Tri-Institutional Event and March Celebrate Cesar Chavez. Metro student and professor recognized for efforts in Latino community

Today, Cesar Chavez would have been 83 today had he not died. In celebration of his birthday, a tri-institutional day-long event was organized. There was a breakfast, luncheon, keynote speakers, and a march across campus (photos and video of which are on our Alumni & Friends Facebook Fan page). As well, Metro State student Anayelia Gonzalez was recognized for her active engagement with the Latino community, including her involvement with La Raza Youth Leadership Institute. The plaque she was given was designed by Emanuel Martinez, a national artist residing in Denver. As well, El Centro Su Teatro, headed by Artistic and Executive Director and part-time Chicano Studies Professor Tony Garcia, was honored.

According to Dr. Ramon Del Castillo, the Chair of the Chicana and Chicano Studies, “The march is symbolic of what Cesar Chavez did. He marched for social justice. He believed in sacrifice and giving to people and the community.” The tri-institutional event, he added, was a youth leadership development event that “embodied the work that Chavez did for four decades.”

Sandra Cisneros to speak on Metro Campus

The English Department at Metropolitan State College of Denver has announced Sandra Cisneros as the speaker for its second annual "21st Century Arts & Letters Speakers Series." The event, free and open to the public, will be held on Weds., April 7, at 11:30 a.m. in the Tivoli Turnhalle.

Cisneros will read from her recent and past work, be available for a question-and-answer session, and sign her books.

The internationally renowned, award-winning poet and fiction writer has written numerous books, including The House on Mango Street, first published in 1984. It won the Before Columbus Foundation’s American Book Award in 1985, and is required reading in middle schools, high schools and universities across the country. It has sold more than two million copies since its initial publication.

"We are thrilled to have Sandra Cisneros speaking on our campus, and we expect a wonderful turnout and response from our students, faculty staff, and from fans of Cisneros' works from off-campus," says Assistant Professor of English Craig Svonkin, who also chairs the Speakers Series’ committee.

Malcolm Daly discusses surviving serious climbing accident in Alaska at D’Vine Wine Alumni Networking Event, April 7

WE APOLOGIZE. THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED. For more information, please contact Stefanie Carroll at 303-556-6935


Malcolm Daly may be missing most of one leg below the knee, but that doesn’t stop him from rock climbing and living life to the fullest

Founder of climbing gear company Great Trango Holdings, Malcolm Daly started climbing rocks and mountains around the world in 1968. In May 1999, he and veteran climber Jim Donini traveled to Alaska to put up a new route on Mount Hunter. Early in their trip, while on their new route, Daly began leading a pitch. He climbed out of sight of Donini, and what happened next, neither of the two men really understood. Daly took a 200-foot fall, bouncing down the ice runnel he was climbing. He ended up 70 feet below Donini, conscious but with compound fractures in the left tibia and fibula, a shattered right talus (ankle) and frostbite of both feet. “Bones were sticking out in four places,” he says.


Because the two men were in the middle of nowhere and alone, Donini chopped a ledge out in the ice, stabilized his partner and then had to descend and hike out for help. Daly was left for two days alone on a ledge, hundreds of feet off the ground. “I knew my feet were hosed,” he says, “but I was going to get off that mountain alive.”

And he did. Come listen to Daly’s incredible story on April 7. The Office of Alumni Relations is sponsoring an Alumni Networking, Wine Tasting, and featured speaker event, from 5-7 p.m. at D’Vine Wine, 1660 Champa, Denver. The cost is $10 per person and includes wine, appetizers, and a half-hour slide show. click here for more information.

Metro State College's 45th Anniversary Share It Program encourages alumni to share their stories about Metro

As a way to celebrate its 45 Anniversary and the students, faculty, and staff who make Metro the diverse, progressive college it is, Metro State College of Denver is promoting an online contest called, Share It. Monthly winners will be selected in each category. Thus, there are three chances for you to win each month. What can you win? Lots of things, but the two big prizes are (second prize) a Kodak Zx1 HD pocket digital video camera and (first prize) an Apple Ipad (What's that? click here to find out). Stay posted for a list of additional prizes.

