Posted on October 15, 2018
Project: My project concentrates on helping students specifically seniors navigating the financial aspect of college. Getting in is one step but anybody hardly talked about how to make it a financial reality which seems far out of reach for most students. This tends to be the case a majority of the time. Although the thing really preventing students from coming to a University is a lack of education on how to make college a financial reality.
Inspiration: Coming from a low-income neighborhood there was an immense need for post-secondary option transition coaches. I only knew of one from my district who was hard to get help from. Seeing this as well as my peers struggle joking but being serious on how much harder it is to pay to college not get that acceptance letter. Inspiration sparked in me to help make a change to this.
Future Plans for Project: My main goal is to help the seniors in my current school and I hope it’ll have a ripple affect on upcoming seniors so they can see college is an obtainable goal.
Posted on October 15, 2018
Project: I decided to focus my project on working with high school students and their parents understand the college process which includes, financial aid, applications, GPA, SAT scores, and other resources necessary. My goal is to help underrepresented students. First generation or immigrant students are lacking support and are underrepresented students. Creating this project will allow me to show the importance and opportunity available for these students. After having guidance, I hope to see students feel prepared about the future. Volunteering with Adelante! at Boulder High School will allow me to use the activist intellectual tradition to give back to my community.
Inspiration: Due to the recent political debate on children being taken away from their families and lifestyle, I decided to choose this as my Puksta Project because this is a major problem happening in the United States that will affect globally. As a result, less immigrants will get the opportunity to have basic human rights.
Future Plans for Project: I hope that I accomplish change in my community that will spread to others who hear our voices. I think that anyone can create change and I hope to spread awareness in order to make change.
Posted on October 15, 2018
Project: My Puksta Project is working to increase access to arts education for low-income youth of color in Denver through providing access to culturally-competent spoken word poetry workshops and performance opportunities. This past summer, I applied and was accepted for a board position for the literary arts organization Sacred Voices, which hosts open mics for Black, Indigenous, and youth of color each month. I am currently helping them expand their board, host their open mics, and generate a long-term curriculum for BIPoC youth of color to be taught in middle/high schools.
Inspiration: My personal experience as an alumni of Denver’s youth slam poetry team, Minor Disturbance, inspired me to choose my Puksta project. Spoken word has greatly impacted my life, and I feel it is important that students of color are able to engage this art form.
Future Plans for Project: I hope to accomplish the following from my retreat: a more connected network of youth poets of color in Denver, a safe space for youth of color to articulate their experiences in the current political climate, and the opportunity for students to be connected to the community resources to hone their craft upon returning home.
Posted on October 6, 2018
Project: Teach teen girls about the importance of digital responsibility to help them make better decisions online.
Inspiration: As someone who grew up in the digital age, I noticed the alarming rate at which young ladies are often lured away from their home by someone they met online.
Future Plans for Project: Prevent young women from becoming victims of sex trafficking and other forms of violence.
Posted on October 4, 2018
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Posted on January 10, 2018
Project: Education equity as it relates to pedagogy: concentrate on the social, economic and academic challenges black and brown students face. She will research the intersections of race, culture and microaggressions as it relates to education and work towards fostering inclusivity. In the following year, she intends to gain experience working with K-12 students in the Denver Metro area. Furthermore, she plans to work closely with students, parents and educators, promoting culturally responsive teaching, encouraging a culture of restorative justice and equity in education. She hopes to ultimately pursue a career in education policy, as it pertains to the disproportionate rates of academic success for black and brown students.
Inspiration: Growing up I often found myself in a classroom where no one looked like me. The history books only reflected faces similar to my own when we learned about slavery in America. It was challenging to navigate and make sense of who I was in relation to these environments.
When I was old enough to work inside the walls of public education, I noticed that there were students who sat in the same lonesome position as I once had. Seeing these students made me want to rectify the unspoken and spoken injustice of being a minority student. I ultimately chose my project because education equity is incredibly meaningful to me. I believe that one of the best ways a teacher can be intentionally inclusive is to value culturally responsive teaching for all students.
Future Plans for Project: I hope to engage in meaningful work that has the ability to make someone else’s life experience better.
Posted on December 22, 2017
Project: My project is giving underprivileged and impoverished youth access to the outdoors. I plan on working with a non-profit organization that currently does this in some capacity and seeing first hand the ways in which to start my own non-profit of a similar nature, and the impacts the organization has on the youth. Getting youth out in the mountains, camping and hiking and overcoming many personal obstacles and building their confidence!
