Graduation season may be ending, but we’re still celebrating! The Puksta Foundation is featuring “Senior Spotlight” profiles, a special series of posts to honor our graduating Puksta Scholars and their projects. We are truly impressed by the work these students have accomplished as Puksta Scholars, and we are so grateful to have this opportunity to share these profiles with the community so you can get to know our Pukstas a bit better.

Please join us in congratulating these students and wishing them luck in the future!

Today our featured Puksta Senior is Blanche Marie Ndoutou, graduating from University of Denver!

Through her Puksta Project “Know Your Rights, Save Your Lives”, Blanche developed a program to educate and mentor students from the Sun Valley community about their rights in interactions with law enforcement. Blanche was particularly driven to launch this program due to the disproportionately negative effects the criminal justice system has on communities of color, particularly youths in low-income neighborhoods. She shared the following reflections about her Puksta experience:

Hello, my name is Blanche Ndoutou and I am an alumni at the University of Denver with a double major in Criminology and Spanish, and a minor in Leadership Studies. As a Puksta scholar, I learned about my ability to create positive change. Being a scholar motivated me to take actions in order to dismantle issues that I am passionate about changing; such as juvenile justice.

In the past few years as a University of Denver student, I noticed that fellow students went into my neighborhood of Sun Valley, the poorest neighborhood in Denver, to give out food and volunteer for the residents. However, no one had ever taught the children about the criminal justice system. I found this mind-blowing because most of the children in the neighborhood are people of color and according to criminologists, they most likely to be negatively affected by the criminal justice system.

Therefore, as a criminology major, I came to the realization that I should be the person to bring awareness about the justice system to these children. I wanted to prepare for any negative law enforcement interactions, especially because of the issue of police brutality. I created a program called “Know Your Rights, Save Your Lives”. It is a 2 to 3 hours event in which I bring together the youth in my neighborhood and I teach them about their rights. I also provide food and drinks with the help of my Puksta Stipend. The children who have attended this event have given me feedback that they hope I continue with this project. I plan to make my project longterm by hosting 2 to 3 events per year concerning the justice system in the U.S. with the Sun Valley youth while expanding the program to other underserved neighborhoods in Colorado.

Congratulations on the completion of your degree, Blanche, and thank you for your truly meaningful and impactful work advancing equality and empowerment in the community! 

Graduation season may be wrapping up, but we’re still celebrating! The Puksta Foundation is featuring “Senior Spotlight” profiles, a special series of posts to honor our graduating Puksta Scholars and their projects. We are truly impressed by the work these students have accomplished as Puksta Scholars, and we are so grateful to have this opportunity to share these profiles with the community so you can get to know our Pukstas a bit better.

Please join us in congratulating these students and wishing them luck in the future!

Today our featured Puksta Senior is Jennifer Cassidy, graduating from Metropolitan State University Denver!

As a benefactor of the TANF Gateway program, Jennifer sought to ensure that others have the ability to better control their future by soliciting and donating computers, and related gear, to the very people and communities that often have the most difficulty in getting these much-needed tools. We are so proud of Jennifer’s passion for this work, as well as her courage in taking on this project and navigating adversity, unpredictability, and other challenges. She shared the following reflections about her Puksta experience and journey as a student:

When I became a Puksta scholar, my goal was to get people who had experienced interpersonal violence (IPV) back out into the workforce with confidence. I found this feat to be overwhelming. So, I scaled down my project to supplying computers to IPV shelters. During the time that I was collecting old and broken computers, I was also educating people on the 4th congressional districts access to IPV resources. The 4th congressional district covers most of the eastern portion of the state (from I25 to the Kansas/Nebraska border). In that district there are 9 IPV shelters. Out of those nine, only four have access to job search coaching, and only three offer job training. In the northeast is Stirling and Greeley the home to two of three facilities, and Trinidad which is in the central southern part of the state. My goal was to offer those in the middle of the state, such as Hugo, an opportunity to help the clients of their facility. Knowing that these shelters so not receive the resources or the funding, that others in a more diverse population would receive, I thought this could be where I can make the most impact. To give a family the opportunity to work from home with a computer while tending to the needs of their dependents.
I did not meet that goal. I was able to collect several computers, and repair a few (or so I thought). I need to replace batteries and have the software activated, which there is no funding available. With the COVID-19 outbreak, that made things much more difficult. Completing school was a top priority for me, and unfortunately my project went on a back burner. I have over come many personal challenged during the past few years that have made this journey increasing more difficult. I have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly sides of mental health and IPV.

