Board Members Opposed to New Amendments and Proposition

At this year’s Annual Meeting on September 14, the Metropolitan State College Alumni Association Board of Directors voted unanimously to adopt a resolution stating their opposition to Amendments 60 and 61, and Proposition 101.

Deciding to take a position on these kinds of issues is always a carefully measured decision. It was gratifying to see how engaged board members (and other alumni present) were in the presentation given by John Lay, of Don’t Hurt Colorado. There were great questions posed and there was also a clear message in the discussion that these measures would be detrimental to Metro State and had to be opposed by the Alumni Association. Thank you for your commitment to Metro State and for your brave stance!

As a follow-up to this resolution, we anticipate activating the Alumni Action Task Force. In preparation for that, discussions are underway with the Capstone Group about next steps, including the role and actions of the Alumni Action Task Force. I am happy to tell you that Board Member John Silva is ready to take a lead role as the Chair of the Alumni Action Task Force, and I want to express my thanks to him for stepping up!

Dr. Jordan and Rob Cohen, Chair of the Board of Trustees, have also expressed their sincere appreciation to the Alumni Board from the College and the Trustees. They are well aware of the important role of the Alumni Association in this endeavor and were pleased that the Board approved the resolution.

For more information on these amendments and proposition: http://bit.ly/b0w88S

Check out our Plain & Fancy Ball photo gallery

Check in with our Facebook Fanpage each day this week for newly posted photos and videos!


Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

Plain & Fancy Ball photo gallery

Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

The Alumni Association Has A New Executive Director!

On behalf of Cherrelyn Napue, I am thrilled to tell you that the position of Executive Director, Alumni Association and Director, Alumni Relations, has been filled! Mark Jastorff has accepted the position and hopes to start on October 1st.

Mark comes to us with an abundance of relevant experiences and successes, and an enthusiastic passion for the mission of MSCD and Alumni Relations. We have no doubt that he will “hit the ground running” and that he will be chock-full of exciting and innovative ideas to grow the Alumni Association.

Mark was the preferred choice of the Alumni staff, and we are all excited to work with him.

Alumni Spotlight: Thomas Letts' passion for flight

You can tell by the smile on his face when he’s flying, teaching or anywhere near airplanes, Jeppesen employee Thomas “Tom” Letts (’83, PPT) loves flying. Letts and Jeppesen President and CEO Mark Van Tine donated a flyover of Denver to be auctioned off at the Plain & Fancy Ball. We recently chatted with Letts about his life’s passion and why he continues to support Metro State.

Metro State: Why is Metro good for the community?
Thomas Letts: Metro offers something for everybody. All the professors pretty much have lived in the working community, and so when they come back to teach it’s not just been their life ambition to teach; they have actually been out in the world doing what they teach. They can offer insight that other college professors don’t have.

MS: How did Metro State prepare you for your career?
TL: Not only did I have wonderful professors, but I also made connections. The reason I got my first really good job after leaving Metro State was the person who interviewed me was in the social fraternity Alpha Eta Rho (which no longer exists). He was also a Metro graduate. The connections I made at Metro were, have been and still are life-long.

MS: Why are you so passionate about your career?
TL: Flying still has mystery to it. It still has romance to it. When people get married and go on a honey moon. They get on an airplane and fly half way across the world to some exotic place. Every time you get in an airplane there’s a little bit of giddiness. It brings out the kid in all of us. There’s mystique to it. Aviation has made the world a smaller and more global place.

MS: What was your experience at Metro like?
TL: Metro one of the top three colleges for aviation in the States, in my mind. It’s just wonderful. At Metro, I got to know each and every student in every class. I still have life-long relationships with about two dozen people I met.

MS: What are some key pieces of advice you might offer to others who might pursue a similar career?
TL: If we are passionate about what we do, the highs are always higher and the lows are never that low. If we follow our dreams, it doesn’t matter what money we make. It doesn’t matter a lot of things because we are doing what we love. If you follow your dream, you gain eight hours a day back in your life. I truly believe that.

MS: Why do you feel it is important to support events such as the Plain & Fancy Ball?
TL: Metro has basically nurtured careers that have blossomed at Jeppesen. The other thing is that there could be a time when there are not enough pilots to fill pilot positions, and everybody else who works in the aviation industry. It is very important for us to give back to the community in every way we can.