So, what do you have to do? Easy. Tell us what Metro State means to you in creative, fun, or inspiring words, photos, or a video. You can get more details on posting your photos and videos by clicking here. You can submit your written story anywhere on our social media sites. Post it here as a response, or post it on LinkedIn. I will grab it and submit it on the official website for you. Thanks for participating!

Oh yeah, and take a look at this fun entry by Paul Cesare. He reminisces about the Metro versus Kentucky Wesleyan Division II National Championship that was televised.

-Lizzy Scully

Paul Cesare
Memory: My Metro State Memory by Paul Cesare

Watching Metro State's 1999-2000 Men's Basketball Team on National television (CBS Sports) win the NCAA Division II National Championship game against Kentucky Wesleyan.

Who would have ever imagined it? Winning the national championship put Metro State front and center in the national spotlight. Metro's image/reputation would never be the same again. As a college representative in the Office of Admissions, I can vouch for it. I'll never forget the solid team effort, especially on defense and the remarkable ball-handing and scoring performance by Denver native, DeMarcos Anzures! The team was coached by Mike Dunlap, who was hired after the first-choice coach accepted another position at a Division I college.

The 1999-2000 Metro State's Men's basketball team's Home record was 19-0, - no one could touch us in our own backyard. The noise by the ever-increasing fanbase at the Auraria Events Center home games was thundering and as deafening as I've ever witnessed. The team's 33-4 overall record was the best finish by any Colorado college team in history! Metro State - the once obscure, forgotten college in downtown Denver with no-name players and coaches on that fateful day in March 2000 became a nationally recognized champion - what a memory!

Metro State College of Denver enjoys successful Grad Fair

Metro State College of Denver enjoyed one of its busiest and most successful Grad Fairs this past Tuesday and Wednesday, March 16, 17. Some highlights of the event were that four Alumni Scholars donated a total of 18 hours volunteering at the Grad Fair, and dozens and dozens of people stopped by to check out the official College ring collection at the Jostens table.

Additionally, the Office of Alumni Relations organized its first “Your Metro Experience in Three Words” photo booth. Photographer and College Communications intern Jason Braddock took photos of 50 graduates holding a written version of their message. Those photos will be posted to the Metro State College of Denver Alumni & Friends Facebook Fan Page on Friday, March 19, 2010, by 10a.m. Photos from the Official College Ring Launch are available on Flickr.

According to key organizer Gini Mennenga, “Grad Fair is one of my favorite events because of the connection we make with our students. This year it was a huge success!”

Business Brief: Terrence Trieu

When Phoenix Visual Arts owner Terrance "Terry" Trieu won an Emmy for the animation he created for Walt Disney’s True Life Adventures Sea of Sharks episode a decade ago, he was shocked. Up against animation done by the Discovery Channel and National Geographic, he expected to lose. But he went to the event anyway. Sitting in the very back of a football-field sized dining room, he said it felt like forever walking to the stage to accept his award. But ever since then, that experience has been a hallmark of his flexible and fascinating career path.

Though Trieu started at Metro State with the intention of becoming a professional pilot, a variety of fortuitous events led him down a different path. Instead of flying, he began to create animation and then eventually generate videos for companies, create commercials, do surveillance video clean-up and enhancement and 2-D and 3-D graphics, and build information kiosk programming programs, among other things.

He started at the Museum of Natural History's Planetarium(now Denver Museum of Nature and Science) after an aerospace internship didn’t work out. There, he spent time building special effects. He then moved on to the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), where he created 3-D models of weather systems depicting how they affected aircrafts on takeoff and landing. “I found it more interesting, and so I shifted majors,” he explains. “I found I had a knack for doing animation.” From there, he returned to the museum, where he worked in the exhibits division. He finally started his own business, and after around two decades, still loves what he does.


“I enjoy the process of being able to create things out of thin air,” Trieu says. But, he adds, the best part of the job is “learning what other people do.” For example, when he does animated intros for television shows or videos, each video actually has dozens of people working on different components.

“We are only getting to scratch the surface of what the full picture is,” he says. “You get to learn about all kinds of strange things people do in the world—trekking across Iceland, climbing Mt. Everest, creating a native type of boat and going to the Galapagos Islands. It’s inspiring.”


