A student, an advisor – now a BSBA graduate

June 16, 2020 By cmctestgenesis

A student, an advisor – now a BSBA graduate

Residential advisors at Colorado Mountain College are mentors to students, providing peer-to-peer guidance while living on campus.

After working through numerous career changes, Dakota Roark is graduating from CMC Spring Valley with a bachelor's degree in business administration.

Dakota Roark perfected the role of the RA in his six years at the residence halls at CMC Spring Valley. He graduated May 15 with a Bachelor of Science in business administration, though that was not always his major. First drawn to study education, and then possibly to develop a career in the field, he worked with CMC staff to develop his degree path.

“Lisa Runck [CMC Spring Valley associate dean for student affairs] helped talk me through the 18-plus career changes that I worked through while here,” he said.

He is also grateful for Alisha Maes, CMC Spring Valley director of student life and housing, who he said “was my boss, mentor and friend throughout my entire time as an RA at CMC.”

Roark said he especially appreciated the connections he made with faculty while he studied at CMC Spring Valley. Even if he only had one class with one professor one semester, those connections remained.

“CMC has changed who I am for the better, and I am excited to tackle the future with the skills that I have learned here,” Roark said.

Dave & Christine Ayers: It All Began at CMC

July 31, 2017 By wpengine

I was one of Christine’s outdoor leaders on the Mountain O trip. She had just moved out from Connecticut to begin college at CMC. I am from the Roaring Fork Valley and was a “multi-year” student at CMC when we met. We both felt a friendship connection on that trip as we did with most of our trip members. It was a few months into the school year that our friendship began to deepen.

In addition to her other studies, Christine also became an outdoor leader. For the next two years, CMC became the foundation to not only our relationship but it fostered our love and understanding of our natural and wild places.

Bob Kelley, Gary Zabel, Jay Zarr, and Len Trusedale were all incredibly influential and highly talented teachers and mentors to both of us. These staff members showed they were at CMC because they LOVED what they taught and it showed in their classes and actions. It is because of these individuals, educational stewards, that Christine and myself developed such an intrinsic passion for science and wild places.

We finish our studies at CMC and both enrolled and began classes at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Christine began her pursuit of a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology, and I embarked on a path that would lead to a bachelor’s degree in exercise and sport science with an emphasis on sports medicine.

During the summer break, Christine became involved with the Student Conservation Association (SCA) and she landed a summer internship with the Ranger Naturalists of Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana. This became a regular summer gig for her except it mutated into a paid seasonal position with the National Park Service as a Ranger Naturalist.

I remained in Fort Collins for the most part, except for the occasional 2,000 mile round trip to visit her in Glacier! But during one of my summertime rambles around Fort Collins, I came upon a home brew supply store and wandered in. The home brewing bug bit me, hard! Soon I was home brewing almost every weekend. In Christine’s words “stinking up the entire apartment!”

I was fortunate enough to land a job at a small microbrewery in Fort Collins, the H.C. Berger Brewing Company. I started as the weekend keg washer and, a few years later, left as their gold-medal winning head brewer. Christine, all the while was continuing her career with the Park Service at Glacier National Park as well as being a Ranger Naturalist in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado.

We married in 1996, moved to Windsor, Colorado, and had our first daughter. I was taking a break from the brewing world and working with an old brewing buddy at his residential and commercial remodeling company while Christine was a stay-at-home mom. The remodeling work was financially rewarding, but we both began to feel more and more like strangers in a flat land. We knew we had to get back into the mountains.

An opportunity dropped from the skies in the form of a job offer to brew for a small brewpub in Telluride, Colorado. We jumped at the chance and, a handful of weeks later, we had our town home on the market, moving van loaded up and we headed to our new home, Norwood, west of Telluride.

The three of us settled into a happy life in our 110-year-old miner’s house above 7,000 feet, feeling very much like the characters from the novel “Tom Boy Bride”. I was brewing away and Christine was working as an executive assistant to a high-end property developer. We both, however, continued to feel the pull northward from Montana.

Years before, during one of those road trips to Glacier when I would drive Christine up for the summer, I experienced an epiphany in broad daylight between Rock Springs and Pinedale, Wyoming. “The Glacier Brewing Company”.

In a flash, I knew the brewery’s look, the beer names, location, everything! I filed this away until one fateful day in Telluride when Christine and I were having lunch with her brother Bob. Bob was stopping by on his way out of Colorado to move to Flathead Lake, Montana. He knew about the “Glacier Brewing Idea” from previous discussions and we began to talk about it again at this lunch. One of us finally said “We should either build this brewery or never speak about it again!”. A hush fell over our table; we all knew we were going to build this brewery.

That was in 2002. Since, we have had a second daughter and have moved to Polson, Montana, on the southern shores of Flathead Lake. It was also in late 2002 that we did, in fact, open the Glacier Brewing Company.

Christine has become a well-respected, much-loved, fourth-grade teacher at our local elementary school. I am currently guiding our brewing company through its 15^th year in operation. Our oldest daughter is heading off to Washington State University in the fall (we pushed HARD for CMC with her!) and our youngest will be rocking her high school as a sophomore.

From our formative years at CMC to the present, the two of us had sought out the wild lands to explore and have raised our daughters to recognize and appreciate the beauty and importance of these places. The four of us roaming over, around, and through enchanted places like Zion, Arches, Hunter/Fryingpan Wilderness, Glacier National Park, Arcadia National Park, and hundreds and hundreds of similar places. Including just last week when the four of us awoke at 12:30am to climb the glacial moraine behind our house so we could watch the Aurora Borealis dance across Flathead Lake!

It truly has been our experiences at CMC that have shaped our life decisions and directions as well as forged us into the people we are today. Our love for the wild places, our respect for our natural world, and our commitment to one another all began with our lives at Colorado Mountain College.

