VOLUME 28 ISSUE 2
FALL/WINTER 2020
A LIFE TWICE AS BRIGHT SGT. WALTER SPRINGS COULD NOT ESCAPE THE LETHAL FLAMES OF RACISM P. 22
RE-EXAMINING THE LANDSCAPE OF HISTORY P. 24 SPIRITUAL EXERCISES TO ADDRESS HATE P. 27
REGIS.EDU
An October snowfall mingled the splendor of two seasons on the Regis campus.
IN THIS ISSUE
F E AT U R E S RANGERS’ RESILIENCE 18 With caution and innovation, Regis kept the campus open despite COVID-19. VOLUME 28 ISSUE 2
FALL/WINTER 2020
Regis University Magazine is published biannually by Marketing and Communications for the University community of alumni, benefactors, faculty, staff, students and families. ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS Todd Cohen DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS Jennifer Forker EDITOR Karen Augé SENIOR ART DIRECTOR Marcus Knodle EDITORIAL STAFF Matt K. Johnson McKenna Solomon DESIGN STAFF Nichole Atwood PHOTOGRAPHER Skip Stewart CONTRIBUTORS Barry “Bear” Gutierrez Steven J. Nesius Associate Prof. Christopher Pramuk, Ph.D. Meredith Sell Paul Wedlake ON THE COVER: Regis College student Walter Springs holds his infant nephew Orville Springs outside the Springs family’s Denver home. (Courtesy Orville Springs).
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS Email: editor@regis.edu Mail: Regis University Magazine, L-27 3333 Regis Blvd., Denver CO 80221-1099 MAKE A GIFT TO REGIS Call: 303.964.3608 Visit: give.regis.edu LEARN ABOUT UPCOMING EVENTS Visit: regis.edu/events Follow us: facebook.com/regisuniversity ADVANCE YOUR EDUCATION Visit: regis.edu/apply Call: 800.944.7667 Email: ruadmissions@regis.edu
Regis University supports a more sustainable environment. Please recycle this magazine when finished reading or using.
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HEADS IN THE CLOUD 20 A Regis venture prospers as colleges scramble to improve online learning and course-sharing capabilities. SACRIFICE OF A STUDENT AND SOLDIER Seventy-eight years after Walter Springs left Regis to serve his country, his life — and death — resonate more than ever.
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REGIS RISING 30 The Northwest Denver Campus’ skyline is changing for the better. PERSEVERANCE PERSONIFIED 32 A hurricane, a toddler, and even cancer couldn’t stop Angelica Maisonet from earning her master’s degree.
34 CHAMPIONSHIP ROOTS Before Joe B. Hall won a national title, he took Regis hoops to new heights. ADVANCES IN MEDICINE 38 Grants, new partners and an updated skills lab give healthcare programs a shot in the arm.
THIS IS REGIS LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT 3 IN BRIEF 4 RISING STAR 6 LESSONS LEARNED 7 WHY JESUIT MATTERS 8 FACULTY FOCUS 9 RESEARCH 12 RANGERS IN THE WORLD 14 SCHOLARSHIP STORIES 16
A L W AY S R A N G E R S ASK REGI 40 CLASS NOTES 41 IN MEMORIAM 45 CROSSWORD 48
LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
"THIS HAS BEEN A SEMESTER UNLIKE ANY OTHER." DEAR FRIENDS, Little about 2020 has been easy, and deciding whether or not to welcome students back to campus in August was no exception. The spring and summer months were a time of thoughtful conversation, of consultation with leaders across our campus and community, and of fervent prayer. Regis was an early distance learning pioneer, and we are grateful that that experience, together with the dedication of our faculty, meant COVID-19’s impact on student learning was minimal. For our traditional and residential students, we wrestled with if and how we could safely welcome them back to campus and to the classroom. But ultimately, it was clear that no social meeting platform or technology could replace the rapport, the experiences and the community that is fostered through inperson connection. Just as the decision to have students return to campus was not made lightly, it was made with the certainty that we could not do so without changes to the campus. To determine the safest course, we researched and consulted with our local public health officials. With that input, we made substantial modifications: • We condensed the semester so we could send traditional students home in November, before an anticipated surge in cases might occur; • We reconfigured classrooms and residence halls; • We designated spaces to house students who tested positive or who had been exposed to someone who tested positive; • We offered COVID-19 testing on our Northwest Denver Campus for those experiencing symptoms; • We instituted campus-wide, deep-cleaning protocols; • We mandated masks for all faculty, staff, students, vendors and visitors; • We invested in technology to facilitate learning and recreate as closely as possible the classroom experience for those who become ill and for those who felt they could not safely attend classes in person.
We took these steps knowing they would potentially and profoundly change the Regis experience for students and faculty. We did so because we have no higher duty than protecting the health, safety and well-being of our Regis community. Because it seems the COVID-19 pandemic will remain a serious concern through the spring and summer months of next year, we will take similar steps, including implementing a later start for most classes and forgoing spring break, for the Spring 2021 semester. We are proud that our new and returning students, our faculty, and our staff have risen to the challenges the pandemic presented, and demonstrated care and concern for each other. Even as we were preparing to welcome students back to campus, we wrestled mightily with whether or not to carry on with our fall athletic season. Our athletic staff worked day and night to build a road map that would get us to a safe fall season; they explored ways to minimize or eliminate the risks student athletes and coaches would face in traveling to games and matches. Our student athletes are warriors; they wanted to compete. But, in a heartfelt letter that illustrated cura personalis, they requested that we consider postponing or canceling the fall season. And so, we made the excruciating decision that a fall athletic season would not be possible. The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC), which includes Regis, affirmed this decision when it announced that the overwhelming majority of athletic competitions would be postponed to Spring 2021. This has been a semester unlike any other. But throughout this challenge, Regis has persevered. Students, faculty and staff have been courageous, caring and conscientious. We have been, above all, a community. Gratefully,
Rev. John P. Fitzgibbons, S.J. President
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IN BRIEF
PUT YOUR PENCILS DOWN
If you’re an undergraduate student hoping to enter Regis in the Fall 2021 semester, you aren’t required to take the ACT or SAT exam. The test-optional decision was driven by testing complications caused by COVID-19. But adopting a more holistic approach aligns with Jesuit values because it promotes greater inclusion of previously underrepresented students, said Dean of Admissions Kim Frisch.
REGIS’ LOSS IS RETIREMENT’S GAIN
After 20 years as a fixture on the Regis campus, Provost Janet Houser is retiring. Sort of. Houser has announced that she plans to step down at the end of the Spring 2021 semester. But she won’t be leaving entirely; she plans to continue teaching. In five years as provost, Houser helped guide the University through growth and unprecedented achievement, and crises no one could have predicted. Houser has served as associate dean for research, dean of the Rueckert-Hartman College for Health Professions and vice provost for resource planning. The search for a new provost is ongoing.
BREWING DIVERSITY
With a $10,000 kickstart from Denver-based Station 26 Brewing Co., Regis’ acclaimed craft brewing certificate hopes to be turning out brewers who are as varied and diverse as the flavors they concoct. The “For You For All Diversity in Craft Brewing Scholarship” will provide financial support to students typically underrepresented in the craft brewing industry, including people of color, women and members of the LGBTQ community. To add your donation to Station 26’s contribution, visit crowdfunding.regis.edu.
A RUSSIAN REVOLUTION FOR VICTORIAN VERSE
The work of Victorian poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. didn’t get much recognition during his lifetime. But thanks to an effort supported by Regis faculty, he’s about to gain a whole new audience – of Russian speakers. Regis instructor Victoria McCabe and alumnus Dennis Gallagher donated to an effort to translate Hopkins’ poetry into Russian, and Gallagher has promised to recite a Hopkins poem at the next International Regis Hopkins Conference, planned for summer 2021 in Ireland. Photo courtesy of Hulton Archive/Getty Images.
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THIS IS REGIS
SUCCEEDING AT GREENING
The vast collection of stately trees isn’t the only thing making the Regis campus green. Campus-wide efforts to reduce the University’s carbon footprint are succeeding, and have been recognized. This summer, Regis became one of only 42 colleges and universities nationwide that derive 100 percent or more of their needed electricity from renewable sources, according to a report by the Environment America Research & Policy Center.
A WINNING WAY WITH WORDS
Longtime Regis faculty member Rick Rokosz’s book Masson’s Laws, a collection of witticisms from the world of business, won a 2020 New Mexico-Arizona Book award. Rokosz, who holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a Master of Science in Organizational Leadership from Regis, has taught business courses at the University since 1991. The New Mexico Book Co-op’s book awards recognize authors from that state and Arizona. Rokosz lives in Cottonwood, Ariz.
NEW PROGRAM PRESCRIBES PHARMACY INDUSTRY SAVVY
Today’s pharmacists do much more than dispense prescription medications. Recognizing that, Regis’ highly regarded School of Pharmacy this fall introduced a new certificate program: Pharmaceutical Industry Affairs. Designed and developed by faculty members, the program equips graduates with the foundational skills necessary to navigate their highly regulated industry. The curriculum consists of courses on evaluating research literature, study design and research methods, regulatory affairs and the economics of the pharmaceutical industry. The program is open to current pharmacy and healthcare students and working professionals who meet pre-requisite requirements.
AND THE 2020 INNOVATION CHALLENGE WINNER IS . . .
. . . Regis 2017 grad Ben Williamson and his Power Pops Protein snacks. The low-carb, highprotein nut-free snacks (Williamson has a nut allergy) were born out of a photo Williamson saw of himself his sophomore year – and didn’t like. The snack, developed in his parents’ kitchen, comes in white cheddar, parmesan garlic and other flavors and is available online. The Regis Innovation Center’s annual competition, held online this year, came with a $10,000 firstplace prize, which Williamson plans to spend on marketing and streamlining manufacturing. The fourth-annual Innovation Challenge, launched in October, continues through the winter with winners announced in late Spring 2021. Learn more at RegisInnovationChallenge.com.
REGIS.EDU
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RISING STAR
LIFE SUPPORT Courtesy Costantine Kawalya-Tendo
A PASSION IGNITED IN CLASS PROPELLED THIS SENIOR TO HELP ABOLISH COLORADO’S DEATH PENALTY murdered and understands they may not share his view. “But killing another person is not going to bring your [loved one] back.”
Like many students, Kawalya-Tendo chose the latter — but with a twist. Instead of joining a community group, he and several classmates created their own.
FIGHTING FOR LIFE
The result, the End Colorado’s Death Penalty Alliance (ECDPA), which began in the early days of the Spring 2020 semester, grew into a joint effort among Regis’ departments of sociology, anthropology and criminal justice, along with the Regis College Center for Service Learning.
S
OME ACTIVISTS HAVE TO WAIT A LIFETIME TO SEE THE SOCIAL CHANGE THEY’VE
WORKED FOR. Costantine Kawalya-Tendo
didn’t even have to wait until he graduated from Regis. Last March, while much of the world was pre-occupied with the emerging pandemic, Colorado took the monumental step of overturning the death penalty that had been in place since the 1970s. Kawalya-Tendo and the group of Regis student activists he helped assemble celebrated the change they had advocated for, if only briefly. As he entered his senior year, Kawalya-Tendo said he began considering his Regis legacy. “I remember thinking, ‘What do I want to be remembered for at the end of these four years?’” he said. He found the answer this past spring in adjunct Professor James Bullington’s sociology class about the death penalty in the United States. Bullington, a Regis graduate who has spent much of his adult life advocating to end the death penalty, said he offers students an option: Write a research paper on the topic 6
or get involved with a community organization — pro or anti — and write a reflection paper on the experience.
The group had no budget, but plenty of passion. “We started here on campus, by educating fellow students,” Kawalya-Tendo said. The goal was to turn that education into signatures on a petition to end capital punishment in Colorado. Ultimately, this spring the group presented their petition, with Regis students’ signatures, to state lawmakers. In the signature-gathering process, Kawalya-Tendo found that education went both ways. “Our campus features students from all walks of life, and letting them know about the history of the death penalty is important,” he said. “I was challenged often by students asking, ‘Why should I sign this?’” The ensuing conversations helped him think more deeply about the issue to provide clear answers and arguments for his cause. To help his students resolve such questions in their own minds, and to better understand both sides of the debate, Bullington has them read Alligator Candy, a memoir about the savage murder of an 11-year-old boy, written years after the crime by the child’s brother. Kawalya-Tendo said he empathizes with family members of those who have been
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Kawalya-Tendo came to the United States in 2011 after spending most of his childhood in his native Uganda, where political and ethnic upheaval marked much of the 20th century, and where, until recently, the death penalty was required for certain crimes. He said that what he learned at Regis about the death penalty in the United States made fighting to abolish it a perfect fit with the University’s Jesuit values. “I believe in the sanctity of life — not just for newborns but even (for) the worst of the worst. They still deserve at least a chance. We cannot play God.” The issue is also one of racial justice, Kawalya-Tendo said, and pointed out that all three men who recently had been on death row in Colorado were Black, and all convicted in the same judicial district — the 18th, which includes Arapaho, Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln counties. On March 10, ECDPA hosted community leaders, and legal and religious experts in a public forum on the issue — an event that would be the last public event held before the COVID-19 forced the campus to shut down. Less than two weeks later, on March 23, Gov. Jared Polis signed the law that made Colorado the 22nd state to abolish the death penalty. With COVID-19 beginning its rampage across the country, the event went unnoticed by many. Kawalya-Tendo, who plans to pursue a master’s in public policy, noticed. He’s proud that he was able to join for a semester the effort Bullington and many others dedicated decades to. But, he said, there is still much work to do. As he put it in a recent email: “The work is just starting as there are 28 more states left to go.” — KA
THIS IS REGIS
LESSONS LEARNED THE CLASS: MGT 6110 STRATEGY FORMULATION
ABOUT THE COURSE: Students learn business strategies to guide both long- and short-term growth and increase revenue. They apply concepts through practical exercises that simulate real-world experiences and see the results of implementing their strategies. INSTRUCTOR: Thomas Yagos, MBA, Senior Lecturer, Anderson
College of Business and Computing STUDENTS ARE: Non-traditional; they are working adults pursuing an MBA. Recent students included people who work in technology, health care, manufacturing and education. TEXTS AND MATERIALS: Crafting & Executing Strategy: The Quest for Competitive Advantage: Concepts and Cases, by Arthur Thompson. The book is available in both print form and as a smartbook that accompanies the online simulation that students participate in. CLASSWORK: Using the simulation Business Strategy Game (BSG),
teams of students run a 10-year-old international casual-shoe company. Their responsibility is to build a strategy for the next decade
that will grow the company and increase revenue, and they make decisions about marketing, production, human resources and socially responsible strategies. Each week, hundreds of teams around the world compete in BSG simulations. The competing BSG companies are measured on categories including earnings, stock price and return on equity. Teams are ranked against their competition, which — again — number in the hundreds, and Regis teams consistently registered as top performers. During the fall semester, Regis teams placed in the top 10 for financial performance in three out of the simulation’s eight weeks. “It’s pretty intense. There’s a lot of work required,” Yagos said. MAJOR LESSON LEARNED: Students learn to build and implement a strategic plan for their “company” and they get to see the results of that plan immediately, both through the in-class simulation and in their real-world work.
