Scholar / Project
Major: Business
Project: Researching and learning for personal epistemology.
Inspiration: I would say many kids grow up participating in many different communities and as you advance in grade school many grade school kids might only focus on one thing so I want them to have a place that can allow them to talk and participate in many different forms of learning.
Future Goals: I hope to be able to boost self-confidence in individuals. I also want to create a place one day students can meet.
Major: International Business
Project: I’m passionate about creating practical housing solutions for the unhoused along with programs and resources that assist individuals with obtaining services that can be beneficial to helping them improve their lives. I believe that shelter is a basic human necessity and if we made housing accessible to all, we can decrease the amount of unhoused individuals and lift others from the brink of poverty.
Inspiration: I became inspired to solve housing issues affecting individuals living in poverty due to the rise of the unhoused population in the city and county of Denver. Witnessing the growth of homelessness change the face of the city, made me want to make a difference that would affect each and every resident.
Future Goals: I hope to engage the community of Denver and active city legislators to collaborate on initiatives that transform the housing opportunities for residents living in Denver regardless of their income and social status. Together we can improve not just the lives of the unhoused, but make our city one that provides opportunities to all.
Major: Accounting
Project: Increasing the resources available to Latino immigrants in general and finding ways to help them gain citizenship. I hope to assist them with any injustices they have experienced due to their legal status. I will also be focusing on researching the resources provided to first-generation and minority students.
Inspiration: My parents are immigrants who have sacrificed a lot to give my sisters and me a better future. I feel strongly about this social issue because the amount of hard work and determination that the Latino immigrant community puts into having a stable future deserves to be recognized. They should have the same rights as any other group of people.
Future Goals: I hope to make the Latino immigrant community feel seen and heard. Through my social impact work, I want to find at least a start towards justice for this community.
Major: Journalism
Project: Make a documentary to showcase the struggles that first-generation and undocumented students are faced with when going to college
Inspiration: Family
Future Plans: I hope to increase the support CSU gives its first generations and undocumented students.
Major: Cinema Studies with an emphasis on Production
Minor: Business
Project: Practically what I stated over on the top, doing a documentary and using the power of storytelling to be able to bring a community together. With a sense of belonging as well as connecting to points to hopefully bring about possible solutions to said problems.
Inspiration: Well I love movies, and I hope to become a filmmaker one day. Doing this project not only connects my passion but also focuses on areas of mental health and communities that I know struggle and come from similar backgrounds as me.
Future Plans: I hope to make an impact with storytelling, allowing people to heal.
Major: Business – Accounting and Operations Management
Project: My idea right now is trying to figure out a way to educate families and students specifically POCs on AP and concurrent enrollment classes. In order to increase the number of POCs that choose to further their education in college and how these classes can help them with that.
Inspiration: Growing up I had always chosen to take AP/Honors courses and in all those years I was usually one of the only POC in my classes and I didn’t notice it until about my senior year. And most of my peers didn’t take them because they were scared away by them being harder and counselors telling them that the regular classes would be easier for them. When in all reality they were not educated on the classes and how they could help them in the future.
Future Goals: I want to show POC students that they are worthy and just as capable as any other students to take those advanced courses and succeed in them. And I want families to have more education on the classes that their children are taking and the impact that they have on their futures.
Major: Business Analytics and Information Management
Project: During my time at Puksta, I want to continue working on the program I started in my hometown school district, “Habriendo Puertas,” which focuses not only on first-generation, minority students but also the parents. We try to keep parents in the loop as much as possible so that they don’t fall into a hole of fear and stop their kids from continuing their education.
Inspiration: What inspired me to choose this project was that I went through this and I know many people whose parents also felt like this. Towards the end of our senior year, we discovered that parents are usually more understanding of things when they know what’s going on as far as what college is about.
Future Plans: I hope to see more people of color attending big universities. Diverse and inclusive schools would make people feel more welcome and incentivize more people to attend.
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Project: For my Puksta Project, I am planning on mentoring students at a specific high school and providing seniors with college prep, advice, and resources on how to prepare for college. I especially want to help first-generation students and students from low-income households find scholarship opportunities available at their college of choice.
Inspiration: What inspired me to choose this project was thinking back to my senior year in high school and really wanting to attend a 4-year university. The only barrier I had, was being able to afford it. There were many resources provided by my school, but I would’ve never known, if I didn’t do the research myself. I know how difficult it is to make a college decision, so I want to make this process simpler for students who want to attend university.
Future Plans: I hope to increase the number of first-generation students in predominantly white universities and allow them to be an example for future generations. I also hope to lift some weight off student’s shoulders and reassure them throughout the college application process.
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.
Major: Music Performance & Music Education
Project: I don’t have a very specific goal. But with this opportunity I have been given, I will be more than grateful to be able to help somebody in need in any way possible.
Inspiration: I have seen how life-draining it can be to deal with an addiction and how much it affects not only the person but their peers.
Future Goals: Make someone feel like they’re supported like they have someone they can lean on when the world feels empty around them.