Andy Corra: CMC Made My Life!

June 12, 2017 By wpengine

photo - Andy Corra, Colorado Mountain College graduate

Andy Corra's life direction was changed by outdoor experiences at CMC. He now owns several business and enjoys the outdoors with his family in southwestern Colorado.

CMC Made My Life!

In 1979, working as a janitor after graduating from high school in Denver, I had an epiphany one day while eating lunch in my janitor's closet: "I need college!" Having been a thoroughly disengaged student to that point, I hoped to find a school that could inspire, guide, and help me find my passions (as well as accept my poor high school transcripts). CMC to my rescue!

I loved the mountains and skiing so enrolled in a ski conditioning class.

Day One: Instructor Roger Paris (pronounced Rogeé Pareé) rides up on his ten-speed bike, sporting a Speedo and running shoes, to the waiting 15 or 20 students. "Dis is zee ski condition class and we get in shape for zee ski— follow me.” We ran five miles, off-trail, in the hills surrounding campus.

Day 2: Six or seven students wait for Mr Paris. "Okay, we have weed out zee slow one, today we really go- follow me." At mile ten, struggling to keep up with the French Apparition, I knew I had found my inspiration. The next two years were filled with chasing Roger, deciphering algebra, acting in theater productions, and learning to love to learn. Graduating from the then two-year junior college program, I went on to Fort Lewis College, in Durango, to complete a Business Administration Bachelor's Degree with a finance minor, graduating cum laude.

Thirty-seven years later, with many years of US Kayak Team memberships, three National Champ titles, and several sales and marketing jobs in my wake, I find myself as an entrepreneur with several successful businesses, living in a great community, with a wonderful wife and family, and friendships that extend back decades. Most importantly, I'm still inspired. Inspiration that was sparked in those first days at Colorado Mountain College. CMC not only changed my life, it made my life. Thanks CMC!

Listen to the Radio CMC interview with Andy's mentor/tormentor Roger Paris and current Outdoor Education Faculty Johann Aberger:

Aaron Brassard: X-Games & the Rio Olympics

May 2, 2017 By wpengine

Aaron Brassard’s “Road to Rio” started at the Isaacson School for Communication, Arts & Media.

The 2016 graduate says the program help him build a career in digital sports production by not only teaching him video production and graphics work, but because of hands-on experiences such as working at the Winter X-Games in Aspen.

These real-world experiences allowed Aaron to network with other professionals, and helped him land a job working as an LED engineer during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

“Networking got me to the Olympics and it will continue to bring me to more great places,” he explains.

Aaron’s venue at Rio was the Sambodromo, which held Archery and the finish line for the Marathon. He called working the Olympics “a dream come true.”

“Honestly, I never thought of it being a possibility,” he says. “Being able to pick the brains of people in higher positions and vast backgrounds is an awesome feeling.”

In Rio, Aaron worked alongside directors, producers, switchers, playback operators, camera operators, and production assistants.

“Overall, couldn’t have asked for a better gig. Best experience of my life thus far by a long shot, will remember this moment forever,” he says. “And it all came from attending CMC and the Isaacson School, thank you.”

Scott LeBaron: CMC Couldn’t Have Been a Better Fit

May 2, 2017 By wpengine

It was 1978. I was coming over the top of the hill and seeing the Spring Valley campus for the first time. I was a bit nervous coming from a high school graduating class of 750 and now a college with about half that! Yikes!

But it couldn't have been a better fit! Great people came into my life both in faculty and students. Ted Magnuson (1st year photo professor) was real good about sharing real life examples.

A bunch of us would sit on the cafeteria tables outside the darkrooms and talk about everything, including photography. We sat on the front lawns a lot to soak in the beauty of the surroundings with fantastic people, what amazing times.

I graduated as part of the Class of 1980 and went right to work for a few large studios and labs in the Denver area. I started my own studio in 1982. Still going and love sharing the craft I learned at CMC.

I toured the campus just a month ago and was blown away at the wonderful growth and all that is available at the school now, especially in the photography arena! Congratulations on turning 50, CMC.

Craig Tate: Great Place to Learn and be Enlightened

May 2, 2017 By wpengine

Why CMC? Because my high school counselor said with my GPA, I wouldn’t make it at any other college in Colorado. So, I arrived at the Spring Valley Campus in the fall of 1978.

I came to CMC with the anticipation that I would raise my GPA and get into a music engineering school. A funny thing happened on my way to being a music engineer.

A teacher by the name of Gene Minor taught a philosophy class. In that class, we did not harp on the mechanics of the great thinkers and what they espoused. Gene emphasized learning to think for ourselves. I took that lesson to heart. I realized that the world needed some good answers. I wanted to be a part of solving the problems rather than making great music records.

It was like someone turned the light on for the first time in my education. I was introduced to the idea of sustainability, which included solar energy, rooftop gardening, energy efficiency and new ways of transportation.

CMC became a staging ground for all sorts of ideas and people who were making a difference. I thrived at CMC. No longer was I uninterested in scholastics, I craved it. My first semester I achieved a 3.8 grade point average and eventually graduated Phi Theta Kapa (top 1% of my class). I was awarded a scholastic scholarship for my achievements in my second year. I took on special projects in the area of sustainability and reopened the campus greenhouse as a learning lab.

Because of CMC, I pursued renewable energy and energy efficiency. I came back to CMC several years after getting my associates degree to be one of the first students to participate in CMC’s new solar energy vocational program.

Since then, I have worked in the energy efficiency field for over 35 years. I was able to settle in Glenwood Springs and find a career at Holy Cross Energy as an energy auditor and member service representative. I owe it all to Colorado Mountain College. What a great place to learn and be enlightened.