Undergraduate Students

Undergraduate Isabella Perrin named 2026 Cech Fellow

Rachel Sauer — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 23:12:39 +0000

Undergraduate Isabella Perrin named 2026 Cech Fellow Rachel Sauer Wed, 06/03/2026 - 17:12

The newly established fellowship, named in honor of �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Professor Thomas Cech, gives students opportunities for research, professional mentorship and career exploration

Isabella Perrin, a �鶹��Ѱ�� undergraduate student studying molecular, cellular and developmental biology and public health, has been selected as one of 176 inaugural Cech Fellows by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).

The fellowship, awarded to an inaugural cohort of undergraduates from 109 institutions in 36 states and territories, is named in honor of Nobel laureate Thomas Cech, a �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder distinguished professor of biochemistry, former HHMI president and current HHMI investigator.

The Cech Fellows will spend nine weeks this summer conducting hands-on research with HHMI scientists at universities and research institutions across the country, as well as at HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus in Virginia. They will contribute to research while receiving professional mentorship and exploring potential careers in biological and biomedical research.

"I’ve always believed that getting students into real research environments early is one of the most powerful things we can do for them and for science,” said Cech. “I’m deeply honored that this program carries my name, and I look forward to seeing what this first cohort of Fellows will go on to achieve.”

Leslie Vosshall, HHMI vice president and chief scientific officer, noted that a single summer in the right lab can kickstart a scientific career: “By asking real questions alongside scientists at the top of their fields, this year’s Cech Fellows will have the opportunity to see what a life in science actually looks like.”

Perrin, who is working with researchers at the University of California Berkeley this summer on immunology research about the pathways and mechanisms that relate to autoimmune and inflammatory disorders, has previously conducted RNA research with Robin Dowell, a professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, and Mary Ann Allen, a research associate professor with the BioFrontiers Institute.

“As a Cech Fellow, I’m honored and excited to join a diverse community with engaging and curiosity-filled science research,” Perrin said. “I value this opportunity not only to learn from mentors and peers about how to conduct meaningful research but also to engage in research that, at its core, is based in bettering individuals’ quality of life.

“I hope to learn and use new skills to contribute to the field in a rigorous manner, and to use a creative mindset to approach challenging questions. I love learning about the capabilities and quirks of the immune system and am thrilled to be a part of a lab that focuses on applying this work to human health conditions.”

Summer research experiences are “often where undergraduates discover their passion for scientific inquiry,” said Joshua Hall, HHMI lead senior director and scientific program officer at HHMI. “The Cech Fellows Program gives talented students direct access to some of the most exciting science happening anywhere in the country, and we’re thrilled to welcome this inaugural cohort.”

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The newly established fellowship, named in honor of �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Professor Thomas Cech, gives students opportunities for research, professional mentorship and career exploration.

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Live from the Octagon with Michel Jarjour

Rachel Sauer — Tue, 26 May 2026 18:48:54 +0000

Live from the Octagon with Michel Jarjour Rachel Sauer Tue, 05/26/2026 - 12:48

Kayleigh Wood

Undergraduate student balances passion for high-risk combat sports with neuroscience studies, aiming to make mixed martial arts safer for all fighters

Michel Jarjour knows what it’s like to love something that could hurt him. Even after years of avid mixed martial arts (MMA) fandom, the third-year undergraduate student at the �鶹��Ѱ�� still finds the UFC scary. “You look at these fights, and they’re getting kicked and punched to the head. It’s terrifying.”

Though an active participant himself in both Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Thai at the �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Rec Center, Jarjour insists that a career in professional fighting is off the table. “You’re putting your body through hell and back. You’re taking so much damage,” says Jarjour. “I’m not willing to give my life to that… My brain is a little important [to me].”

A junior on the pre-health track, Jarjour is pursuing a degree in neuroscience with minors in Spanish, sports media and biochemistry. He balances his studies and involvement in the Miramontes Arts and Sciences Program with his passion for high-risk combat sports, which he shares with listeners in a live monthly radio show on Radio 1190, Join the Octagon. “There is something so beautiful, something so adrenaline-based about the live commentary that I absolutely love,” he says.

Michel Jarjour is a rising senior on the pre-health track, pursuing a degree in neuroscience with minors in Spanish, sports media and biochemistry. (Photo: Michel Jarjour)

Beyond the octagon

Since Fall 2024, Jarjour’s radio show has covered main card, pay-per-view UFC events that occur roughly once a month. In January, the UFC removed traditional pay-per-view events and ended its partnership with ESPN, relocating its live broadcasts to the streaming service Paramount+. Jarjour shares that these changes have led to scheduling disruptions that have put Join the Octagon on a temporary pause. “It’s unfortunate,” he says, “and it’s also made me recognize that I want to do more with the Join the Octagon brand.”

Jarjour credits the leadership skills he has gained as director of �鶹��Ѱ��GOLD with helping him guide Join the Octagon in new, expanded directions. �鶹��Ѱ��GOLD, which stands for “Gaining Opportunities through Leadership Development,” is a free leadership development program that is open to all �鶹��Ѱ��students. Beyond events and conferences, the program provides both introductory and advanced leadership courses.

After leading a group of over fifteen people at �鶹��Ѱ��GOLD, Jarjour says he is confident that he can effectively manage a team and delegate tasks. With a recently assembled team of like-minded volunteers tackling everything from marketing to betting analysis to social media, an official Join the Octagon website is now under construction, and plans for a research-backed podcast are in the works.

With the new, extended platform, Jarjour strives explore UFC events through the lens of his others passions: “I would love to combine my love for neuroscience with my love for UFC and MMA, and the best way I’m going to that is either by have a conversation [and] putting it into the show, the podcast, the radio show, social media, whatever, and [then], by becoming a sports neurologist.”

'I want to become a sports neurologist'

The UFC, which was founded in 1993, is still a relatively new organization. For MMA fighters, medical practitioners and combat sports enthusiasts alike, growing fears parallel the growing awareness of the long-term effects of brain damage.

Jarjour, who has been tuned into the UFC for years, addresses the difficulty of watching a former MMA fighter’s health deteriorate in real time: “You can just tell [something is wrong by] the way they’re talking and acting, and it’s scary… UFC fans are seeing [the] news and are generally worried.”

As a sports neurologist, Jarjour says he hopes to help UFC fighters recover from persistent symptoms associated with traumatic brain injuries. While some medical doctors for the UFC serve ringside, making calls on whether a fighter is stable enough to compete and continue a fight, Jarjour stresses that his pursuits transcend octagon-side intervention.

“It’s not just a split-[second] decision that I want to make. It’s an ‘I want to be able to be in your life and help you out and make sure that you’re living a long and healthy life’ [kind of thing].”

Michel Jarjour rappels down the side of a skyscraper. (Photo: Michel Jarjour)

In addition to his interest in sports neurology, Jarjour is minoring in Spanish, with the hope of connecting with more of his patients on a deeper level: “I would love to be a Spanish-speaking doctor who can help not only English-speaking patients, but also immigrants from Hispanic countries and Latino countries, to be able to make them feel more comfortable throughout the entire medical process.”

While Jarjour says his interest in the medical field in general began in middle school, the choice to pursue higher education was solidified in the summer after his senior year of high school. In the middle of the night, he recounts waking up to a knock at the door and the sight of his distressed neighbor. “[I’d] never interacted with her in my life,” he says, “but she’s clearly in a state of panic, and she’s like, help. Please, help. My husband is on the ground, I have no idea what to do… so I go over to the house, call 911, make sure that he’s comforted, okay and breathing and all that.”

