With graduations for university students across Colorado underway, the Puksta Foundation is featuring “Senior Spotlight” profiles, a special series of posts to celebrate 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 Deborah Ilangikwa, graduating from Colorado State University!

Debbie spent her time as a Puksta working to support ESL students from Fort Morgan High School. She shared the following reflections about her Puksta experience:

My name is Deborah Ilangikwa and my project is called Define Your Success. We work with students who are in ESL (English as a Second Language) classes at Fort Morgan High School to encourage post-secondary education.

About me: I recently graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in International Studies and a minor in Legal Studies. Puksta has supported me a lot these past few years and I will forever be grateful that I was a Puksta Scholar. 

As I move forward: Being a Puksta Scholar and working with students in my project has helped me find my passion for continuing my work with students. I will be attending Boston University in the fall to get my Masters in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. 

Advice to Puksta Scholars: Don’t forget to be a Student FIRST!

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

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

In the weeks leading up to the graduation of university students across Colorado, The Puksta Foundation will be featuring “Senior Spotlight” profiles, a special series of posts to celebrate 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 Rebecca Robidoux, graduating from CU Boulder!

Rebecca has spent her time as a Puksta working to support the Sanctuary Movement and undocumented women and families living in Boulder, CO. She shared the following reflections about her Puksta experience and her work within social justice movements and community organizing:

A bit about me: 

My name is Rebecca, and I recently graduated from CU Boulder with a degree in Women and Gender Studies, and I am the first student to graduate from the Leadership and Community Engagement major. My time as a Puksta Scholar has been transformational and full of personal and professional development.   

As I move forward:

My hope is that other students and young people will consider the time in which we are living, during economic turmoil, in the wake of Trump’s decision to cancel green cards, and with an impending wave of climate refugees. I hope they feel both an urgency for justice and a pull towards the warmth and community I have found while working with the Sanctuary Movement over the last 8 months, because it is evident that there are connections to be made and victories to be had that could shift the way our country, our state, our community, values all of us.

Advice:

Identify the relationships in your life that give energy back to you and make you happy. Social justice work can be exhausting and bleak, and as important as it is to build strategic relationships, make sure to protect the ones that just feel good, because you’ll need them.

We invite you to learn more about Rebecca and her journey Puksta in the retrospective video below. Rebecca produced this video as part of CU Boulder’s Puksta Passages ceremony earlier this month.

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

MSU Denver Health Scholars, Academic Year 2019-2020

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As a participant in the Metropolitan State University (MSU) Denver DACA/Undocumented Health Career Program, Puksta Scholar Karen Nunez-Sifuentes took part in the creation of a Health Tool Kit for DACA, undocumented and migrant communities. In addition to her work as a MSU Denver Health Scholar, Karen is creating awareness of resources and college opportunities through mentorship as part of her Puksta Project.

“This is not only to bring awareness about the importance of access to health care for these communities, but to address issues that are affecting underserved people,” says Karen. Each fact sheet has a general overview of the topic, steps and solutions, as well as Colorado resources. 

Thank you to Karen and the other members of the MSU Denver DACA/Undocumented Health Career Program for your work on this very important resource.

We hope you’ll find the tool kit helpful and informative (available for download below). Please share this resource with your community.

In the weeks leading up to the graduation of university students across Colorado, The Puksta Foundation will be featuring “Senior Spotlight” profiles, a special series of posts to celebrate 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 Angelica Prisciliano, graduating from Metropolitan State University Denver this spring.

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Angelica shared the following reflections about her Puksta experience and her work as an advocate for Colorado students regardless of immigration status. This work has particular relevance and importance as DACA students await the Supreme Court’s ruling on President Trump’s 2017 order to rescind the Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which currently allows around 700,000 undocumented immigrants who arrived in the country as minors to live and work in the United States.