REGIS.EDU
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Courtesy David Dye
WHY JESUIT MATTERS
WE CAN WORK IT OUT
ALUMNUS WROTE THE BOOK ON HOW COMPANIES CAN CULTIVATE THE COURAGE TO COMMUNICATE demonstrates one side of the rift between employees and management: • 49 percent of employees are not regularly asked for ideas by their leaders.
L
EADERSHIP TRAINER DAVID DYE ALREADY
HAD WRITTEN THE BOOK — literally — on wise and ethical behavior in the business world when he noticed a problem.
In working with businesses, he heard a common theme: Employees and management are disconnected, often with dire consequences. The antidote, and the impetus for Dye’s next book? Courage. Specifically, the courage to ask for and invest in the ideas and perspectives of others. “Once technology automates all of your competitive advantages, all you have left are your people,” said Dye. Along with his wife and business partner, Karin Hurt, Dye devoted his life to leadership training and development through their company. To help business leaders tap into the potential of their people, Dye and Hurt wrote a book, Courageous Cultures, released in July by HarperCollins Leadership. The couple have spoken on leadership to audiences in 45 states and 13 countries on four continents, and shared insight with Microsoft, USAA and the National Institutes of Health, among others. For Courageous Cultures, Dye and Hurt worked with the University of Northern Colorado’s Social Research lab to investigate organizational culture across business sectors and share what they learned from high-profile organizations such as Trader Joe’s and Nestlé. A sample of their findings 8
• 56 percent withhold ideas out of concern they won’t get credit. • 67 percent said leaders and managers operate from a mindset of “this is how we’ve always done it.” CULTIVATING COURAGE
As Dye and Hurt discovered, managers and employees see the flip side of the same problems. “We would talk with executives and frequently hear frustration,” Dye said. “‘Why am I the only one who’s solving problems?’” To seek a solution, Dye and Hurt asked a question of their own: What do great companies do to establish a courageous culture in which employees speak up and contribute consistently? They found those companies shared several courageous leadership characteristics: • Leaders bravely define culture. “When you have a culture where people like us speak up on behalf of the customer and solve problems, it doesn’t take as much individual courage to do it, because it’s what everyone does,” Dye said. • Leaders must go beyond mere “opendoor policies.” “With these policies, you’ve given people permission, but that’s not a real invitation. What we find the most effective leaders do is they ask courageous questions like, ‘What is our customers’ number-one frustration right now?’”
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• Leaders communicate that employees’ ideas are valued. Dye mentioned one financial institution that intentionally collects suggestions from employees. The company implemented 50 percent of those suggestions, but managers never told employees their ideas were used. “That simple act of them putting in a suggestion and never hearing anything about it just reinforced all of their negative beliefs about management,” he said. ‘LEAVE IT BETTER THAN YOU FOUND IT’
A Denver-area native, Dye graduated from Regis with his master’s in nonprofit management, then began a two-decade career in the nonprofit world. “One of the things that I most appreciated about my Regis education, and the Jesuit tradition in general, is the combination of theory and application,” he said. “That tradition really resonated as a student and it has continued to inform my work.” For the Regis community, Dye says Courageous Cultures should resonate particularly well, in part because of a phrase he remembers from his days as a Boy Scout: “Leave it better than you found it.” That principle also suits Dye’s first co-authored book, Winning Well: A Manager’s Guide to Getting Results — Without Losing Your Soul. The title prompted Dye and Hurt to launch a charitable campaign that provides clean-water wells in southeast Asia. “The practical application of ‘leave it better than you found it’ fits so well with Regis, with the Jesuit education, with the service to others, with the academic rigor. Courageous Cultures lives at the intersection of all of those things.” — MKJ
Courtesy Khadijah Queen
FACULTY FOCUS
STRONG WORDS IN REGIS PROFESSOR’S SEARING POETRY, SOCIAL ISSUES BECOME PERSONAL To one anonymous reviewer, the verses in Anodyne are a way of exploring at least one of those problems: “For Queen, the possibility of social justice begins in language, which she frames as the very foundation of the social order,” a reviewer wrote on the website Poets and Writers. An example: “Her mother had vision/ & the power in a Black woman’s name/ saves us all.” Queen agrees with that assessment, to a point. “Certainly, a part of [social justice] is how we speak to and about and for one another. Being accurate and precise in the words we choose is vitally important.”
W
ITH HER SIXTH BOOK, ANODYNE, RE-
LEASED IN AUGUST TO WIDE ACCLAIM,
THE SUMMER OF 2020 SHOULD HAVE BEEN A TIME OF SAVORING SUCCESS — and fly-
ing around the country meeting fans and signing books — for poet Khadijah Queen. Instead, the hot months were for her, like many others, a time of reckoning. As the country around her burned both literally and with the heat of racial injustice, and the COVID-19 pandemic continued its rampage, the acclaimed poet and Regis assistant professor of creative writing put poetry aside. “I feel like I need beauty to write poetry, and I haven’t been able to do the things I normally do to access beauty,” she said. Those things include experiencing nature, visiting the Denver Botanic Gardens, and even traveling, she said. “Poetry is a place to stop and feel the meaning of what we say. It’s a way to find a language for what we feel,” she said. But this summer, “Grief is the feeling that settled over me.” So Queen, who has been a finalist for the National Poetry Series and the Balcones Poetry Prize, turned to what she calls “practical prose.” “It seemed to me there is an absence of that now. Nobody’s doing anything about all these problems.”
Queen’s latest work, like her previous volumes, addresses issues of femininity and race, intertwines violence and beauty, provokes and — as the title implies — soothes. Anodyne juxtaposes, as a Goodreads reviewer put it, “the small moments that enrapture us alongside the daily threats of cataclysm.” Queen does this in words as lyric as they are bravely personal. The roots of her words and how she chooses them can be traced to an unlikely source: the Navy. Queen was working two jobs, including one as a Radio Shack assistant manager, and wondering how to finance her college education when a recruiter walked into her store. “He was like, ‘you’re really great. Have you ever thought of joining the military?’” She hadn’t. But that changed when he mentioned that her service would be repaid with $40,000 toward a degree. Her plan was to major in English and become a teacher, but along the way she discovered poetry. “I had written poetry secretly but hadn’t studied it in any serious way. But then I took a poetry class and it unlocked a whole vocabulary.” What she calls her “poetry persona” varies, depending on her theme. Her writing persona “is not always me as my current self.”
In one of her previous selves, which appears in her fifth book, I’m so Fine: A List of Famous Men & What I Had On, Queen explores feminism and sexism as a parade of celebrities make cameos, or take on major roles. Many of those encounters were the natural consequence of growing up in the Los Angeles area, she said. “I used to ditch school and go to the Beverly Center,” the quintessential L.A. retail destination, on the border between West Hollywood and Beverly Hills. “We’d just see [famous people] at the mall . . . they were all over.” As she got older, “I worked as an extra in movies, and I started to get invited to parties.” Now caregiver to her elderly mother, Queen, like many of us, finds herself at home more, and maybe a bit isolated in this pandemic year. She finds hope, though, in future generations: her son, who is 20, her 5-year-old niece, and her students, both at Regis and the University of Colorado, where she also is an assistant professor. As an instructor and a mentor in Regis’ Mile-High MFA program, Queen’s approach is to make learning a process, one that includes plenty of questioning and diverse opinions, but few absolute, right-orwrong answers. Whether, or how soon, she returns to the form of writing that has brought her widespread acclaim remains to be seen. But whoever writes it, poetry will endure, Queen said. “I don’t think you can kill poetry. It’s the oldest form of telling our stories. People turn to it because it’s a condensed description of feelings we don’t have the time or energy to articulate. That’s never going to stop being important,” she said. “Poetry is more alive now than ever.” — KA REGIS.EDU
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A master’s graduate captures the scene at one of three socially distanced Commencement ceremonies for the Class of 2020 that were delayed until July due to the pandemic. Graduates were seated at least six feet apart, wore masks and were provided with hand sanitizer, per public health guidelines. Photo: Paul Wedlake
RESEARCH
MONKEYING AROUND Courtesy Amy Schreier
RAIN FOREST EXPEDITIONS BENEFIT STUDENTS, AND THE PLANET
T
HE MESSAGE HIT HOME FOR AMY SCHREIER WHEN SHE SAW
A SLOTH ON A TELEPHONE WIRE.
It was 2014, and Schreier, a Regis biology professor, was in Costa Rica, where she takes Regis students to conduct research each summer. While driving through a banana plantation — one developed by cutting down a massive swath of forest — she noticed the sloth racing across the wire toward the safety of the forest. “The one thing everybody knows about sloths is they do not run,” Schreier said. “It was crazy... It just became so clear that forest fragmentation was impacting wildlife in the area.” That moment not only prompted a shift in Schreier’s research, but gave her a tangible example of one of the planet’s most pressing environmental problems: forest fragmentation and its impact on wildlife. Since 2014, Schreier and a team have done the important — if disheartening — work of studying how deforestation is changing how animals behave.
In doing this work, Schreier takes Regis students along for the ride. Each summer, she takes eight to 15 students deep into the Costa Rican rain forest where they try their hand at in-depth biological field research. For four weeks in remote settings, students go from learning to identify monkey species to conducting their own studies — some of which they present at national conferences. Although Costa Rica was closed to American visitors this past summer, Schreier plans to resume taking students there when international travel resumes. “It’s been great taking students to the field and being with students when they see a monkey . . . or a sloth in the wild for the first time,” she said. “ . . . I’ve been [researching] for a long time, so it’s nice to be reminded how exciting it is, to see the excitement in the students.” But it’s not only in Costa Rica that Schreier’s work has provided students with valuable opportunities. As a research associate at the Denver Zoo, her research has opened doors for students to study 12
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The zoo benefits from her expertise in studying animal behavior and the relationship is a win for Schreier, too, “because it’s really broadened my expertise and the opportunities available for students,” she said. For Schreier, animal research speaks to an urgent global issue: Global biodiversity is declining rapidly, and more than half of primate species are threatened with extinction. Her research has shown that deforestation is indeed affecting animal behavior, and Schreier hopes her work helps Americans understand their role in saving habitats thousands of miles away. “There are decisions we can make here at home as consumers, with the sorts of things we use and buy, that have big implications for wildlife around the world,” she said. Perhaps most of all, she says she hopes to help Regis students, whether in the rain forest, at the zoo or in the classroom, fuel their desire to become scientists. “I hope that students who are interested in becoming scientists see that [it’s] attainable. A regular person can . . . experience lots of exciting things and get to spend their careers trying to answer questions that they’re passionate about.” — MKJ The rain forest habitat of the white-faced capuchins is rapidly shrinking
“[Now,] the vast majority of forest worldwide is within a kilometer of forest edge . . . ” Schreier said. “We know that fragmentation is likely to continue, so in order to ensure that these species don’t go extinct, it’s really important to understand if and how they’re able to cope with these fragmented landscapes.”
monkeys, including multicolored mandrills and fuzzy gibbons, as well as Asian elephants and African painted dogs.
THIS IS REGIS
Photo: Bear Gutierrez
COLLEGE COUNSELOR
VIVIANA DE LA TORRE SMOOTHS THE PATH FOR OTHER FIRST-GEN STUDENTS By Meredith Sell
V
IVIANA DE LA TORRE’S FRESHMAN YEAR AT REGIS WAS CHAL-
LENGING. Between questioning her major and juggling school with a job as a certified nursing assistant, de la Torre (who goes by Vivi) also experienced culture shock as a Latina on a majority white campus and a first-generation college student navigating the University on her own. “Acclimating to college was a big struggle,” de la Torre said. “I had several conversations with my parents about wanting to transfer out.”
