As we celebrated this landmark anniversary on campus, I met alum Mark Mavrogianes (Hist’72, MA’77) who recently retired as a social studies teacher and student council sponsor at Northglenn High School. Mark was certified in 1973 and was named Colorado Teacher of the Year in 1998. His students called him “the Mav.” They once invited him to deliver their commencement speech.

As I chatted with Mark, I was struck by how often the university is at the center of lives touching other lives. Mark has taught thousands of students in his 35-year-career as a teacher — many of them have gone on to become teachers and community leaders, touching numerous lives themselves. His students have included Northglenn’s own mayor, Kathy Johnston Novak (Bus’83, MS’88); Bronson Hilliard (Hist’86), CU-Boulder spokesperson and media director; and Kent Zimmerman (Edu’80, MPubAd’90), our former alumni association director, as well as dozens of teachers, administrators and professionals throughout Colorado, the nation and indeed, the world.

Thanks to thousands of alums like Mark — not just educators but also business and community leaders, engineers, performing artists — the circles of influence emanating from the university grow increasingly larger like ripples from the proverbial pebble tossed into a pond.

Mark says when he was a CU student preparing to be a teacher, the expectation of the education school was for students to commit to making a difference in the lives of children and young adults. He never forgot that commitment, and it proved to be a guiding light throughout his career.

In living this commitment, Mark, and really all our alumni, are pebbles creating ripples that extend further than any of us can imagine. Those ripples, in turn, create currents that shape the world in which we live. We are asking a new generation of students to make that same commitment, often through the question, “What kind of Buff are you?”

The challenge for the university is to help new generations of students to answer that question, and alumni like Mark — and you — are the keys to answering it and to keeping these currents forever flowing.

See the video of the 100th anniversary celebration of teacher licensure at www.colorado.edu/news and search for “100 years of teaching.”

Chancellor Phil DiStefano, center, shares a laugh with education school associate professor Valerie Otero, left, and physics associate professor Noah Finkelstein before the State of the Campus address at the University Memorial Center on Oct. 5.

Phil DiStefano is the chancellor at the University of Colorado at Boulder and former dean of the education school. You may contact him at chanchat@spot.colorado.edu.

Not long after I started as an assistant professor of education at CU-Boulder in 1974, Dain Fritz (Comm’77) and Hillary Kramer Fritz (Engl’78) graduated. On May 8 their son Matt became a newly minted graduate.

Seeing the family at commencement reminded me of the late summer day four years ago when I bumped into the Fritz family as they helped Matt move into Farrand Hall — the same hall where his mother lived as a freshman in 1974. Perhaps with nostalgia sweeping over her, Hillary said, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

There is charm when the ivy-covered places on campus that nestle into our memories remain unchanged. But the fact is, things are changing more rapidly now than at any time during my 3½ decades at CU.
If you return to campus, you will see familiar sights you fondly remember. But like our classrooms, our residence halls are being reinvented for education in the 21st century.

We are moving forward with innovative residential colleges called for in our Flagship 2030 strategic plan. Freshmen through upperclassmen with common interests and ambitions will reside in combined living and learning environments alongside a resident professor who conducts lectures, seminars, recitations and tutoring in the residence hall.

This gives students the opportunity to pursue their academic passions together in both a structured and social environment, studying together and exchanging ideas. It also creates a small-college environment within a comprehensive research university.

The first residential college, the Kittredge Honors Program, opened this year at Arnett Hall. The Engineering Honors Program will open next fall in Andrews Hall with a faculty-in-residence. Soon, the Global Studies program will move into Smith Hall after it’s renovated.

Eventually students will be able to study with a resident professor, choosing from residence halls that focus on everything from natural sciences, fine arts and the American West to international interests, business, global leadership and liberal arts.

Some of the fondest memories for the next generation of students may come from experiences in their residential college or from other Flagship 2030 initiatives, such as experiential learning, civic engagement and studying abroad.

Watching two generations of the same family graduate from CU fills my heart. I have had the pleasure of watching all three become part of the Buff family. Now, Matt’s younger sister, Jacquelyn, has her eye on CU!

Phil DiStefano is the chancellor at the University of Colorado at Boulder. You may contact him at chanchat@spot.colorado.edu.

Chancellor G.P. “Bud” Peterson is the 10th chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Not long ago I was talking with Richard “Dick” Engebretson (MBA’72), a longtime supporter of the university who has served on the boards of our Leeds School of Business, the CU Foundation and the Alumni Association.  In our conversation, I asked him what was special about his time as a CU student. His answer is instructive, I think, for all of the CU family: “I came to CU more or less on a whim, but by the time I left, all that I learned had given me all the tools I would ever need to create the life I wanted to live.”

What a great answer. And what a great description of CU’s enduring value.

As the university and our nation weather some of the toughest economic times we’ve seen in a generation, Dick described perfectly the value of a CU degree for our time, and perhaps, for all time. A CU degree — indeed, the CU experience — gives our graduates the tools they need for a lifetime of self-transformation.

But of course, as CU alumni, you already know that. Every time one of our graduates succeeds, many other people and the numerous institutions in which they are involved succeed along with them.

As we approach spring commencement, these are important things to remember. A CU degree gives our graduates the confidence to enter a shifting job market knowing they can succeed. In fact, a recent study in Forbes.com ranked CU seventh in the nation among public universities for the earning power of its graduates.

As alumni, you and your successes are as vital to advancing CU’s reputation as any ranking in a publication. Sharing how CU made a difference in your career and life is invaluable in helping us make the case for continuing our long legacy of transforming lives, Colorado communities and indeed, the world.

Working together, we have an opportunity to transform countless lives — those of our students and those touched by the works you do throughout your lives.  This is particularly true when we, as a country, are faced with financial challenges impacting virtually every facet of our lives.  Today we need graduates who are trained and educated to meet and overcome these challenges.

Thank you for your support of CU-Boulder.  As Dick, you and thousands of alums prove daily, we are transforming the world one graduate at a time.  Without you, we would have no past and certainly, no future.

You may contact the Chancellor at chanchat@spot.colorado.edu.