2021 Outstanding Graduates

Michelle Lopez’s Colorado roots run deep, and her family histories and culture have helped shape her work as a bilingual teacher. The lucha (or struggle) toward truth can sometimes feel overwhelming and daunting, but it can light the path toward unity and harmony. Completing this program represents a fight for...

Lauren Gaona’s students are often her best teachers. After teaching in Thailand, her Thai students taught her the true essence of being a teacher is about building trusting relationships and creating a space for everybody to bring their whole, authentic selves into the classroom. As a teacher, it’s ok to...

Corey Ferraro had his sights set on two things: becoming a teacher and attending the University of Colorado Boulder. The Master’s Plus Teacher Licensure program in the School of Education allowed him to check both of those boxes in just one year. Becoming a teacher is a life change I...

Lianna Nixon is an environmental photographer and activist, but on Earth Day 2020, she was not thinking about marches or demonstrations. That was the day she found out if her spot on the world’s largest polar research expedition was still on despite the spread of a global pandemic. Photography and...

Jax Gonzalez’s impressive academic accomplishments and educational pursuits would astound even their former self. I strive for liberation in everything that I do, and teaching is an opportunity to dream about building a world we all want to live in." “As a first-generation college student, to complete a graduate degree...

As an academic coordinator for student-athletes, Katharine Lindauer is used to supporting varsity student-athletes as they pursue success on the playing surface and in the classroom, but in the Master’s in Higher Education program, Lindauer is the student, learner, and supporter for classmates. I'm so appreciative of the opportunity to...

As a former elementary and middle school teacher interested in the intersections of race, science, and education, Jason Buell enrolled in doctoral studies in education because he deeply cares about teachers. I think it is important to not just think about teachers in relation to students, but that teachers themselves...

After more than a decade embedded in her postsecondary studies, Christine Zabala is looking forward to more of the same — continuing to work with college students and teaching to transform higher education. I continue to feel passion for working in higher education, because there is still so much work...

College opportunities, not to mention graduate studies, were rare in the small Southern African country of Zimbabwe where Tafadzwa Tivaringe grew up. With unyielding support from his parents, his community, and mentors, Tivaringe, or “Taphy” as he is known, did his undergraduate and postgraduate training at the University of Cape...

Will Lindsay comes from a long line of educators and CU Boulder alumni. Naturally, he followed in the footsteps of his family members and became a high school science teacher in Colorado Springs and later Denver after graduating from Colorado College. He loved teaching, but he could not shake the...