 years of community built through social and environmental justice learning. Instead, they reflect here on the role INVST has played in their lives and their hopes for the work to come. 

“INVST has always sought to be awake to what’s happening in the world right now” According to INVST alumna, and current Summer Program Facilitator and Instructor, Allie VanBuskirk. The foundation of INVST is strong. Over time, its leaders have recognized what has worked well and nurtured those elements. They have sustained the program for 30 years with an openness to being responsive and aware of what should change.

Every year, INVST students take two theory classes, four skills-based classes, and two month-long Justice Summers. During the school year, INVST students serve as volunteers with community-based organizations. In their second year , INVST students  research, design, implement and evaluate their own community leadership projects or SOL projects in teams with other members in their cohort.  

A noticeable shift in the program has been the students and communities INVST is focused on. “When I was in INVST, while it was still female students, it was mostly dominant identities, straight and white students. We have taken big strides to work as an organization to cultivate anti-oppressive education and seek out to work with particular identities to make sense of the world around us.” VanBuskirk explains. 

INVST has seen an increasing number of students carry projects on, beyond their time in the program. SWAP at CU Boulder was once an INVST project, similarly, Boulder Food Rescue was started by INVST alumni who met in the program. In 2018, students created the non-profit Transformative Teach and they continue to dedicate themselves to the work of dismantling the school to prison pipeline. 

An element Vanbuskirk is proud of is the desire of local organizations to hire INVST alum after working with students during their internships and SOL projects. “These organizations have cornerstones upheld by these students and volunteers. Lots of organizations find employees through INVST.” 

Miller shares that the combination of two years of programming in a close community, a curriculum shaped by students, summers of experiential travel, and learning are pretty unusual for a university like CU. “Students participate in all of our decisions. I imagine in the coming years there will be a lot of work influenced by the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement” Because the curriculum is a participatory pedagogy, it centers reflecting on current social movements and leaders. 

Miller shares that the organization has grown to be increasingly responsive to students' intersectional experiences in the political context of the U.S. “For years, international travel was a foundation of our curriculum. Several years ago, we had our first undocumented student. We had to do a full evaluation of international travel and ask why are we doing this and who does this support?” 

When asked what her goal is for the organization turning 30, she describes it as an age of maturity. “I’d like to see us come into financial maturity. Design a longer-term fundraising strategy and provide these two-year experiences to no cost to students and offer more scholarships and grants for students to continue the work after graduation.”

One of INVST’s current student leaders, Franky Torsiello, had the opportunity to reach out to 600 alumni this summer in preparation for the 30 year anniversary. “It was inspiring because you often don’t really know how [a program] will apply or impact you in the years to come. It was clear INVST has been a primary part of the lives of our alum.”

When asked why INVST has been an important space for her, Torsiello said “There is a community of women that work so hard and are such great role models to all of us. They help each of us realize the connections INVST has, and has had, for so many years, in the community.”

“My dear lifelong friends. The years of conversations and experiences that pushed me into growth. INVST reminds me that there is another way. As individuals and as a society, we have choice, even though it doesn’t always feel like that. INVST elevates the examples of people standing up in the world. INVST shook things up for me when I was a student because I’d never been exposed to real examples of different ways of living. The door was opened. And it still is!” shared Gavi Adler, INVST Class of 2004. 

“Where do you begin to describe a program and culture that's shaped so much of my world view? I don't know if I could assign my most memorable experience to a single incident - rather, I'd credit the critical thinking and curriculum that still challenge me to this day to critically examine everything. It's that overall culture that still sticks with me, several years after graduating from INVST.” shared Luc Polglaze, INVST Class of 2013.

“This is a sensitive but amazing time for change to really happen,” Torsiello says. “There’s a lot of solidarity but also a lot of turmoil. How can we as people, who really care about these issues, not only talk about these issues but also do something?”

Over the summer, INVST held 8 study groups, reading and reflecting on Dr. Ibram Kendi's book, How to be an Antiracist. Congressman John Lewis passed the week of the last study session. In considering Congressman Lewis’s last words, Dr. Sideris, INVST’s Program Director thought, “I'm struck by how much Kendi's definition of antiracist aligns with Lewis's definition of democracy:

‘Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we called the Beloved Community, a nation and world society at peace with itself.’

Similarly, Kendi writes, we cannot say we are "not racist" or claim to be "antiracist" people. Rather, being antiracist is an act. 

Thank you Lewis & Kendi both for showing us how to get into good trouble, necessary trouble. They have both spent their lives working to lay out a specific and detailed plan, for the rest of us to read, study & follow. How blessed we are to have these thoughtful leaders. Rest in power, Congressman Lewis.”