Navy Petty Officer Surprises Mom by Appearing at Her Graduation

The bear hug between the mom in a cap and gown and son in Navy fatigues went on for more than a minute. Zac Drake, stationed in Japan, hadn’t seen his mother, Beth Rozinek, in 18 months.

He surprised her by flying in for her graduation. Spring Commencement took place Saturday morning under sunny skies on the Auraria Fields. More than 1,900 University of Colorado Denver graduates, many of them non-traditional students like Rozinek, received degrees.

Petty Officer Drake stood at the edge of the crowd and beamed as his mom’s name was read over the loudspeaker. “Granted, I was way in the back, but I could still see her on the giant TV up there,” he said. “I’m extremely proud.”

After the ceremony, Rozinek’s other three sons, her husband, mother and other relatives watched as Drake appeared from behind a row of port-a-pottis. She was speechless. All she could do was embrace him in long hug.

“Overwhelmed. Excited. Happy,” she said. “It’s overwhelming whenever I see him. I can’t even explain it. It just brings everything out. And here with all of his brothers, it’s just so important to all of us.”

The officer kept his plans a secret, but a snafu at the Chicago airport almost unraveled the plot. Going through security, his computer was inadvertently picked up by another traveler. Upon discovering the mistake, the person contacted the last person Drake had emailed — his mother. So even though Rozinek learned that Zac was in the States, he covered his tracks by saying he’d been sent to his new station in Virginia a couple weeks early.

Asked if she had any idea that her 26-year-old Navy son was going to show up in Denver, Rozinek said, “There were some clues, but then it was like ‘no’ and then it was like ‘maybe,’ then it was like ‘no.’”

She said that earning a bachelor of science degree in business administration at age 50 is “pretty surreal.” Rozinek, who already had an associate’s degree, began her journey toward a bachelor’s five years ago. In her first class at CU Denver was a student who had graduated with Drake at Fort Lupton High School.

“You find out in today’s day and age that even if you know what you’re doing, even if you have experience, they want a piece of paper saying you know what you’re doing,” Rozinek said. “Working full time, (going back to school) was hard. But it is gratifying that I can now say, ‘OK, I have the experience and I have this (degree).”

Drake said his mother spent all her time raising her family. “I’m so proud of her,” he said. “Dealing with kids, school, work — trying to get it all in. I don’t have any words to express how happy I am for her.”

Rozinek’s mother, Kathy Dorris, said she suspected her grandson might pull off a surprise at commencement. “I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d gone to give her the diploma up there,” she said. “I was half expecting him to pull off something like that.”

In other graduate news, Denver City Councilman Christopher Herndon, also a non-traditional student, earned a master of public administration degree from CU Denver on Saturday.

Rozinek said she’d like to work in human resources, explaining benefit plans to employees. Her immediate plans are just to spend time with her family.

“It’s a journey and a struggle,” she said. “Especially as an older student, going back and saying, ‘Oh my gosh, I haven’t done this in so long.’ It’s very different than it was (the first time). But it’s been a great learning experience.”

Three alumni received special awards:
Alumni Mack Easton Award — Gedeon LaFarge: A 1985 graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder and a 1990 graduate of the University of Colorado Denver’s master of architecture program, Gedeon LaFarge has provided outstanding voluntary contributions and service to the Denver Campus, particularly over the past 15 years.

An active and supportive member of the CU Denver Alumni Association, he served two terms on its board from 1998 through 2012, playing a vital role in the organization’s success. He worked on several committees and held the chair, vice president and president positions for the association. He served on the University of Colorado Foundation Board of Trustees as alumni liaison from 2010 to 2012, and in 2007 was named outstanding volunteer of the alumni association.

A licensed architect and founder of LaFarge Architects, LLC, LaFarge has lent his professional expertise to CU Denver’s College of Architecture and Planning for a number of years. He and his wife established the LaFarge Endowment for Technology and Architectural Education Fund for instruction on building technology in the College of Architecture and Planning.

Alumni Legislative Award — Crisanta Duran: Since 2011, State Rep. Crisanta Duran has worked to advance higher education in Colorado, and the Auraria Campus and CU Denver in particular.