But she was willing to give Regis another shot, and two key shifts her sophomore year helped. First, she switched her major. Second, toward the end of her freshman year, de la Torre landed a job with Regis’ Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusive Excellence, working as a student lead for Stephanie Colunga Montoya, the office’s associate director. There, she helped Montoya establish programs to help first-generation students avoid some of the struggles she experienced her freshman year. This year, de la Torre’s senior year, the programs are especially important at Regis, because first-generation students made up about one-third of the incoming freshman class. “We [first-generation students] don’t really have parents who helped us fill out FAFSA or parents that knew what steps I needed to do to apply,” de la Torre said. “Everything that I had to do to get to my seat in that classroom, I had to figure out on my own or with the help of college counselors or professors.” Through programming put on by the diversity office, as well as 1LEADS, a student-led club that de la Torre helped start last spring, she and others aim to provide first-generation students with the resources to navigate college and the space to share experiences, build relationships with other first-generation students, and connect with a campus counselor—all things that would have improved her own freshman-year experience. Part of her freshman-year struggle stemmed from her initial choice of major. De la Torre had chosen pre-nursing with the goal of eventually working as a prison nurse—but mostly, she wanted to work in the prison system or with former prisoners. Her first year, she realized she didn’t enjoy her science classes but relished
Intro to Sociology, as well as the teaching of Jazmin A. Muro, Ph.D., assistant professor in the department of Anthropology, Sociology and Criminal Justice. “I really wanted [Muro] to be my advisor, so I ended up switching to sociology,” de la Torre said. De la Torre found Muro, also Latina, to be someone she could relate to. “She... held me to higher expectations,” de la Torre said, “because she saw in me something more than I knew I was capable of.” Under Muro’s guidance, de la Torre settled on a major in sociology and peace and justice, with a minor in criminal justice, as a way of pursuing her career path. Now, in her final year at Regis, de la Torre is a deputy probation officer for Jefferson County, just outside Denver. She enjoys the job, but she’s also struck by the complexity of circumstances that have led her clients to commit crimes. “I feel like my classes have really opened my mind to seeing that not everything is black and white,” she said. “There’s a lot of background information and a lot of other struggles that people go through.” This understanding stirs up compassion, as well as a desire to provide support to people who may otherwise be entirely on their own—a theme that’s also at play in de la Torre’s work with the diversity office. “Not everyone has access to resources and not everyone knows of the resources available to them,” de la Torre said. “I love the idea that I get to be the person that helps someone achieve all the goals and all the dreams they have.” REGIS.EDU
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RANGERS IN THE WORLD
SERVICE LEARNING FAMILY HISTORY, AND A REGIS DEGREE, PROVIDED A FOUNDATION FOR AIDING THOSE IN CRISIS
W
he earned at Regis – have proved useful training for the issues The Action Center faces now, as the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic greatly increases the need for assistance.
Before he became director of development for The Action Center in Lakewood two years ago, Covert spent 17 years with the Salvation Army. That made him the fourth generation of Coverts to work with the service organization that is perhaps best known for its Christmastime bell-ringers
The Action Center provides “immediate and compassionate response to people when they are having a hardship in life,” Covert said. “If you are in a predicament because life happened or you made a bad decision, we help you figure out how to manage.”
Courtesy John Covert
HEN IT COMES TO HELPING OTHERS, YOU COULD SAY JOHN
COVERT IS GENETICALLY PREDISPOSED.
and red kettles. The international service organization started in London in 1865; by 1888, Coverts were part of it, and have been ever since. “My parents are officers in the Salvation Army, so are my grandparents and my great-grandparents were,” he said. That legacy of service – and the master of science in management
But The Action Center doesn’t merely hand out bags of food and wave goodbye. Doing that, Covert said, may help in the moment. “But in the long term, for life, that won’t help you get back on your feet and stay there.” To provide that long-term help, Action Center volunteers meet with participants and discuss more than their immediate needs. “Before you can access our programs and services, our volunteers meet with you to share what your challenges are, and then we talk about how to navigate toward a life of self-sufficiency.”
A SPE C I A L T H A N K S T O A L L T HO SE W HO D ONAT E D T O R E GI S U N I V E R SI T Y DU R I NG T H I S T I M E OF N E E D . YOU R GE N E RO SI T Y I S GR E AT LY A PPR E C I AT E D A N D H A S M A DE A DI F F E R E NC E .
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For people experiencing homelessness, an important step toward self-sufficiency is merely having an address. The Action Center provides one for some 1,200 people. For those people, a physical address allows them to receive mail and obtain an ID – necessities for anyone hoping to receive systemic assistance or find a job. Volunteers also teach clients about nutrition and provide fruits and vegetables in addition to the usual dry goods and canned foods that stock many food pantry shelves. Often, when that grocery bag is full, volunteers top it off with a bouquet of flowers. “We pick up floral arrangements from stores. When they get brown on the edges, they’re thrown away, so we take them. For a lot of people, having those little luxuries never enters their mind,” Covert said. To him, touches like that are part of treating people with dignity and respect. In a normal week, The Action Center serves about 80 to 90 people a day. But weeks and months have been anything but normal lately. In March, as the pandemic and its economic devastation began to spread, the center saw 130 to 140 households a day. And nearly 30 percent of those people had never sought help at the center before. The same pandemic that has caused need to grow almost exponen-
tially has made meeting that need tricky. In non-pandemic times, The Action Center provides housewares, linens and clothing, from which those it serves can select. “We have a clothing bank set up like a store, where people can go shopping for clothes, but it’s all free,” Covert said. The pandemic has forced the organization to develop new, safer distribution methods. Now, people line up in their cars, and volunteers bring a box filled with food out to them. And a visit to the clothing bank requires a temperature check and is limited to one person per household who has 20 minutes to find the perfect outfit. The past few months have been difficult, and the next few months promise to be as well. But Covert credits his Regis education with providing skills and experience that he is putting to good use. Though he isn’t Catholic, the University’s curriculum and its Jesuit values are a perfect fit. In fact, he said what stands out now about his time at Regis was the community service he provided with classmates, including distributing hygiene products at homeless shelters, serving food at a rescue mission and performing basic home maintenance for seniors. “At Regis it wasn’t just that you’re here for an education. It was also ‘We want to make you a better citizen.’” — KA
Your most important work could begin after you retire. ivcusa.org/denver
John Green, Vice President for Partner Engagement | jgreen@ivcusa.org | 215.839.8415 Erin Benson, IVC Director for Denver | ebenson@ivcusa.org | 303.394.2997 REGIS.EDU
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Photo: Bear Gutierrez
SCHOLARSHIP STORIES
ROCKY MOUNTAIN
C O L L E G I AT E
A HEART FOR HEALTH SERVING THOSE IN NEED
COMPETITION
By Meredith Sell WHEN THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC HIT THIS PAST SPRING, THE END OF KATIE SCHILMOELLER’S SENIOR YEAR WAS TURNED UPSIDE-DOWN.
A lacrosse athlete, nursing student and Irish Community Scholarship recipient, Schilmoeller had been geared up for her last season on the lacrosse field and her final nursing classes. But halfway through the semester, coronavirus started spreading in Colorado, the NCAA canceled spring sports, and Regis closed the campus and moved classes online. All of Schilmoeller’s plans were upset — including those for after graduation. “I always figured that I would graduate and then pass the NCLEX, the [nursing] licensing exam, and then immediately start a [nursing residency] program,” Schilmoeller said. “All the sudden, that was no longer an option. A lot of [nursing residency] programs were being canceled, postponed because of COVID.” She had new decisions to make. Schilmoeller’s interest in nursing was always tied to her desire to help others. Pre-coronavirus, for her senior capstone in January and February, she worked at Stout Street Health Center, a downtown Denver clinic operated by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. That experience brought her close to people experiencing homelessness and exposed her to some of the healthcare challenges faced by uninsured people. One patient provided a troubling example of those challenges: He needed hospital treatment for a wound that had not healed and had become a chronic 16
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march 5–6, 2021 virtual event FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO REGISTER, VISIT
rmccdc.regis.edu
health problem, which is a common challenge for people experiencing homelessness. But his substance use and mental health disorders made obtaining care difficult. “The last week that I was there... we got the go-ahead for him to go to the hospital and get the care that he needed,” Schilmoeller said. “It felt like a really big victory for us — but it was also a stark reminder that it’s rare for that population... to get the same [healthcare] opportunities that other people would have.” That experience, and the lacrosse team’s participation in Team IMPACT, were formative for Schilmoeller. Team IMPACT is a nationwide service organization that matches collegiate teams with children dealing with serious or chronic illness. For Schilmoeller’s entire college career, her team was matched with a young girl, Daisy, who had brain and spinal cancer. Like others on the lacrosse team, Schilmoeller got to know Daisy and her family, visited her at Children’s Hospital Colorado, and celebrated her birthday each September. Daisy passed away this past spring, but knowing her has shaped how Schilmoeller approaches patients: She now works as a nurse in pediatric home healthcare and aims to treat her patients like normal kids, while building relationships with their families. Schilmoeller is also pursuing her Master’s in Nursing at Regis, a decision spurred by the NCAA’s March decision to let spring athletes red shirt the 2020 season. (Schilmoeller hopes to be back on the lacrosse field for her final season in Spring 2021.) The master’s program started in May, the day after she graduated with her bachelor’s, and already, it’s helping her combine her passion for serving marginalized and vulnerable populations — like those she cared for at Stout Street — with nursing and community health. Healthcare, she says, is “a perfect pairing of constantly learning and then taking what you know and using it to help other people.” Through her career in a post-coronavirus world, helping others is exactly what Schilmoeller aims to do.
CELEBRATE THEIR BIRTHDAY FROM MILES AWAY GIVE YOUR STUDENT A SWEET SURPRISE! Join in the festivities no matter the distance with customized, on-campus treats. Baskets can be delivered to the student’s residence hall or picked up at the Student Center.* LEARN MORE AT: REGIS.EDU/PARENTS
*To ensure availability, orders should be received one week prior to special calendar events, such as birthdays, holidays or final exams.
As a pediatric home health nurse, Katie Schilmoeller works with kids like Avah Mauro. Photo: Bear Gutierrez
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WE CAME. WE LEARNED. WE MASKED UP. N
OTHING ABOUT FALL 2020 WAS NORMAL – NOT ON REGIS CAMPUSES, NOT ANYWHERE.
But with caution, ingenuity, and Regis resilience, students and faculty persevered, stayed safe and succeeded in a semester where nearly everything was at least a little different. Outside their dorm rooms, students were required to wear masks. Faculty and staff, too, covered their faces to keep themselves and others safe. And everybody kept their distance. Hand-sanitizer stations became familiar sights across campus. Classes were offered in-person or in hybrid or blended learning models. Flu shots were provided on the Northwest Denver Campus. These are only a few of the steps Regis took to meet the needs of students while maintaining a safe and comfortable learning environment.
IN-CLASS LEARNING TAKES A TURN
This fall, dozens of Regis faculty gained a well-rounded new colleague: Swivl. To both assure safety and maintain high-caliber educational experiences for all students, the University invested in cutting-edge technology that helps students follow class sessions in person or via Zoom. Featuring a mini iPad connected to a rotating console, Swivl’s mobile audiovisual kit allows professors to teach via Zoom and interact with students in the classroom while staying within the view of the iPad’s camera. The Swivl rotates the iPad up to 360 degrees to follow the faculty member, who wears a microphone synced to the Swivl.
C A M P U S
I N
T H E
A G E
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C O V I D
DISCUSSION GOES VIRAL
TAKE IT OUTSIDE
They say knowledge is power, and COVID-19 is no exception. So, in October, Regis’ Sustainable Economic Enterprise Development (SEED) Institute program presented a free five-week series of online discussions to help students, faculty and community members arm themselves with information on topics such as:
When the going gets tough, the tough head outside.
• What is a virus and how do viruses work? • What is it like to be an intensive care nurse during COVID-19? • How has COVID-19 magnified systemic inequities of race, class and gender? • What lessons might faith offer for living through a pandemic? The discussions were presented by Regis faculty members in biology, English, computing, business management, pharmacy, counseling, nursing, religious studies, psychology and peace and justice studies who shared their expertise in the context of COVID-19.
With an eye toward providing the safest possible learning opportunity this fall, Regis created 22 outdoor learning spaces. The idea caught on: When classes started Aug. 17, some 46 faculty members had scheduled 210 separate class sessions to meet outside during the first week. Fred Gray, Ph.D., professor of physics and astronomy, noticed that the benefits of outdoor teaching went beyond student safety and provided an environment in which “students learn by actively working through problems rather than by passively listening.” Just this once, no one seemed to mind the unseasonably warm temperatures – and the absence of rain or snow – that persisted through the end of October.
SEED seeks to foster the development of sustainable economic enterprises through education and collaborative scholarship.
A MOVING EXPERIENCE
MUSIC AL FRESCO
This year, move-in day on the Northwest Denver Campus was strictly by appointment only. Students and families signed up in advance for an Aug. 15 time slot. And they were asked to conduct the whole operation in masks, and within two hours, max, to reduce congestion in the dorms. Absent this year were the armies of helpful upperclassmen and women typically on hand to facilitate the move in by providing direction and muscle.
