Posted on October 20, 2024
Issue(s) of Focus: Sexism, gender equality, and Racial Advocacy and Equity
Major(s): Explanatory Studies/Pre-Biomedical Engineering
Project: My Puksta Project aims to elevate awareness about the critical importance of maintaining efficient hospital equipment and its profound impact on patient care, particularly in neighborhoods predominantly composed of people of color, such as those in Denver and Aurora, Colorado. This initiative will involve a thorough investigation into the statistics and personal stories surrounding the consequences of delayed medical equipment repairs. Additionally, I will organize and lead workshops and presentations at schools, community centers, and through online platforms to engage and educate the community on this vital issue.
Inspiration: What inspired me was the prolonged delay I experienced in having my MRI appointment rescheduled from a two-week wait to a three-month delay, due to equipment malfunctions. This situation underscored a broader issue: the hospital, situated in a diverse and underserved neighborhood, appears to suffer from a lack of adequate resources and attention. This experience highlighted the urgent need for improved infrastructure and resource allocation to ensure timely and equitable care for all patients.
Future Goals: Through my community engagement and social impact work, I hope to accomplish Raising Public Awareness about the crucial role of efficient hospital equipment in ensuring quality patient care, particularly in underserved neighborhoods with significant populations of people of color, Highlight the negative impact of Equipment Delays on patients, And foster community involvement through empowering them with knowledge and encouraging collective action to address and resolve these healthcare challenges through my social impact work with Puksta.
Posted on November 1, 2023
Major: Health and Exercise Science
Project: I’m thinking of pursuing Mental Health Awareness within CSU’s community. There could be some improvement in the CSU health network by providing a fund for the inclusion of more people of color to counsel. The system that the health network uses currently is time-consuming and difficult to understand for many students seeking help.
Inspiration: I’ve always struggled to reach out for help, so trying to get myself to go to counseling was incredibly difficult. I’ve been to the CSU health network at least three times since being in college and still haven’t received adequate help. The appointments take a minute to make, the appointments are inconsistent, I was with a different counselor almost every session, and I felt like there wasn’t any diversity amongst the counselors I spoke to. So, as a black woman. I didn’t feel comfortable in a place where I was supposed to feel safe.
Future Plans: I’d want people of color who struggle to fit into the CSU community to get the right counseling service they deserve. I’d also hope that having a fund would help boost the chances of people going to get help. This would also make the school look better in terms of the action they take on what’s important.
Posted on November 1, 2023
Major: Entrepreneurship
Minor: Finance
Project: What I would like to pursue for my Puksta Project is equal educational opportunity for minorities. From elementary and forward, motivating and providing resources to students of color to attend higher education and advanced classes such as honors, AP and IB in order to promote and have more diversity in advanced education.
Inspiration: What inspired me to choose this project was my experience in the education system. I grew up taking honors, AP, and IB classes which were predominately white. I always felt out of place and my peers and teachers never helped me feel included or smart enough. I would like to encourage and motivate students of color to take these advanced classes because we are all worthy of a higher education.
Future Plans: What I hope to accomplish is making advanced classes more diverse. By making these classes more diverse more and more students of color will feel comfortable and worthy enough to take advanced classes which in the long run benefit their academic career.
Posted on November 1, 2023
Major: Mathematics
Project: I am looking for ways to support non-traditional immigrant students in pursuing a higher education and developing their expertise in the United States.
Inspiration: As an immigrant, I have seen so many barriers or it being impossible for immigrants to pursue a higher education whether it is economically or for not having a legal status here in the United States, and also to even have the chance to develop their expertise.
Future Plans: I want to develop a method by which non-traditional immigrant students can pursue higher education and at the same time, gain a work permit to develop their expertise and eventually get legal status in the U.S.
Posted on November 28, 2022
Major: Physics
Minor: Mathematics
Project: As an elected member of Student Government, I’m working on writing and passing bus line resolutions
Inspirations: All of my professors are white, and I wouldn’t be able to take physics in Boulder due to the fact that I have no money for that kind of education.
Future Goals: Get more students of color to apply for STEM positions. Find a way to help our society in a different way.
