Aspen

Steve Mills made it his mission to make sure Colorado Mountain College was in tune with the communities it served.

For example, in the 1970s, when surveys determined that 10 percent of the adult population lacked a high school diploma; the college “built the biggest adult basic education program in the state,” Steve says.

Steve also looked to local businesses to provide the training they needed for staff. In Glenwood Springs, the police department, hospital, and local carpenters’ union paid tuition for their employees to take professional development courses at CMC.

“The college tuned in to community needs,” says Steve, who was hired in 1969 to manage CMC Aspen, and was later named director of continuing education across the entire district.

Among many other highlights during his time at CMC, Steve secured grant funding for English as a Second Language and Adult Basic Education.

In 1978, Steve transitioned to vice president of Administrative Services. He
reported directly to President Dr. F. Dean Lillie on all campus operations.

Steve went on to direct capital building projects for new locations in downtown Glenwood Springs and Vail. He also led the creation of online systems for registration at all college sites and application tracking systems for full-time students.

I arrived in the Aspen area in August 1972, having just graduated from college, married, and back from our honeymoon. A frat brother of my husband spent the previous winter in Aspen and he advised us, “You have to spend one winter in Aspen before you go somewhere to get serious about life.”

So, that WAS our plan. But by November, we bought a bar. In January, we bought a house…a real “fixer upper.” Six months in, we weren’t planning to leave.

In January, I also signed up for a clay class through CMC. It was held at Anderson Ranch. I had started “playing with clay” at age 14 and majored in fine arts and art education in college. I was very anxious to find a place to continue.

Over the years, I have taken many, many clay classes with extraordinary teachers. I have also taken watercolor and drawing classes, education classes, science classes, music appreciation, film classes, language classes and probably some I have forgotten about. I just know that when I need to request a transcript, it seems like they have to cut down a tree!

I love the concept of being a “life-long learner.” In the 1970’s, there was a banner that CMC would hang over Main Street at registration time that said, “GET A LITTLE CLASS IN YOUR NIGHT LIFE.” I love that!

CMC has been a life enhancing institution in my 45 years in Aspen. And during difficult times, knowing that I could escape to my “happy place” (the pottery studio) was lifesaving. And I have made the most wonderful friends in the ceramics community. I think of CMC as my second home and my family.

It was 1969. Darryl Grob emerged from the Vietnam War and headed back home to central Los Angeles.

Before long he, like many former soldiers of the time, went down the rabbit hole of what Darryl called “dysfunctional distractions.”

But a short visit to Aspen changed all that. Darryl left “all things LA” and moved to the area full-time.

Soon, he discovered Colorado Mountain College. He recalls the college played a “significant role” in his personal development. Each class he took revealed another layer of possibilities for his future.

“I loved it,” says Darryl, who was chosen as Student of the Year upon graduation. “It led me to a bigger, better life.”

Darryl went on to work for a local construction company, rising from laborer to vice president. Along the way, he was nominated and elected to the Aspen Volunteer Fire Department. In 1995, he became Aspen’s first, full-time, paid fire chief.

Fear can come in many forms, but what sent Krystal Baucum running for the hills was math class.

Luckily, she found the academic courage she was searching for here at Colorado Mountain College.

“CMC provided me with the perfect opportunity to take classes at my own pace,” says Krystal, a CMC Aspen student. “If you put in the hard work, CMC is there for you.”

Professors at CMC pride themselves on the personal connections they make with students. This individualized teaching fuels success by helping students focus on their unique goals.

“I knew the possibilities were endless with CMC,” Krystal says. “It was the perfect outlet.”

Originally from the small town of Talkeetna, Alaska, Krystal went to college in California and then started a career in the hospitality industry in Houston, Texas. However, she quickly realized this was not the right career path for her.

When she moved to Aspen with her husband in 2012, she easily could have landed a job in the hospitality industry but she used the move as a fresh start. Krystal was offered a full-time job at CMC and then began taking classes at night.

“It was a momentous decision,” she says of enrolling at CMC. “It was tough but I knew I wanted something different for myself.”

With help from faculty and staff, Krystal took small steps toward her goal of pursuing a career in math and science. She started with basic algebra classes and worked up to advanced calculus. In the fall, she will transfer to Colorado School of the Mines to pursue a degree in chemical & biological engineering.

“The professors at CMC are incredible,” says Krystal. “Everyone has an open-door policy and I took advantage of every office hour.”