When asked what Puksta means to her, Jen shared the following:

Navigating through college can be like walking in the dark, especially when you are trying to find your place in this world, but Puksta is a guiding light through difficult navigation. Knowing that you others accept you for who you are and having others believe in what you want to do to help better your community is what the Puksta family is all about, and it is an honor to be part of that family.

Congratulations on the completion of your degree, Jen, and thank you for your truly meaningful and impactful work in the community! We invite you to learn more about Jen and her project in the video below.

This is not a moment for silence. The Puksta Foundation unequivocally affirms that Black lives matter and stands in solidarity with protestors in Colorado and across the country in the fight for racial justice.

Over the last several weeks, the systemic violence against Black Americans has risen into the consciousness of our country in a way that it should have many years ago. We mourn the recent murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, David McAtee, and countless other Black Americans who are tragic victims of anti-Blackness and White supremacy. Their deaths underscore the fact that racism is deadly, and addressing it must be core to any and all organizing for social justice. We acknowledge that throughout our country’s history, state-sponsored violence and white supremacy have inflected intergenerational trauma and harm on the Black community and have led to large inequities in health, wealth, education, and more.

At the Puksta Foundation, we believe that supporting young people of color is a way to create deep and lasting change in our society. Access to education, especially for young people who have historically had their access obstructed or denied, is a means of creating a more just and equitable society. We stand by our commitment to diversity, inclusion, equity, and anti-racism because we need the voices of people representing all parts of our community to truly understand how inequity affects us. We commit to amplifying those voices of those who in the past have not had a seat at the table.

In addition, the Puksta Foundation is committed to the ongoing anti-racist work required to bring about positive change. It is our responsibility to examine the ways in which we have perpetuated White supremacy and to intentionally dismantle it in ourselves and our work. We ask that you join us in taking action and hold us accountable.

Lastly, we will strive to ensure that the black students, families, mentors, and staff we serve and work with are always valued, affirmed, and loved as members of the Puksta family.

In solidarity,

The Puksta Foundation

Ways to Take Action

• Sign this petition from one of our CU Boulder Puksta Scholars demanding that the University of Colorado Police Department immediately ceases all partnerships with the Boulder Police Department.
• Sign petitions and make calls to demand justice for Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Tony McDade.
• Ask your elected officials to support SB20-217, the Law Enforcement Integrity and Accountability Act and the policy changes recommended by Campaign Zero.
• Donate to Black Lives Matter 5280, the Colorado Freedom Fund, the Denver Justice Project, the Minneapolis Freedom Fund, Black Visions Collective, and the George Floyd Memorial Fund.
• Support and learn from Soul2Soul Sisters, Regan Byrd Consulting, and Creative Strategies for Change.
• White folks—Protest as accomplices.
• Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), a resource for White allies/accomplices https://www.facebook.com/SURJDenver/ & https://www.facebook.com/SURJBoulder/
• Vote, volunteer, and be active in your community.
• Support Black-owned businesses in Denver.
• Take care of yourself and others.

Graduation season may be wrapping up, but we’re still celebrating! The Puksta Foundation is featuring “Senior Spotlight” profiles, a special series of posts to honor our graduating Puksta Scholars and their projects. We are truly impressed by the work these students have accomplished as Puksta Scholars, and we are so grateful to have this opportunity to share these profiles with the community so you can get to know our Pukstas a bit better.

Please join us in congratulating these students and wishing them luck in the future!

Today our featured Puksta Senior is James Artis III, graduating from University of Denver!

James is a Business Management major with a Business Information Analytics minor. He is actively involved in work that empowers and promotes justice for low-income communities and communities of color. His efforts as a Puksta Scholar include seeking to address issues surrounding the relationship between law enforcement and Black communities. He passionately engages in social justice work to make sure voices of individuals belonging to marginalized identities are heard, recognized, and represented. Additionally, he has been a mentor for the Excelling Leaders Institute and has worked with the Cherry Creek School District towards their Brotherhood efforts.

