Photo provided by Mike Shum ’07

By Alexa Gromko

CC is pleased to announce that acclaimed independent filmmaker and journalist Mike Shum ’07 will deliver the keynote address at the 2025 Commencement Ceremony on Sunday, May 18, at Ed Robson Arena.

A distinguished storyteller known for his powerful documentaries and in-depth journalism, Shum has reported from around the world, covering critical social and political issues. His work has been featured in major media outlets including PBS, The New York Times, and National Geographic, earning him recognition for his compelling and thought-provoking narratives.

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Photo provided by EmRhys Jenkins ’26

By Zara Zafar ’27

In a remarkable achievement that speaks to their exceptional dedication to community service and social justice, CC’s EmRhys Jenkins ’26 has been named one of this year’s recipients of the prestigious Campus Compact Student Leadership Award. This national recognition celebrates Jenkins’s outstanding contributions to civic engagement and their tireless efforts to address homelessness in the Colorado Springs community.

As the founder of Allies of Unhoused Youth at CC, Jenkins has transformed their personal experiences with homelessness into a powerful force for change. Their organization works closely with The Place, a local homeless shelter, creating vital connections between campus resources and community needs. “The Place and my freshman year roommate, Melanie Robertson, have been my catalysts that drive me,” Jenkins reflects, acknowledging the crucial role that both engagement with community organizations and personal relationships have played in their journey.

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Dr. Katlin Okamoto ’07. Photo provided by Okamoto.

By Megan Clancy ’07

As a student at CC, Dr. Katlin Okamoto ’07 was the prime example of a CC student-athlete. She was a leading member of the Women’s Soccer team, serving as captain her senior year, and majored in Biology and minored in Asian Studies. She was also a member of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee, serving as Secretary and Co-President respectively in her final two years, and participated in multiple campus activities and Intramural sports. When she graduated, she wasn’t exactly sure what she wanted to do, but she knew sports, and soccer specifically, would be involved.

“I knew I was still interested in sport and it all looped back to my own experience as a young person growing up in Taos, NM. My interaction with the sport over time was pretty unique,” says Okamoto. “I always thought I’d be back in kinesiology. That was sort of my path. But I ended up in a social work program that had an embedded youth work program.”

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Save the Date for Monday, Mar. 24 from 11:15 a.m.-noon in Kathryn Mohrman Theatre for the rescheduled Sonderman Presidential Symposium event with Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist Wesley Lowery, “Building a Multiracial Democracy.”

In the 1960s, the Civil Rights marchers in Selma created a multiracial democracy. For the first time in American history, democratic participation was not limited based on racial caste. In the half-century since, our nation has grappled with what it wants to be. Do we want to embrace our newfound status as a multiracial democracy, or do we want to return to a racial caste system as we were for most of our history? Lowery will speak on the work of building a multiracial democracy amid the rise of nativism and racial division, looking at the unique tensions of this moment and how they correspond with similar periods throughout American history.  

Wesley Lowery is one of the nation’s leading reporters on issues of race and justice. He is the executive editor of The Investigative Reporting Workshop, a journalist-in-residence at the CUNY Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, and a contributing editor at The Marshall Project. He began his career covering politics, but was sent to Ferguson, MO in 2014 to cover the police killing of Michael Brown for the Washington Post. In the years since, he’s chronicled the early years of the Black Lives Matter movement, writing a bestselling book and launching Fatal Force, a Pulitzer-Prize-winning real-time national database of people shot and killed by the police. 

This event is sponsored by CC’s Department of Political Science, and is the final event in the 2024 Sondermann Presidential Symposium: Democracy in This Moment. Thank you to the Fred A. Sondermann Memorial Fund, Marianne Lannon Lopat Memorial Lecture Fund, and McHugh Fund for their generous support of this event. For more information, visit our webpage. 

Video by Ray Bailey

Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed: The Rock Experience, running through Sunday, Mar. 20, is a hit! A rock ‘n roll parable with a significant message for today’s audiences, based on the hit children’s book by Mo Willems, Wilbur and all his fellow naked mole rats in the Tunnel have always been, well… naked. Wondering what other possibilities are out there, Wilbur discovers a love for clothing and style. When word of his new passion turns the Tunnel upside down, he proves to everyone that there’s no need to be just like everyone else. Tickets start at $18, and CC students get free tickets the day of the performance!