Several nights a week a stroll around the north end of campus likely had musical accompaniment. Music classes and ensembles hit the right notes inside a large, soft-sided tent that popped up in the parking lot west of Claver Hall. The tent even came equipped with outdoor heaters to make sure lips and fingers didn’t go numb from the late-semester cold. REGIS.EDU
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VIRTUAL SUCCESS
REGIS’ PIONEERING COURSE SHARING AND ONLINE LEARNING SERVICES AID COLLEGES NATIONWIDE By Karen Augé Before there was Uber, before there was Airbnb, there was a true sharedeconomy pioneer: Regis. The University has long been a leader in providing online learning for non-traditional students. But for nearly two decades, Regis’ Higher Learning Partners (HLP) division has been on a mission to become a leader in helping other institutions realize the benefits of virtual and distance learning, as well as curriculum exchange. Now, the development of next-generation software, projections of future enrollment declines—and a pandemic—have combined to create unprecedented demand for the products and consulting services Higher Learning Partners provides. “Course exchange, which has been the lifeblood of this department since 2005, is now getting a lot of attention,” said Thomas Gilhooly, chief executive officer and executive director of HLP. It got the attention of the University of Tennessee. This summer, HLP contracted with UT to create a platform that will academically unite the system’s four campuses, which together serve 50,000 students. The UT system’s search for a way to develop a more robust online education system led them to HLP, said Karen Etzkorn, director of academic affairs for the University of Tennessee System. “Regis was incredibly flexible and worked to meet the needs of our system and was able to offer a platform in a way that wasn’t one-size-fits-all,” Etzkorn said. “It was adapted for the UT system.” Tennessee hopes to roll out the shared system with 10 mostly entry-level courses, and grow from there, she said. Students in any of UT’s four campuses, which are spread across the state, will be able to register online for any of the courses offered online, regardless of which location the course originates in. The partnership has potential to benefit both institutions. Working with the UT system is an extension of Regis’ Jesuit mission, said Adam Samhouri, HLP’s academic and operations director. “We’re here to help enhance learning for students.” For Tennessee and other schools that share curriculum or offer greater online options, it can be a revenue saver. When an institution offers those options, it lessens the risk of losing summer-school students to community colleges closer to home, said Samhouri. It also offers a convenient option for student athletes who may fall behind in their courses or for students who may have had to drop a couple of courses and in doing so put themselves below the minimum credit hours required to receive aid. The result is greater student retention and higher graduation rates, Samhouri said. At UT, officials are exploring the possibility of creating a new, shortened term between the fall and spring semesters. 20
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UT’s inter-campus course exchange will operate on a new software system HLP created with a Silicon Valley group, Gilhooly said. With previous software versions, registering for a class in one location, taking a class provided by instructors in another location, and having tuition money follow that course to the right place had been difficult, Gilhooly said. The new software provides a smooth, streamlined system that accommodates online course exchange, registration, grade reporting and financial tracking. “It’s terribly exciting,” Gilhooly said. Regis pioneered online learning beginning in the ’90s, at a time when dial-up modems and fuzzy connections were common. The University stuck with it, and so did students, particularly those trying to juggle jobs, families and education. “Regis is a believer in making lifelong learning available, and being open to educating all people,” Gilhooly said. HLP brings that expertise to its work providing other colleges and universities with services that enable them to expand professional and continuing education programs, and through its consulting work with more than 100 higher education institutions. In 2005, Regis launched an online course exchange, the Online Consortium of Independent Colleges and Universities (OCICU) that has grown to include roughly 300 schools nationwide, which share courses through an online marketplace. As of 2020, that course exchange has had 50,000 enrollments, “and raised tens of millions of dollars for our partner schools,” Gilhooly said. In addition, HLP developed course-sharing software that now is in use in 80 schools. In course exchanges, a student can enroll in a course offered at a college that is an exchange partner. The student pays tuition to their home college, which then pays the partner providing the class. All members of the exchange pay a per-class fee as well as an annual fee. Gannon University, in Erie, Pa., was a charter member of OCICU. “We got in at the ground level and it’s created immense institutional value,” said Earl “Tex” Brieger, chief online learning officer for the Catholic university. Allowing students to take courses from home during summer break has put a substantial amount of money that otherwise might have gone to a state school or community college into Gannon’s coffers, he said. Gannon also values working with other small- to mid-sized Catholic institutions in the exchange. While Regis has long seen the wisdom of online courses and exchanges, some institutions had been hesitant. “In three years, I visited 70-plus campuses,” Gilhooly said. On some campuses, a rich, sophisticated online curriculum was considered a luxury. Then COVID-19 happened. The pandemic has expedited the need for online learning. Course sharing, in particular, “is one of the hotter subjects in higher education right now,” Gilhooly said. The impact of the coronavirus on college enrollment, combined with demographic data showing the numbers of college-age students will soon start to decline, means tough times ahead for many colleges and universities. Gilhooly believes course exchanges could soften the economic blow for many of them. “I don’t know if this will save schools. But it will definitely help schools come together to increase their retention, and their graduation rates.”
Higher Learning Partners Chief Executive Officer Thomas Gilhooly (left) and Academic and Operations Director Adam Samhouri are taking the benefits of online course-sharing to campuses nationwide. Photo: Bear Gutierrez
A while back, HLP “came to understand that online course exchanges would be paramount as enrollment declined,” Gilhooly said. Now, with COVID-19 driving students into online learning, such exchanges are more critical than ever, he said. “It’s revolutionary and it all was founded here at Regis.” REGIS.EDU
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The Sacrifice of Walter Springs
He was inspired to change a world burdened by racism. Now Regis honors his legacy. By Karen AugĂŠ
Walter Springs was a fearsome fullback. Photo: Regis archives
IN 1941, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN HARD TO FIND ANYONE ON THE REGIS COLLEGE CAMPUS WHO DIDN’T ADMIRE WALTER SPRINGS. Known for his kindness and sense of humor, Springs also was one of the state’s top boxers. At 5’ 7”, 160 pounds, he excelled as a starting fullback — Regis still had a football team then. Inspired by the teachings of his Jesuit professors, he converted to Catholicism, was baptized on campus and was known to lead teammates in prayer before a game. And he did all that while working two jobs to pay for his education. In his junior year, his classmates voted Springs — the only Black man among the 200 young men enrolled at Regis — "Most Popular Student." Just a few months later, Springs left college to serve his country — in a segregated Army. Like many young men who left home to fight in World War II, he never came back. But Walter Springs didn’t die on a foreign battlefield. He never made it out of the country. Just after midnight on Dec. 17, 1942, Sgt. Walter Springs was shot and killed by a white military police officer in a Bastrop, Texas, café, a few miles from the Army base where he was about to report for officer training. At least one news account noted that the mortally wounded soldier lived only long enough to receive Last Rites. Beyond that, there is little agreement about what exactly happened the night that left Walter Springs bleeding to death on a diner floor. Now, 78 years later, his family is still waiting to learn what happened, and why – and whether there was ever justice for him. In this moment when the country is confronting the persistence of racial injustice, both past and present, the Springs family asks that the sacrifice of a young Black man who volunteered to fight for his country not be forgotten. Next spring, Regis University’s renowned Center for the Study of War Experience will help make sure Springs’ story is remembered. His life, and his death, are the inspiration for a new course: Stories from Wartime: Histories of African American Citizenship and Service.
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MAKING THE PLACES WE GO INCLUSIVE There’s an old saying that history is written by the winners. Nicki Gonzales, Regis associate professor of history and vice provost for diversity and inclusion, agrees. “Monuments are a time stamp of their present moment, built by people whose voices are the loudest and the most politically and economically powerful at the time,” says Gonzales. “They memorialize and celebrate the values most important to the people at that time. The victors get to erect the statues.” This explains why so many streets, schools, parks and playgrounds bear the names of white men. And so many monuments in Colorado celebrate white warriors. But across the country, those monuments have been toppling and those names are being re-examined as part of the racial reckoning sparked this year by the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. Colorado is no exception, and Gonzales is playing a major role in the process.
This spring, residents of the community built on the site of the old Denver airport voted to change its name after activists objected to honoring former Denver Mayor Benjamin Stapleton, a one-time member of the KKK. As a historian, Gonzales supports presenting the removed monuments in a historical display, as the History Colorado museum recently did with the statue of a soldier who participated in a massacre. As a museum exhibit, the statue, which was toppled this summer at the state Capitol, can educate future generations about why it was once given such a prominent pedestal and why it was removed. But she doesn’t view removing monuments or renaming school mascots as erasing that past. On the contrary, “it’s about writing a fuller history and correcting myths we’ve created about our past,” she said. Gonzales is hopeful that in this moment, the momentum for meaningful change is real.
Walter Springs grew up in Denver, one of 11 children born to William and Willa Mae Springs. His father came to Colorado to strike it rich, said William Springs’ grandson — and Walter’s nephew — Orville Springs. “He ran away from home at 15,” Orville Springs said of his grandfather. “He was involved in one of the largest gold strikes in Colorado. He worked for General [William Jackson] Palmer in Colorado Springs.” By the time Walter was born, in 1918, William and Willa Mae and their family had moved to Denver, and William had traded in his pick axe and gold pan for a janitor’s broom and, according to the Denver City Directory, to clean Pullman coaches and the offices of The Denver Post. Later, Orville Springs said, William Springs became a teamster, driving through Denver streets making deliveries. In 1939, Walter Springs graduated from Manual High School, and set about becoming the first in his family to earn a college degree. Even in 1940, when Regis tuition was $150, plus about $30 in fees, the salary of a janitor or truck driver would hardly have been enough to cover the cost of higher education. And, by 1940, William Springs was retired. But Walter Springs was determined. He got a partial scholarship and a series of part-time jobs, and while he didn’t live on Regis’ campus, he made his mark there.
Walter Springs was part of a 1941 campus musical production. Photo: Regis Archives.
This summer, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis appointed Gonzales to the 12-member Geographic Naming Advisory Board. The board is considering renaming specific public monuments and places, including Mt. Evans, whose namesake enabled a massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho people at Sand Creek in 1864; Redskin Mountain west of Castle Rock; and Squaw Mountain near Idaho Springs.
FROM FAITH AND FOOTBALL TO SERVICE
GOOD TROUBLE CONVERSATIONS In May 1941, the Denver Catholic Register reported, “As a member of the college boxing team this winter, Walt Springs scored sensational victories over opponents from Colorado College and Wyoming University and was considered ‘the ace of the Ranger squad’...” The publication also sang his gridiron, and spiritual, praises: “Just before the Spearfish game, he led the entire squad in prayer before Our Lady's grotto on the Regis campus. The result was that the inspired Rangers ran up the largest score in their modern football history." Springs’ friend and mentor, Rev. Joseph P. Donnelly, S.J., a Regis history professor, later recalled that during a trip to an away game, a hotel manager objected to putting a Black man up for the night. His teammates came to Springs’ defense, and were about to tear the place apart. Walter Springs stopped them. Months later, as the United States entered World War II, Springs volunteered to join the Army. He was sent to Fort McClellan, in Anniston, Ala., where he became one of what would ultimately be half a million men trained there to fight the Axis powers. By the time his training ended, Springs had been promoted to technical sergeant and recommended for officer training with the Army Air Corps at Camp Swift, Texas. In December 1942, Walter Springs came home on furlough and saw his family for what would be the last time. At home he met his new nephew, Orville, and a family member took a snapshot of the young man, standing military straight and looking proud, in front of Bill’s Diner on Welton Street, which Orville Springs said a family member coowned. Then Walter Springs left Denver on a train headed to Camp Swift. He never got there.
Attention Regis Community — Would you like to get into some “Good Trouble?” Sign up for one (or all) of our second round of Good Trouble Conversations, which launch in January. Hosted by the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusive Excellence, these discussions – held on Zoom – examine current race and justice topics and how Regis community members can take part in positive change. These conversations are inspired by the late Congressman and civil rights legend John Lewis, who passed away in July. Lewis, who was beaten by police during the “Bloody Sunday” civil rights march in Selma, Ala., called on people to “get in good trouble, necessary trouble and redeem the soul of America.” He urged young people to speak out, be persistent, and be non-violent in demanding transformational societal change. The inaugural sessions, held this fall, were immensely popular: Attendance at the biweekly events ranged from 40 to 100 and included Regis students, faculty and staff. An October guest speaker was Olga Segura, a Jesuit-educated author and opinion editor at the National Catholic Reporter, who spoke about Black lives and the Catholic Church. We would love for you to join us when the conversations resume this spring. We expect stimulating topics and thoughtful, knowledgeable guest speakers; stay tuned for details. Dates for the spring Good Trouble Conversations are Jan. 29; Feb. 12 and 26; March 12 and 26; and April 9 and 23. Learn more about the program, and get a glimpse of the free T-shirt available to participants, at Regis’ Forum for Race and Justice at Regis.edu/justice. Got questions or a good topic idea? Email event organizers at: diverse@regis.edu.
NEW RACE AND JUSTICE COUNCIL Regis University is proud to announce the creation of the President’s Council on Race and Social Justice. The new council represents the University’s commitment to creating a more inclusive, equitable campus. Regis invites alumni, parents, friends and students to join in an effort to produce positive, constructive action. To learn more about how a gift of any size can empower students and administrators to create constructive change and lead the effort to build a more equitable future, visit regis.edu/justicefund.
