The George Norlin Award honors outstanding alumni for their careers and service to society.  Recipients of the 2011 Norlin Award are: Dean Boal (Mus, MusEdu’53, PhD’59), musician, professor and former director of arts and performance programs for National Public Radio; Larissa Bernhardt Herda (PolSci’80), chairman, CEO and president of tw telecom inc., and avid supporter of Leeds School of Business;   Anthony “Tony” Ortega (Span’80, MFA’95), one of the nation’s most respected artists whose work reflects community connectedness in Chicano families, neighborhoods, churches and schools; and Lucinda McWilliam Sanders (MCompSci78), successful inventor whose groundbreaking work on an operating system made voice and multimedia possible over the Internet and who serves as executive-in-residence for CU ATLAS  Institute.

Three professors and one football coach will receive the Robert L. Stearns Award in recognition of extraordinary contributions to the university: Bernard Amadei, a civil engineering professor who is co-founding president of Engineers Without Borders-USA, an organization that involves 12,000 members working in 45 countries on more than 350 projects that include water, renewable energy and sanitation; Brian Cabral (Rec’79), whose stellar 25-year football career on the Boulder campus  makes him the longest full-time assistant coach in CU history; David Getches, law school dean, whose tenure has led to three new legal clinics, three certificate programs , increased scholarships, the completion of the 2006 Wolf Law Building and an 80 percent increase in the school’s endowment; and Daniel Liston, an education professor whose excellence in teaching has netted many awards and who co-directs Colorado Courage to Teach, a professional development program for public school teachers.

Two alumni are being recognized with the Alumni Recognition Award. James D.Copeland (PE’62, Arch’69), former president of the CU-Boulder Alumni Association Directors Club,  brought enthusiasm and strong leadership to his role as he steered the club in the right direction during his tenure. Ron Geschwer’s (Psych’01) relentless enthusiasm for CU as president of the New York Buffs, the alumni chapter in New York City, has made it one of the strongest CU chapters in the country.

Sue Duris McMurdy (Econ’84) will receive the Leanne Skupa-Lee Award as a faithful National Alumni Admissions Assistance Program volunteer for more than 20 years, participating in college fairs and doing other work to recruit CU’s next generation of students.

The Kalpana Chawla Outstanding Recent Graduate Award will go to two alumni. Jason Burdick (PhDChemEngr’02) is a University of Pennsylvania associate professor whose ground-breaking research using biomaterials to treat cartilage, meniscus and cardiac tissue may help treat patients with cartilage damage.  Richard “Trey” Lyons III (PolSci’00) is a State Department foreign service officer whose impressive career has taken him to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Bratislava, Slovakia, and Washington, D.C.

Three students will be recognized as recipients of the Forever Buffs Student Awards: Justin Macauley (Bus’11) transformed the CU men’s club soccer team into one of the most successful in CU history and volunteered many hours to help strengthen Alumni Association programs. Dan Omasta’s (EnvSt’11) efforts to make the campus more environmentally friendly have resulted in a number of accomplishments, as has his work to build stronger bonds between students and alumni.  Marni Spott (Ger, IntlAf’12) will be honored for her relentless dedication to and work with The Herd, the student group of the Alumni Association that creates and preserves university traditions and gives students opportunities in public service.

The May 4 awards ceremony begins at 7 p.m. in Old Main Chapel on the CU-Boulder campus.  A reception with dessert will follow in the CU Heritage Center on the third floor of Old Main.

Based in the Koenig Alumni Center at the corner of Broadway and University Avenue, the CU-Boulder Alumni Association administers scholarships, awards, online networking opportunities, alumni clubs, a museum and publishes the monthly electronic newsletter Buffalum Notes and the quarterly Coloradan alumni magazine.

Photos of the award recipients can be found in our Flickr gallery.

The George Norlin Award honors outstanding alumni for their careers and service to society.  Recipients of the 2010 Norlin Award were: Julianne Mattingly Steinhauer (Mus’60), a musician, longtime volunteer in Vietnam and someone who has been deeply involved in CU-Boulder’s Conference on World Affairs; Hank Brown (Acct’61, Law’69), a successful politician who served as U.S. Senator from Colorado and was president of the University of Colorado and the University of Northern Colorado as well as President and CEO of the Daniels Fund; Richard Knowlton (Geog’54), successful leader of Hormel Foods Corporation and a supporter of the Leeds Business School and the CU athletic department; and Laurence Boxer (Hist’61), a physician and clinical scientist researching how white blood cells work and how new research can be used to improve the lives of children.