“No words can express how thankful I am to CMC.”

When Colorado Mountain College Aspen opened the doors of its brand-new building, I was newly married and new to Aspen/Snowmass.

In a community where swapping stories of how long you have been in town is part of getting to know anyone, being a part of a new chapter in local history was meaningful to me. Teaching a course–on self-publishing books for children–on day one in the beautiful new building made me feel that I was part of the Aspen/Snowmass community. I met so many creative, amazing people over the 2-3 years that I was an adjunct professor.

Thank you, CMC and Ann Harris, for the opportunity to be a part of the CMC story; and thank you to everyone who participated in one my classes, many of whom are authors of beautiful books.

When Kendra Gros is not styling a bride’s or celebrity’s hair, she might be ripping up a motocross track, training a horse, riding a polo pony, teaching salsa or tango, or posing for photos at a special event.

Even with all this nonstop activity, however, the Aspen native says something was missing. She’d graduated from Yampah Mountain High School in Glenwood Springs and had taken a few classes from Colorado Mountain College back then, but hadn’t taken her education further.

So when CMC offered its Finish What You Started tuition discount program in the fall of 2016 to celebrate the college’s 50^th anniversary, Kendra was all in. The program offers 50 percent off tuition to qualified students who are returning to finish their first degree – and Kendra qualified.

Now along with dressing up to go on the town, or dressing down to ride motorcycles or horses, Kendra’s been hitting the books and working toward earning her associate degree at Colorado Mountain College Aspen.

“It’s really motivating,” she says, about the reduced tuition and the opportunity to get a degree right in Aspen. “And I can still work and go to school.”

She says she especially likes her classes in modern literature, humanities and art. And for Kendra, it’s education for education’s sake. “I’m not as concerned about what I get a degree in,” she says. “I’m just getting my degree.”

Photo courtesy Aspen Historical Society

David Barbee goes back a long way with Colorado Mountain College. A long way. In fact, he was there at the very beginning, when CMC was a glimmer in the eyes of a small group of citizens who wanted to bring higher education to the West Slope.

At the time, David was the principal at Aspen High School. As an educator he had strong opinions about how education should be offered.

In fact, David and the early planners agreed early on that the area did not need a junior college. Rather it needed an institution to serve the needs of the entire college district: continuing education for professionals, workforce training for area businesses or vocational training for those who wanted something other than a four-year college degree.

David’s philosophy, which he urged the original planning committee to embrace, was to develop a student-centered approach that adjusted teaching to individual learning styles. It was education for the entire community.

He called it a systems approach. “The idea was that everyone can learn but they need the right environment. You can’t teach everyone the same way. So training programs had to be developed that were outcome-based. Sometimes the teaching matter had to be adjusted,” he said.

In order to serve the student best, the college needed to be flexible in the way it delivered its programs, and measure the outcome of those programs. For example, if a student took a welding course, he had to demonstrate that he could “solder a joint,” David said, not just that he had read about soldering.

Scores of meetings were held, philosophy was debated, and David got his point across. The experience of being on the ground floor of this newly fledged school was a sense of excitement. “I felt we were really plowing new ground.”

After the 1965 election when the school was approved by the voters and five members appointed to the governing board, David was appointed to the presidential search committee. He convinced his colleagues to look for someone who employed the systems approach, the student-focused, non-traditional way of teaching.

He recounted a trip at that time to a community college in the southeast. His partner was Pat Harvey, an ex-FBI agent who had become a financial officer at the Climax Molybdenum mine near Leadville. Harvey suggested they use the tried and true FBI investigative technique by first visiting the town barbershop and drug store to gauge local opinion about the school.

David used the same approach, he said, when visiting Oakland Community College outside Detroit. As he was checking in to a nearby motel, he noticed family pictures in the living room which also served as the reception area. He pointed to the photographs of several students wearing caps and gowns, and asked if they attended Oakland Community College. The woman answered emphatically no, she wouldn’t send her kids to a school that used TV and tapes to teach the students.

That was just what he wanted to hear, a school that used any and all means to teach. “I said, we just found our president.” The new, first president, was Joe Davenport. He was all about a systems approach. Tragically, Davenport died in an airplane crash near Glenwood Springs after less than two years on the job.

In 1970, David went east to continue his own education. After receiving a doctorate he returned to the valley and the CMC board of trustees in 1970, serving until 1978.