MS: Is there anything I’m not asking you that you want to share with me?
TL: Metro brings together the different generations … everybody there is on the same playing field. They are all there to learn. A lot of times the more senior students had a lot to offer as far as life learning, and for that reason we learned a lot more listening to other people talk about life experiences than we did through the book work we did.

To see more images, click here.

Discovery Flight with Jeppesen Employee Flying Association Veteran Pilot and Metro State Alumni Thomas Letts
Take to the sky for a bird’s eye view of the Front Range with veteran pilot and Metro State alumni Thomas Letts. Letts, a 1983 aerospace graduate and an aviation systems and data analyst for Jeppesen in Englewood, offers this package as an instructor with the Jeppesen Employee Flying Association. He’ll take you up in a JEFA Diamond DA-42 that features a Garmin G-1000 Glass Panel on a “Discovery Flight” from Centennial Airport. You’ll fly around Red Rocks and Golden, over Mile High Stadium, Coors and Elitch Gardens, with a quick tip of the wing to Metro State’s World Indoor Airport, before heading back for a perfect landing at the Perfect Landing restaurant at Centennial Airport for lunch with the pilot. We bet you’ll be inspired to take up flying after this experience!

NOTES: Certificate good for 6 months (Expires March 26, 2011); good for one passenger; flight must be prearranged directly with pilot; flight time and date dependent on weather and availability; preflight and flight time total is approximately 2 hours; lunch with the pilot included

Alumni Association Board & Annual Meeting update

More than 50 people attended Alumni Association Annual Meeting & Board Meeting at the PE & Events Center Lobby, Auraria Campus, on September 14. In addition to welcoming the new board members and new Board President Jim Garrison (1980, Economics), the audience also enjoyed meeting the seven new Alumni Scholars, hearing a speech from Alumni Scholar Jeremy Casey about how the scholarship has benefitted him, and, finally, a presentation from John Lay. a veteran economic development executive who’s working for Colorado for Responsible Reform. Lay discussed three bills that will slash taxes and adversely affect higher education. Read more about the fight against tax cuts by clicking here. Finally, attendees were presented with the Annual Report. To get a copy of the report, please call the Office of Alumni Relations at 303-556-8320.

To see photos from the event, click here.

Check out Jeremy Casey's engaging speech.

The 6th Annual Denver Food & Wine Classic photos

Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

Alumna Linda Garrison donates $1200 Week stay at Suites at Steamboat Spring

Because she is an alum and because the Plain & Fancy Ball is one of the “major fundraising efforts for the College and Alumni Association,” Linda Garrison (’81, JRN) decided to donate a week stay at the Suites at Steamboat Springs. Metro State’s Office of Alumni Relations recently caught up with Garrison to ask her about where she is now and what she is up to.

MS: What is one of your favorite memories of your undergraduate days at Metro?
LG: For awhile I was a music major until I discovered that music theory was just not for me, so many of those memories have to do with music. For instance, singing in the Madrigals in costume; performing a Schubert mass at Immaculate Conception cathedral conducted by Vernon Moody and trying not to choke because I’d just taken a deep breath to sing and inhaled incense; discovering Brahms by singing his Liebeslieder Walzes; listening to Dr. Susan Cable blow everyone away with her performance of Chopin’s Barcarolle. As a journalism major, any class I had with Greg Pearson; and I have very fond memories of my children’s lit class with Ed Low.

MS: Where has your path taken you from graduation day until now (major milestones)?
LS: As a journalism major, I anticipated always working as a writer, which I did for years. I worked for several community newspapers and later edited some magazines. What I didn’t anticipate was my second career in media relations, or my third in fundraising. Nor did I anticipate that about a year after graduating from Metro, I would move to Southern California in order to get a job. I ended up having a great public relations career out there, won some awards and was accredited by my professional society. I also gave birth to two of my three children before coming back to Colorado in the late 1980s. Then, when my kids were small, I was able to freelance and eventually got into grant writing for nonprofits, which led me into my career as a fundraiser. Most recently, I was vice president of a consulting firm in Denver which specialized in assisting nonprofits throughout the West with major gift and capital campaigns.

MS: What brought you back to Metro State?
LG: My former boss decided to close the firm and go into semi-retirement, so the office closed in January 2010. I’d been looking for a job already, and heard about a position at Metro State’s development office that seemed to fit very well with my background and experience. I applied, and when I was offered the position, I was very excited. It feels as if I’ve gone full circle to come back to the place which really launched me professionally and gave me the opportunity to achieve a baccalaureate degree.