My name is Angelica Prisciliano, and I am a Senior at MSU Denver completing a degree in Political Science with a concentration in Public Affairs. I grew up in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico with my mother and moved to Colorado when I was twelve. After finishing high school I moved to Denver to pursue higher education in hopes to broaden my opportunities in this country. As an immigrant and first-generation student in the United States, I experienced many obstacles while navigating higher education. Unfortunately, resources for Dreamers were very limited and confusing to access. Through my Puksta Project I want to have a long-lasting impact on my community’s experience navigating higher education. 

My Puksta Project is designed to build a strong network and provide higher education resources for Colorado students and professionals regardless of immigration status. Along powerful community members, we built a team that strives to build meaningful coalitions, organize resourceful events, and actively advocate for equitable policy. In 2017 we officially named our community organization, United Leaders in Higher Education. We build our team with strong leaders in their universities or colleges and continue our work as a collective statewide. 

One of the many challenges of this project was to reach institutions outside the Denver Metro Areas, vicinities, and popular university cities like Colorado Springs and Boulder. As all of this work is volunteer based, we managed to organize and carry out two large conferences hosting folks from all over our state, Michigan, and California. 

Additionally, our work reflects in the efforts to hold institutions accountable for serving their undocumented students in a adequate and equitable manner. We each have assisted our institutions in creating, hosting, and promoting undocupeer trainings modeled after work that United We Dream and other folks have built for the community. At MSU Denver, we are beyond fortunate to have the Immigrant Services Program (ISP) which actively advocates vocally on and off campus for the 357 ASSET students that the institution serves (MSU Denver’s Census Fall Student Profiles). 

Lastly, with our strong leadership we have worked on advocating for a national comprehensive reform and statewide policies that directly impact the life of Dreamers/undocumented/DACA students in Colorado. Our board members have organized local actions and traveled to Washington D.C. to demand a solution to the President’s order to rescind DACA. His action was challenged, and we currently await a U.S. Supreme Court opinion expected to be delivered soon. This decisionhas the potential to heavily impact the lives of 14,700 DACA holders and their families in Colorado (Migration Policy Institute). Our board members have also testified before legislative committee on behalf important bills such as HB19-1196 that extends eligible undocumented students’ access to state financial aid. 

As other fellow Puksta Scholars, I have had the fortune to be able to connect my Puksta Project with my individual work at the university and with my community. I want every young person that decides to pursue an education to have access to the guidance and clarity that I couldn’t have when I was growing up. As I continue to be an active voice in my circle, I hope one day I can give back to the programs like IPS and Puksta that have supported and believed in my work. I will forever be grateful to John and NiChel, Tim and Alyssa, my mentor, and my fellow Puksta Scholars for providing me with a space to grow, create, and be myself. I envision that my experiences and what I have accomplished will translate into a successful career path in policy advocacy.

Angelica also shared the following resources with us:

• University Factsheet Census Fall Student Profiles 2018-2019
• HB19-1196: https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb19-1196
• Migration Policy Institute

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

Looking for a fun way to get moving? Puksta Alum Patrycja Humienik (CU Denver ’17) is offering “Moving Toward,” the first workshop in a three-part dance improvisation series via Zoom this Saturday, April 25 at 10 AM.

As a Puksta scholar, Patrycja combined her passion for dance with social justice advocacy by developing the Denver chapter of Dances for Solidarity, a national initiative sharing dance through letter writing with people in solitary confinement.

We’re so grateful to Patrycja for facilitating this virtual workshop, and we look forward to exploring dance improvisation with her!

Here is a detailed description of Moving Toward from the event page:

Let’s dance together, from wherever we are. You are invited to *Moving Toward,* the first in a series of 3 virtual improvisation-focused workshops: Moving Toward, Moving From, Moving For. Moving Toward explores invocation, where we are going or hope to go. What are we moving toward?

All levels welcome, whether or not you identify as a ~dancer~.

Class will start with a short freewrite before warming up and moving together a la Zoom. We’ll play with repetition, imitation, softening, and pause. No dance class experience necessary.