At DU, James co-facilitated The Black Male Initiative Summit, in addition to helping to welcome prospective students to the DU Campus as a Program Visit Intern at the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. James has also contributed to the community as an Assistant Basketball Coach for AAU Premiere Basketball Club, Youth Pastor at Balm of Gilead, Brotherhood Publicist at Overland High School, and Volunteer at Operation Christmas Child Warehouse and Food Bank of the Rockies.

To learn more about James’ Puksta Project, check out the poster below.

Congratulations on the completion of your degree, James, and thank you for your truly meaningful and impactful work advancing equality and empowerment in the community! 

Last month, our DU Puksta Community gathered for a virtual Puksta Passage to celebrate our graduating scholars, as well as our incoming scholars. DU Puksta Scholar Rosie Contino (’22) shared a wonderful summary of the event through the DU Center for Community Engagement to Advance Scholarship and Learning’s “Public Good Impact” newsletter. Thank you for your beautiful words and sharing your reflections from the evening, Rosie!

Read the full write-up here:

We’re taking a moment to recognize the accomplishments of a few Puksta Scholars, Alums, and Coordinators by sharing some recent highlights from CU Engage, the Center for Community-Based Learning and Research at the University of Colorado Boulder! CU Engage is also where the Puksta Foundation is housed on CU Boulder’s campus.

In Fall 2019, CU Boulder Puksta Coordinator Roudy Hildreth became CU Engage’s Executive Director. Roudy has served as CU Boulder’s Puksta Coordinator since 2014. Roudy’s successor, Allie Van Buskirk, has been working with CU Scholars as co-coordinator through this transition since Fall 2019. Puksta Coordinators are invaluable members of our team that help potential Scholars learn about the application and enrollment process. Coordinators also share with scholars the guidelines for developing each individual’s project as part of the Puksta Scholarship. Most importantly, coordinators provide support, encouragement, mentorship, and guidance to Puksta Scholars throughout their journeys. Congrats to Roudy, and welcome Allie!

Puksta Alum Charla Agnoletti (DU ’09) was recently awarded the 2020 Anne K. Heinz Staff Award for Excellence in Outreach and Engagement. The award recognizes staff with outstanding professional commitments to and success with community outreach and engagement initiatives. Agnoletti also will receive $5,000 to support Public Achievement’s outreach as a program. Congratulations to Charla and the Public Achievement program!

Current Puksta Scholar Marwa Osman (CU Boulder ’21) was also recognized for her work recently. Marwa illustrates her development as a leader for social and environmental justice as she progresses through different programs on campus including CU Engage’s INVST and Puksta Scholars programs.

“There is the economic issue of there not being enough opportunities allowing students from different backgrounds to be here, the environmental aspect of it (CU’s Campus) not feeling safe, and the social aspect of not seeing people like you and being the only person of color in class. These can all relate to the sustainability and maintenance of diversity here at CU,” said Osman.

Bill Shrum (CU Boulder, ’14) was a Puksta Scholar for the final 3 years of his undergraduate degree, a Bachelor of Environmental Design with an emphasis on Urban Planning. Being an older returning undergrad and the first in his immediate family to go to college, there was a strong desire to help students from challenging backgrounds find the way through high school and go on to college. Teaming up with Juedon Kebede, (CU Boulder, ’15), Bill and Juedon started “Impact the Youth” as their collaborative Puksta project, a non-profit peer mentoring program bringing high school freshmen and sophomores to CU Boulder to pair up with current undergraduate and graduate students. The peer mentorship was complimented with academic and programmatic deep dives into disciplines on campus including aerospace, biology, architecture, performance, sociology, computer science, and more. The program saw more than 30 high school students participate, and all were admitted to college after graduating high school.

The Puksta Scholars program was the most impactful program for Bill as an undergraduate, above and beyond student government, academic clubs, Greek life, and social interest clubs. The collection of students in the Puksta program were all tremendous leaders on campus and in the community, and the ability to work with and learn from these students was invaluable. Puksta helped Bill expand his community work and outreach on several projects including student government, town-gown relations, peer mentoring, and student organizing.