Posted on November 28, 2022
Major: Zoology
Project: The project I am pursuing is Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, specifically focusing on the Indigenous community that lives in northern Colorado. I will be a mentor and lead community events, and provide a space for Indigenous peoples to come together and heal, give preventative courses and resources, and provide overall support for the Indigenous community.
Inspiration: I am an Indigenous woman who has seen my community members be hurt mentally and physically by others, I have seen little to no coverage of Missing and Murdered Indigenous peoples in the media and news. I think that education is very important, if I can educate the community Indigenous and non-Indigenous about these issues there can be a change.
Future Plans: I hope that I can accomplish educating the community, and provide a safe place where triggering conversations can be held. I hope to teach those around us what actions to take when placed in a harmful situation, to decrease the number of community members that have faced violence.
Posted on November 28, 2022
Major: Biomedical Science
Project: I want to continue research to see what best ways POC can access employment in the medical field. I also want to help increase diversity in the medical field.
Inspiration: I chose this because as someone interested in being an OBGYN, I’ve come to realize that many people do not feel represented by their doctors. There is a large racial disparity in the medical field and I want to help make it smaller.
Future Plans: I want to show other POC that there are jobs available to them that don’t require a doctor’s degree. Everyone has been raised that being a doctor is the way into the medical field when there are various opportunities available.
Posted on November 28, 2022
Major: Studio Art
Project: I hope to develop a project to celebrate, protect, and project the voices, identities, and stories of LGBTQ+ and BIPOC people through the arts and literature. I would also love to explore this with a focus on Arab/Arab American identities.
Inspiration: I have always navigated the world through stories. Whether through books, movies, cartoons, or graphic novels I have been able to make the experience of my world richer by indulging in the creativity and stories of people from all stretches of life even if I was just at home. Art is powerful and it has moved me to care for so much of our world and I hope that I can contribute to that so that our world can be more compassionate, fun, and equitable.
Future Plans: I hope that whatever work I choose to do helps strengthen communities, fights against erasure, and moves LGBTQ+ and BIPOC resistance and pride forward.
Posted on November 28, 2022
Major: Psychology & Gender and Sexuality Studies
Project: I am currently working with a few different organizations in Colorado to create safe spaces for LGBT and BIPOC youth and allies to learn and gain access to resources. I’ve also started my own art business where I donate proceeds to local organizations that amplify QTBIPOC voices and share resources like transition funds and clothing swaps that are helpful for those in need. Here is my website for my art business that supports local orgs! artloveshard.square.site
Inspiration: I grew up with my grandparents who immigrated to the US during the Vietnam War. Because of this, I didn’t have access to the education and support that I needed as a queer transgender man and it made growing up really hard for me. Through an online community of Trans and queer individuals, I was able to get the support I needed to be able to be the most authentic version of myself and knew I wanted to do the same for others.
Future Plans: I hope to create safe places for youth to gain the knowledge and support they need to be the best versions of themselves. Finding ways to make healthcare (both mental and physical) more accessible, connecting with the community, and sharing resources that are helpful, but hidden, are my big goals
Posted on November 6, 2020
Majors: History, Political Science
Minors: Spanish, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies
Project: Textbook racism is a big issue in education that subconsciously affects youth and makes them feel ashamed of their identities. As a result, students experience internalized trauma where they do not see themselves succeeding because history does not show people like them achieving great things. I want students to feel empowered and unafraid to be themselves, so for my Puksta project, I am going to find ways to bring more representation in the school’s curriculum and potentially create a program that teaches students how to embrace their cultures.
Inspiration: Throughout my education, I never once had a Latinx teacher around to respond to my cultural necessities. Although the teachers I had were great individuals, none of them could understand how discouraging it can feel to look inside a textbook and not see anyone that matches your ethnicity, to read about the alleged heroes who murdered those who looked like you, and to never once be taught the positive impacts your community has made. Understanding the negative impacts of these one-sided portrayals, I want to empower students by teaching them about their powerful and dynamic cultures through history.
Future Plans: By bringing more representation in the school’s curriculum, I wish to motivate students in their studies and future successes to get them to a place where they are not only learning about history but creating it as well.
