Vail Valley

After a particularly large and somewhat dangerous fire at the Vail maintenance building in the late 70’s, those of us volunteering for the fire department thought we might need more training. Steadfast in our conviction, we went to the CMC A-frame by Gore Creek between Vail and Lionshead and worked together to start a fire science degree program.

It seemed like a good idea at the time as we had enough advanced degrees in our ranks that we could teach classes as well as attend others. Collectively we could learn to be better firefighters and get an associate degree in the process. Pretty straightforward from our point of view, after all – we were firefighters and we had a training room in the firehouse. Administratively however, it was a laborious process of applications, paperwork, credentialing and more paperwork.

Ironically, most of the early fire science archives were lost to water damage. Remember, the CMC A-Frame building was next to the creek, a creek prone to spring runoff. Early on, the joke was that it took 4 years for a BA and 11 years for an AAS from CMC, especially if your records were “displaced”.

To everyone’s credit – literally, and in CMC’s tradition of truly helping students, firefighters who had lost their paperwork were allowed to test out of most courses they had previously taken in route to their degree.

What we learned in the college-level fire science program was invaluable. Everyone associated with its initial inception benefited from what is today an important program to firefighters and their communities throughout the region and beyond. What is true for the fire service, as in most disciplines – education is critical to advancing endeavor.

From those early days at the A-frame, CMC has always supported the first responder with a commitment to education. And now even more with the advent of the Starting Hearts First Responder Scholarship Program – “first on scene and first in our hearts.”

As a single mother of two kids and with a full-time job, Lorena Martinez had little time for college classes. As a teenager, she had dropped out of Battle Mountain High School, but then completed her GED at Colorado Mountain College. She continued at CMC and was slowly chipping away at a nursing degree, completing a nursing assistant certificate in the process. A 21-year resident of the Vail Valley, she had earned resident alien status, enabling her to work to support her family. She was taking one or two classes each semester, but eventually the load got to be too great and she dropped out. “That was so hard for me,” she said of the daily burden of work, school and family life.

Time passed, her life circumstances changed and she thought about returning to school. She had married, her first two children were older and more independent, and she was feeling like she had the support needed to refocus on her career goals. Last fall she went by the Edwards campus to register. That’s when she learned about the Finish What You Started campaign.

In celebration of CMC’s 50^th anniversary, the College is offering half-priced tuition to former students who have not yet completed a 2-year or higher degree. The scholarship also requires that a student be out of school for at least a year. Eligible students can slash the cost of a credit hour to as low as $31 per hour for lower level courses, now through the fall 2017 semester.

Lorena is still only able to take 1 class per semester, but she will be able to stretch her education dollars much further in pursuit of that nursing degree. She eventually would like to be a pediatrics or obstetrics nurse. “It is how I have always seen myself, helping people, and I want to work with kids,” she said. In addition to working toward her degree, Lorena is studying for her U.S. citizenship exam which she will take in the spring.

With all the responsibilities of family life, work and school, Lorena is very busy. “My husband Ricardo is helping me and encouraging me, and my kids are proud of me,” she said. She is happy to be back in school and getting a much-needed break on tuition costs. She hopes to get accepted into the nursing program in 2018 and complete her associate’s degree in 2020. “It is never too late. I think everything is possible if you work for it,” she said. “I see myself someday being a nurse and I will be so proud.”

Business administration student Edith Gonzalez readily admits that working and going to school is not easy. But she credits Colorado Mountain College with giving her the necessary financial and emotional support to make her dream of earning a degree possible.

“I love this place and there is no other place I would want to be than here,” said Gonzalez, who was awarded the HERO Scholarship. “CMC is the best option. It has allowed me to stay in the beautiful valley and the sky’s the limit.”

By Mike McKibbin

Before retiring to the Vail Valley in 1994, Doris Dewton worked 11 years for the U.S. Department of Energy, 10 years for Ashland Oil and three years for the National Petroleum Refiners’ Association in Washington, D.C. For many years, she has used that experience to benefit Colorado Mountain College.

After helping CMC pass a measure to help provide stable revenue for the college district, Doris was encouraged in 2001 to run for the Eagle County seat by her predecessor Don Salanty.

“He said, ‘You have free time on your hands. You’re retired. Why don’t you get involved with CMC?'” Doris recalls.
Each trustee seat is decided by voters across the CMC district, “which means almost nobody knows you … I actually lost in my home county,” she remembers. “And then I won in all of the other counties….”

Doris was re-elected to a second term in 2005. She was board president from 2003 to 2009, and now serves on the CMC Foundation Board. Her time on the board of trustees included three presidents and a building improvement program that provided CMC with new campuses and a healthy bottom line.

Her years as a trustee saw the college headed by three presidents: Cynthia Heelan was succeeded by Bob Spuhler, who was the vice president for several years. “… Bob was quite an excellent caretaker of resources,” says Doris. “Thrifty, I think, is the polite term. He was a great steward of the college resources.” Within Doris’ terms, Bob Spuhler was followed by Stan Jensen.