Walter Springs, shown with the 1941 Regis Boxing Team. Photo: Regis Archives
A FIGHT ON TWO FRONTS Camp Swift lived up to its name. In the months after the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the nation united behind leaders who galvanized human, industrial and military resources into action to fight a common enemy: German and Japanese forces. U.S. bases popped up like dandelions, primarily across the South and West, where military leaders figured mild climate would lend itself to year-round training. One of those bases was Camp Swift, near Bastrop, Texas, a farming community about 30 miles outside Austin. “On Christmas Eve, 1941, LBJ, who was serving in the Navy, called the town to let them know that Bastrop had been selected,” as the site of an Army installation, said Lt. Col. Philip A. Kost, now Camp Swift’s Officer in Charge, and a self-described history buff. At the time, future President Lyndon Johnson was a Texas Congressman. He had been in the Navy reserve but was called into active duty after the attack on Pearl Harbor. “In January and February, contracts were let and by May 4, [1942], they had the official flag raising,” Kost said. “In four months, they basically built an entire city” on some 50,000 acres. By war’s end, 100,000 soldiers had come through Camp Swift. A fair number of those soldiers were Black. Enough that separate facilities — barracks, a mess hall, training grounds, even a canteen for socializing — were built for blacks and whites. Like many of the more than one million young Black men who served in World War II, Walter Springs likely hoped that serving his country would not only demonstrate patriotism, but prove that Blacks were capable of serving honorably and deserved respect — and equality.
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“He told me that he wanted to get into this war, for he hoped that he would aid in the elimination of race prejudice,” Donnelly wrote in an article that first appeared in the Interracial Review, a publication of the National Catholic Federation for the Promotion of Better Race Relations. A version of the article appeared in the Regis Roundup campus publication in 1952, with the announcement of a scholarship in Springs’ memory. Springs wasn’t the only one harboring that hope. The Pittsburgh Courier, a leading Black newspaper at the time, is widely credited with launching the Double V, or Double Victory, campaign, urging Black Americans to link the fight against fascism overseas to the fight against racism at home. In a Feb. 14, 1942, article, Courier editors wrote, “We, as colored Americans are determined to protect our country... therefore we have adopted the Double ‘V’ war cry—victory over our enemies at home and victory over our enemies on the battlefields abroad. Thus, in our fight for freedom we wage a two-pronged attack against our enslavers at home and those abroad who will enslave us. WE HAVE A STAKE IN THIS FIGHT... WE ARE AMERICANS, TOO!” But like many Black soldiers from the West and the North, Springs may not have been prepared for the blatant racism and open hostility of the Jim Crow South where many reported for training. Springs apparently experienced that in Alabama. In his Interracial Review article, Donnelly wrote that Springs came to visit him while he was home on furlough that December. “We had a long talk while he was home. I found him no longer witty and sunny; he was worried. Incidents had happened, none too pleasant... He tried to avoid difficulties by keeping to camp... and out of the way of whites. He hoped that nothing serious would happen. But it did! And Walter was the victim.”
PEACE, JUSTICE AND THE GRACE OF UNDERSTANDING For many white Americans, the horrifying murder of George Floyd found us at the foot of a cross that has overshadowed African-American life and death for 400 years. From an Ignatian view, there is no single way for people of faith to respond rightly to this unsettling reality. Each of us will be called according to the distinct gifts we have to offer. Still, there are a few Ignatian insights that can guide us in our desire to join the struggle for racial justice in these critical times: First, if you are white, don’t run from the crosses carried by communities of color. Listen intently to people of color. Look intently at your own privilege. Ask God for the grace of understanding, empathy and courageous imagination. Second, don’t run from your own racial biases and limitations, fears and failures. See them, name them, and ask God – and those you may have offended – for the grace to make peace with them. And then release them. Resolve that each day, through the struggle itself, you can become a new creation. Third, resist the temptation to judge others from a privileged distance. Proximity is God’s doorway to grace. Find ways to draw near, to initiate encounters with the most vulnerable and marginalized communities. And then, repeat steps one through three. What once was novel and frightening can become a life-changing spiritual exercise, a habit of being. Lastly, look for beauty in others and beauty will overwhelm you. Radiate kindness and it will come back to you, 70 times seven. Pray for mercy and mercy will be given you.
In 1941, Walter Springs was voted “Most Popular Student”. Photo: Regis Archives.
In sum, contemplate what is and dare to imagine what is yet possible. Together, in freedom and grace, we can become a new creation, pilgrims in the way of justice, reconciliation and love. — Christopher Pramuk, Ph.D., Chair of Ignatian Thought and Imagination
Tech. Sgt. Walter Springs, home on furlough, December, 1942.
FATAL CONFRONTATION On Dec. 17, Walter Springs was on a train headed to his new assignment at Camp Swift. In the Bastrop newspaper that day, a front-page story brought news of the sinking of a Japanese ship. Closer to home, a Dallas judge reportedly was considering allowing women to serve on juries, because the war had drained the pool of male jurors. The paper was full of news of local holiday gatherings; a local market offered steak at 39 cents a pound; a 7-foot Christmas tree cost $1.05. When Springs got off the train in Bastrop, he apparently didn’t head straight for Camp Swift, but stopped in town at Jackson’s Café, which news accounts called “a Negro café.” Some reports say the trouble started when military police entered the café and demanded soldiers line up for inspection, and Springs resisted. The military police officer — who later was charged with manslaughter — claimed he shot Springs because he “came at him” with a knife. Nephew Orville Springs noted that the MP accused of shooting his uncle was a corporal, while Walter Springs was a sergeant. “Maybe he didn’t like being outranked” by a Black man, Orville Springs suggested. News accounts uniformly stated that Walter Springs was shot in the back. Whether that MP was convicted, or even tried, not even Walter Springs’ family knows, Orville Springs said. Rose Campbell, associate director of the Regis Center for the Study of War Experience, hopes the U.S. military and the National Archives will provide answers about the outcome of the case in time for the upcoming spring semester course that will include Walter Springs. Two days before Christmas 1942, soldiers bore a flag-draped coffin holding the body of Tech. Sgt. Walter V. Springs into a chapel where his father, brothers and sisters joined numerous classmates, instructors, and Regis’ president to say goodbye to the first Regis student to die in World War II. In his article, written the day of the funeral, Donnelly didn’t come out and say, exactly, that he couldn’t reconcile the MP’s account of Springs coming at him with a knife with the young man he knew. But he made his feelings clear. “I...taught him that Catholic principles, if honestly lived, would solve the problems which face the world in which he would live. Well, Walter lived those principles. Maybe he was a martyr to them.” The following fall, William Springs requested, and received, a veteran’s headstone from the War Department. It now stands over Walter Springs’ grave in Denver’s Riverside Cemetery, where more than 1,000 veterans rest today. Inscribed on the tombstone are the words: “His life an ideal, his memory an inspiration.”
BLOODSHED BEYOND THE BATTLEFIELD Whatever happened to Walter Springs, the death of a Black soldier on U.S. soil was not an isolated incident. If the concept of equality for Blacks was unthinkable to many, the idea that a Black man could be worthy of respect was frightening: It upended the racist notions of white superiority that were the foundation of racial repression and segregation, said Lauren Hirschberg, Ph.D., assistant professor of history at Regis. Racial tensions erupted in violence around several military installations. Among the most notorious, and controversial, the Lee Street Riot occurred in Alexandria, La. In 1942, on a Saturday night, a white military police offi28
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cer either arrested, or attacked, a Black soldier from nearby Camp Claiborne. Military and state police reported that a “riot” broke out, and officers used force to stop it, injuring several dozen Black soldiers. Blacks who were present, however, stated that police opened fire on the crowd. Today, it’s widely believed that between 20 and 300 Black soldiers and civilians were killed. In October 2020, a University of Southern Mississippi professor convened a discussion to explore whether a mass grave of Lee Street Riot victims exists. At the war’s end, many Black soldiers returned from foreign battlefields to violence at home. “One of the trends then was... white supremacists seeing African-American servicemen coming home, seeing them in uniform, and the sort of threat that seemed to pose to them would result in race riots and violence,” Hirschberg said. Violence is exactly what Isaac Woodard experienced before he ever made it home from fighting in the Pacific. On Feb. 12, 1946, Woodard and several other soldiers, Black and white, boarded a bus to take them home from Camp Gordon in Georgia, where they had received an honorable discharge. Along the way, Woodard and the white bus driver clashed over a bathroom stop. When the bus next stopped, Batesburg, S.C., police boarded, forcibly removed Woodard, who was in his Army uniform, arrested him for drunken and disorderly conduct, and beat him so savagely that he was left permanently blind. Word of such incidents reached the desk of President Harry Truman, who reportedly told a friend that his “stomach turned” upon hearing about them. The case and others like it marked a turning point in the military’s treatment of minorities. Truman’s outrage prompted him to establish the first presidential commission on civil rights and his justice department filed federal criminal charges against the Batesburg police chief, Lynwood Shull. An all-white jury acquitted Shull, but the case illuminated for the presiding judge the issues around civil rights. That judge went on to dissent in a case that upheld school segregation, and his dissenting opinion became the basis for the U.S. Supreme Court’s majority ruling in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education, which made racial segregation of schools illegal. Then, in 1948, Truman issued the executive order de-segregating the U.S. armed forces. For their service in World War II, seven Black men were awarded the Medal of Honor — 52 years after the war ended. Only one, Vernon Baker, was still alive in 1997 to receive the nation’s highest tribute. According to press accounts at the time, tears streamed down Baker’s face as President Bill Clinton hung the medal around his neck a half-century after he single-handedly destroyed two German machine gun nests. Also at the ceremony was Capt. David Williams, the white commander of the now-famed A Company 761st Tank Battalion. Williams fought through numerous Army denials for Staff Sgt. Ruben Rivers to receive the Medal of Honor. Rivers was killed in combat Nov. 19, 1944. Williams told the American Forces Press Services at the time that fighting to get Rivers the recognition he deserved was one of the toughest battles he’d ever waged. “With the Germans, I knew my enemy,” he said. “But racism is a hard enemy to defeat.”
A VOICE FOR RECONCILIATION Defeating racism — or at least firing a few salvos in the war against it — was a goal of the Walter Springs Memorial Scholarship. By 1952, Don Christopher had graduated from Regis, married and was living in Casper, Wyo., with his wife and daughter and working for the Continental Oil Co. The United States was basking in the pride of victory and the promise of unparalleled prosperity. Christopher could have simply gone on with his life. Instead, he decided to honor his former teammate. So, he sent a check for $50 to Regis, with a letter that read, in part: “The enclosed is donated to Regis to honor Walter Springs, a classmate of mine and a boy I much admired for his sportsmanship and spirit of fair play. Walt loved Regis and all that it stands for, and few of us really knew or realized the great sacrifices he made...” Christopher and the classmates who joined in the effort envisioned two annual scholarships, one for a Black student, one for a white. In those pre-Civil Rights-era days, a scholarship promoting racial harmony was a novel enough idea that it made national news. It also won support from a number of celebrities of the day. Louis Armstrong dropped by Regis with a donation to the fund during a visit to Denver. So did actor Pat O’Brien, best known for playing the title football hero in Knute Rockne, All American, and a pal of then - Regis president, Rev. Raephael C. McCarthy, S.J. In 1953, New York Giants Hank Thompson, Monty Irvin and Don Mueller pledged $1 for every home run they hit that season — netting the scholarship a cool $91. Irvin heard about the scholarship while recuperating in Denver after breaking his ankle. Before heading back to the Polo Grounds, he presented Regis with one of his high-top shoes, filled with 93 silver dollars. No records could be located in the Regis archives showing what became of the scholarship effort or that any money was ever dispersed in Springs' name. But Walter Springs’ name is listed, alongside all the Regis students who died serving their country in World War II, on a plaque that hangs in Main Hall. Orville Springs earned the college degree his uncle didn’t get to finish, then earned a master’s in journalism at Columbia University. After a career writing for the San Francisco Examiner, he is back in his hometown of Denver, surrounded by his son and grandson, Springs cousins, nieces and nephews, and family photos dating back nearly to the time William Springs came to Colorado hunting for gold. He is grateful that at Regis, his Uncle Walter’s life once again will serve as an inspiration.
THE EXPERIENCE OF WALTER SPRINGS AND OTHER BLACK AMERICANS IN THE MILITARY IS THE SUBJECT OF THE NEWEST ADDITION TO REGIS' STORIES FROM WARTIME CURRICULUM. THE UPCOMING SPRING SEMESTER WILL FEATURE: STORIES FROM WARTIME: HISTORIES OF AFRICAN AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP AND SERVICE. TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CLASS, VISIT: R E G I S . E D U/ WA R E X P E R I E N C E
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A LOT OF PLANS WERE UPENDED IN 2020, BUT EVEN A PANDEMIC COULD NOT STOP THE CAMPUS FROM GROWING. A NEW BUILDING ROSE TO TAKE ITS PLACE IN THE CAMPUS SKYLINE, AN EXISTING BUILDING GOT NEW LIFE AND NEW PURPOSE, AND A SERENE SPACE FOR REFECTION AND PRAYER BECAME MORE INCLUSIVE. HERE’S A LOOK AT WHAT’S GOING ON AND GOING UP:
BiG the
LADY OF LORETTO GROTTO
In 1888, Br. Ben Tovani asked for, and got, permission to transform pieces of stone and timber left over from the construction of Main Hall into a place of prayer and contemplation on what is now Regis’ Northwest Denver Campus.