Three professors and one top administrator received the Robert L. Stearns Award in recognition of extraordinary contributions to the university: John Cumalat, whose 12-year tenure as physics chair helped the department’s reputation skyrocket as its faculty and staff won more than 150 awards, including three Nobel Prizes, and whose studies of quarks led him to be involved with the Large Hadron Collider in Europe; Richard Noble, chemical and biological engineering department professor who is founder of CU’s Center for Membrane Applied Science and Technology, supporting research on significant environmental problems; Ric Porreca (MPolSci ex’83) a 28-year CU administrator who serves as senior vice chancellor and chief financial officer and whose planning and financial savvy has led to strong strategic planning and  the construction of many new campus buildings, despite state cutbacks and a looming recession; Robert Schulzinger, one of America’s foremost diplomatic historians and author of one of the seminal histories of the U.S. and Vietnam, A Time for War: The United States and Vietnam, 1941-1975.

Four alumni were recognized with the Alumni Recognition Award: Joanne Easley Arnold (Engl’52, MJour’65, PhDComm’71) is a professor emerita of journalism who has had a long history of service to the university including serving as associate dean of the journalism school and  chairing the Chancellor’s Standing Committee on Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Issues for seven years; Woody Eaton (DistSt’62) and Leslie Bernstein Eaton (Art’63) have been intimately involved in supporting CU-Boulder in many ways, from co-founding the Buffalo Bicycle Classic, which has raised $1.2 million for Arts & Sciences College scholarships, to helping fund the Eaton Humanities building on the main university quad, sitting on the CU Foundation’s boards and devoting a great deal of time to the Center of the American West; Clancy Herbst Jr. (ChemEngr’50,HonDocSci’95), who is always in CU gear and deeply involved with the CU Foundation, engineering (including founding The Herbst Program for Engineering in the Humanities), athletic scholarships and the Dal Ward Athletic Center.

Mary Allen Judd (PolSci’80) of Chicago received the Leanne Skupa-Lee Award as a faithful National Alumni Admissions Assistance Program volunteer for more than 20 years, participating in college fairs and doing other work to recruit CU’s next generation of students.

The Kalpana Chawla Outstanding Recent Graduate Award was given to Nick Sowden (Mgmt’07)  who lives in Kenya where he is business development director for ToughStuff, an international organization that provides inexpensive solar products to low-income families in developing countries.

Eight students were recognized as recipients of the Public Interest Internship Experience awards: Wynne Adams (a junior environmental studies and art double major), Mindy Bridges (a junior anthropology major), Denise Justice (a senior international affairs major), Melissa Khat (a senior international affairs major), Bryant Mason (a junior economics and environmental studies double major), Heidi Meyer (a sophomore education and English double major), Austin Rempel (a senior ecology and economics double major) and Mercedes Ruiz (a senior Spanish major).

Karin Hendrickson

“The wind was so strong it was blowing the dogs over, but they kept going because they trusted me” she says.

The recollection of her experience in the Iditarod last winter is enough to send a shiver through the body of even the warmest listener.

Wind, snow and sub-zero temperatures are just a part of life for Hendrickson though, who owns a 24-dog kennel and, in addition to a day job with the state of Alaska, works as a musher running long-distance races through the wintertime wilderness with her teams of dogs.

After six years of training, she completed her first Iditarod last year, the infamous 1,000-mile dogsled race across the icy, mountainous Alaskan landscape from Anchorage to Nome.   Last year’s particularly horrendous conditions didn’t scare her away and this year Hendrickson had her eyes set on the race again.

She pushed off from the starting line on March 6, but sadly, 20 hours into the race her sled broke, forcing Hendrickson to pull out of the race she worked so hard to prepare for.

Her preparation for the 10-to-14-day long race began long before most people turn their thoughts to snowfall and winter sports.   From August onward, she spent every spare moment taking care of her dogs and training them for runs that lasted up to six or seven hours.  She scrimped, saved and fundraised constantly to collect the $35,000 it takes to prepare and maintain a kennel of dogs for the race.

In her eyes, the work pays off every time she steps out on the sled.

“Being out there with dogs you spend your whole life with and the bond you create out there on the snow is really amazing,” she says.

