Student Stories

Growing up in Durango, in the rural southwest corner of Colorado, Meredith Nass has sought a worldly perspective to bring to her work as a community organizer and coalition builder.

Jami Riley taught high school math for four years before enrolling full time in the CU Boulder School of Education's Secondary Mathematics Master's program with her sights set on developing the tools and knowledge to further refine her teaching practice with research-based evidence. Riley has proven to be an incredible...

A long line of educators inspired Will Ostendorf's winding path to becoming a teacher. His parents are both teachers — his mother taught middle school and his father entered the profession after retiring from an information technology company and volunteering five days a week in a middle school. As an...

Andrés Martínez, 23-year veteran social studies teacher, has studied the important role CU Boulder played in the Chicano Movement in Colorado and the opportunity to have a CU Boulder graduate education has been a welcome chapter in his story.

When Allison Murphy was young, she used to pretend her backyard in Colorado Springs was an archeological excavation site and that one day she would make a huge new discovery. Murphy is the 2020 School of Education secondary humanities outstanding graduate.

Anne Fisher started making concrete plans to become a history and education Buff when she was just a freshman in high school. Now, she is graduating as the 2020 School of Education outstanding graduate in elementary education.

From a young age, Alexandra Collard knew she wanted to teach. She loved learning and found math and science fascinating in the ways that they explain how the world works. Collard is the 2020 School of Education and CU Teach outstanding graduate in STEM education.

How can we do this together in a nicer, kinder and more loving way? This key question guided 2019 Outstanding PhD Graduate Paty Abril-Gonzalez through her doctorate dissertation at CU Boulder and still guides her now in her teaching and research as an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

As a former high school teacher and advocate for community empowerment, 2019 Outstanding MA Graduate Ben Erwin realized that he had a passion for the public policies that shape the educational field. “After my time in Mississippi in advocacy, I realized I wanted to pursue a career in education policy,” Erwin said. “My belief in education as a driver of social justice and opportunity continues to drive my passion for education.”

Kyle O’Keefe, 2019 CU Boulder School of Education Outstanding Elementary Education Graduate, believes that learning should be fun all the time. “Fun is a great equalizer in the classroom because it engages everyone in their learning,” O’Keefe said. “Even the most stubborn student can't resist joining in!”