The result of his work was officially named the Grotto to Our Lady, but it was better known as Brother Ben’s Garden, in honor of his tireless work tending and cultivating the spot for some 58 years. His effort ended only when Brother Ben’s health no longer allowed him to work in his garden. Without Brother Ben’s care, the original grotto deteriorated. It got new life, though, when the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes was added on Mother's Day, 1950, thanks to a gift by the Rev. Thomas Swift, S.J. The statue had originally stood on his mother’s grave in Kansas City. To mark Regis’ union with Loretto Heights College, the Grotto was rededicated in 2015 as the Spirit of Loretto to honor the Sisters of Loretto. This year, the Spirit of Loretto once again underwent a transformation. Thanks to generous donations from Donald Dillon (’61) and Luisa Staerkel (’75), it has become a wheelchair-accessible space, and new lighting and a water feature were added. Also, the statue of Our Lady has been repaired to erase scarring caused by decades of exposure to the elements. Brother Ben undoubtedly would approve. 30
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BERCE ATHLETIC CENTER Thanks to a generous donation from Dan and Annie Berce, student athletes have a new 19,500-squarefoot premier practice facility. The new Berce Athletic Center, which opened in mid-November, can be configured as two full-sized basketball courts, or three volleyball courts and includes state-of-the-art wifi. The center will be able to host large-capacity athletic tournaments, and the facility’s lighting capacity provides NCAA-quality filming capabilities. During its first year, Berce will be used for varsity teams to practice; the following year it will host summer events and club and intramural sporting events. The new center also will provide our surrounding community with new opportunities like youth training camps and other events. The existing Regis Fitness Center will remain open. Dan and Annie Berce both graduated from Regis in the 1970s and wanted students to have access to quality, modern facilities.
BUiLD DESMET HALL
UP
Anyone with memories of freshman-year in DeSmet Hall would hardly recognize the new and improved five-story version that stands quite tall on the Northwest Denver Campus now. An addition not only added 104 new bedrooms to the existing 213, it also created a holistic living and learning environment within a single space. DeSmet now has three classrooms where core freshman-level courses will be taught. And each floor now has study rooms and a living room. A new elevator brings the entire facility into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and two specialized bedrooms on each floor can accommodate students with special needs. There is a bike storage space in the basement, along with laundry facilities. All that in a green facility that exceeds Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver standards.
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Angelica Maisonet battled a hurricane and cancer to earn her degree. Photo: Steven Nesius
TRIALS, TREATMENT AND TRIUMPH CANCER COULDN’T STOP A DETERMINED MOM FROM ACHIEVING HER DREAM By Matt K. Johnson
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N THE FLORIDA COAST THOUSANDS OF MILES FROM DENVER, ANGELICA MAI-
SONET’S MIND WAS MADE UP.
“I don’t want to live in this world without [finishing] my degree,” she remembers saying. But for Maisonet, earning her master’s in health services administration would mean more than studying and working hard. In November 2019, months before she was to complete her online degree, Maisonet was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It was devastating news for the young mother. “You’re not prepared for any of this. I think it was the thinking that I could not see my daughter . . . grow.” Another realization: for Maisonet to finish her degree — in English, a language she was still learning — she’d have to attend online classes while working, raising a young daughter, and enduring debilitating chemotherapy treatments. But even cancer didn’t stand much chance against a young woman who already had survived much, including a devastating 32
hurricane that killed thousands and upended her life in Puerto Rico just months before she started her Regis degree. A day after her final chemo treatment last summer, with her Regis degree in hand, Maisonet realized she had followed through on a promise she made years ago. “My father told me one time, ‘You’re not going to be anything. You’re going to be a mother with six kids living in a government residential, or even, you’re going to be like [your mother and me], drug addicts.’ I tell him, ‘No, I’m going to prove you that’s not who I am.’” LIFE-CHANGING UPHEAVAL
In September 2017, Maisonet, her husband and daughter were living in San Juan, Puerto Rico when the most destructive hurricane to hit the island in 80 years tore through. Hurricane Maria decimated the U. S. territory, led to the death of thousands and knocked out power across the entire island for months.
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In the immediate aftermath, Maisonet and her young family did what other San Juan residents did — they drove to one of the island’s main highways, which she remembers as the only place where cell reception was still available. She stood on top of her car to call her sister in the United States, letting her know that she and her family were OK. Her sister offered her a lifeline to come to the mainland and live in her spare bedroom in Tampa, Florida. Able to pack only some clothes and forced to leave the rest of their belongings behind, Maisonet and her family came to Florida as little more than refugees. “[We] lived in a queen-size bed, three of us, for four months, without [a] car, without anything, only believing that tomorrow is going to be a better day.” During that time, Maisonet, who had been working in healthcare consulting in Puerto Rico, got a new job in the same field, at a company that would let her work remotely and stay in Florida. She and her
husband eventually saved enough money to rent their own place, and she decided it was time to take the next step toward her dream: a master’s degree. She researched online master’s degrees in health services administration, and decided she wasn’t going to settle for anything but the best, if she could afford it. The program at the top of her list? Regis. “I have the University of [South] Florida like 20 minutes from my home. [I was] not going to do [a program] there. I’m going to do it with Regis.” Fighting past the fear of starting a degree program as a non-native English speaker, Maisonet found solace in Regis professors, whom she found to be understanding, kind and flexible. “Regis gave me the opportunity to . . . handle my personal life, but at the same time, this university gave me the opportunity to do my degree at the same time with no stress. You don’t find universities that do that, most of the time.”
cation, sick time and family medical leave to take a month off work. But by Christmas, she became determined to start her life again — and to finish her degree — no matter how difficult it would be while undergoing chemotherapy and earning a paycheck. “That’s something I said to my husband — I don’t want to live in this world without ending my degree. I want to end it, that’s why I’m receiving my treatment [and] at the same time doing my degree and working.” For the final months of her degree, from February through April 2020, she had to adjust the rhythm of her life, work and schoolwork to accommodate her chemo
“[My husband is] my soulmate. He’s like my balance in this life. I could give up easily if I didn’t have him . . . [And] when I feel like I could not have any strength at all, [my daughter] just give me a kiss and tell me, ‘Mommy, I love you.’”
NEW BEGINNINGS
In late spring, just as she was about to graduate, Maisonet heard the best possible news: Her cancer was in remission. On Friday, May 22, she went alone for her final treatment — due to COVID-19 restrictions, her husband wasn’t permitted to join her — and celebrated with hospital
A FULL LIFE, INTERRUPTED
Even while working and raising her daughter, Maisonet successfully made it to within a few months of finishing her degree in late 2019. Then she began to have ongoing stomach problems so severe that she was vomiting and could hardly eat. When she went to the hospital, test results showed abnormally high calcium levels in her blood. “The doctor told me, ‘I don’t know how you are walking, as opposed to you are in coma right now.’ I said, ‘I don’t know. I drive here.’” Scans revealed a gigantic mass in her left ovary that was pushing on her intestines. It was ovarian cancer, an aggressive form of the disease — but it was caught early, in stage one. Still, by the end of November, she found herself in chemotherapy treatments every three weeks. “You think you are invincible, you are powerful, you are young. I am 32 years old, I am at the peak of my life — I think — professionally, personally, everything. I am trying to accomplish the American Dream right now. And then . . . you have to stop all your dreams and everything.” Initially, the cancer diagnosis forced her to put off finishing the Regis degree that was tantalizingly close. She also had to use va-
Angelica Maisonet’s husband Paul and daughter Elise give strength and support. Photo: Steven Nesius
treatments. Studying and writing papers in the first week after treatment was especially tough, Maisonet said. “It’s a fight inside you. Your mind is telling you, ‘you can do it, you can sit there and write 10 pages.’ But your body is telling you, ‘no, no, no. You have to go to bed.’” So, she created a system: She attended virtual classes and studied as much as she could when she had energy, and she remained in close contact with professors, who offered flexibility when she needed it. “She didn’t give up her goal,” said Melanie Smith, adjunct professor in the Rueckert-Hartman College for Health Professions, Maisonet’s instructor during her treatment. “And she asked for help, which is sometimes the hardest thing to do.” Maisonet also benefited from the support of her husband and daughter, who helped her through every day when others couldn’t be with her in person due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
staff. She walked out of the hospital to a surprise: her husband with a new car and a sign that read in large print: “Keep Calm, It’s My Last Chemo Today.” The next day, Maisonet’s Regis diploma arrived in the mail. Her family celebrated with a graduation party, including a cap and gown, a cake, banners and photos. “We [cried] a lot, because it was like teamwork,” she said. Since her graduation, Maisonet and her family have bought a house in Tampa, and she says her Regis degree likely will help her earn a promotion within her company. She hopes to pursue a doctorate degree someday — at Regis if possible — since it’s the only university she trusts. “I think it’s a blessing to study in Regis . . . I could accomplish my professional dreams and get my master’s degree, but at the same time, I could live my life. I could . . . enjoy more of my family, my daughter growing up, my life right now — I’m blessed for my life.” REGIS.EDU
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After a dress rehearsal at Regis, Joe B. Hall excelled on the national stage at the University of Kentucky. Courtesy University of Kentucky Athletics
HALL OF FAME
Joe B. Hall built a legendary career on a Regis foundation BY Matt K. Johnson
B
efore he was a hall of fame basketball coach, before he won a national championship at the University of Kentucky, before he took on the seemingly impossible task of filling the coaching shoes of the legendary Adolph Rupp, Joe B. Hall cleaned the Regis swimming pool.
He also taught physical education classes, coached baseball, served as athletic director and somehow found time to coach the men’s basketball team. In that last job, the one he’d been hired to do, Hall laid the foundation for a career that would rank him among the best college basketball coaches of all time. In five seasons at Regis, from 1959 to 1964, he built a team that could hold its own against some of the biggest names in college basketball, and even scored an upset over Oklahoma State, ranked number four in the nation at the time.
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His success was Regis’ loss; by 1965 Hall was back at the University of Kentucky, an assistant to Rupp, his own former coach. Now 91, a legend in his own right and a hall-of-famer, the one-time Regis head coach has shared the story of his success in a new book, Coach Hall: My Life On and Off the Court, written with Marianne Walker. Hall was born in 1928 in Cynthiana, Ky., a little town in the heart of basketball country — 30 miles north of UK’s Lexington home. In his book, Hall recounts that his parents hadn’t chosen a name for him, so the doctor who attended the birth christened him Joe Beasman after a man the physician admired – but who Hall never met. When he was 9 or 10, Hall recalled, his grandmother pulled him aside and told him the name Joe Hall was “too short and too plain. Let’s add your middle initial to make it more interesting. From now on, you say your name is Joe B. Not just Joe. It’s Joe B. Hall.” Not one to disobey his grandmother, Hall was, from then on, Joe B. In the Depression years of his childhood, Hall’s father worked as a mechanic and a welder; he took any job he could find, Hall wrote. At the same time, Charles “Bill” Hall passed along his values of “God, family, hard work, fair play and discipline of mind and body.” Hard work and discipline surely helped Hall earn a scholarship and a spot on the same University of Kentucky basketball squad he had grown up admiring. UK was, even then, a storied program with a marquee coach, Adolph Rupp. The program’s status both thrilled and frustrated Hall. With so many terrific players, his own time on the court was limited. After a couple seasons, and with Rupp’s blessing, Hall transferred to The University of the South, in Sewanee, Tenn., where he became a leading scorer despite holding down four jobs to cover his college costs.
From Peddling Pickles in Kentucky to Coaching in Colorado In the summer of 1951, Hall was part of a college all-star team that toured 14 European and African nations, playing 56 games in 58 days. He came home exhausted, left college and basketball and went to work selling ketchup and pickles for the H.J. Heinz Co. It wasn’t long before he met and married Katharine Dennis, then figured out that selling condiments wasn’t his calling – but coaching was. After finishing his degree at UK, Hall took a job coaching basketball and football at a small high school in a small town, Shepherdsvllle, Ky. By 1959, Hall was ready to move on. He and Katharine, who was by then pregnant with their third child, packed up the family and pulled a U-Haul to Colorado, where Hall had taken a job coaching basketball — along with myriad other duties — at Regis. Here Hall recruited some of the best players ever to wear a Rangers uniform, including standout stars Louis Stout, James Ray Jones and Cozel Walker. He also provided his players with some of the best competition ever faced by Ranger teams — in any sport. “It was my theory that if I recruited well and built a good, competitive schedule, that we could grow our program in a positive
direction,” Hall said. “And that’s what we did. We added Division I teams to our schedule, and we played some of the top teams in the nation.” Hall’s Rangers defeated the likes of Arizona, Colorado State, Oklahoma State, the University of Denver and the Air Force Academy. Hall even managed to schedule trips for Regis to play in overseas tournaments. Hall excelled at what was then Regis College while not only fulfilling his many duties but also earning his master’s degree at Northern Colorado State College, now the University of Northern Colorado. He also faced adversity common to coaches at small schools at the time. “Upon his arrival at Regis College, he found a weak and disheartened team, a definite lack of school spirit, and a large amount of opposition from the press media here in Denver,” according to an article in the former Regis student newspaper, The Brown and Gold. “Realizing that he was faced with a monumental task, and that his personal future would depend on the outcome, Joe B. Hall worked hard to bring talent to Regis. He felt that once he had made the team, the reputation would necessarily follow. And he was right.” Hall had a few advantages in recruiting players to Regis. “We built a new gym when I was there. We had the best uniforms and equipment than anybody had,” he said in a recent interview. “We had a great recruiting base, the mountains, the skiing, the clear weather — it was a beautiful setting for families to come and see what we had to offer.” Another bonus was being able to entice student-athletes with a Jesuit education, at a school that was small but offered big-time athletic and academic opportunities. “The Jesuits were the perfect atmosphere for those young boys,” he said. “They were tough, and they were honorable. The Jesuit group, in my estimation, are the finest educators at any level, in any field, in the whole world.” Hall realized that Denver’s high altitude would require a new diet and workout regimen. “In such an environment, with less oxygen, I had the boys eat foods high in potassium and drink lots of water,” Hall wrote in his book, Coach Hall. “They became superbly conditioned with running and weightlifting... While many of the teams that came to Denver to play us would fade in the second half, my team remained strong.”