These skills were directly relevant to Bill’s academic career path, earning a Masters of Communication (CU Boulder, ’18) and soon to graduate with a Masters of Public Administration from CU Denver in 2020. As the Assistant to the Town Manager in Eagle, CO, much of my daily work is community relations, staff and volunteer management and mentoring, and project management. Bill is also an Emerging Leader within the Colorado City and County Manager’s Association and assists CCCMA in communication, outreach, and programming. He has used these skills to lead outreach and project management to help start a Municipal Broadband network, Recreation Center master planning, Economic and Business Development, and other social and equity programs within the Town.

Reflecting on his Puksta experience, Bill shared the following:

My advice for current and future Puksta Scholars is two-fold. First, cherish and nurture the relationships and connections you can make with other Puksta Scholars, on your own campus, and across the state. Puksta has a knack for gathering and empowering civic-minded leaders, and your peers will be confidants, colleagues, and mentors during your academic and professional lives. You will be hard-pressed to find a better community, so invest and take advantage of the Puksta community while you are a part of it. Secondly, many Puksta Scholars do not understand that the skills they learn through Puksta, as well as the moral and ethical compass scholars have for civic life and justice, empowers you to be effective leaders immediately. I have seen more capacity for leadership and effective community service from undergraduate Puksta Scholars than students in an MPA program or even tenured professionals in local government. Do not wait to be “more qualified” or to get “more experience” to unleash what you are already capable of. Many of our civic and social issues are urgent needs, and they need an urgent response.

Bill appreciates the incredible people leading Puksta Scholars, on campus, and in the foundation. Their enduring work is helping to build one of the best scholastic and citizen communities in Colorado. He is honored to be a member of such a great community and hopes current and future scholars can gain as much as he has from the program.  

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We’re celebrating Lamya’a Dawud (or should we say Dr. Dawud!) and the completion of her PhD in Integrative Systems Biology from CU Denver! Lamya’a is an Alumni Puksta Scholar from CU Boulder, where she earned her BA and MS in Integrative Physiology in 2015.

Congratulations, Dr. Dawud, and best of luck to you in your future work!

Everybody say "Puksta!"

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Last week, friends, family, supporters, and Denver University Puksta Scholars gathered together via video chat to celebrate another *virtual* Puksta Passages event (and Pizza Party)!

The evening began with the introduction of our newest DU Puksta scholars: Sunjoi Gandhi, Dhiona Jaramillo, Christy Vo, and Marissa Martinez Suarez. We are thrilled to have these amazing individuals join the Puksta Family, and we look forward seeing how they engage with their campus and communities in the years ahead!

The final part of the evening was dedicated to our graduating DU seniors, Blanche Marie Ndoutou, Chhorda Vuth, James Artis III, and Oscar Saenz. In addition to their fellow Pukstas, friends and families joined in as audience members to cheer them on, as well as staff from DU.

Blanche studied Criminology, as well as Spanish and Leadership Studies. As a Puksta scholar, she collaborated with African Students United, a campus organization she co-created, in order to reach out to African Community Center and work with them. As someone who came to the United States as a refugee, Blanche also dedicated herself to working on ways of easing the transitional obstacles and stress often experienced by Denver’s refugee population.

Chhorda is a Biology major. As a Puksta scholar, her work involved supporting high school students facing obstacles as immigrants adjusting to new environments. The desire to help these students came from her own experiences with the process of moving to a new country and starting all over with schools and culture. For her project, she hoped to implement a mentorship program for newly arrived immigrant students to help them learn English and ease into the American Culture faster.

James is a Business Management major with a Business Information Analytics minor. He is actively involved in work that empowers and promotes justice for low-income communities and communities of color. His efforts include seeking to address issues surrounding the relationship between law enforcement and Black communities. Additionally, he has been a mentor for the Excelling Leaders Institute and has worked with the Cherry Creek School District towards their Brotherhood efforts.

Oscar studied Strategic Communications and Marketing. For his Puksta Project, Oscar returned to his former school, Munroe Elementary, to develop a parent engagement and education program. Engaging in the community that he grew up in, Oscar has worked to advocate the importance of pursuing higher education.

