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Hill speaks on Putin, foreign policy
Foreign policy expert Fiona Hill, Ph.D., said Russian President Vladimir Putin is distorting history to achieve his personal goals. Hill joined Janine Davidson, Ph.D., president of Metropolitan State University of Denver, and Daniel KurtzPhelan, editor of Foreign Affairs magazine, in March for a discussion about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the underlying conditions that create space for geopolitical conflicts.
Hill stressed the importance of education and studying history to prevent powerful people from creating false narratives of current events. “If we don’t know our history, including American history and European history, we fall for it when people in Orwellian fashion try to make use of it,” she said.
NEWS
Secretary of Labor on campus to celebrate apprenticeship funding
U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh visited Metropolitan State University of Denver in February to participate in a roundtable discussion on the role apprenticeships play in advancing student learning and economic opportunity.
Walsh’s appearance coincided with the Labor Department’s announcement of the Apprenticeship Building America grant program that will invest $113 million to grow diversity in registered apprenticeships. Of that funding, $50 million will support partnerships aimed at increasing enrollment in apprenticeship programs such as those available at MSU Denver.
Gov. Jared Polis and Colorado U.S. Sens. John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet joined Walsh to ask questions and learn the value of apprenticeships from students’ points of view.
“President Biden sent me here purposely,” Walsh said, “because of the work that Sen. Bennet and Sen. Hickenlooper have done in creating pathways and opportunities for us to make further investments.”
Students on the panel discussed how apprenticeships have helped them land job offers and explore new careers.
Roman Anker, who’s majoring in Advanced Manufacturing, said his apprenticeship solidified his career path. What started as an apprenticeship at Lockheed Martin turned into a full-time job offer for after graduation.
“Coming into the apprenticeship program, I knew I wanted to work in aerospace,” Anker said. “My apprenticeship at Lockheed really helped me propel my career.”
Apprenticeships helped Karen Rosas discern the right career path. Rosas pursued apprenticeships in paralegal studies, optometry and dietetics, learning through experience that those fields weren’t the right fit for her. Now, she’s finishing her degree in Early Childhood Education.
Despite their varying experiences, all of the students on the panel agreed that apprenticeships helped them gain a better understanding of their career fields. And they found real value in taking their educational experiences outside the classroom.
$113
million
to grow diversity in registered apprenticeships
$50
million
to support partnerships aimed at increasing enrollment in apprenticeship programs
— ROMAN ANKER, ADVANCED MANUFACTURING STUDENT
AVIATION
Shorter runway to careers
Declan Kreck’s career will lift off a lot earlier than he originally thought, thanks to a new authorization that Metropolitan State University of Denver earned from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Under the FAA’s Restricted Airline Transport Pilot authority, Kreck and other Aviation students at the University can apply for FAA Part 121 pilot jobs, including those with major and regional carriers, after they complete 1,000 hours of flight time instead of 1,500 hours.
“The reduction in the time requirement lets me and pilots like me join the airline world at least two years before we could have otherwise,” said Kreck, a sophomore majoring in Aviation and Aerospace.
The change will also be a boon to an airline industry still facing a serious pilot shortage.
In the wake of the 2009 Colgan Air crash in New York, Congress increased the minimum number of flight training hours from 250 to 1,500 for pilots to fly commercial passenger airliners. However, the FAA allows graduates of authorized bachelor’s degree programs to obtain a Restricted Airline Transport License after 1,000 hours of flight training.
“It’s the quality of the ground and flight training curriculum and coursework in those programs, where the FAA, after approval, allows for a reduction of time toward becoming an airline pilot,” said Chad Kendall, an associate professor in the University’s Department of Aviation and Aerospace Science.
MSU Denver is the only four-year, brick-andmortar location in Colorado to have received R-ATP authorization.
In the airline world, a pilot’s seniority number, or date of hire, impacts the time it takes to upgrade to captain and to move on to a major carrier, Kendall said. He added that it also affects monthly schedules, salary and vacation time. The new authorization starts the clock sooner for MSU Denver students.
“This will in turn mean more student pilots coming to MSU Denver and provide a shortened pathway for those with dreams of being an airline pilot,” Kendall said.
Aviation student Declan Kreck
MARK WOOLCOTT
— CHAD KENDALL, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR IN THE DEPARTMENT OF AVIATION AND AEROSPACE SCIENCE
NEWS
INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIPS
Delivering for Amazon employees
Metropolitan State University of Denver in March announced its participation in the Amazon Career Choice Partner Network and welcomed eligible Amazon employees to attend the University.