Doris recalls an extensive building program across the CMC district, “under a 10-year facilities master plan, tearing down a number of buildings which were soon to fall down under their own weight.”

For example, the building in Leadville “had so many leaks that basically the people who worked in that building had designed an interior plumbing system which had buckets at the bottom of a number of pipes that were used to capture the water that just poured into that building.”

The campus in Edwards was established when CMC relocated from the Vail Cascade building, which was a hotel facility.
“It was a difficult location because students would come in the evening,” Doris says. “If the hotel was busy, which in ski season happens to be during a good part of the academic year, the students … were unable to park anywhere. That doesn’t work too well for a facility that’s very commuter-focused.”

Other projects included the new campus in Breckenridge, rebuilding and remodeling the Steamboat Springs main building and a new Rifle campus.

Also during Doris’ two terms on the board, the CMC Foundation became “quite successful, quite professional, looked around a lot for opportunities for grants, for philanthropic donations from major players,” she said.

It also marked the first time CMC made a concerted effort to raise money from and get local residents involved in the college. “And I think we found, in a shockingly universal fact, that a lot of people didn’t know CMC existed …,” Doris recalls. “…that we really had failed, especially in Summit County and (Eagle County), to some extent, in Leadville, definitely in Steamboat Springs. The population just didn’t really understand that there was this wonderful community college in their midst.”

Doris’ own academic background prepared her to enhance the opportunities offered by CMC to the local region. She received a bachelor’s degree cum laude in political science from Bryn Mar College in Pennsylvania. With a National Defense Education Act fellowship in foreign area studies, she earned a master’s degree in Latin American studies from the University of Texas at Austin.

Today, Doris continues to spend much of her time and energy to provide resources for local students to pursue the same educational opportunities that she enjoyed.

When I moved to the USA in 1999 I did not speak any English. At first I felt very frustrated. I started to work most of the time with two part time jobs for Eagle County School District as a cook Monday-Friday mornings, custodian in the afternoon, and cleaning houses and offices at nights and weekends.

As full time mom and housewife with three jobs I did not have enough time for myself. Time passed until my older son Gerardo invited me to take some classes. I started my education at Colorado Mountain College in Edwards getting my GED Certificate in 2004. Then I took some English classes. It was wonderful for me to be a student because I knew that it’s never is late to learn.

I am still learning. In 2015 I got a Psychology/Social Work Certificate, and in January 2017 I’ll start with more classes to get my Colorado Social Work license.

Colorado Mountain College is a great opportunity for all people with a desire to learn. I love all the time spent at the college for all the opportunities offered and for the assistance I received from teachers, counselors, and the whole staff. I am grateful to my husband for his support, thankful to my children for their help and patience. Special gratitude to all my English teachers at CMC for their time and all their counsel on my English learning.

There is so much to explore on this planet of ours, and Dr. Jon Kedrowski has been doing his best to see as much of it as he possibly can! Not only has he summited Mt. Everest and Mt. Kilimanjaro, he’s also summited five of the seven continental summits. He has climbed and skied down all 58 of Colorado’s 14,000’ peaks, and was the first person to sleep on all 58 summits. He’s written two books about his adventures, “Sleeping on the Summits: Colorado 14er High Bivys” and “Skiing and Sleeping on the Summits: Cascade Volcanoes.” And, he’s not done! Still on his bucket list: Antarctica and Japan, as well as return trips to Nepal, Tibet, Bali, New Zealand and Australia.

When he’s not out exploring, he’s teaching students to appreciate the science of what they see around them and how the environment changes with weather, time and force. Jon teaches environmental science and physical geography at Colorado Mountain College during the fall semesters. Prior to coming to Colorado Mountain College in 2013, he spent two years at Central Washington University as an Assistant Professor of Geography. He completed his Doctoral Teaching Assistantship at Texas State University and his Master’s Teaching Assistantship at the University of South Florida, Department of Geography.

“I love working with students and showing them the world through the coursework,” Jon says. “I especially like teaching physical geography, weather and climate because the world is so cool! There is so much to see, and the earth’s weather and climate is fascinating!”

As you might imagine from someone accustomed to teetering on the edge of mountains, Jon’s advice for students involves balance.

“Get outside and see the world,” he says. “Travel to as many places as you can. But, also study hard and put in your time in the classroom. Good reading and writing skills will take you places!”

Jon also spends significant time giving back. He is on the board of the Sherpa Foundation in the Vail Valley. Since the earthquake in Nepal, the Foundation has raised more than $200,000 for earthquake relief in the Khumbu and Cheplung village areas near Mount Everest. He is also an ambassador with the Education Foundation of Eagle County, and speaks in local schools to teach children about goal setting and making good choices.

Dr. Kedrowski is currently working to create a study abroad course in mountain geography, which would take students to Nepal.