MS: Why did you donate to the Plain & Fancy Ball?
LG: I believe in giving back, and so it was natural to do something for Metro State, which has done so much for me.

MS: Why is this event important to the community?
For one thing, it’s not your usual old black tie gala. It’s fun, it’s lighthearted and most of all, it does a tremendous amount of good in terms of raising much-needed funds for scholarships and various programs throughout Metro State. Anything that benefits Metro State automatically benefits the community. A lot of people don’t know that Metro State educates more undergraduates than any other college or university in Colorado. That’s really significant, especially when you consider how many of these people enter the workforce as skilled professionals. Also, I know that even though Metro State is very affordable, for many of us, it was still a stretch to get the needed funds to pay tuition, books, fees and the likes. I had student loans, a Pell grant, worked work-study and two other jobs. My student loans took almost 10 years to pay off. How much better would it be for a student to graduate without that debt burden because of scholarships. Some people mistakenly think that a place like Metro State doesn’t need to raise private money, but consider that Colorado ranks 48 out of the 50 states in terms of financing education AND Metro State receives less funding than any other state college or university. So raising money is incredibly important.

Is there anything I’m not asking you that you want to share with me?
Any suggestions about what to wear to the Plain & Fancy Ball?

Alumna donates gift baskets to Plain & Fancy Ball

Diana Lynn Leistikow (’89, BEC) dreamed about running a business making gift baskets. And though she currently is a residential realtor working primarily with buyers at Home Real Estate, Centennial, she still loves making gift baskets. When the opportunity arose to support student scholarships by donating items for the Plain & Fancy Ball auction, she jumped at the chance to make more gift baskets. Leistikow has donated three baskets including a Burts Bees products, a picnic basket that includes a gift certificate to King Soopers, and a sailing-themed basked. When asked why supporting the college is important, Leistikow stated, “I didn’t go to college until I was 33, and it was a big eye opener for me going from business to college. It’s a big challenge for women, especially single moms, to go back to school. So anything I can do to help people is rewarding to me.” If you would like to contact Leistikow, please call her at 303-808-4038.

Submit a photo to the Plain & Fancy Ball Facebook Photo Contest to win $600 in prizes, including:
1. Two tickets to the ball.
2. Gift certificate for four to alumni-owned OiNKs! BBQ + four tickets to a Metro State Music Event.
3. Gift certificate for for to D'Vine Wine + four tickets to any Metro State athletics game.

This year's 2010-2011 Alumni Scholarship Recipients are...

This year's Alumni Scholars...

Jeremy Casey – Jie (pronounced “J”) is an Integrative Therapeutic Practices major with a Pre-Health minor. After graduation his plans are to attend medical school to pursue a dual degree in osteopathy and public health.


Alejandra Coria Espino - is a Social Work major. She plans on becoming a Social Worker to make our communities better for our youth to grow and develop.

John Friedkin - is a Psychology major with a minor in Elementary Education. After graduation he plans on teaching in Denver Public Schools.

Natalie Gray - is a Teacher Licensure major and plans to become an elementary school teacher. He plans on teaching, learning and leading through example.

Lisa Mallie - is an Individualized Degree Program major obtaining a degree in Nonprofit administration. She will use her degree to manage the nonprofit she founded called “For The Love of Grace”.

Gena Meyer – is a Special Education/ Elementary education
major who wants to help children reach their greatest potential at
succeeding in life.

Shawn Taylor – is an Art major with an emphasis in sculpture and a minor in Art History. After graduation he plans to become an architect and to work in higher education building the best educational facilities.

Lisa Waechter - is a candidate for Teacher Licensure in the area of Special Education. She will use her degree to not only teach but to continue to lift up those who may not be fully embraced by our society.

Suzan Dee: one of the many Metro State Alums to donate auction items for Plain & Fancy Ball

After spending nearly 20 years raising her children and substitute teaching, Suzan Dee (’90, elementary ed.) has branched out into a totally new career, running the Waxing Moon Massage and Skincare Spa with business partner Nancy Barnes, a Licensed Aesthetician. Dee, who specializes in massage, received her training at the Crestone Healing Arts Center, just north of Alamosa, Colo. Dee is passionate about her new career.