Inspiration: As a youth, I did not have many opportunities to go out and play in the mountains because my family couldn’t afford the equipment nor did they have the time or the desire themselves to go do the things I wanted to do. As an adult, I have taken advantage of the mountains being just a few minutes away and getting found as often as I could in them. I am an avid 14er’s bagger (hiker of the mountain peaks that have an elevation of 14,000 feet or more) and recently I saw first hand just how summitting one of our beautiful 14er’s can boost the confidence of a young person. I hiked Huron Peak with my eight-year-old kiddo this summer. It was their first and my 14th. My kid was the type of kid who would not try new things out of fear. They would not go to birthday parties in fear of not knowing anyone but the birthday kid. They didn’t learn to ride their bike until just this year because they didn’t think they could do it. When we made it to the top of that peak, their whole being changed. They were all smiles, jumping up and down, looking around and already talking about “when can we do another one!” The next day, their confidence levels were through the roof, trying new things, being a little more daring, and going up to kids they didn’t know and starting a conversation.
Seeing how just this one simple thing of hiking to the top of a mountain peak can increase the confidence level of one young person has helped me to choose this as my Puksta Project.
Future Plans for Project: I hope that by showing young people, especially youth who are already looked past because of their skin color or social class standing, that their minds are a powerful tool and if they tell themselves “I can” and out in a little hard work, they can accomplish huge things in life! Maybe I will help to inspire the next president of the US 🙂
Posted on November 2, 2017
Project: My Puksta Project for the year is teaching Financial Education to the youth (Middle School). I will be working with the Financial Economic and Education Transformation (FEET) Center. I’ve decided to focus mainly on the Aurora School District considering they are a more diverse school district. I have noticed that the youth has a lack of financial education which is a necessity to have in order to successfully sustain yourself. Overall, as a community, the people who lack this knowledge are people who are African American, Native American, Mexican Indian, Asian American, etc. As a student, I have noticed that the Cherry Creek District students have business and finance courses that are more rigorous than Aurora and Denver Public Schools. By starting small I will teach finance at Aurora Public Schools and if my plan succeeds I will eventually move on to Denver Public Schools. I have started my project in making a Business Proposal to demonstrate to the schools or youth aimed organizations what I plan to do, budgeting cost for my project, and informing them about the FEET Center. My next step was to create the curriculum. After I finish the curriculum, I plan to teach finance where the youth group meets or as an after school program.
Inspiration: Well, I began as a student in finance club that was sponsored by the Financial Education Economic Transformation (FEET) Center. As I was in the program for four years I gained interest in the knowledge and developed an idea that the reason why many people are struggling to get through life is that they do not have background knowledge in financial education. That led me to want to continue to work with the FEET Center.
Future Plans for Project: With my civic engagement work, I hope to accomplish building a better community where people are able to sustain themselves and achieve their goals wisely.
Project: ” My project is titled Be Yourself and Own It! it is a campaign designed to defeat the perception of beauty and spotlight the uniqueness in being different and yourself! Society’s ideologies influences us to believe that we are not beautiful in our own skin if we do not fit a criteria. The objective is to promote self love and natural beauty for both men and women from different backgrounds to use. The campaign will be based around curly hair ladies since it is what I am most passionate about although everyone is welcomed to use these tips. The goal is for young women to leave happy, free, and ready to fall in love with their new journey. ”
Inspiration: The perception that beauty is based on appearance alone is false. Being beautiful in appearance is a blessing, however; it’s really the uniqueness in being different, that defines true beauty. In middle school, I was teased about my thick bushy eyebrows and my voluminous, curly hair. I didn’t want to wear my glasses because it wasn’t cool to have, four eyes. I figured, the only way I could be pretty was if I straightened my hair and thinned my eyebrows. Today, I have been able to overcome that and would like to stand up and advocate for those who are going through what I went through.
Future Plans for Project: It’s important that young girls have a respectable role model to look up to. If women come together and support young girls they will grow to love themselves the way God created them. I want to play an active role by engaging with other young ladies. Building diversity, and helping them to learn how to love themselves and embrace their identities is what I hope to accomplish.
Project: 1. To educated and increase awareness to others on the history of where the model minority myth came from and how it became a political narrative against other minority group.
2. To learn the methods involved in qualitative research and carry out a research project on the AAPI students population at CuDenver
3. To Create a Space for a AAPI students to share their stories/struggles to others through the use of interview/oral history
4. To developed and plan a space/event to showcase the stories of AAPI who does not fit the Model Minority Myth narrative by the sharing of their stories to the public for final project
Inspiration: As an Asian American student, I went through the same problem of trying to navigate through the school system while dealing with all the pressure on me. I hope to help students after me.
Future Plans for Project: I hope to dismantle the Asian Minority Myth and I also hope to help AAPI students after me. I hope they understand the different issues in their own community and continue to build a network of community engagement.