Around twelve hours after the paramedics arrived to take Jarjour’s neighbor to the hospital for treatment, Jarjour and his mom went to check in. He recounts that moment in the hospital: “I sit down with him and talk with him for a while, and I hear about his life story and the experience and all that. And then a few weeks later, I go to his house, and I find out that he's been consistently going to the hospital ever since that moment, and [he] told me that he trusted me more than the doctors that he's been going and talking to. And I told him, well, you still need to trust your doctors. I'm not a doctor. Don't listen to me entirely. Go listen to the medical professionals.

“But at the same time, there was something about that. He basically said that I'm taking the time to listen to him and connect with him and understand what he's going through, and the fact that he said that– [it] was the last, final pillar that I needed to reassure myself, especially before going into university, a big, pivotal moment of my life, it was the last pillar that reassured me that medicine was for me.”

A surge of adrenaline

In high school, Jarjour spent two years on the Arapaho Rescue Patrol, a team of volunteer high-school students that responds to emergency calls in the Front Range. While Jarjour says the patrol teaches very basic medical knowledge, on that night when his neighbor was in need, it was more than helpful.

“I found myself realizing consistently that the medical component of the patrol was one of, if not my favorite, part of the patrol,” says Jarjour. “I love the rescuing; I love the searching. I love the hiking and camping and all that. But the medical component was always what drew me in.”

Beyond helping others through medical intervention, he admits that he loves the adrenaline rush. “I think I’m a bit of an adrenaline junkie… Any time that [search and rescue] alarm goes off, you are just pumped with adrenaline, and it’s something I’ve always appreciated.”

Michel Jarjour (front, black cap) with colleagues recording a program for Radio 1190. (Photo: Michel Jarjour)

That ability to respond to pressure at a moment’s notice has been essential for his duties as an RA. In his experience, Jarjour has found that “a lot of people don’t like the ‘responding to incidents’ component of the position because it’s stressful, it’s tiring. You know, it could be the middle of the night, and you don’t want to be doing that.” Yet Jarjour says he appreciates the call to action: “I love [getting] the phone call… there’s something going on, please respond. I do appreciate that adrenaline rush. And, obviously, I want to make sure everyone’s safe. I’m not wishing for anyone’s downfall… I do like helping people out. It’s a very fundamental value of mine, just helping people out. And so, that’s what I’ve loved about the RA position–I’ve been able to do that.

“I’ve responded to poop on the floor, I’ve responded to residents vomiting, I’ve responded to people dead in the mountains. Especially since I want to be a doctor, I’m probably going to see the worst of the worst issues.”

'My love, my life, my hobby'

A key to navigating his very full calendar and the high-intensity situations to which he is drawn has been an awareness of and care for his mental health. “One thing that I tell people when they ask me (how I do it) is, find your Thing.” For Jarjour, the one activity that makes it all work for him is Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. “I’ve been doing it for 11 years of my life, and it is [the Thing]. It’s never going to end. I tell myself all the time,” says Jarjour, “Jiu-Jitsu is the one thing that I will do until the day I die. It’s my love, it’s my life, it’s my hobby.”

A hobby with risks…

At the age of 11, during a practice with the adult class, Jarjour learned how risky. “Someone rolled me, placed my hand on the mat, just [acting on] instincts, and crack, crack, crack.”

The aftermath was four broken fingers on his right hand, which he recalls were “floppy” and extremely painful. Yet, after about four months of healing, Jarjour was back in the gym with his parents’ full support: “I’ve just been a very athletic and energetic kid my entire life… [my parents] never really told me, like, hey, you’re not going back. They loved the community; they loved the gym.”

With support from his parents, Jarjour continued to immerse himself in Jiu-Jitsu: “The beauty of Jiu-Jitsu,” says Jarjour, “is that you think you learn it, you know a technique, and you know all there is behind one position and then boom, there’s about 700 million other techniques just for that one position alone. And then you find out there’s hundreds of positions that you can be in.” He likens the sport to a game of chess: “You have to be able to move your piece, know what each move could do, and at the same time, predict what your opponent’s going to do.”

These mental gymnastics happen every moment throughout a fight. Yet, within the confines of the controlled, regulated gym space, Jarjour finds the high-intensity sport relieving: “I’ve gone back through my middle school and high school years, [and] all that stress would have really put a toll on my mental health, as well as the fact that I’ve gone through traumatic events, tough moments with the patrols, for example, all of these super high-stress, impacting events. And the reason why I am able to sit in front of you right now, and [say], I’m more than okay and I’m happy in life is because I found my Thing.”

He adds that it may be the sport, it may be the community, it may be a blend between the two, “but I know for a fact that I will never leave that sport because of how much it’s impacted my life. I’ve walked into the gym, and I felt terrible. I’ve walked in saying I don’t want to go. I’ve walked in with tears in my eyes. I’ve walked in having experienced–I’ll get real with you for a second–a school shooting, and I’ve come out every time from those experiences feeling so much better.”

How does he do it?

In his own words, Michel Jarjour’s “system is systeming.” From hosting a radio show to directing �鶹��Ѱ��GOLD to peer mentoring for both the Miramontes Arts and Sciences Program (MASP) and the math department, not to mention responding to incidents around the clock as an RA and much, much more, it is fair to wonder if Jarjour sleeps at all. Here are just a few of the things that work for him:

Giving yourself grace

Jarjour stresses that comparison is unproductive: “Don’t compare yourself to me, and the reason I say that is because we all have different limitations. We all have our limits. We all have our aspirations, goals, values, etc., and that is a huge determinant on what you should be doing and how much you should be doing.”

Google Calendar

“People look at my Google Calendar and have a heart attack,” says Jarjour, and, yes, his Google Calendar is an explosion of overlapping color at seemingly all available hours of every single day, but it’s a system, it’s reliable and it works for him.

“It’s even like, if I literally just need to shoot [someone] an email, I will put it in my Google Calendar. [If] I need to call someone, put it in my Google Calendar… I have every single thing that I can possibly need to know in that Google Calendar, so that way, I’m always on top of it.”

ANDing

“ANDing is something that �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder actually taught me,” says Jarjour. “The whole concept of ANDing is that you literally take two things, or a couple of things that you’re passionate about, and you bridge the gap between those two. So, for me, that’s neuroscience slash medicine and sports, and that’s why I ANDed them together.”

Jarjour says that many people are already ANDing subconsciously, but finds “when you make it a known thing, you can actually go and seek it a little bit more. . . . Now I know that I can go do these things on a more consistent basis, and it’s allowed me to combine so many of my fields of study, my interests [and] my hobbies.”

Finding your “Thing,” finding a community

For Jarjour, training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is the key to managing his busy lifestyle. He urges others to find the “Thing” that makes it all worth it, one that is tailored to each individual’s personal interests. With so many ways to get involved, Jarjour says it would be impossible for him to champion a single program above the rest. Regardless, whether it’s all things media, music and entertainment at Radio 1190, or what he describes as “the most amazing, tight-knit community I’ve ever been a part of in �鶹��Ѱ��GOLD,” Jarjour remains adamant that mental health flourishes when individuals actively engage with their own communities, pursue personal interests and, as he puts it, find their Thing.

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Undergraduate student balances passion for high-risk combat sports with neuroscience studies, aiming to make mixed martial arts safer for all fighters.

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Top photo: Michel Jarjour leads a �鶹��Ѱ��GOLD activity. (Photo: Michel Jarjour)

Grad ponders the past and considers the future

Rachel Sauer — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 22:54:29 +0000

Grad ponders the past and considers the future Rachel Sauer Thu, 04/30/2026 - 16:54

Rachel Sauer

Abigail Verneuille, who is earning a BA in anthropology along with a GIS certificate, is honored as the Spring 2026 College of Arts and Sciences outstanding graduate

In the summer of 2024, following her sophomore year as a �鶹��Ѱ�� anthropology major, Abigail Verneuille signed up for archaeological field school in the Velarde Valley of northern New Mexico.

The area is stunning with its boundless sky and mosaic of mesas, but summers there are intense—arid and scorchingly hot, plus dusty and buggy.

“We were sleeping on the floor for a month, and despite that and the heat, all the dirt, the bugs, everything, I just had the best time of my life,” she says. “I loved everything about it.”

Abigail Verneuille (third from left), the Spring 2026 College of Arts and Sciences outstanding graduate, with (left to right) Dean of Arts and Humanities John-Michael Rivera, Dean of Social Sciences Sarah Jackson, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Daryl Maeda, Dean of Natural Sciences Irene Blair and Interim Associate Dean for Student Success Jennifer Fitzgerald.

Before that summer, she had indistinct ideas about her path following college, but after it she knew that she wanted a career in archaeology and directed the rest of her undergraduate education toward that goal—earning a certificate in geographic information systems (GIS) and computational science and writing a thesis aiming to predict past streamflow heights of the Rio Grande River to identify years of agricultural instability.

In recognition of her innovative research, academic excellence and dedicated work, Verneuille has been named the Spring 2026 College of Arts and Sciences outstanding graduate.

“Verneuille’s perfect academic record tells only part of the story, as she has taken courses ranging from humanities to women and gender studies to biological anthropology to math to astronomy to geographic information systems to computational science, and she has received straight A’s in all of them!” wrote Scott Ortman, professor of anthropology, in recommending her. “She has also conducted archaeological field research in North Macedonia and participated in the anthropology department’s archaeology field school in northern New Mexico. Her honors thesis project emerged from that experience.

“What stands out about Abby’s thesis is not just its organization, clarity and technical sophistication, but the fact that the work is of such significance in its field.”

Hiking into the backcountry

Because the kind of archaeology she wants to do is outdoors and sometimes miles down a dirt road, it helps that Verneuille has always loved to be outside. Growing up in Tennessee, she spent a lot of time hiking and exploring—activities she continued when she moved to Boulder for college.

She majored in anthropology and minored in women and gender studies, which allowed her to study themes of religion and ritual that dovetailed with her archaeological research. She discovered her academic passion, though, near the tiny community of Estaca, New Mexico, where she and her research colleagues opened four two-meter-by-one-meter rectangles in which they found artifacts that helped describe the people who lived in that area before and after Spanish colonialism.

Another project on which she worked was documenting petroglyphs with the Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project. “There would be days where we’d hike an hour and a half into the backcountry and spend eight hours recording petroglyphs, then hike an hour and a half back up this mesa, and that was just the most fun I’ve ever had in my life,” Verneuille says.

In talking with archaeologists from other universities, though, she realized at field school that she would need technical expertise to accompany her hands-in-the-dirt skills, so in Fall 2024 she began pursuing her GIS and computational science certificate. “For that, you’re required to take a semester of statistics in R Studio and then two semesters of coding in Python, and I’d never really thought of myself as a computer kind of person, but I got thrown straight into it,” she says.

“But once I got into the actual mapping classes, the spatial analytics, all the remote sensing, that’s when I thought, ‘Wow, this is amazing, I love this.’”

Abigail Verneuille working at an archaeological field site in northern New Mexico. (Photo: Abigail Verneuille)

Amazing work, amazing people

For her thesis, Verneuille sought to tackle a 100-year-old mystery in U.S. Southwest archaeology: When Pueblo ancestors migrated from the Four Corners region into the Rio Grande Valley in the 13th century, why did they initially settle away from the main courses of the Rio Grande and Rio Chama, where most of the water was, only to gravitate toward the rivers about 100 years later?

Verneuille combined river flow data from the Embudo gauge, the oldest river gauge in the United States, with weather-station data and tree-ring data reflecting precipitation and temperature from the headwaters of the Rio Grande to essentially “predict the past” and understand June flood risk from the present back to 1200 A.D.

Abigail Verneuille conducts land surveys in northern New Mexico for her archaeological research. (Photo: Abigail Verneuille)

Transitions visible in her model corresponded with the end of a phenomenon called the Medieval Climate Anomaly, an unusually warm and wet period worldwide.

“In a final stroke of brilliance, Verneuille not only showed that this reduction in June flood risk corresponds in time to the concentration of population along the main river channels, but she also considers how Pueblo ancestors would have interpreted this change in the environment by considering depictions of water serpent beings in rock art of the area,” Ortman wrote. “Her work shows that climate change can improve local environments for humans in counterintuitive ways, and that there is a connection between the practical and the spiritual with regard to human adaptation to the environment.”

She notes that while the physical work of archaeology was fascinating, she equally loved the community-building aspect of it, working with people who live in the area and whose ancestors were the Tewa-speaking people she was studying. In March, she and several colleagues gave a presentation to residents in the area on what their research had revealed about things like diet and socioeconomic differences of the people who lived in that area hundreds of years ago.

“They were gracious enough to welcome us into their home, so everyone sat around the dining room table and we had a little projector,” Verneuille says. “This is their livelihood, their community, so they had a lot of questions, and it was such a rewarding experience to see how the technical side of academic work has real-life impacts.”

It’s work that she hopes to continue doing after she graduates Saturday, and she has applied for a field technician position with cultural resource management firms. She also is aiming for graduate school in the next five years to continue her archaeology studies.

“It’s amazing work and the most amazing community of people,” she says, “and one that I’d love to continue being a part of.”

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Abigail Verneuille, who is earning a BA in anthropology along with a GIS certificate, is honored as the Spring 2026 College of Arts and Sciences outstanding graduate.

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As a new space race takes shape, a �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder class asks: Do we understand China?

Rachel Sauer — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 17:16:14 +0000

As a new space race takes shape, a �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder class asks: Do we understand China? Rachel Sauer Wed, 04/29/2026 - 11:16

'China's Space Dream,' ASIA 4100, brings aerospace engineers, Chinese language students and international affairs majors into one room—and a visiting journalist from the South China Morning Post into the conversation

Days after Artemis II splashed down in the Pacific, returning four astronauts from the first crewed voyage beyond low Earth orbit in more than half a century, a science journalist who has spent years reporting on China's space program from inside its scientific institutions sat down with a �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder classroom full of students who had been tracking the same story from the outside.

The conversation that followed put the American triumph in a wider frame. When the International Space Station was being designed in the 1990s, China had little to offer a partnership even if one had been on the table. Three decades later, the country operates its own permanently crewed space station, has returned the first-ever samples from the far side of the Moon, and is on track to bring back the first Martian soil before the United States does. The students, aerospace engineering majors sitting next to Chinese language and civilizations majors, history students alongside international affairs specialists, already knew these facts. What they wanted from Ling Xin was something harder to find out, what does this moment look like from the other side of the space race?

ASIA 4100, “China’s Space Dream: Long March to the Moon and Beyond,” is a course developed through the support of �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s interdisciplinary Space Minor and taught by Lauren Collins, a teaching assistant professor and director of the Asian Studies program in the Center for Asian Studies. Now in its second iteration, the class will be offered again in spring 2027.

Collins designed the course around an observation that kept surfacing in her own work. US-China space competition is one of the defining dynamics of a shifting world order, but the people who understand the engineering often lack the cultural and historical context, and the people who study China often aren’t following the technical developments.

Four astronauts aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft atop the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket launch on the agency’s Artemis II test flight, Wednesday, April 1, from Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Photo: NASA)

“The mix in the classroom is the whole point,” Collins said. “Aerospace and astronomy students know something about orbital mechanics and mission design. Chinese language and civilizations students know something about political culture and history. International affairs students understand geopolitics. But the interconnectedness across all of those domains is what surprises everyone, including me.”

The course weaves together Chinese culture, history, geopolitical contexts, and the race to the Moon as it unfolds in real time. Students study the origins of China’s space program, the role of the “space dream” in Chinese national identity, the Wolf Amendment that bars NASA from bilateral cooperation with China, the military dimensions of space technology, and the case for collaboration.

“Warfare and military applications are clearly an issue,” Collins said. “But the need to collaborate is so key, too. We’re talking about planetary challenges that affect all of us like climate monitoring, asteroid deflection, space debris, deep-space science. These issues don’t respect national borders.”

Learning from a visiting journalist

Ling Xin’s visit to the class came through the Conference on World Affairs classroom visit program, which pairs CWA speakers with �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder courses during conference week. The 78th annual CWA, running April 13–16, featured more than 60 speakers across 50 panels at the Limelight Hotel Boulder and across campus.

For Collins, the match was ideal. Ling Xin is one of a small number of journalists working in English who can draw on firsthand access to Chinese scientific institutions, fluency in Mandarin, and formal journalism training in the United States. A former writer for the Chinese Academy of Sciences, she holds a master’s degree in journalism from Ohio University and has published in Science, Scientific American, Nature, and MIT Technology Review. She has reported extensively on China’s Chang’e lunar missions, the Tiangong space station, and the movement of Chinese scientists between US and Chinese institutions, a phenomenon known as the “reverse brain drain”.

“Having a journalist like Ling Xin in the classroom is a different experience from reading an article,” Collins said. “She can tell students what Chinese space scientists actually say when a reporter asks them about the competition with NASA”.

The timing of the visit was perfect. Artemis II had splashed down on April 10 after a successful nine-day circumlunar flight, making astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency mission specialist Jeremy Hansen the first humans to fly past the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. Koch became the first woman to travel beyond low Earth orbit. The mission was a triumph (and a relief) after many delays.

But even as the Artemis II crew was being celebrated, the competitive landscape was shifting beneath the surface. NASA announced in February that the first crewed lunar landing has been pushed from Artemis III to Artemis IV, now targeted for 2028. The Lunar Gateway station was cancelled. And Congress effectively killed NASA’s Mars Sample Return program in the FY2026 spending bill, leaving nearly 30 carefully collected sample tubes sitting in Mars’s Jezero Crater with no funded plan to bring them home.

"Let's Go to the Moon!" by Yuko Shimizu

Accelerating push to space

China, meanwhile, is accelerating. Its Tianwen-3 Mars sample return mission is targeted for launch in 2028, with samples expected back on Earth around 2031. If NASA doesn’t revive its own program, China will likely become the first nation to return Martian soil, a milestone with enormous scientific and symbolic weight. These debates are a key substance of class discussion.

“When you put an aerospace engineering student and a Chinese civilizations student in the same conversation about whether or not space should be treated as a global commons, you get an analysis that neither of them could produce alone,” Collins said. “Knowledge is co-created.”

The Wolf Amendment, a congressional provision renewed annually since 2011 that bars NASA from bilateral activities with Chinese space agencies, is a recurring thread in the course. The policy, which effectively excluded China from the International Space Station partnership, is widely credited with accelerating China’s independent development of the Tiangong station, the Long March 5 rocket family, and the full suite of crewed spaceflight technology that now positions the country as NASA’s primary competitor.

In 2026 alone, China plans to launch two crewed missions to Tiangong, including its first year-long stay, and host a Pakistani astronaut, the station’s first international crew member. The Chang’e-7 lunar probe, targeting the Moon’s south pole to search for water ice, is scheduled to launch later this year. A crewed lunar landing is targeted before 2030.

Collins also brings science fiction into the classroom to explore the cultural dimensions of space ambition. The global success of Liu Cixin’s “Three-Body Problem” trilogy has made Chinese science fiction a shared cultural reference point that crosses national and disciplinary boundaries. “Science fiction adds a layer that unites all of us,” Collins said. “These are universal concerns about what technology is doing to human civilization, especially now in the age of AI.”

The course is one of several electives offered through �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s Space Minor, a campus-wide program open to students regardless of major that provides an interdisciplinary foundation in all aspects of space. The minor, part of �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s Grand Challenge initiative, requires five courses: the foundational “Pathway to Space” and four electives drawn from departments across the university, ranging from aerospace engineering to music to environmental design.

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder has a singular claim on the subject. The university is the only academic institution in the world to have sent instruments to every planet in the solar system and Pluto, and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics has been a leader in space research since 1948.

“This university has extraordinary depth in the technical side of space,” Collins said. “What the Space Minor makes possible is courses like mine that bring the human dimensions like culture, history, geopolitics, and collaboration into the same conversation. That’s what students will need to navigate a world where the US and China are building competing lunar bases and competing for leadership in the space economy.”

ASIA 4100, “China’s Space Dream: Long March to the Moon and Beyond,” will next be offered in spring 2027. The course is open to all �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder students and counts toward the Space Minor.

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Top illustration: A Chinese flag added to famed photo of astronaut James Irwin on the moon. (Original photo: NASA)

Finishing what she started

Rachel Sauer — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 23:20:41 +0000

Finishing what she started Rachel Sauer Thu, 04/23/2026 - 17:20

Bradley Worrell

Against the odds, �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder student Valeria Mendoza Frutos prepares to graduate in May, thanks in part to the Division of Continuing Education’s Finish What You Started program

As Valeria Mendoza Frutos approaches graduation day in May, excitement mixes with a twinge of uncertainty.

“It’s a little scary,” she admits. “Actually facing the reality that I’m going to be done with school in a month—I don’t know what’s going to happen after.”

It’s a feeling many graduating college students likely share, but for Mendoza Frutos, getting to the finish line didn’t follow a traditional, linear route. Instead, by her own account, it’s been a journey marked by stops and starts, academic setbacks and personal loss, but also one ultimately shaped by resilience and the realization that it’s OK to ask for help.

For Valeria Mendoza Frutos, the road to graduation next month had been a journey marked by stops and starts, academic setbacks and personal loss, but also one ultimately shaped by resilience and the realization that it’s OK to ask for help.

Feeling out of place: college, COVID and self-doubt

Mendoza Frutos first arrived at the �鶹��Ѱ�� in Fall 2020—during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her introduction to college life was different than what she had imagined. Most classes were taught remotely, she and other students were housed in hotel rooms rather than dorms and the sense of community she hoped to find was largely absent.

“It was a very weird semester,” she recalls. “Most of my classes were online and everything just felt off.”

What’s more, after graduating from KIPP Northeast Leadership Academy, a small, tightknit high school in northeast Denver with a graduating class of about 80 students—many of whom were Hispanic—the transition to a large, predominantly white institution felt overwhelming at times.

“I felt like I didn’t belong,” she says. “Being Hispanic and surrounded by mostly white students was a huge change for me. There was that voice in my head telling me, ‘You don’t belong here.’”

That sense of not belonging followed her into the classroom. Even when professors encouraged participation, Mendoza Frutos says she struggled with self-confidence. “They would always say ‘there is no such thing as a dumb question,’ but I never believed that,” she says.

Outside of school, Mendoza Frutos’s life was equally complicated. After her first year at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder, she decided to move back home and commute to college. A self-described “mom’s girl,” she was deeply involved in helping raise her younger siblings while her mother worked.

“People laugh,” she says, “but I tell my mom I see her more like my partner, because I was the one at home helping raise my brother and sister.”

Family demands, financial pressures, the challenges of balancing work and school and the stress of commuting all weighed heavily upon her, and her grades suffered, leading to academic probation. Then came a devastating personal loss: the death of her beloved grandmother in 2022.

“I just lost it,” she says. “I was going through a lot and that was the semester I had all Fs.”

As grief took its toll, Mendoza Frutos stepped away from college altogether. For nearly a year, she wasn’t sure she would ever return.

“I think in my head I was like, ‘I’ll go back one day,’” she says, ‘but it took a lot for me to understand that I needed help.”

‘It’s OK to accept help’

That help arrived unexpectedly in early 2024, when Mendoza Frutos received an email from Ann Herrmann, program manager and advisor for Finish What You Started, a federal initiative designed to support students who paused their education and wanted to return that was administered at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder by the Division of Continuing Education. Herrmann had reviewed Mendoza Frutos’s academic profile and reached out with a simple but powerful message: Help was available.

Valeria Mendoza Frutos (center, white dress) with her family.

“At first, I wasn’t sure,” Mendoza Frutos recalls. “But we met and I told her everything I had been through. She didn’t judge me; she just helped me figure out a path forward.”

Herrmann helped Mendoza Frutos withdraw from classes she previously started but had not completed, which were hurting her GPA, and worked with her to rebuild a realistic academic plan. Soon after, Mendoza Frutos was paired with Michelle Pagnani, a senior academic and career coach for Finish What You Started.

Although hesitant at first—“I kind of ghosted her a few times,” Mendoza Frutos admits, but adds that Pagnani’s persistence made the difference. “She was always calling me, like, ‘Hey, when do you want to reschedule?’”

Over time, the relationship grew into one of trust and encouragement. “Now me and Michelle and me and Ann have a really good bond,” she adds.

With their guidance, Mendoza Frutos returned to school step by step—starting with summer classes, then fall, then continuing forward. If coursework ever became overwhelming or life intervened, she says Pagnani and Herrmann were there to offer assistance. And for the first time, she says, she felt supported not just academically, but personally.

“I realized it’s OK to accept help,” she says. “It doesn’t make you less than; it just makes your journey easier. That’s what the program did for me.

“Being a first-generation college student made it harder. I didn’t really have anyone guiding me before, but Ann and Michelle gave me the support I needed.”

Advancing in school and at work

While rebuilding her academic life, Mendoza Frutos was also building her career. In February 2024, she began working as an intake specialist for the Frank Azar law practice, fielding calls from clients and potential clients, after connecting with the company at a LinkedIn job fair.

Mendoza Frutos says the work required accuracy, empathy and strong communication skills. She says her bilingual skills became an asset almost immediately, as being able to connect with Spanish-speaking clients helped the firm respond faster and build trust.

�鶹��Ѱ��Complete

As Finish What You Started winds down, its success is informing a redesigned and expanded effort: �鶹��Ѱ��Complete. This successor program aims to carry forward the most effective elements of FWYS while creating a longer-term, institutionally funded model for degree completion.

Learn more

Despite juggling a full-time job with a demanding courseload, her dedication stood out. The firm closely tracks performance metrics including contracts sent, follow-through and client satisfaction—all of which she excelled in. As a result, after about a year on the job, Mendoza Frutos was promoted to the role of investigator, which she attributes to her strong work ethic.

“I’m very dedicated and passionate when I like something—and I really enjoy my job. I like learning and there’s always something new to learn at work,” she says. “This job feels very fulfilling.”

Equally important was how her employer supported her as a student—something she had not experienced before. Mendoza Frutos says she left a previous job after it would not accommodate her schedule once she planned to return to campus to complete her degree.

When she asked her current employer if they could temporarily reduce her work hours so she could concentrate on finishing college, they accommodated her, she says, adding that flexibility has allowed her to succeed in both school and work.

Today, Mendoza Frutos is completing a degree in Spanish for health professions, with a certificate in health resilience. For now, she plans to continue working for the law firm after graduation, where she sees opportunity for growth and advancement.

At the same time, the idea of attending law school—once unimaginable—now feels possible. That shift came during a quiet moment with Pagnani, who once casually guided Mendoza Frutos into the Wolf Law Building under the guise of taking a campus walk.

“I didn’t finish alone. And now I know—I don’t have to do everything by myself.”

“She didn’t tell me her plan,” Mendoza Frutos says, laughing. “But standing there, getting information, I realized that someone outside my family believes I could do this.”

For a first-generation student who once felt invisible, that belief mattered.

“It made me very emotional,” she says. “It was like, damn—you really do care about me.”

Looking ahead: moving forward

In May, Mendoza Frutos will walk across the graduation stage with family in attendance, including relatives traveling from Texas. Her mother is even planning a graduation party. It will mark not just the completion of a degree, but a journey defined by resilience, growth and the power of support.

Looking back, Mendoza Frutos is clear about one thing: Without Finish What You Started, she would not be graduating. “If it wasn’t for that email, I wouldn’t be here.”

There are many beneficial programs on campus, Mendoza Frutos notes, but it’s the people behind them that make the difference. “I’m very lucky to have Ann and Michelle,” she says. “They really care.”

As she looks toward the future—continuing in her career and possibly pursuing law school one day—Mendoza Frutos carries a hard-won lesson.

“I didn’t finish alone,” she says. “And now I know—I don’t have to do everything by myself.”

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Against the odds, �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder student Valeria Mendoza Frutos prepares to graduate in May, thanks in part to the Division of Continuing Education’s Finish What You Started program.

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All photos courtesy Valeria Mendoza Frutos

Colorado AG advises Quantum Scholars to be curious in changing times

Rachel Sauer — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 19:31:40 +0000

Colorado AG advises Quantum Scholars to be curious in changing times Rachel Sauer Wed, 04/22/2026 - 13:31

Rachel Sauer

Attorney General Phil Weiser spoke to Quantum Scholars Tuesday, emphasizing the need for critical thinking in a time when ‘our capacity to govern ourselves is now being undermined by the technologies that we need to govern’

In a roomful of Quantum Scholars, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser began his remarks in the 1860s.

As the students in the room are now, people living then passed through a time of world-changing technological advancement. Then, it was the railroad and telegraph, which fundamentally altered people’s conception of distance, Weiser said.

Today, “we're too close to it to have a full grasp of the changes that are happening in our society, in our economy, but they are profound,” he said. “We're coming off of this transformation of the internet that all of you have grown up with, swimming in the water, whereas Noah (Finkelstein) and I lived in a pre-internet world.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser speaks to Quantum Scholars Tuesday afternoon.

“We know how this world is different, but none of us fully knows how quantum and AI and other emerging technologies will pose yet another transformation. And one of the challenges of this moment that's a little different than even 1860 is our capacity to govern ourselves is now being undermined by the technologies that we need to govern.”

Weiser’s remarks came during a guest lecture Tuesday afternoon to members of Quantum Scholars, a program conceived in the �鶹��Ѱ�� Department of Physics and the College of Engineering and Applied Science (CEAS) that offers undergraduate students opportunities to learn about the quantum field, including connections with local industry leaders and introduction to new quantum technology.

The Quantum Scholars program includes undergraduates studying physics, mathematics, engineering and computer science and aims to advance quantum education and workforce development through professional development, co-curricular activities and industrial engagement.

Finkelstein, a distinguished professor of physics who co-directs Quantum Scholars with Professor of Distinction Michael Ritzwoller, noted in his introduction of Weiser that while researchers and innovators in the quantum field have studied its past and keenly look toward the future, “we haven't had folks on policy yet. It turns out that's going to be the third leg of advancing quantum sciences and sciences in general.”

‘How do I know this is true?’

Weiser, who is dean emeritus of the �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Law School and an adjunct faculty member, noted that “one of the embarrassments of this moment is how deeply dysfunctional and non-responsive national public policy-making institutions are. When you think about social media, when you think about AI, when you think about quantum, there are all sorts of opportunities, there are all sorts of challenges, and we don't have the institutions to meet them.”

He gave as an example Anthropic’s Mythos AI model, which can both detect and exploit software vulnerabilities, and which the company hasn’t released because of threats it could pose to global cybersecurity.

“There are a couple of possible scenarios there,” Weiser said. “One is that they're really good at marketing, and they want to make sure that every single bank and other institution uses the product first to protect it from the product. Could be.

“Or, they're actually trying to be socially responsible, knowing that there's no national governing framework or body that can help manage cybersecurity harms.”

When Weiser worked in the Obama White House in 2009-2010, he and his colleagues were beginning to talk about the challenges of cybersecurity, and how the challenges of technology governance are quite different than the challenges of rural agriculture governance or urban industrialization governance “because technology of the age we're now living in moves so fast,” he said.

Distinguished Professor Noah Finkelstein (right) greets Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser (left) before Weiser's talk to Quantum Scholars Tuesday afternoon.

“And sadly, we have a government that's unable to come to terms with this, raising the question, ‘How are we going to govern ourselves in this age?’ You've heard lots of people say things like AI can be as dangerous as nuclear weapons, and we came up with international governing institutions to deal with the threat of nuclear weapons. We may well need some to deal with the challenges and threats of AI. Are we up to that challenge right now?”

In that vein, Saksham Hassanandani, a first-year student majoring in mathematics, asked what he can do to “help and advocate for such changes? And especially if I end up in an industry . . . that may not care for the ethics. What can we do as people to fight for this change?”

Weiser mentioned that he and his team are currently suing Meta for the design of social media—"they designed a product in a way that they knew was harming people,” he said—but nevertheless encouraged Hassanandani and his fellow Quantum Scholars not to “take as a steady state that the company you're going to work for is acting in a way that's unethical. I would start with an aspiration that you're going to be working for a company who cares about its customers, who treats its workers fairly and who thinks about society.”

Should that not be the case, Weiser advised them to be clear on their own ethical boundaries and whether they are willing to advocate internally for change and “ethical capitalism.”

Related to concerns about technology ethics, Grace Kallberg, a third-year student majoring in aerospace engineering, mentioned the growing threat of AI generating misinformation. She asked, “Is there anything that we can do as individuals to kind of help combat that?”

“Everyone here has an extraordinary opportunity as a citizen to think long and hard, and to help others think long and hard, on the following question: How do I know this is true?” Weiser replied. “You are swimming in information that is shared or, as you put it, AI generated in ways that we may not know whether it's true or not. And that is a fundamentally different position than the world that I grew up in. I grew up in a world that had editors who reviewed information before I got to it. You're not in that world.

“And so, what you can all do is wrestle with the challenge that you and others have: How do I know this is true? And then make that discipline part of your habits of mind.”

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All photos by Patrick Campbell/�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder

College of Arts and Sciences names 2026 Van Ek Scholars

Rachel Sauer — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 17:18:26 +0000

College of Arts and Sciences names 2026 Van Ek Scholars Rachel Sauer Wed, 04/15/2026 - 11:18

Twenty-six students receive one of the college’s most prestigious honors, recognized for their exemplary academic achievement and meaningful contributions to the campus and broader community

The College of Arts and Sciences has awarded the Jacob Van Ek Scholarship—one of the college’s highest honors—to 26 outstanding undergraduates.

Named in honor of Jacob Van Ek (1896–1999), the award commemorates his remarkable contributions to the university. Van Ek joined �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder in 1925 as a young assistant professor shortly after earning his doctorate from what is now Iowa State University. Within three years, he rose to the rank of full professor and, by 1929, was appointed dean of the College of Liberal Arts—a role he held until 1959.

The following students are this year’s Jakob Van Ek Scholar Award recipients:

Ray Anchordoquy: physics
Ben Braun: physics
Carlos Carale: neuroscience
Monique Castaneda: political science/Japanese
Chelsea Elliott: speech, language and hearing sciences
Elizabeth Ervin: dance/integrative physiology
Amelia Gandhi: astrophysics and planetary sciences/geological sciences
Rachel Gaydos: speech, language and hearing sciences
Katherine Grisak: international affairs
Gianna Guido: Spanish/political science
Nadine Huseby: anthropology
PiperJo Jones: biochemistry/anthropology
M Jordan: anthropology
Deven Kukreja: political science/Japanese
Aris Larson: integrative physiology
Shea Musson: speech, language and hearing sciences
Jessica Nesbit: integrative physiology
Emmalyn Nono: neuroscience/linguistics/Chinese
Julia Renz: molecular, cellular and developmental biology/psychology/neuroscience
Soren Rollin: geological sciences/anthropology
Samuel Ruzzene: integrative physiology
Alexander Scholpp: economics, international affairs
Dhruv Seth: neuroscience
Annika Stephan: biochemistry
Piper Tocco: humanities/secondary education
Tvishi Yendamuri: biochemistry
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Twenty-six students receive one of the college’s most prestigious honors, recognized for their exemplary academic achievement and meaningful contributions to the campus and broader community.

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Can concussions cause fear of movement?

Rachel Sauer — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 17:12:43 +0000

Can concussions cause fear of movement? Rachel Sauer Wed, 03/18/2026 - 11:12

Alexandra Phelps

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder neuroscience student Alexander Wiegman’s research finds that a history of concussions doesn’t necessarily lead to later kinesiophobia

Stadium lights stream over the field. It’s Friday night, and over the course of the football game touchdowns have been scored, penalty flags have flown and countless plays have been run. However, on the next play, something goes awry. A player is down on the field and they’re helped to the medical tent. Upon further observation, medics diagnose a concussion.

In sports, injury is always a possibility. A misstep or collision can cause an athlete to need a period of recovery, changing not only their physical health but also their relationship with movement. For Alexander Wiegman, a former football player and an undergraduate �鶹��Ѱ�� neuroscience student, a similar reality became personal and, later, scientific.

Alexander Wiegman, a former football player and an undergraduate �鶹��Ѱ�� neuroscience student, studies how concussions can lead to kinesiophobia, a debilitating fear of movement that usually results from an injury or re-injury.

Wiegman’s recently published research in the journal Brain Injury examines how concussions can lead to kinesiophobia, a debilitating fear of movement that usually results from an injury or re-injury.

Individuals who’ve experienced kinesiophobia, a fear of movement due to the possibility of pain, can have decreased physical activity levels, stemming from the fear and hesitancy of activity. Research such as Wiegman’s, which looks into the mental recovery from a concussion, seeks to predict which patients are more likely to develop severe kinesiophobia. Building a broader understanding of the mental effects of concussions can help providers to optimize care and provide recommendations for how individuals can recover from kinesiophobia.

Working with Dr. David Howell, Dr. Julie Wilson and the team of researchers in the Colorado Concussion Research Laboratory (CCRL) at the University of Colorado Anschutz, Wiegman initially predicted that if a patient experienced a lower initial symptom severity as well as a lower number of prior concussions, they would have lower kinesiophobia scores. However, the research findings suggested the opposite.

From the field to the lab

Wiegman played football for as long as he can remember, and like many athletes, he experienced injuries, including concussions. Even after going through his recovery care with the help of a concussion specialist, he was still unsure about moving his body again. This fear inspired him to begin his research.

As an undergraduate, he has had an opportunity to bring his experience with concussion care full circle. Working alongside his co-researchers, Wiegman transformed his initial experience with concussions into a hypothesis. He notes that he was allowed “to take the reins with my project. We began by discussing my experience with concussions because I've been through it. The fear of movement and the fear of getting back to activity is something that I really struggled with.

“I was always a math and science person, and by the time I got to high school, I knew I wanted to study something in that realm. But by the time I got to college, I knew I wanted to go into medicine.”

Understanding the fear of movement

Kinesiophobia is a response that has been documented across many types of injuries, though it's been less studied in people diagnosed with concussions. With numerous injuries, kinesiophobia can contribute to other symptoms even after the injury itself has healed. Understanding kinesiophobia is important because it can affect the severity of initial injuries, including concussions. A patient’s quality of life and recovery times are all aspects that can be impacted.

To better understand this gap in kinesiophobia research with concussions, Wiegman collaborated with CCRL researchers. Participants completed one assessment within 21 days of their injury and another between 30 and 90 days post-concussion.

“It is possible that individuals who have experiences with prior injuries understand the recovery process and have developed resilience against the negative aspects of fear of movement,” says �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder researcher Alexander Wiegman. (Photo: John Torcasio/Unsplash)

From a clinical perspective, "the first thing you think about is getting someone physically healthy," Wiegman explains, adding that he and his co-researchers examined "the broader idea of mental health after concussions" in an attempt to enhance the care that can be provided after a concussion. Wiegman and his research colleagues looked at the period post-concussion because typically this is when the physical injury has recovered. Focusing on this window of time allowed them to better understand how patients were recovering both physically and mentally from their injury.

What looking under the hood revealed

Contrary to Wiegman’s hypothesis that patients who had a more extensive injury history would exhibit more severe kinesiophobia, these patients actually displayed less-severe kinesiophobia.

However, after analyzing patient data, Wiegman concluded that those who had previously recovered from injuries were less fearful in moving their body again. “It is possible that individuals who have experiences with prior injuries understand the recovery process and have developed resilience against the negative aspects of fear of movement,” he says.

The research found that there was no evidence to suggest that age, sex, or prior concussions were independently associated with kinesiophobia. Wiegman concluded that prior injury and the experience of recovery may be one of the most influential factors in how a patient may or may not develop kinesiophobia.

Looking ahead

As a senior, Wiegman is pursuing a route to medical school. Interning as an athletic trainer with �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s track and football teams, as well as working as a phlebotomist, he’s had hands-on experience with athletes and their injuries. As Wiegman was completing his research and defending his senior thesis, he also studied for and took the MCAT.

Wiegman hopes to learn more about the relationship between kinesiophobia and concussions. “In my mind, I wanted to find some definitiveness, especially with this being intended to be used in a clinical setting; I really wanted to have the answer,” he says. “It was hard to wrap my head around [the fact] that we have data, but we don’t have an answer per se.” He explains that this research is a step in the right direction and hopes to continue on to further research of kinesiophobia and other mental health disparities following concussions.

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�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder neuroscience student Alexander Wiegman’s research finds that a history of concussions doesn’t necessarily lead to later kinesiophobia.

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Top photo: John Torcasio/Unsplash

New minor spans disciplines in studying climate science

Rachel Sauer — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 21:39:09 +0000

New minor spans disciplines in studying climate science Rachel Sauer Mon, 02/23/2026 - 14:39

The interdisciplinary climate science minor, available in Fall 2026, will allow students to capitalize on �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s role as a leader in climate research

A new College of Arts and Sciences minor available in Fall 2026 will allow students to study the defining global, environmental, social and political issues of our time across disciplines and departments.

The interdisciplinary climate science minor capitalizes on the �鶹��Ѱ��’s place at the vanguard of research, innovation and action—with internationally recognized programs, institutes and departments.

Classes in the interdisciplinary climate science minor span the natural sciences, giving students a broad foundation in understanding how Earth’s climate works, evolves and influences other aspects of the planet and society. Students will receive deep exposure to the science of climate and broader understanding of the complexities of climate change.

“Climate change is perhaps the defining global environmental, social and political issue of our time,” says Bradley Markle, an assistant professor of geological sciences and faculty fellow in the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research.“The climate system consists of the interactions between the atmosphere, the oceans, the land surface, the biosphere, the cryosphere and the energy the planet receives from the sun. The climate knows nothing of departments, or majors, or any of the other distinctions we impose upon studying the world. An interdisciplinary approach is not just advantageous, but essential, to understanding this system. With this new minor �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder provides our students a path to connect and inter-tangle the world class learning opportunities that already exist within our college.”

Majors and Minors Fair

Learn more about College of Arts and Sciences departments and their majors, minors and certificates at the Majors and Minors Fair!

When: 12-3:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 26

Where: University Memorial Center ballroom

Who: All students, faculty and staff are invited

Learn more

Students pursuing the minor will select from a course menu that encompasses astrophysical and planetary sciences, atmospheric and oceanic sciences, applied math, Earth science, ecology and evolutionary biology, environmental studies, geography and physics. They will pursue a total of 18 credits in classes broadly grouped as air and water; ice, land and past climate; the impact of climate on Earth’s environment; quantitative methods; and climate impacts and solutions.

Courses include:

Arctic Climate System
Oceanography
The Cryosphere: Earth’s Icy Environments
Paleoclimatology
Mountain Ecology and Conservation
The Art and Strategy of Science Communication
Climate Politics and Policy
Global Geographies: Societies, Places, Connections

“From this new minor a student can expect to gain both a deep and a broad understanding of Earth’s climate,” says Robert Anderson, a distinguished professor of geological sciences and faculty fellow in the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. “They will develop knowledge of the physical mechanisms of climate, gain an appreciation for the web of connections between the atmosphere, ocean, land and biosphere that make up the climate, and learn about the intricacies of modern climate change within the context of past climates on Earth. This background will uniquely position our minors to tackle the challenges that our changing climate poses in the future, and indeed sets the intellectual context for exploration of climates of our planetary neighbors.”

Students pursuing the interdisciplinary climate science minor will be able to connect with students and faculty across campus who share a similar passion for climate science. They also will be able to build connections with research labs through tours and potential internships at NOAA, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. National Science Foundation Ice Core Facility. They also will be able to apply to participate in the Juneau Icefield Research Program, an eight-week summer field school in earth and climate sciences.

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The interdisciplinary climate science minor, available in Fall 2026, will allow students to capitalize on �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s role as a leader in climate research.

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Students nurture a heart to give back

Rachel Sauer — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 14:30:00 +0000

Students nurture a heart to give back Rachel Sauer Fri, 11/21/2025 - 07:30

Rachel Sauer

Undergraduate students Josiah Gordon and Miles Woods formed a nonprofit to provide scholarships for students at their former high school, determined to make positive change in their community

Josiah Gordon and Miles Woods have been friends since kindergarten. They know each other’s families, have been in and out of each other’s Denver homes and can communicate in a shorthand that comes only with knowing someone that long.

They played on some of the same basketball and Arapaho Youth League football teams, had many of the same teachers at Highline Academy and moved on to Thomas Jefferson High School with similar attitudes toward education: Eh, it’s fine.

“I understood (education) was really important because my parents harped on it, but I couldn’t really say I enjoyed it,” Woods says.

Josiah Gordon (left) and Miles Woods (right) are �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder pre-med students majoring in integrative physiology and participating in the Miramontes Arts and Sciences Program. Last year, they decided to raise money for scholarships for students at their alma mater high school.

“For me,” Gordon adds, “when I was younger it was not stressed. I come from a low-income family, but as Miles and I were growing up and our moms were getting to know each other, I was picking up a little bit on that emphasis on education.”

The COVID year changed everything. It was a reset button for both of them, helping them connect with their faith, giving them a bigger-picture perspective on what they want their lives to be and making them realize they really needed to get serious about school.

Fast forward several years, and they’re both pre-med students majoring in integrative physiology at the �鶹��Ѱ��. Both are also part of the Miramontes Arts and Sciences Program and both focused on goals that are big enough to motivate hard work but not so big that they’re out of reach.

They also know, however, that the future can’t happen without everything that came before it, so last year they hatched an idea to help students at their former high school who see the value of higher education but aren’t sure how to pay for it.

In 2024, the two undergraduates with no previous experience doing anything like this started the Hem of Hope Foundation—originally called Manum Dare, which means “to lend a hand” in Latin—to fundraise and award scholarships to students at Thomas Jefferson High School.

“Senior year, I think I applied to something like 26 different scholarships—everything I could find,” Gordon says. “For me, that was the start of this—just going to school with our peers, a lot of individuals who wanted to go to college and worked hard but just couldn’t make it happen financially. I think we just have a heart to give back and do what we can to help.”

Learning to love learning

Both will admit, though, that the path to this point has been winding, and they didn’t always care this much about education. Woods had the example of his mother, who was the first in her family to go to graduate school—she’s an attorney—and his father, who was the first in his family to go to college. They emphasized education to Woods and his sister, who recently graduated the University of California at Berkeley, and to Gordon when he visited the Woods’ home. The message took a little while to sink in.

“I wouldn’t say I was a bad kid by any means,” Gordon recalls, “but I was definitely not a teacher’s pet. I gave my teachers a little trouble growing up, and that’s common in young boys. I just didn’t like school. I would say it wasn’t until I got to high school that I started to take things a little bit more seriously. Plus, I had little more autonomy with choice for classes, and that made a difference.”

They took a human anatomy class together, which planted a seed: “It was like, wow, this stuff is pretty cool,” Gordon says, so he tucked the thought away for future reference.

Miles Woods (second from left) and Josiah Gordon (right) with the two Thomas Jefferson High School students to whom they gave scholarships for which they fundraised. (Photo: Josiah Gordon)

“We were learning about the body in a way that’s really applicable,” Woods adds. “Sometimes I’d be sitting in class like, why am I learning this? Sitting in algebra or whatever, it could get kind of boring. But in that class, it was really interesting, really immersive, and it got me thinking about the body and thinking ‘Oh, that’s how that works.’ I remember one day (the teacher) was teaching us about tattoos and why they are permanent and how they stay in the body, and thinking that was so interesting.”

Both young men were also chasing dreams of playing college basketball, but things worked out how they were supposed to work out, Woods says. He originally committed to play basketball at another Colorado school, but the arrangement fell through a few weeks before the deadline to accept his admission to �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder.

Meanwhile, Gordon broke his foot during his senior year, but because he’d applied for so many scholarships, he was able to pursue an academics-based path rather than a basketball-based one.

“We’d been planning to go our separate ways and chase the hoop dream, but then here we both were at Boulder,” Woods says. Gordon declared pre-med from the beginning, but it took Woods a semester of studying business to know for sure that medicine was his path.

‘Let’s just try’

In Summer 2024, Gordon and Woods participated in Startup Summer through the �鶹��Ѱ��Law School, a 16-week program that supports students in entering the world of startups, innovation and emerging companies. The program helps students come up with business ideas, work on pitches, partner with mentors in the business world and, at the end of the program, pitch a business proposal to a room of investors.

They had some business ideas and even developed one as far as the pitch stage, but their thoughts kept returning to the idea they’d had in high school, from which they were only a year removed.

“We kept thinking about our close friends who couldn’t make it to college because they couldn’t afford it,” Gordon explains, so they thought: What if, instead of a business, they started a nonprofit?

It was an audacious thought for people still in their teens, but they’d spent the summer in rooms with great business minds, people who’d started incredibly successful companies, and they’d soaked up the lessons.

“We thought, why not do it now?” Gordon says. “Let’s just try to raise a little bit of money and give it to someone at our alma mater.”

Josiah Gordon (striped shirt) reads to children at an elementary school in the neighborhood where he grew up. He and Miles Woods (not pictured) are active community volunteers in addition to scholarship fundraisers. (Photo: Josiah Gordon)

Their initial goal was to raise $1,000, so they established a GoFundMe, promoted what they were doing on social media and harnessed the power of word of mouth. A day and a half after they started, they’d raised $2,000. Not long after, a web developer who’d seen what they were doing offered to build them a website. Other Thomas Jefferson alumni contacted them and offered support, including former NFL player Derrick Martin, who gave them a shout-out on social media.

They figured they should get serious about the nonprofit, so Brad Bernthal, then-director of the Startup Summer and an associate professor of law, put them in touch with law students who helped them create a 501(c)(3) as Manum Dare, later renamed Hem of Hope.

They established scholarship criteria—a 3.25 GPA and involvement in extracurricular activities among them—and developed an application on their website, which included an essay. Gordon’s mother helped them read the essays, and in the spring they selected two $1,000 scholarship recipients.

“It’s definitely kind of rough knowing you can’t help everybody how you want to, but I think you can find solace in the fact you’re helping somebody, and the little bit you can do right now for someone is better than not doing anything,” Woods says. “I think that’s the stance you have to take.”

Bring positive change

Since awarding the first two scholarships, they have renamed the foundation Hem of Hope to reflect their faith, established a board, brought on �鶹��Ѱ��School of Medicine student Sandra Appiah as a community impact ambassador and are exploring opportunities for mentorship and community collaboration. They’re also discussing fundraising strategies for next year’s scholarships.

“We’ve been thinking of bake sales, maybe a 5K,” Woods says. “Now that we have a 501(c)(3), we’re hoping to find businesses to partner with on grants.”

Gordon adds that they’ve talked with representatives from other nonprofits, who have given them advice on grant writing, fundraising and community outreach.

They balance this with being third-year students in a demanding major, volunteering as practice players for the �鶹��Ѱ��women’s basketball team and planning for MCATs, medical school applications and graduation.

“Just being on the pre-med track itself is tough, but I think the way we grew up and some of our values definitely pay off,” Gordon says. “We don’t party; we don’t go out to the Hill or anything like that, so that gives us extra time. The analogy that pops in my brain is a see-saw: You’re not ever really going to be perfectly balanced, but I think that act of teetering is a kind of balance itself, kind of learning and establishing a good routine.

“And it’s important to us. You make time for the things that are important to you, and we want to bring positive change to our community.”

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Undergraduate students Josiah Gordon and Miles Woods formed a nonprofit to provide scholarships for students at their former high school, determined to make positive change in their community.

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Top image: Miles Woods (left) and Josiah Gordon (right) at the spring scholarship presentation. (Photo: Josiah Gordon)

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