As Colorado Mountain College student success stories go, Kathryn Howlin’s is a marvel. You could say she discovered her true self at CMC. After beginning her college career at the CMC Aspen, Kathryn, with the support and encouragement of her teachers, enrolled and was accepted into the neuroscience program at Columbia University in New York City. She is now working as a research consultant with the NeuroLeadership Institute in New York.

During a “gap” year between high school and college, Kathryn moved from her home in Michigan to Aspen and did what so many do, skied and worked various jobs. These included a stint at the St. Regis and ski instructor for the Aspen Skiing Company. But it was a volunteer job at Challenge Aspen, skiing with disabled children and veterans where she discovered her passion.

“That really psyched my interest and gave me the drive to do something in that field,” she said. She enrolled at CMC Aspen where she took humanities and science classes. Although she’d always found school a challenge, CMC’s supportive environment opened a door to a love of learning and a desire to excel.

Kathryn credits her humanities teacher, Tom Buesch, professor of communications and humanities at CMC Aspen, for opening the door for her.

“Without his assistance, I positively would not be where I am today,” she said. “I grew up hating reading. He completely changed that. I was interested in literature for the first time in my life. That says a lot for the quality of education and the people there.”

Similarly, faculty member Scott Graham grew her passion and appreciation for cellular biology. Kathryn recalls that whenever she had trouble taking tests and needed private room, or extra time, it was available. The faculty “took the extra time. They’d even give you their home phone number.”

With all her class credits except one – ceramics – accepted by Columbia, Kathryn made the move to the big city. It was a shock. “I went from not locking my door (in Aspen) to triple bolt locks (in New York City),” she said. “It was a cold pool to jump into.”

It was also a shock trying to fit into a renowned Ivy League school, and the number two neuroscience program – the interdisciplinary study of the brain and nervous system – in the country. “I was really apprehensive about it.”

From a relatively intimate, nurturing school environment, Kathryn was faced with being one student among thousands, where the driving force was not student support, but publishing the results of research.

“If you didn’t fit into the cookie cutter student profile, it was too bad,” she said.

Nevertheless, she persevered and graduated with a bachelor of arts degree from an Ivy League university. Now, she is a research consultant for Fortune 100 companies, where she teaches leadership skills, diversity and inclusion.

Well on the road to a successful career, Kathryn credits the caring faculty at CMC Aspen with putting her firmly on that road.

“I still, to this day, stand by the fact the quality of the education I received at Colorado Mountain College was so much greater than that at Columbia. Truly,” she says.

“They saw a potential in me that I had never realized.”

A quarter century after he started teaching at Colorado Mountain College in Aspen, Tom Buesch is just as excited about helping students learn. And being able to reach students who need special attention is one of the best things about the small college atmosphere.

Buesch’s teaching career started in 1965 at the high school level. He then moved to the University of Illinois for three years, but grew disillusioned about teaching at such a large university, so went to work for Bosch, a German auto parts company, for 17 years.

“I’ve been a gear head since I was a kid, and even now I’m building out a hot rod today,” Buesch said.

In 1991, Buesch returned to teaching part-time at CMC and full-time in 1997, so has taught in Aspen for 25 years. “I think it’s the best job in the world,” Buesch said. “It just seems like it’s what I was meant to be doing and I hope it lasts forever.”

The “nice, casual” atmosphere of teaching at a small college in Aspen, getting to know students well in small classes are among the reasons Buesch lists as some of the best things about CMC. “I’ve been in classes with 300 students where the teacher comes in and lectures and leaves and I don’t think that’s really teaching,” Buesch said.

A mix of students of all ages and “wonderful chemistry” between himself and those students are other positives at CMC, he added. CMC allows teachers like himself to “rescue” struggling students, Buesch said, because it’s a small college and teachers can give such students the academic and personal attention they need.

Buesch has taught philosophy, humanities, literature and music appreciation classes at the college. A professor of communications and humanities, Buesch was the 2011-12 full-time faculty of the year at the Aspen campus.

Buesch holds a doctorate degree in German Language and Literature from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. His bachelor’s degree in German and English is from Ripon College in Ripon, Wisconsin.

Every day teaching at CMC is rewarding, Buesch said, because he gets to interact with students. “The most rewarding part is hearing from a student who has gone on to succeed at something and they say I’m still the best professor they’ve ever had,” he added. “When you’re able to influence someone for the good, and help them along the academic path, that makes it worthwhile.”