Courting Success in the National Spotlight One of Hall’s most impressive victories — knocking off numberfour-ranked Oklahoma State — earned him a congratulatory telegram from Rupp. That turned out to be a sign of things to come. It wasn’t long before Hall was back at Rupp’s side, landing a job as an assistant coach in 1965. When Rupp retired in 1972, Hall found himself in the unenviable position of taking over head coaching duties for one of the most successful figures in the sport’s history — the man whose name is now on the arena where Kentucky plays its home games. “I’ve long said that few coaches in our game have ever had as diffiREGIS.EDU
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ch ive s Ph oto : Re gis Ar
“I enjoyed returning there,” he wrote in Coach Hall. “I took the team to the small gym at Regis to practice. It was so good to see that many of the teachers and the Jesuit priests I knew were still there, and they welcomed me with open arms. That visit was a highlight for me.” After knocking off higher-ranked University of Washington and the University of Nevada Las Vegas, the Wildcats faced top-seeded St. John’s in the Sweet Sixteen — and lost. For Kentucky, it was the end of the season. For Hall, it was the end of his Kentucky career. Following the game, Hall announced his retirement. “I started my coaching career in Denver and I finished it there,” he told The Denver Post in 2012. He finished that career with a stellar record at Kentucky: 297 wins, 100 losses. Around Lexington, and Denver, Coach Hall may be retired but he isn’t forgotten. A bronze likeness of him sits on a bench on the UK campus in Lexington. In 2012, he was inducted into the National Collegiate Hall of Fame. In 2017, Hall went home to Cynthiana as guest of honor when the town unveiled a 35-foot mural of him on Main Street.
cult of a task as what Coach Hall faced at Kentucky,” current Kentucky Head Coach John Calipari wrote in a review of Hall’s book. “To follow a legend like Coach Rupp is incredibly tough. Coach Hall not only continued the tradition of winning and excellence, he did it with grace and humility,” Calipari wrote. The pressure to succeed and to maintain Kentucky’s status among the country’s pre-eminent basketball programs was enormous. But succeed Hall did — over his 13 seasons at Kentucky, the Wildcats won nearly two-thirds of their games and claimed eight Southeastern Conference regular season championships. During his tenure, it was a rare NCAA tournament that didn’t include Kentucky, and he led the Wildcats to three Final Four appearances. In 1978, Hall’s Wildcats won the national championship with a 94-88 victory over Duke. Hall accomplished this while also gaining attention for bringing the first Black players to the UK program. He also hired the team’s first Black assistant coach, Leonard Hamilton, who went on to coach at multiple Division I programs, and in the NBA. “Some people wanted me to win with all white players, but it didn’t matter to me,” Hall told Calipari in an episode of Kentucky Wildcats TV’s Legend to Legend. “Every team I ever had had African American players, and they were good kids. They were some of my best citizens, my hardest workers, my most dedicated.”
Preserving Memories while Collecting Honors His Kentucky success may have put Hall in the national spotlight but his connections with Regis remained. In 1985, the NCAA Tournament West Regionals were held in Denver, in the old McNichols arena, and Hall brought his team to his former stomping grounds at Regis. 36
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Since his retirement, Hall has been a fixture at Kentucky sporting events – from NASCAR races to high school football games, and, of course UK basketball games. But by 2019, in his 91st year, he had to cut back, something that didn’t sit well with the former coach. “It’s tough on him,” one of Hall’s sons-in-law, Rick Derrickson, told the Lexington Herald-Leader. “He likes to get out there. And he’s a people guy.” A bad ankle hobbles his ability to get around. “The ankle I dunked off of has gone bad on me,” Hall joked. So, he relies on a cane or a walker. But when police met him outside Rupp Arena with a wheelchair and rolled him into a UK game during the 2019 regular season, Hall wasn’t happy. “I prefer to get around with my cane,” he told the Herald-Leader. The wheelchair, he said, “is degrading. It’s undignified. I just don’t like it.” Earlier this year, Calipari made headlines for advocating that Hall be enshrined in the prestigious Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. If Calipari’s appeal is successful, Hall will join an elite group of 105 men’s and women’s, college and professional coaches that includes John Wooden, John Thompson, Mike Krzyzewski — and Adolph Rupp and Calipari himself. Regardless of whether he joins that group, Hall’s legacy remains strong nationwide, and at Regis. “Joe B. Hall, out here, people still remember,” said 38-year Regis men’s basketball Coach Lonnie Porter, who followed 13 years after Hall. To Hall, the memories of his time at Regis will always be intertwined with the values he tried to instill in his players. “I tried to carry on a program that was evidence of a Christian education. I think our goal was to teach our young men to be extremely competitive and play tough, hard-nosed defense, and we would be proud of our wins and respectful of our opponents when we lost. We never lost our composure, we never lost our edge, and we always represented Regis College in a positive way.”
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New Pictures of Health 1
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1. B achelor of science in nursing students Annika Wuelpern and Natalie Kazaleh administer an IV medication to their patient (manikin) under the supervision of faculty member Sherry Fuller.
2. P am Schnell, skill lab affiliate faculty, observes a nursing student practice starting an IV.
3. Community members toured the new nursing skills lab and the Center for Counseling and Family Therapy on the Thornton Campus this fall. Clockwise from left: Bo Martinez, president and CEO of Adams County Economic Development; Sherry Fuller, nursing skills lab coordinator; Jessica Sandgren, Thornton Mayor Pro Tem; Abby Palsic, assistant vice president of University Advancement; and Linda Osterlund, academic dean of the Rueckert-Hartman College for Health Professions. Photo: Jenna Farley
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The Rueckert-Hartman College for Health Professions continues to advance the fields of nursing, pharmacy, physical therapy and counseling with innovative and highly regarded degree programs. But the college doesn’t rest on its laurels. It continues to move ahead with state-ofthe-art practices, partnerships and technology.
New spaces, grants and partners put healthcare programs in the pink The Loretto Heights School of Nursing program was bursting at its seams in Claver Hall, so the University built a 3,200-square-foot skills lab facility on Regis’ Thornton Campus. Because of COVID-19, traditional nursing students work in small groups that live and study together. The new space includes classrooms and three labs – designed to simulate an inpatient hospital room – where students learn hands-on procedures such as wound care, catheter insertion and IV starts. Instructors assist – from a safe distance these days – while students work with “medical manikins.” “The learning in the skills lab is scenario based. Students have a patient to care for, which begins with pulling up patient information on the electronic records,” said Associate Professor Sherry Fuller, DNP, FNP-C, who is the skills lab coordinator. “Students are challenged to pull knowledge from various courses to make decisions about their patient’s care.” The new labs allow Rueckert-Hartman College to accept more nursing students into its high-demand programs.
Grant funds teletherapy services Thanks to a generous grant from the city of Thornton, the Regis Center for Counseling and Family Therapy was able to equip qualifying clients with the technology they needed to participate in counseling sessions online during the COVID-19 pandemic. The $166,270 grant was allocated to Thornton through the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act passed by Congress in March. The clinic provided an iPad and mobile hotspot, among other technological tools, to clients who needed low- to no-cost therapy services, said Director Luis Alvarez. When COVID-19 emerged, the counseling center pivoted, moving its in-person services at the Thornton Campus to a virtual platform. After the pandemic, Regis’ clinicians hope to continue with both in-person and virtual counseling services.
Regis partners with HealthONE Regis University and HealthONE, the metro Denver area’s largest healthcare system, have partnered to create a Health Careers Collaborative that will enhance educational and professional development, build a workforce equipped to meet the healthcare needs of this growing state, and create healthier communities across Colorado. The collaboration between two mission-driven organizations will enhance quality of care for patients, support career growth for aspiring and current clinicians, and provide students with critical, hands-on experience in a variety of healthcare fields. HealthONE will award five need-based scholarships of $10,000 each to new students from under-represented communities. Regis will be an educational partner with HealthONE, including offering scholarships and discounted tuition to HealthONE employees. At the same time, Regis students will gain valuable experience, working alongside skilled professionals in placements including clinical rotations at HealthONE’s acute-care hospitals.
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ASK REGI
LIGHT AT THE END OF THE FOX HOLE
The campus has been a bit on the empty side lately, but not to worry, Mouseketeers — while the kids are away, the animals will play. So, in this issue, we turn to my fellow fine, furry friends for input. So, rabbit stops me in the quad the other day. “Hey Reg, what do you call 100 rabbits walking backward?" I'm like, “Sorry Dude, I got nothing.” “A receding hare line.” So, a few minutes later, when he stopped laughing hysterically at his own joke, I ate him... Jus' kiddin' — he’s cool. Besides, I had a donut earlier. Then he says, "Seriously Regi, how do you keep your sanity during the colder, dormant, and likely home-sheltering season?” His question sent me swirling down a rabbit hole of thought. I live my life chasing after the next shiny, fast-moving thing and basically going where the wind blows. But recently I’ve been forced to consider this whole COVID-19 thing, the mask thing, the isolation thing, the economic thing, the political thing, the equality, climate change, wild fires things and my “thing” list is getting crazy overwhelming and downright negative sometimes. So, what about the love thing? And the "caring for others" thing? Why isn't that on everyone's minds? Seems like we're kinda forgetting some biggies. Lemme say this: It’s easy to get a bit down, but I’m told that struggles can be part of healthy animal growth. I also carry a secret remedy with me. And it's simple. (Drum roll please.) I just focus on HOW I CHOOSE to look at things. Tada!! Sounds nutty but when I think about it, nearly everything emotion-wise is under my control. Seriously. My feelings are all in my own furry melon and I decide how I wish to deal with it all. Seeing the brighter side. Seeing the beauty. Seeing the love. Or at least 40
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choosing to see those things. When my heart overflows with best-case scenarios, releasing those positive endolphins inside me, there is no room left for the downers. If you struggle with training yourself to see things in a positive light, start by distancing yourself from negativity. You may end up having to bury yourself deep in a foxhole so you can’t hear it anymore, but lemme tell ya, foxholes can be amazingly comfortable, especially if you get creative with some fresh interior design. I just hung fish bones over my mantle. Way cool. Anyway, where was I? Um... Right... for fun. So, the weather is changing, flu season is coming and most mammals are headed back into their dens for even more isolation. Ugh. Well, I’m dolphinately going to find safe ways to keep living my life. I’m outdoors all day, staying safe but active and tossing down as many slow-moving rodents — I mean donuts — as possible. I just snagged a new Foxstation for gaming and I'm already halfway through Red Fox Redemption. I’m into Netfox for the wild animal food network (obviously). I've also been making awesome Foxify playlists. My favorite indie band, Fleet Foxes just released a new album and now I've become totally obsessed with rediscovering other tasty classics like Reel Big Fish, Modest Mouse, Snoop Dog, the Stray Cats and the Squirrel Nut Zippers. I'm even teaching myself four-toe guitar. So, when we get to the other side of this pandemic, I'll drop my new skillz on y'all around the campfire some evening. I also watch the Fox network occasionally, but I'm totally bummed at the lack of foxes there. Can I get a woot, woot!? Social distance, virtual licks and bear hugs to all my little cubs and human species. Stay safe, healthy, and optimistic. ~ Peace and love, Regi
CLASS NOTES
1970s-1980s Todd Taylor (RC ’78) retired from his position as Water Superintendent of the city of La Porte after 41 years.
1990s Kettering University named Greg Viener (ACB ’92), president of Huntington National Bank’s Mid-Michigan Region, to its first School of Management’s Industry Advisory Board, which will shape curriculum and new program development. Stifel Financial Corp., based in St. Louis, named Natalie Mahler (ACB ’93) its Business Development Manager for Colorado. Sean Hampton (ACB bachelor’s ’94; master’s ’02) was named senior vice president and chief marketing officer for BOK Financial, working in the company’s corporate office in Denver. Vikas Gumbhir (RC ’95) has been recognized by the Pacific Sociological Association with the Dean S. Dorn Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award. This award is given to “individuals whose distinctions as teachers have made a significant impact on how sociology is taught.” Gumbhir credits his mentors, Regis faculty Jeff Ferrell, Ph. D. and Alice Reich, Ph.D., with “making me the teacher I am.” Stephanie Simmonds (RHCHP ’95, ’09) was promoted to Chief Clinical Officer of Nephron Pharmaceuticals Corp. based in West Columbia, S.C. Theresa Terrones Ritz (RC ’95) was named executive principal of Power Zone schools in Colorado Springs
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District 49.
2000s Neurogene, a leader in developing treatments for patients and families who are affected by neurological diseases, announced Robert A. Baffi, Ph.D. (ACB ’01) will join its board of directors. Ben Dahlman (ACB ’01) was named finance director for the City of Whitefish, Mont.
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ROUND 1
CLASS NOTES
Authentically you
School in Odessa, Texas.
