Future Alumnus: (soon to be) Alumni Award Winner Phillip Eggers

Phillip Eggers, Human Services major & minor in Non-profit Management Fall 2011 or Spring 2012

A nationally and locally recognized volunteer for his contributions in helping veterans from all branches of the military from generations since pre-World War II, he saw the needs and addressed them. He started the student organization Student Veterans at Metro State (SVMS) in February 2010 and it continues to gain momentum as an organization where he currently serves as President. Student Veterans at Metro State has engaged many veterans and their first large scale program, PTSD TBI Briefing Taking Off the Pack, was an instant success as other colleges and universities are now requesting information on mirroring this event such as the University of Michigan. Student Veterans at Metro State is now recognized through the national student 501 C(3) organization, Student Veterans of America (SVA). Philip is a U.S. Marine veteran who has faced combat and has received a disability rating from the Veterans Administration as a result of his war time experiences, and from that he is now disabled.

Phillip also currently serves as Treasurer of the student group Human Services Education Organization, a community of like minds whose goal is helping the community through volunteerism and fundraising. Most recently he started participating in the student group, Association for Non-profit Students.

He also has high academic proficiency at Metro State have been excellent as he is on the Provost Honor Roll, and he is also hoping to be on the Presidents Honor Roll after this semester. He has been enrolled at Metro State full-time for 9 consecutive semesters, including summers. He also received a Who’s Who award and has been recognized through Student Support Services as an outstanding student.

Future Alumnus: (soon to be) Alumni Award Winner Adrian Puryear

Adrian Puryear, English with a minor in Secondary Education Spring 2011

Adrian is a Metro State senior who is paragon of student leadership, academic excellence, and community involvement. She is a person of great integrity who cares immensely for her fellow humans. Her Nominator Stephanie Martin said, “I believe that as an alumna, she will bring honor to the name of Metro State College for decades to come.”

Currently, Adrian is a Writing/Reading Tutor with Student Support Services (SSS), a Federal TRiO program. She is professional and is incredibly caring with her students and is an excellent teacher to all of them. She has found her right path to become a teacher because she is a natural, and very gifted. As a tutor, she has helped many students who might have otherwise slipped through the cracks to not only achieve success at Metro State, but also to feel as though they belong. She asks excellent, critical-thinking level questions of her students, encouraging them to do their own intellectual work and empowering them with the academic skills necessary for success. She not only works on writing and reading skills with her students, but also fosters in them good study habits, time-management skills, and organizational skills. Adrian does an excellent job of establishing rapport, trust, and mutual respect with each of her students. I have come to rely on her to train newly-hired tutors, to present workshops to groups of students, and to act as a sounding board when students are struggling in non-academic areas of their lives.

After graduation from MSCD with a Bachelor’s degree in English with Secondary Education Licensure, Adrian plans to put her outstanding teaching skills to use in the community as a high school English teacher. We admire Adrian’s choice to enter into this noble profession, where she will work long hours for little pay or glory, but make an enormous contribution to the lives of the youth in the Denver-metro area. Adrian will be an excellent teacher and touch the lives of each of her students, but that she will further Metro State’s reputation for providing skilled, well-prepared teachers for our community.

Giving Back: Alumni Award Winner Lisa Moder

Lisa Moder ('90, electrical engineering technology) has been named the 2010 Test Engineer of the Year by Test and Measurement World (T&MW) magazine. As part of her award, Moder designated Metro State to receive a $10,000 grant, courtesy of National Instruments, the award sponsor.

A senior manufacturing test engineer at Echostar Technologies, Moder’s area of specialty is set-top boxes, the devices that connect a television to an external source of signal. Moder has developed innovative test strategies that trim field failures, boost test throughput, and add to company profits. She has worked on 13 set-top designs in eight years with the company, enabling such innovations as programming one’s television from a phone. Together, the designs are responsible for some 20 million set-top boxes fielded in the United States.

Moder says she selected the College as a beneficiary of her award because she “believes in giving back to those that have helped me in my career.” Moder cites two Metro State professors in particular, Ha Temmermmer and Mel Capeharthart, both now retired, as having “fostered and mentored me throughout my career at Metro State.” Moder was already giving back to the College even before she received the T&MW award, having served on the EET Industry Advisory Board for the past five years. On the board, she works to help the EET Department recruit and retain students.

In receiving this award, Alumna Moder says, “I am excited to receive this award because I have always valued my education and I have always wanted to give back to those that have helped me get to where I am today. I would not be where I am today if it had not been for the influence Metro State and the faculty and staff there. I think the Alumni Association is an important part of college life as it gives past students the opportunity to stay in touch with each other and the life that is happening on campus.”