��«����Ƶ

As we reflect on 2024 and look ahead to 2025, we in the CU ��«����Ƶ School of Education are grateful for many moments of joy and accomplishments that this year has brought.

Here are a few highlights from the school’s past year, as we look forward to marking new opportunities and milestones in 2025.

Centering and celebrating our students and alumni

• This year, our 2024 Outstanding Graduates included a STEM teacher living his dream of empowering students, first-generation students paying it forward, an advocate for rural bilingual learners, an IT professional-turned-educator, and more. 
• Alumna and mentor teacher, Ash Mattys, earned ��«����Ƶ Valley School’s New Teacher Award, while alumna Sara McIntosh received the Blake Peterson Lifetime Achievement Award, which covers the .
• CU Engage students were named top CU System-wide honors. Fernanda Cerros, a Puksta Scholar and Public Achievement student, received President's DEI Award, and Rain Michael, a Leadership Studies Minor and CU Engage student, was named CU ��«����Ƶ Student Leader of the Year.
• The School of Education Student Government co-founders reflected on their leadership and design of an active undergraduate student government for the school.
• Doctoral Student Danielle Aguilar received a yearlong Newman Civic Fellowship from Campus Compact.
• Alumnus and long-time School of Education partner, Jack Chambers, was awarded the Adams 12 District’s Employee of the Year honor.

Celebrating our leadership, faculty and staff

• We welcomed a new interim dean, Fernando Rosario-Ortiz at the beginning of year.
• We welcomed back Chancellor Emeritus and new faculty members at the beginning of the new academic year.
• Sara Staley and Andrea Dyrness earned the Provost’s Faculty Achievement Awards and Oded Gurantz received tenure at Fall Convocation.
• Lorrie Shepard received 2024 Women in Measurement Leadership Award and talked about the ways colleagues made space for her work.
• Deena Gumina was honored with the Best Should Teach Award alongside CU colleagues and outstanding educators from the School of Education’s partner school districts.
• David Webb received a Fulbright Specialist Award for a project at the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Czech Republic to improve the university’s undergraduate STEM education program through of active learning, student-centered teaching and formative assessment practices.
• Bethy Leonardi was selected for 2024 Community Perspectives program, a professional development program for CU ��«����Ƶ faculty members that combines workshops about public and community-engaged scholarship, a listen-and-learn tour of Southeast Colorado, funding and support with partnership and project development. 
• Joe Polman and co-authors earned “” honors from the Journal of the Learning Sciences.
• Voices Magazine, the School of Education’s alumni magazine won a Best of District IV Award from the Council of Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).
• Students and faculty presented an impressive breadth of research at the American Educational Research Association Meeting in Philadelphia in April.
• The School of Education, in collaboration with the ��«����Ƶ Book Store, hosted the 6th Annual Children’s Book Festival in November. Culturally diverse, award-winning authors and illustrators led read alouds, panel discussions and visits to local classroom, where the festival donated more than 500 books to schools, teachers and learners.

Research and community-engagement milestones

• The School of Education’s launched a new Education Research Speaker Series featuring the latest research in education from CU ��«����Ƶ scholars and alumni and leading experts from other institutions. The series kicked off the spring semester with professor Mimi Engel and alumna Molly Hamm-Rodríguez, an assistant professor at the University of South Florida and the 2023 School of Education Outstanding Dissertation Research Awardee. Trish Morita-Mullaney, associate professor at Purdue University, visited in October.
• Of the four competitive New Frontiers Grants aimed at fostering new, interdisciplinary research directions for CU ��«����Ƶ, two projects, "Empowering Newcomer Students: A Multifaceted Approach to Culturally Sustaining STEAM Education and AI Integration" and "Exposure to and Health Effects of After-wildfire Toxicants (ExHEAT) Consortia," involve education researchers.
• The 2024 Teachers of Color and Allies Summit in November featured the theme is “Navigating the Nuanced Narrative of Neutrality” and keynote speaker, alumnus Vincent Basile, associate professor at Colorado State University, who examined federal STEM education policy, revealing cyclical patterns of racial commodification, racial essentialism and differential racialization.
• After more than five years of fundraising efforts and renovations, the School of Education celebrated moving into its new campus home: the Ofelia Miramontes and Leonard Baca Education Building with a festive building dedication and community open house in October. We showcased the school’s collaborative new spaces, highlighted influential research, celebrated educators and honored the passionate community that made the project possible. Read more about the event and view photos from the ribbon "ripping" ceremony.

Each year brings its own challenges and opportunities, and yet we were able to accomplish so much in 2024 when we worked together and remained true to our mission.