Trieu also gets inspiration from his community building efforts. Rather than grow his company, he works on the board of his local HOA and continues to build relationships with other local organizations. For example, he works with various police departments in the Denver area doing forensics work. “It’s a direct relationship to what is going on socially, and it benefits society,” he explains. “Plus it’s interesting to see the kinds of things people try to get away with.”

However, no matter how passionate Trieu is about his job, he makes sure to spend time as much time as possible with his wife, Krys, and his sons. He regularly participates in sports with his 16-year-old twin sons, Mica and Mason, and he often works with and/or talks with his older son, Tashi, an aspiring film maker. With a solid career, and a regular dose of family, fitness, and community, Terry Trieu is one satisfied alumnus.


For more information on Trieu’s business, visit his website. Also check out his Emmy-award-winning animation, click here.

The Business Brief is a monthly article published by the Office of Alumni Relations. If you would like to have your business considered for an article, please contact escully at mscd dot edu.

Where Are They Now?

A Profile of Retired Faculty Member Charlie Branch

Article by Lizzy Scully

Photos by Kenn Bisio

Just a year before he turned 50, Charles “Charlie” Branch found his way to Metro State College of Denver and became the Dean of the School of Education. Three decades later, this dapper 80-year-old still dresses in a suit and tie, combs his now white gray hair neatly back, and drives to work. Of course, he retired two years ago, and so now only works a couple days per week. But his passion for his job remains the same.

“At age 80 I feel very, very good,” Branch says. “I feel like there are a lot of things yet to be done.” He currently teaches applied behavior analysis, a “scientific psychological way of solving human problems. I love teaching the course! I jumped at the chance to get back after being out for six months. I have a problem with being cooped up. I love working with people.”

According to three-decade Metro veteran, Debora Martin, the office manager for the Department of Human Services, students love working with him, too. “What I hear from students is that he is wonderful to work with, and they enjoy his classes. He is a really nice, genuine guy.”

Branch came to Metro State after getting his PhD from the University of Florida.
After stints at various colleges, including Ball State University, he landed in Denver. “I was excited about Metro because it was a new institution and an institution that had the potential and diversity that I valued highly,” he explains. “We were making history, and we still are.”

One of the main drawing cards was the fact that he had the opportunity to work with thousands of Denver-area K-12 teachers who needed to renew their teaching certificates. “I thought that was a gold mine out there,” he adds. “Nobody was furnishing their needs.”

Branch would plan programs based on the expressed needs of the teachers. “They would tell me their needs, and we could write curriculum and give it to them three days later,” he says. “It would normally take three to four years to get a curriculum change, whereas out here we could change it momentarily. We filled a need within a community. That has kept me around for a long time.”

Things aren’t like that these days, he admits, but he still feels the institution is flexible, and that President Stephen Jordan is carrying Metro State “onward and upward.” Plus, he says, “The quality and commitment of the faculty here is unbelievable compared to other institutions.” Wanting to add to the roster of excellent professors, Branch decided to transition into full time teaching himself.

“I saw that as an opportunity to make an even bigger difference with students,” he says. “It’s exciting to see the ‘aha’ moments students have and their growth.” The diversity on campus also pleases him.

“It’s not just ethnicity,” he says. “I’m talking about academic background diversity, age diversity. I like working in an environment with adult learners and young learners. They learn more from each other than they do from me.”
And that is how Branch likes it. He tries to facilitate a classroom environment that encourages people to search for the truth and to work with each other to do that. “Nobody does anything by him or herself that has any lasting meaning,” he explains.

Branch has always applied this attitude in his dealings with staff members as well, says Martin. As dean, he always encouraged people to come to his office to talk to him about anything, anytime, she says. “When I think of Charlie, I think of a person who is dedicated and always here. He is not afraid to take on conflict and deal with issues that come up, and he does that in a positive manner. He brought a lot of openness to Metro State.”

Plus, he inspired her and others with his work ethic. “He’s the type of person who would be in here at 6a.m. and get a couple hours of work done before we even got here. And, he really worked hard to give students great customer service.”
Though he only teaches one class at Metro now, Branch hopes to work in some capacity for the institution as long as he can.

“I still feel a part of Metro,” he says, “and I will until my last breath.”

This is the first in a series of monthly articles about retired faculty.