Career Choice is an education benefit that empowers Amazon employees to learn new skills for career success. The program meets individual learners where they are on their education journeys through a variety of skill-development opportunities. Some of these opportunities include full college tuition, industry certifications and foundational skills such as Englishlanguage proficiency.
“Amazon and MSU Denver share a commitment to provide learners with best-in-class support on their path to career success,” said Will Simpkins, Ed.D., vice president of Student Affairs at MSU Denver. “This partnership is an important milestone in our University’s work to bridge learners and communities, industry and academics.”
Through the Career Choice program, Amazon employees can earn credits toward a certificate, associate degree or bachelor’s degree. The initiative launched in 2012, and more than 50,000 Amazon employees have participated since its inception.
“We’re looking forward to MSU Denver coming on board as an education partner for Career Choice, adding to the hundreds of best-in-class offerings available to our employees,” said Tammy Thieman, global program lead of Amazon’s Career Choice program. “We’re committed to empowering our employees by providing them access to the education and training they need to grow their careers, whether that’s with us or elsewhere.”
Career Choice is available to hourly full-time and part-time employees who have worked at Amazon for at least 90 continuous days. Participants from within Colorado and all bordering states are welcome to pursue their studies at MSU Denver. Participating employees also have the flexibility to study online, in person or in one of the company’s Career Choice classrooms inside many of its Fulfillment Centers.
PRESIDENT OF STUDENT AFFAIRS
Unstoppable
THE ARTIST/ISTOCK IMAGES Metropolitan State University of Denver in January became the first four-year institution in the state to sign an agreement with the Colorado Community College System to provide stoppedout students with a path to an associate’s degree.
The reverse-transfer articulation agreement makes MSU Denver students eligible to apply for an associate’s degree from the Community College System, provided they have stopped out for at least two semesters and completed at least 70 credit hours, with 15 or more of those credit hours achieved at a Colorado community college. The opportunity would apply only to students who have stopped out in the past 10 years and who have completed their General Studies requirements.
“We know about one-third of our incoming students over the past five years meet the 15-credit minimum in the Community College System,” said Shaun T. Schafer, Ph.D., MSU Denver associate vice president of Curriculum, Academic Effectiveness and Policy Development. “What we will need to see now is how many of them would be aided by this opportunity and if it will serve as an incentive to return and complete a bachelor’s degree.”
The agreement between the University and the Community College System is a result of House Bill 21-1330 and the Colorado Re-Engaged Initiative. The initiative is intended to provide encouragement for stopped-out students and additional credentialing for Coloradans as part of pandemic recovery efforts.
A moment-in-time look at MSU Denver students who stopped out after the spring 2020 semester revealed that there are 117 Roadrunners who would be eligible to apply to the Community College System for an associate’s degree.
“We are intrigued to see how many of those 117 students take advantage of this opportunity and how this influences their futures,” Schafer said.
Finish what you started
Travis Broxton took his first college course in 1969, the same year Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. Broxton completed seven semesters as a history major at Lincoln University but ultimately came a semester short of a college degree for financial reasons.
After taking college classes off and on throughout his long corporate career, the 72-yearold photographer earned a “Everybody bachelor’s degree in Art from Metropolitan State University of Denver this past December. has to eat.” The degree completed an academic journey that spanned seven decades — one giant leap made of many small steps.
“This has taken a long time, but we’re finally crossing the finish line and it’s very fulfilling to do that,” said Broxton.
Broxton is one of about 680,000 Coloradans who left college without earning
a degree, according to the National Student Office at MSU Denver, said the University is Clearinghouse. Such students are the focus working on several strategies to help students of a statewide push to reengage return to school and finish faster, including adult learners who stopped out of offering more college credit for work or $2.85 college as Colorado tries to meet its advanced workforce needs and military experience. “We need to identify innovative and million counter the economic disruptions of the pandemic. flexible structures as it relates to options for students, specifically adult learners, to Grant money that will go MSU Denver recently received complete degrees,” she said. directly to students in the form of scholarships. a $5.7 million Finish What You Started grant from the Colorado Opportunity Scholarship Initiative. The University intends to use that funding to serve adults with some college credit but who have not been enrolled for the past two semesters. Half of the grant money will go directly to students in the form of scholarships. Students will also be assigned a pathway navigator and peer mentors to help them reengage in school and be successful. Megan Scherzberg, Ph.D., director of the Orientation, Transfer and Reengagement