Luca Zoeller ’27 plays bass outside Packard Hall for Music at Midday on Wednesday, Feb. 5. Photo by Jamie Cotten

Join us on Tuesday, Apr. 8, from noon – 1:15 p.m. in Gaylord Hall in Worner for the next faculty lunch. Faculty and staff are invited to attend Assistant Professor of Physics Adam Light’s talk, “Tabletop Plasma for Environmental Remediation and Student Research Agency.”

In this talk, Light will give an overview of work relevant to remediation of contaminated water funded by the National Science Foundation, and highlight student-led projects in fungal inhibition, fast high-voltage switching, interferometry, adhesion, circuit development, and more.

Non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasma, or “cold plasma,” is ionized gas that can produce active chemical species at the surface of a material on demand and without significant heating. These discharges drive energetic processes efficiently and produce useful outcomes in contexts as different as wound care, nanoparticle generation, hazardous waste disposal, and textile modifications. Learn more about this event.

Lunch will be provided. Please register by Tuesday, Apr. 2.

Please join us for the next Work of the College Series event, an informative session about the Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) Department. Learn how EHS is committed to supporting CC in maintaining safe, healthy, and sustainable environments for everyone. From offering resources to help navigate government regulations and policies to offering individual and group classes, audits, and consultations, EHS focuses on meeting these needs and more across campuss

This session will be held in Gaylord Hall from 2 –3 p.m. on Wednesday, Apr. 2 with Luke Scott, Environmental Health and Safety Coordinator. Please register in advance. For more information on the series or to check out the schedule of events for this academic year please visit Work of the College Series.

The Work of the College Series is a year-long program of events with four goals: (1) clarify organizational structures and decision-making processes; (2) offer campus constituencies the opportunity to dialogue with leadership about campus affairs; (3) increase decision-making transparency in hopes of building trust; and (4) build community.

The Work of the College Series consists of:

We are committed to creating a culture of care at CC, and providing multiple avenues for employees to access mental health services is a priority of ours. Human Resources and Health & Wellness have collaborated to pilot a free telehealth mental health service specifically for employees for one year.

Starting today, Wednesday, Mar. 12, all faculty and staff, including part-time and non-benefits eligible employees, can access UWill through their website or app. On this platform you will have access to a 24/7 crisis line, six free scheduled visits with a mental health provider, and a suite of wellness activities and programming. We encourage you to create your account or download the app now so that it’s easily available to you if you need it.

We will be measuring the success of this pilot program through engagement and utilization data provided from UWill. This data will not include any identifying information and will be used to determine if this service is useful.

UWill is in addition to the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) that is available to all employees and dependents, and the mental health coverage offered through CC’s Cigna plan. 

We value all our faculty and staff and recognize that, when we care for ourselves, we are creating a strong community where we can thrive. 

Please direct any question to Cameron Martin or Janelle Taylor.

In good health,

Director, Total Rewards

Assistant Vice President, Wellness

FAQ’s:

Q: Can dependents use UWill?
A: No, UWill is available only to CC employees.

Q: What if I need more than six visits?
A: Your provider will assist you with insurance billing or with referring you to a provider in Colorado Springs. You are also welcome to use the EAP to find a local provider to continue with or use the benefits available through Cigna.

Q: What if I leave CC?
A: We recognize that leaving CC, for any reason, is an important life change. Employees who leave CC will maintain access to UWill for 90 days post-employment to help ease this transition.

Are you passionate about making a difference in the world? The African American Youth Leadership Conference (AAYLC) is awarding up to $2,000 to a student who is involved in curricular or co-curricular activities related to the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals — from climate action and social justice to quality education and beyond.

If you’re doing work that drives change, we want to hear from you! The winner will be recognized at Honors Convocation on Tuesday, May 6.

Awarded funds can be used to:

The deadline to apply is Friday, April 4. The winning applicant will be notified by email the week of April 14.

To apply, complete the application. Be prepared to upload:

We look forward to reviewing your project! Please contact Sam Heim with any questions or concerns.

In January, we sent an email asking the campus community to submit events for the 2025-26 AY by the end of March. The deadline is fast approaching!

Last year, we received a great response which allowed us to support all events more effectively, create a categorization system, and reduce conflicting and overlapping events. As a reminder, events will now be placed in the following five categories:

*Subcategories exist within each category allowing us to effectively provide support where needed.

Please take a look at what your plans will be for the upcoming year, and submit your events in Momentus, the campus scheduling system, for the 2025-26 AY by Monday, Mar. 31. If you have an event with over 100 attendees and don’t submit the event by March 31, you will need to get approval from the College Events Operational Group (CEOG) to host the event. The CEOG will review requests at their monthly meetings.

Thank you for your collaboration in making the upcoming academic year a success!