Rep. Duran has served on the Judiciary, State Veterans & Military Affairs and Legislative Council committees in the state’s General Assembly. She currently serves on the Appropriations and the Joint Budget Committees. As a member of the Joint Budget Committee, Rep. Duran supported the supplemental 2013 budget request to bring additional funding to higher education institutions. Rep. Duran agreed to fund the Auraria Campus’ controlled maintenance projects during the 2013 session, including sprinkler installation and Americans with Disabilities Act improvements to the Tenth Street Pedestrian Corridor. She also strongly advocated for $4 million for the Auraria Library renovation project, which passed successfully, and she sponsored the ASSET legislation, the measure making undocumented students eligible for resident tuition rates at state colleges and universities.

This year, she backed HB 13-1001, the Advanced Industries Acceleration Act, which includes biosciences funding for higher education research institutions. She also supported SB 13-133, Distribution of State Share of Limited Gaming Revenues, which designates another source of funding for innovative research grants at higher education research institutions.

At age 30, Rep. Duran became the youngest Latina ever elected to the Colorado House of Representatives, with more than 76 percent of the votes.

Alumni Recognition Award — Karen Sugar: Karen Sugar founded the Women’s Global Empowerment Fund (WGEF) to open doors for women in northern Uganda. Through microfinance loans and education programs, the fund creates opportunities while strengthening families and communities. It seeks to offer women the leadership skills and empowerment required to lead successful, dignified lives.

A 2008 graduate of CU Denver with an MA in political science, Sugar began creating her nonprofit organization and microfinance model while still in school — developing ideas into projects for her courses, hiring local staff in Uganda, and implementing the pilot project. She crafted her program based on existing research on microfinance and after talking to a number of experts in the field.

Several aspects of WGEF make it stand out from other grassroots microfinance projects. It provides a social and political dimension, focusing on literacy, leadership development and health initiatives. It also includes a peer counseling program that works with borrower groups who are having difficulties.

To repay the support she received from CU Denver, Sugar has also sponsored numerous CU Denver interns working with WGEF, giving them a chance to learn about development, Africa and what it’s like to run an international nongovernmental organization. In addition, she continues to come back to lecture and share her experiences with students.

(Photo at top: Graduate Beth Rozinek, left, stands with her son, Zac Drake, at CU Denver’s Spring Commencement on Saturday, May 18.)

Major Gift Will Establish Scholarships, Continue Legacy of Shaka Franklin Foundation

For nearly a quarter century, Les and Marianne Franklin, through their Shaka Franklin Foundation for Youth, have devoted substantial efforts and resources to helping underserved Metro Denver youth develop self-esteem, life skills and the goal of pursuing higher education.

The Franklins’ goals will outlive them at the University of Colorado Denver, where they are making gifts that will establish three endowed scholarships and programs for at-risk youth that extend the Shaka Franklin Foundation’s mission of mentorship, character-building and suicide prevention.

The Franklins intend their CU Denver commitment to ultimately total $1.5 million (pending the sale of two properties whose proceeds will fund this gift). Wednesday Les and Marianne (a University of Colorado Foundation trustee) made a first payment toward this gift.

“We’ve seen so many young people who didn’t think they would go to college. Nobody ever encouraged them to do anything,” Les Franklin says. “Our life’s work is about saving our children, loving our children. What the University of Colorado brings to this state and to the community is so important. We didn’t go to CU, but this is our community, our city. And we want people to know that our work continues.”

Underscoring the Franklins’ focus on local, at-risk youth, the three Shaka Franklin Foundation for Youth scholarships will be designated for Denver-area students who might fall through the cracks of traditional scholarship awards—students with B-/C+ grade point averages who could not otherwise afford tuition, and who are willing to mentor adolescents in similar circumstances. This sort of scholarship might once have gone to Les Franklin, who as a schoolboy had a D average but went on to become an executive at IBM.

Each scholarship (for students in one of two schools, the Business School or the School of Education & Human Development) will be named in honor of three regional trailblazers whose civil-rights efforts have been meaningful to the Franklins: Rachel Noel, Evie Dennis and James Ward. A goal is for the Franklin Scholarships to cover, in conjunction with other need-based grants, 100 percent of a student’s tuition need.

“The work of Les and Marianne Franklin has given hope to thousands of children throughout Colorado, and has saved many lives,” says Donald Elliman, CU Denver chancellor. “We’re honored that they have chosen CU Denver as the place to further their goals, and we are grateful that these scholarships and programs will open doors for promising youth going forward.”

When the program is fully developed, the Franklins’ support will provide the seed for opportunity breakfasts, guest speakers, pre-collegiate workshops, service awards and business partnerships, all consistent with the Shaka Franklin Foundation for Youth’s long-time mission.