DU Puksta Coordinator Kathleen Ferrick reflected on the growth of Blanche, Chhorda, James, and Oscar over the course of their years at Puksta, as well as their ongoing work as change-makers engaging in work to truly make the world a better place for all. A retrospective slideshow of pictures was also shared, with heartfelt notes from fellow DU Puksta Scholars interspersed throughout.

Presenting senior scholars with a graduation cord is traditional part of Puksta Passages. However, as the ceremony was moved to a remote format, we had to get creative. Executive Director John Mulstay and Director of Development and Community Outreach NiChel Mulstay arranged for Blanche, Chhorda, James, and Oscar to receive their cords at home, and then virtually presented the cords to the scholars, congratulating each of them on their accomplishments and thanking them for their meaningful work as Puksta Scholars.

We are truly blown away by the level of creativity, compassion, and forward-thinking demonstrated in each of our graduating and continuing scholars’ projects, as well as their continued commitment to having a positive impact on their communities. Our scholars at DU are mentors, social justice warriors, and advocates for a more equitable world, and we couldn’t be more proud of them!

Thank you to all of the scholars, as well as our supportive attendees, for making this ceremony a success, and for being part of an evening of love and laughter. We’re so proud of all of our scholars– incoming, current, and graduating– and are grateful to have opportunities like this to celebrate, even if it’s virtually for now! This year’s DU Puksta Passage truly demonstrated that, in spite of the various challenges and uncertainties we’re all currently facing, Puksta is Love.

Best of luck to Blanche, Chhorda, James, and Oscar in your journeys ahead, and thank you for being a part of our Puksta Family, now and always.

Graduation season may be wrapping up, but we’re still celebrating! The Puksta Foundation is featuring “Senior Spotlight” profiles, a special series of posts to honor our graduating Puksta Scholars and their projects. We are truly impressed by the work these students have accomplished as Puksta Scholars, and we are so grateful to have this opportunity to share these profiles with the community so you can get to know our Pukstas a bit better.

Please join us in congratulating these students and wishing them luck in the future!

Today our featured Puksta Senior is Sabrina Pribyl, graduating from Colorado State University!

Through her Puksta Project “Puppy Pals”, Sabrina collaborated with Puksta Alum David Purcella (CSU ’18) to introduce service dogs to help teach and mentor young disabled students through the “Puppy Pals” program. These service animals assist with practicing reading, writing, and speaking skills outside of the classroom, helping students feel more confident entering their classroom. She shared the following reflections about her Puksta experience:

As I grew up, I quickly learned that not all schools are created equal which inspired me to find ways to make schools more inclusive places and provide additional resources for students with disabilities. When I started my education at CSU, I met Puksta scholar David Purcella who was also trying to provide additional resources with disabilities. He created a program called Puppy Pals with tutors grade school students alongside service animals to mitigate the stress which can often come with tutoring sessions. We quickly bonded over our shared interest and a year later I was welcomed into the Puksta family to carry out David’s Puppy Pals program. Through this program we hoped to help students be more confident in their own classrooms as well as inspire them to pursue higher education. Like many students, the first time I stepped foot on a college campus was when I was touring colleges my senior year of high school. Tutoring our students on the CSU campus allowed that introduction at a much earlier stage. I have the very unique opportunity to work directly with another Puksta scholar on a project which I believe helped our project prosper and keep David’s legacy alive. My last two years of college, I volunteered as a literacy tutor at Dunn Elementary school. I think being able to work with students and their teachers within their classrooms helped me understand the students’ challenges on a deeper level. By the time of my graduation, I was so inspired I almost changed my career path from statistics to special education.

This project and my work with these kids definitely left a huge impact on me and I hope I can continue to provide additional resources for students in the future. I am so grateful for my time within the Puksta Foundation because they not only gave me the ultimate opportunity to make a difference in my community but they inspired and supported me the whole way through. My only advice for incoming scholars is to just make the best of your time within Puksta because it goes by way too fast! 

We invite you to learn more about Sabrina and her project in the video below. Sabrina prepared this presentation as part of CSU’s Puksta Showcase in February 2020.

Congratulations on the completion of your degree, Sabrina, and thank you for your truly meaningful and impactful work in the community!