Be on the lookout next year for his newest book, “Classic Colorado Ski Descents,” a backcountry ski guide book published by the Colorado Mountain Club Press/Mountaineers Books.

Two years in, Rachel Weiss is flying high at Cambridge University. Good grades and great SAT scores helped her land at the prestigious school in England. But more than those was the boost she received from dual enrollment in Colorado Mountain College courses while she was a student at Battle Mountain High School in Edwards.

Getting to Cambridge wasn’t easy, however. According to the British newspaper The Guardian, fewer than 3,400 undergraduates are accepted to Cambridge among the 16,000 candidates who apply annually.

It’s even more selective for American students. In 2013, out of the nearly 300 American students who could even qualify to apply to the university, just 23 were admitted. To merely be considered, Cambridge demands from its American applicants the best grades from high school, the highest marks on SAT exams, and a minimum of five exemplary College Board Advanced Placement scores.

Knowing about the fierce competition, Weiss turned to Colorado Mountain College and its concurrent enrollment classes to help her realize her dreams to study abroad. British colleges run on a very different model than ours, and don’t usually accept students straight out of high school, Rachel explains. Her associate degree from CMC helped her over that hurdle.

The CMC classes were offered online, so they were easy to fit into her busy high school schedule. Rachel graduated from CMC in 2015 with a 4.0 GPA.

“The biggest help was the composition class. It was good preparation for essay writing,” she said. “Since I did online classes and since I had a flexible schedule, it got me in the habit of making my own schedule and sticking to a deadline. It was good preparation for Cambridge which is independent study-based.”

Rachel is in her second year of a three year program at Christ’s College, Cambridge, concentrating on psychology and behavioral science. Founded in 1505, Christ’s College is the alma mater of Charles Darwin, father of the evolution theory, and poet John Milton.

Cambridge has also been an adjustment. “We have lectures. I don’t have one professor, but different ones for different topics. We have to do a lot of outside reading on our own,” she said. She meets once a week with her supervisor who is an expert in her field of study. “He makes sure I’m on the right track.”

Grades are based on only one test, at the end of the year. “It’s a lot of stress,” she said.

She also pursues her passion for theater, which she honed in high school.

“There’s a huge theater scene at Cambridge,” she said. Summers spent at the famed Second City comedy club in Chicago, and at Northwestern University studying comedy and improvisation, have served her well. She is now president of the Cambridge Impronauts, a comedy troupe made up of students and local performers who offer unscripted, unrehearsed shows based on suggestions from the audience.

Theater and psychology seem to complement each other. Psychology, she said, helps her get into a character’s head.

After graduation, Rachel hopes to get work in her field and then pursue a master’s degree, either in Chicago or London. And continue in theater. Ultimately, she hopes to become a psychology professor.

Many people dream of changing the world. Rebecca Kanaly is taking it local, creating sustainable change in Eagle County and the communities she loves.

Rebecca graduated from Colorado Mountain College with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, with an Entrepreneurship Emphasis. After that, she earned her Executive Master of Business Administration from the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver.

Now she funnels her education and experience into her position as the Executive Director and CEO of the United Way of Eagle River Valley. Under her leadership this year, the United Way of Eagle River Valley will fund 25 local programs, the operating budget of 13 more local organizations, and provide capital for more local medical facilities for underserved populations.

“As CEO, I draw on every single lesson I learned in every single class at CMC and DU, from accounting, philosophy, economics and marketing to upper level concepts like business strategy and social entrepreneurship,” Rebecca says. “I love applying my education and experience to change lives…to lift my neighbors out of poverty, to offer them hope and opportunity, to feed, shelter, and protect them in times of crisis, to prevent suicide and substance abuse, and collaborate with other community leaders to affect profound change.”

Her favorite class at CMC was Sustainable Economics with Mercedes Quesada-Embid, where she learned about the opportunities and corresponding responsibilities of impacting lasting and meaningful change on an entire system or community. She was also deeply impacted by the CMC online curriculum and Dr. Susanna Spaulding, who introduced Rebecca to corporate social responsibility and change leadership.

“I left CMC with a personal commitment to devote my work to positively impacting lives,” Rebecca said.

Rebecca is also quick to thank the donors who created the scholarships that allowed her to pursue her degree. She recieved a HERO scholarship which funded her senior year through the Gerald Gallegos Foundation. She also received several other scholarships from the CMC Foundation. With support from teachers, staff and others, Rebecca graduated at the top of her class, is in the CMC Hall of Fame and also belongs to Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society.

Her advice for other students is pretty simple: show up to every class and really participate, even when difficult life circumstances try to get in the way.

“Persevere, don’t hesitate to express your opinions, and ask many questions,” Rebecca says.

Next on Rebecca’s list is a doctoral degree. “I want to synthesize my education and experience in a way that helps to advance the entire industry of social/collective impact. I am excited about the possibilities.”