The Franklins started the Foundation in 1990 to address the problem of youth suicide, and were motivated to do so after the teen suicide of Les’s first son, Shaka. Colorado’s suicide rate is sixth among U.S. states.

A popular community resource for youth in east Denver, the Shaka Franklin Foundation has provided positive alternatives and activities for adolescents (ice hockey is a particular passion for Les), and has endured even through the subsequent suicide of another son, Jamon. Though in recent years the Shaka Franklin Foundation has maintained a lower profile, the gift will give the Franklins’ youth-empowerment efforts a boost.

“I was a business major, and we’ve managed our foundation like we managed a business,” Les says. “It is a business—the business of saving lives.”

The Franklins’ gift is one of more than 275,000 gifts made during Creating Futures, a $1.5 billion fundraising campaign to enhance University of Colorado education, research, outreach and health programs benefiting citizens throughout and beyond Colorado. Visit cufund.org for more information.

Business School Professor Earns IBM Faculty Award

DENVER – Dr. Michael Mannino, Associate Professor of Information Systems and Co-Director of the CSIS PhD Program at the University of Colorado Denver Business School has recently won a prestigious IBM Faculty Award. The IBM Faculty Awards is a competitive worldwide program intended to 1) foster collaboration between researchers at leading universities worldwide and those in IBM research, development, and services organizations and 2) promote courseware and curriculum innovation to stimulate growth in disciplines and geographies that are strategic to IBM.

This award is highly competitive, and recognizes the quality of the Information Systems program at the CU Denver Business School and its importance to the industry. Dr. Mannino and his colleagues Michael Kahn, Director of Clinical Informatics at Children’s Hospital Colorado, and Lisa Shilling, Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Colorado Denver, will use the award to conduct research that could better integrate administrative and clinical data used in health care, leading to improved medical outcomes and reduced costs of care.

Their project, titled “Improving Reliability of Data Analytics for Multi-site, Multi-Source Electronic Health Records: Imputing Missing Values for Record Linking” will study the impact of missing data on patient records from various sources. By providing a system to improve the completeness of patient records, the project will help to improve patient care, healthcare research, and quality of service by healthcare providers.

For more information about the project, contact Michael Mannino: Michael.mannino@ucdenver.edu.

For more information about the award program, visit the IBM Faculty Award page.

Recent Graduate Makes Scholarship Gift to IS Program at CU Denver Business School

DENVER- May 10, 2013 – Four months after graduating from the University of Colorado Denver Business School in December 2012 with a degree in Information Systems, Steve Golter established the program’s first named scholarship fund. The Steve Golter Scholarship Fund will help recruit and retain top students in the Information Systems program.

The Information Systems program has been a dynamic resource for talent and innovation in the Denver business and technology communities. Each year the program graduates over100 graduate and undergraduate students that go on to work in Colorado businesses, tech companies, and establish new startup companies.

“The program was life changing for me. As a recent graduate I wanted to give back and inspire others to a career in information technology and computer networking,” said Steve Golter, CEO of Scendent.

The Information Systems program addresses a critical need for talent in the IT industry. In a recent survey by Robert Half Technology, 69% of Chief Information Officers (CIO’s) in Denver said it is challenging to find skilled talent. Graduates of the program will help fill this space and expand the talent pool for entrepreneurship and businesses in Colorado.

“The Steve Golter Scholarship Fund will have a significant impact on the Business School’s ability to attract and retain well qualified students who are continuing their education,” said Dr. Jahangir Karimi, Professor and Director the Information Systems program.

Steve Golter is CEO of Scendent, an IT company specializing in computer networking, system security, and business system management. For more information, please visit www.scendent.com

Danielle Worthman talks about her experience at Celebration of Success

Story from Danielle Worthman, Scholarship Student, CU Denver Business School

Meeting with Senator Simpson was beyond thrilling! I have never been able to engage so fully with tax reform and fiscal change. However, he offered up many words of wisdom, including, “What goes up must come down. Do not ever make the mistake of getting too full of yourself”. This is what I enjoyed most, his willingness to share advice that can be translated into any career field and applied widely throughout life.

As a whole, the evening was thoroughly wonderful from start to finish. Being able to speak and dine with the presidents and employees of companies I so much admire was an opportunity for which I will forever be grateful. My presentation to the guests regarding the importance of scholarships was more positively received than I could have ever dreamed. From the elegant reception to the flawless dinner and engaging speakers, it was a night I will always remember.