By donation (Venmo @Patrycja-Humienik), $1-25 sliding scale. 50% of proceeds go to the Seattle Artist Relief Fund Amid COVID-19. Please RSVP here; you will receive Zoom info about the class via email.:)

Moving From, part 2, is about digging in, getting curious, investigating from where we move. In Moving For, third in the series, we will play with movement as dedication, devotion, honoring. Join for 1 or all.

Register for “Moving Toward” here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/moving-toward-a-virtual-dance-offering-tickets-102036758692

We hope you’ll attend!

Our Director of Development and Community Outreach, NiChel Mulstay has another guided meditation podcast episode to help bring you some moments of mindfulness this week. NicChel is a certified Practitioner/Instructor of Meditation, as well as a certified Reiki Master to help with energy healing. NiChel launched the “Calming Bells” podcast to offer our scholars guided meditation and promote personal health. With the many upheavals to our personal and professional lives resulting from the COVID-19 situation and it’s implications, we’d like to share this podcast with our extended Puksta community, as well. We hope it will bring a sense of calmness, relief, and mindful connection.

Below is a note from NiChel that accompanies the latest episode: “Lovingkindness Meditation.”

Hi Everyone,

I think it is important while we are practicing physical distancing that we make sure we are sending out thoughts of love and compassion to ourselves and others, this is why I chose to create this LovingKindness Mediation for you this week. Make sure you have at least 20 minutes to devote to this meditation.Lovingkindness meditation stems from is a Buddhist prayer (Metta Bhavana) and is a technique with which you can create feelings of love and kindness, warm feelings that make your inner world a place of compassion.

This is first practiced toward oneself since we often have difficulty loving others without first loving ourselves. Then it slowly ripples out to the world.

While you say these phrases, allow yourself to sink into the intentions they express. Loving-kindness meditation consists primarily of connecting to the intention of wishing ourselves or others happiness. However, if feelings of warmth, friendliness, or love arise in the body or mind, connect to them, allowing them to grow as you repeat the phrases. As an aid to the meditation, you might hold an image of yourself in your mind’s eye. This helps reinforce the intentions expressed in the phrases.May you be filled with lovingkindness… May you feel connected and calm… May you accept yourself just as you are… May you be happy and well… May you be safe… May you be peaceful and at ease.

We all are so deeply interconnected; we have no option but to love all. Be kind and do good for anyone and that will be reflected. The ripples of the kind heart are the highest blessings of the Universe. ― Amit Ray, Yoga and Vipassana: An Integrated Life Style

I have also included Solfeggio music in the background (frequencies known to help bring our bodies, cells, and DNA back into resonance and health.) This one, in particular, is called Tender Love (639 Hz), tuned at a frequency associated with opening and healing your heart chakra. It is the Marimba Meditation Music album by Meditative Mind.

I hope you enjoy and that it may bring you some peace and comfort.

We’re celebrating Rob Hatcher and his successful defense of his MA in Communication project last week!

Rob was awarded our Puksta Foundation Fellowship at University of Colorado at Denver in 2018-19. For his project, Rob spent the spring semester of 2018 leading poetry workshops at the Community College of Aurora, where he used creative writing as a means for helping students explore voice and agency. His hope was that it would create active citizens who could harness their own voices to create change in the world. 

After his fellowship was complete, Rob continued contributing his time and skills to Puksta as an intern for two consecutive semesters during the summer and fall of 2019. His talent for communication greatly benefited our community engagement. One of the Puksta Foundation’s goals has been to expand our outreach and share the stories of what our scholars are doing in the community. Rob was able to do this for us in a truly remarkable and powerful way.

Director of Development and Community Outreach, NiChel Mulstay shared the following about Rob:

It is very obvious to me and everyone who comes into contact with Rob that he is committed to helping people find their voice. With his spirit and persistence, he doesn’t stop once the requirements are met and the day is over. To this day he still is very generous with his time and artistry, as someone who is always willing to help where needed and lend a hand. We were extremely lucky to have had him in both capacities as a Puksta Fellow and our Puksta Intern.

Congratulations, Rob, and best of luck to you in your future work!