“I love helping people feel better,” she says. “Our bodies can heal themselves. We just have to slow down and remember that.” Dee doesn’t just rub her client’s muscles either. She works on helping people balance their entire systems, including helping them release emotional stress they might hold in their muscles.

“Our muscles hold memory,” she explains. “It takes a lot of energy to hold onto that stuff. When I work on people, I help them let that go.”

Dee also feels strongly about giving back to the community, which is why she has donated two 70-minute massages to be auctioned off at the Plain & Fancy Ball on Saturday, September 25. “Metro State was a huge part of my life,” she says. “I really appreciate the education I received. I’m happy to donate my services.”

You can reach Suzan at Suzan_Dee@hotmail.com or 970-470-3921. Her spa is located in the Holiday Inn, Stapleton, 3333 Qubec Street, Denver, CO 80207.

Plain & Fancy Ball Auction Item feature: "A Dining Six-Pack"

We have brought in more than 170 items for the silent and live auctions for the Plain & Fancy Ball, many of which were donated by alumni. I'll be featuring a half dozen of these alumni over the next two weeks. Other generous donors include various Metro State College of Denver departments. This is one of my favorites: A Dining Six-Pack

6 guests, 6 courses, 6 wines, 6 o'clock
A 6-course dinner prepared in your home by the students and faculty members of the Hotel, Tourism and Event Management Department. This item includes all food, labor, china, glassware and silverware. The estimated value is $850.00, and this is what it includes:

First Course: Assorted bouches, goat cheese with smoked salmon and boursin cheese with carmelized onions and balsamic reduction. Prosecco Sparkling Wine.

Second Course: Shrimp Madagascar--Shrimp sauteed in butter and olive oil, flamed in Pernod, topped with whipping cream, and finished with tomato concasse and minched chives. Pinot Grigio.

Third Course: Plated Ceasar salad with garlic-anchovy vinaigrette, parmesan cheese and croutons. Sauvignon blanc.


Fourth Course: Steak Oscar--seared tenderloin steak, topped with crab, asparagus and Bearnaise sauce and roasted fingerling potatoes dredged in salt, pepper and garlic. Malbec.

Fifth Course: Tabaleside bananas foster, served over vanilla bean ice cream.

Sixth Course: Stilton Blue cheese, toasted almonds

CVA to open "Soaring Voices" exhibit, highlighting ceramics by Japanese women

The CVA will soon feature the incredibly beautiful and elegant exhibition Soaring Voices: Recent Ceramics by Women from Japan. This exhibition features 87 works by 25exceptional women artists who reflect Japan’s rich and innovative ceramic culture. Attached is a press release with further information.

EXHIBITION DATES: September 9 – November 6, 2010

OPENING RECEPTION

Thursday, September 9th

6-7 pm: Private reception and exhibition tour for CVA members and special guests

7-9 pm: Public Reception

WORKSHOP

Thursday, October 21, 5-7 pm

Learn about Japanese culture and art while creating small contemporary works of art in ceramics, jewelry and sculpture. Led by Yuko Yagisawa, MSCD Associate Professor, Jewelry Design and Metalsmithing and Tsehei Johnson, MSCD Visiting Assistant Professor, Ceramics. This workshop is free and open to the public, but space is limited! Please call 303-294-5207 x111 or respond to this e-mail to RSVP.

EXTENDED HOURS

First and third Friday district art walks open until 8 pm

Saturday, November 6- Denver Arts Week “Night at the Museums” open until 10 pm

Please visit www.MetroStateCVA.org to learn more about our education outreach programming, or to make a donation today.

Metro State Office of Career Services: Fall 2010 Business Fair

Date: Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Time: 10:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Location: Tivoli Student Union at Auraria Campus; Room: Turnhalle

Please help us get the word out to students about this wonderful and important networking opportunity.

The Fall Business Fair is geared to Business majors in all years of school. It highlights full time jobs, part time jobs and internships in Marketing, Sales, IT, Economics, Management, Accounting, Finance and General Business.

Ideally students will have resumes available to distribute to employers, and they will be dressed professionally at the event. We anticipate that approximately 30 companies will be represented and they are all looking to hire Metro State students who are interested in a business-related career.

If you are a faculty member and this event is during your class time, we welcome you to bring them to the fair as a class. We would also love to come into your classroom to inform students about the fair and/or present on a variety of career-related topics including resume writing, interviewing skills, etc.

Metro State Office of Career Services
303-556-3664
Tivoli 215
www.mscd.edu/~career