Her dogsled history began when she agreed to take a vacation from her job in environmental regulation in Boise, Idaho, to help her mother volunteer at the Iditarod in 2002.  The experience was a surprise from the boring, cold trip she was anticipating.

“I ended up harnessing dogs, packing sleds and I even got to go out with a few teams,” she says, “It much more active and fun than I expected.”

After the trip, she realized that she belonged on the dogsled and moved to Wasilla, Alaska.  She worked as a handler for another musher and in 2007 started her own kennel.

In the weeks before this year’s Iditarod, Hendrickson was busy organizing the ton-plus of food and supplies that she dropped off at different points along the course, as well as selecting and training the team of 16 dogs that would pull her over the long stretch of Alaskan ice.

While she says that the preparation for the Iditarod is the hardest part, the physical toll is not insignificant.  The riders only get a couple of hours of sleep a night after they’ve taken care of the dogs and have to choke down food over the nausea that comes with the lack of sleep.

“It’s a very long grueling race because while dogs rest you take care of them,” she says.  “Because of the fatigue, the race becomes an endurance event for the musher more than the dogs.”

The difficulty of the experience is what keeps her coming back.

“I love the challenge of putting myself against horrendous weather, the terrain and the mind boggling huge distances,” she says.  “If you can finish Iditarod you really feel like you have accomplished something.”

From left to right are Nicole Erpelding, Kaitlin Nonko, Capt. Rebecca Lange (PolSci'00), Lisa Fikany and Lorraine Aceron.

 As part of the holiday USO tour, Tostitos sponsored a “Salute the Troops” football game with former pro players in Baghdad, Iraq, where I am stationed. Imagine my surprise when I heard, “…and featuring chearleaders from the University of Colorado!”

The game was close to my compound and when I heard the announcement, I grabbed my ever-present CU flag and camera and headed out to the dirt field. I heard the CU fight song and stopped in my tracks. Hearing my beloved university’s fight song normally doesn’t cause me to choke up, but the fact that young women from my alma mater gave up their Christmas vacation to support the men and women of the Armed Forces caused me to tear up a bit (although I’m probably not supposed to admit that).

Naturally, the ladies were very popular. When I finally made my way to them, I showed them my flag and proudly announced that I was a Buff. The first photo shows the precious reaction from one of the girls. It absolutely made my day to chat with these sweet and generous ladies. I expressed my sincere admiration for their selflessness. Imagine giving up your Christmas vacation from college to travel to Iraq!

Ever since I landed and have had “boots on the ground,” the overwhelming and heartfelt support of Americans has been felt every single day. Whether they are packages from communities, personal letters from the Alumni Association, holiday cards from classrooms and hearing my school fight song on a dirt field in the middle of Iraq, I could not be more proud to wear this uniform and dedicate every day to the freedoms of my great nation.

Rebecca Lange (PolSci’00) writes from Baghdad.  Read the Boulder Camera article on this.

On Feb. 27, the University Memorial Center ballroom was packed with people at the Career Services spring fair. Ninety-nine employers, including companies such as Target, Verizon and Microsoft, had set up booths and were mingling with CU grads with a wide variety of majors. The businesses were looking for different qualities in the group of students, and most found qualified future employees.

“We are looking specifically for business students to fill our management training programs,” says Jill Elwood, a representative from First Bank. “So far we’ve been very successful.”

The experience also was valuable for the more than 2,000 students and alums who attended the event.

“I’m here to network and meet people,” says Leigh Mehlman (Mgmt’10). “I’m learning about how to interact with employers and what employers are looking for.”

Other students were looking for internships and hoping to make connections to find employment after graduation.

“I’m looking for an internship for this summer,” says Jessica Cateora (Biochem’11). “This is my first career fair, so I’m just hoping to interact with the recruiters.”

According to Michael Deragisch (MComm’78), assistant director for employer relations at CU Career Services, the employers were very impressed with the CU students’ level of preparation.

“We’ve been doing fairs for 20 years, and this is the first fair I can remember where no employers packed up and left early,” Deragisch says.  “They stayed until the very end,”

Ten percent of the fair’s attendance was comprised of CU graduates returning to campus with hope of finding a job in today’s poor economy.

“I’m in architecture and the economy has slowed down in our field, so I’m here looking for something architecture-related to transfer into,” Teena Taylor (EnvDes’00) says.

Despite the poor economy, the fair seemed to reassure many that jobs are in fact attainable in today’s society.

“It was a very encouraging career fair,” