CMC 2024 grads:

Higher education is all in the family for Leadville mom, children

By Mike McKibbin
Colorado Mountain College

April 17, 2024 – For Michelle Cox and her two adult children, receiving their Colorado Mountain College degrees and certificates at the same time "just happened."

"We didn't really plan it; it just worked out that way," said Cox, a fourth grade teacher at the Lake County Intermediate School in Leadville, where the family moved in 2011.

Cox will receive her Bachelor of Arts degree in education on Friday, May 3, at the CMC commencement ceremony in Leadville.

Her son, Damon, 18, will receive a welding certificate of proficiency in fabrication, after he earned a general welding certificate last year. Damon will also receive his high school diploma this year, thanks to taking courses through the CMC concurrent enrollment, or CEPA, program, where high school students take CMC college credit classes.

Michelle Cox's daughter, Kylie, 19, will receive an Associate of Arts degree from CMC. She also participated in CEPA.

All three will take part in commencement, where U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet will be the speaker.

Future plans

Cox said her son plans to continue welding work — "he really felt a passion for it thanks to concurrent enrollment" — while her daughter's future plans are currently undetermined.

Cox said she always wanted to be a teacher. She volunteered at her daughter's elementary school, was a substitute teacher, and was then hired as a full-time paraprofessional. She began teaching this school year.

Cox explored the CMC teacher education program before the COVID-19 pandemic but couldn't find the time to attend all her classes at night.

"Then, when the pandemic happened, I could take all my classes online, and it worked out well," she said.

A pathway to teaching

Brooke Carson, an associate professor of teacher education at CMC Breckenridge and Dillon, wrote in an email that Cox is completing her degree through the Teacher of Record pathway, which she called "one of the most difficult pathways."

"Most students do an internship year, otherwise known as student teaching, where they work with a tenured teacher who supports them as they take on more responsibilities in the classroom," Carson explained. "As a Teacher of Record, Michelle is a full-time teacher in her classroom. She has a mentor with whom she meets after school or during planning periods, but she is alone in the classroom."

Carson helps support Cox in the classroom and wrote she "is doing an outstanding job! Her students adore her, and she helps them make academic and social-emotional progress."

Carson noted Cox is also completing original research, reviewing the impacts of the "summer slide" on students' academic achievement.

Cox said she undertook the research after the Lake County School District went to a four-day school week.

"And our summers got shorter, so a lot of people really wanted to know what the effects might be on student education," she added.

Every Monday morning, Cox's students ask if she finished her CMC homework over the weekend.

"Some of them say they want to learn to teach, too," Cox stated. "I always tell them it's never too late to learn."