Conversations with Three Powerhouse
Chris Cole (RC ’03) was named head coach of the men's
Women Leaders
Paul Fulce (RC ’02) was named principal of Bowie Middle
soccer program at John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Ark. Andrew Zickell (ACB ’03) was named CEO of Geospan,
Join us to hear from three senior women executives who have successfully maneuvered C level government and corporate positions.
a Minneapolis-based aerial imagery, geospatial mapping and data analytics company. Adolphe Kajangwe (ACB ’04) was promoted to the position of chief financial officer for Hyde Engineering + Consulting, based in Boulder, Colo. Thomas Bannigan Jr. (RC ’06) joined Column Commercial Partners in Denver as associate broker. Brent Ridge (ACB ’06) was named president and CEO of Dairyland Power Cooperative, based in La Crosse, Wis. Dan Schaller (RC ’06) was named president of the Colorado League of Charter Schools’ board of directors. Matt Johnson (ACB ’07 and affiliate faculty member) was named chief of police for Torrington, Wyo. Luisa Hernandez (ACB ’08) was hired as a Family Resource Coordinator for the North Central Educational Service District in Wenatchee, Wash. Former Grand Forks, N.D., state trooper Adrian Martinez (RC ’09) was promoted to sergeant and reassigned to Williston, N.D. St. Joseph's Health, a Catholic hospital system in Paterson, N.J., has named Caswell Samms III (ACB ’09) senior vice president and CFO. Samms will begin his new role in
FEBRUARY 11, 2021 6:30–7:30 P.M. Livestream via Zoom For more information, contact AndersonCollege@regis.edu
December.
2010s Sheridan County, Wyo., named Jennifer Graves (ACB ’10) its COVID-19 public information officer. Kimberly Jetton (ACB ’11) was named executive director of Orange Catholic Foundation, which assists Catholic individuals and families in leaving a financial legacy that is aligned with Catholic values. Emily Cellar (ACB ’12) was named the first female vice president of technology of the board for the Project Management Institute Mile Hi.
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Rev. Joseph A. Rya
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CLASS NOTES
Jenna Neff-Jacques (RHCHP ’12) was hired as a physical therapist at Mt. Stuart Physical Therapy in Leavenworth, Wash. Tracy Webster (RHCHP ’12) joined Gifford Health Care, a network of health centers based in Vermont, as a Family Nurse Practitioner. Georgia Jenkins (ACB ’13) was hired as the new corporate and foundation relations officer of Good Shepherd Food Bank in Maine. Karli Denk (RC ’17) head coach of Golden High School boys’ golf, in Golden, Colo., was voted the 4A Coach of the Year. Jeff Caponera (ACB ’18) was named police chief of Grafton, Wisc. Anthony Nembhard (ACB ’19) was hired as a software support specialist for VARGO, a software company based in Hilliard, Ohio. Brooke Urban (RC ’19) was named principal at Blessed Sacrament Catholic School in Denver.
HISTORY MYSTERY SOLVED A huge thanks to everyone who submitted their hypotheses, best guesses and long-shot wild stabs at identifying what was going on, where it was happening and who was doing it in the archive photos that appeared in the Spring 2020 issue of Regis Magazine. Arden R. Reusink, ’57, was first to identify Rev. Louis G. Mattione, S.J., presiding over ribbon-cutting for the bar in DeSmet Hall, shown on page 40. Paul Milligan ’73 contributed that the watering hole was called Belial’s Bar, and its thirsty patron was Randy Roth. “I served many a beer there,” usually Coors or Schlitz, Milligan recalled. The two winners will get an update to their Rangers gear, courtesy of the Ranger Station Bookstore. The general consensus on the young men in the page 43 photo was that they were attending a science class in Main Hall around 1917. Reusink posited that the grave expressions reflected concern about the U.S. entering World War I, which it did that year.
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IN MEMORIAM
PERHAPS THEY ARE NOT ACTUALLY STARS, BUT RATHER TINY OPENINGS IN HEAVEN...
CHARMAINE THERESE BROZOVICH’S friends and family say she maintained her youthful enthusiasm throughout her life, brightening every room she entered with a smile and a contagious laugh. This was despite taking on some of the hardest challenges professionally as she did social welfare work and later taught high need kids.
ANN KILLIAN ANDREW, LHC ’49
Char, as she was known, grew up in Arvada a short distance from Regis, where she earned two degrees 15 years apart. She first earned a bachelor’s degree in communications and began work as a dedicated and loving social worker with Jefferson County (Colorado) Human Services. She later earned a master’s degree in education and dedicated herself to teaching, most recently as a second grade teacher at Pinnacle Charter School in Adams County.
EMMA OLIVE (VERLENGIA) JAGGER, LHC ’52
She told her parents how much she drew on her Regis education and the values instilled at home and at college as she championed the needs of kids, especially those who faced the toughest obstacles in life.
JAMES ROBERT WALL, RC ’55
Char, the daughter of Mary Brozovich, assistant vice president of University Advancement at Regis, passed away suddenly on Oct. 24, eight days after her 46th birthday. She is survived by her twin sister Germaine Meehan, brother Matthew and parents Mary and Dennis. Direct contributions in Char’s memory may be made to Regis’ Arboretum Fund, 3333 Regis Blvd., Main Hall 207, Denver, CO 80221-1099.
MARY AGNES (NECASEK) HEESACKER, LHC ’49 PAUL A. HABERER, RC ’50 SR. ELEANOR SHEEHAN, LHC ’50 JAMES P. SHEEHAN, RC ’50
J. ROBERT MUEGGE, RC ’52 BERNARD M. MCGOWAN, RC ’53 MARY VIRGINIA (BANAHAN) GLEASON, LHC ’54 MARY EILEEN (REAGAN) KEMPKER, LHC ’54 BARBARA MAY MORAN, LHC ’54 DR. KEVIN L. GLEASON, RC ’55
OTILIA IZABEL (BARBOSA) GOLD, LHC ’56 RICHARD DANIEL TURELLI, RC ’57 HARRIET ANN (O'NEIL) HALPIN, LHC ’58 KATHLEEN KELLY NICKELS, LHC ’60 LARRY J. DELMARGO, RC ’61 JUDITH STEFFES FOLEY, LHC ’61 THOMAS CHARLES LANDAUER, RC ’61 CHARLOTTE (BLAIR) SAND, LHC ’61 JOSEPH K. BURKE, RC ’62 WILLIAM SARGENT GRAEFE, RC ’62
WHERE THE LOVE OF OUR LOST ONES POURS
P. ROSE ANN "ROXIE" LOPEZ, who parlayed a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Loretto Heights College to a career in public service, died Aug. 28.
CHARLES J. JENKINS, RC ’62
An eighth-generation Arizonan, Roxie was born in Tucson on Aug. 3, 1960, to Lydia Ramona "Mona" Lopez and Osvaldo "Vic" G. Lopez. She was the youngest of seven children.
FRED J. EVERDING, RC ’63
After earning her degree, Lopez moved to Washington, D.C., where she served as an aide to Timothy E. Wirth, a Democrat who represented Colorado first as a six-term congressman and then a U.S. senator. Lopez later worked as a special assistant to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno before returning to Colorado in 2012 to assist with the inception of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Later she served as communications director for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency and retired in 2016 from the position of director of policy and compliance. Lopez is survived by her husband, George Crow, stepchildren Kasey and Jesse, and siblings Fr. Vicente Osvaldo Lopez, Martha Duarte, Anthony Lopez, Mercy Valencia and John Lopez. Another brother, Victor Lopez, preceded her in death. Donations in her honor may be sent to Arizona Public Media, where she proudly served on the board, P.O. Box 210067, Tucson, AZ 85721-0067.
DOROTHY ENGLISBEE MITCHELL, LHC ’62 JOHN L. BECKER, RC ’63
PATRICK J. KELLY, RC ’63 JUDITH KAY MCGUIRE, LHC ’64 VINCENT ANTHONY ZARLENGO, RC ’66 CHARLES MICHAEL HACKE, RC ’67 ELIZABETH A. (WALSH) BOLING, LHC ’68 RICHARD THOMAS ST. JEAN, RC ’68 JULIA CHASE GONZALES, LHC ’69 JEROME W. KROIS, RC ’70 ELIZABETH H. (SHERBINE) FROLA, LHC ’73 SALLY (VISSER) BENDER, LHC ’78 BARBARA KATHLEEN (STRUVE) MOORE, RC ’79 THOMAS G. EMICH, RC ’81 MARION NEAL COX, ACB ’82 WENDELL ARTHUR SNOW, RC `73, ACB ’82 MARY A. VIVIANO, ACB ’82 CHARLES F. MORRIS, ACB ’84 JANICE L. LEMAIRE, ACB ’85 ROY WAYNE GRADY, LHC ’86 HERBERT PAUL ORLAND, ACB ’87 RANDALL L. GREENWOOD, ACB ’88
ACB ANDERSON COLLEGE OF BUSINESS | CCIS COLLEGE OF COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SCIENCES | CCLS COLLEGE OF CONTEMPORARY LIBERAL STUDIES LHC LORETTO HEIGHTS COLLEGE | RC REGIS COLLEGE | RHCHP RUECKERT-HARTMAN COLLEGE FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONS
IN MEMORIAM
THROUGH AND SHINES DOWN UPON US.
ROBERT EARL KAFFER, a scholar and public servant who was a trusted advisor to two Regis presidents, died July 16. His many roles at Regis included vice president of marketing, vice president for administration and executive assistant to the president. In addition, Kaffer was instrumental in the transition that made Loretto Heights College part of Regis. “Bob Kaffer stands as one of the greats in Regis history,” said former Regis Provost Allan Service. According to his obituary, Kaffer wanted to be remembered as “a trustworthy person who deeply loved his family and who never intentionally took unfair advantage of another person.” Friends and former colleagues recalled Kaffer as a caring, thoughtful man. “He cared about the students whom we all serve and respected and admired the faculty,” Service wrote in a tribute soon after Kaffer’s death. “He thought before he spoke; one of his qualities that will be most missed in today’s world.” Kaffer was born in Joliet, Ill., on Jan. 30, 1942, and graduated from Joliet Catholic High School in 1960. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame, and after earning a master’s degree in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley, went to work for the Central Intelligence Agency. Later, he returned to the University of California, Berkeley, to earn his doctorate, and began research projects that included observation of the Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club and on-site-research on the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Kaffer is survived by his wife Liz, sons Tim, Dave and Chris, grandchildren Lincoln and Ryan, and Liz’s children Sheila, Susie and Dave.
GEORGE A. HARDER, CCLS ’88 FEDERICO CAMPOS-MERCADO, ACB ’89 ERNEST E. SHUE, ACB ’89 PATRICIA COURTNEY SMITH, CCLS ’91 SR. CAROL ANN SUTTER, CCLS ’91 REX EUGENE WALLS, CCLS ’93 PEGGY SUE RICHARDSON, ACB ’94 SKYE MARIAN STEVENS, ACB `88, ACB ’94 E. CATHERINE FORNNARINO, RHCHP ’95 JANICE KAY (MALCOLM) FINNEY, ACB ’96 CHERYL A. (SHAFER) HILLARD, ACB ’96 DOUGLAS N. CALKIN, CCLS ’99 RUTH S. (STEWARD) MCMAHON, CCLS ’00 DR. CHERYL MARIE MCINTOSH, RC ’02 LINDA K. SMALL-SADLER, CCLS ’02 TERESA H. (HAMRICK) KESSEL, ACB ’03 JAMES F. PRITCHARD, CCLS ’03 JON S. PHILLIPS, ACB ’04 LORI L. (PERKINS) TIERNEY, ACB ’04 MARY BETH (SULLIVAN) WHITE, RC ’06 PAMALA S. (BROETZMANN) BLAU, CCLS ’08 STEPHEN R. DENNIS, RC ’12 BRADY JON NELSON, RHCHP ’16 KENNETH D. CLINE, CCLS ’17
ENLIGHTEN ME BY McKenna Solomon 1 2
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3. Walter Springs played this position on Regis’ football team.
Botanical collection of trees
2. Fried, sweetened breakfast item beloved by our campus mascot 4. Care for the whole person 6. Regi’s favorite place to give high fives, also known as Boettcher Commons. 11. Each week students in Thomas Yagos’ business class compete against hundreds of teams around the world in a digital simulation of ______ strategy. 13. City where the new nursing skills lab is located 14. Home to Red Rocks Ampitheatre, Regis was in this Colorado town until the University was given land for its Northwest Denver Campus. 15. This year, first-generation students made up about one- ______ of the incoming freshman class. 16. Number of seasons Joe B. Hall coached at Regis 18. Patron saint of lace-workers
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5. David Dye and Karin Hurt’s research found that 56 percent of employees withhold ideas out of concern they won’t get this. 7. C ross-bearing dome that was restored in 2006 8. For Chris Pramuk, this is God’s doorway to grace. 9. Our campus chapter of this Jesuit honor society was founded in 1966. 10. Ignatian prayer and wholehearted decision-making 12. Jesuit value, in action 17. This notable campus landmark was named for the Sisters of Loretto. 19. After its recent expansion, this residence hall is now home to the highest floor a person can access on our Northwest Denver Campus. 20. A chance encounter with this animal deepened Amy Schreier’s understanding of forest fragmentation’s impact on wildlife.
Best wishes to longtime Regis President Rev. Michael J. Sheeran, S.J., who retired this summer as president of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, which represents all 27 of the nation’s Jesuit institutions of higher education. Sheeran, who had been AJCU president since 2013, is headed to St. Louis University where he will serve as pastor to students, faculty and alumni. Before he joined AJCU, Sheeran served Regis from 1975 until 2012. He was the University’s president from 1993 to 2012, and in that capacity hosted then-President Bill Clinton and Pope John Paul II when the two leaders held their historic 1993 meeting on the Northwest Denver campus.
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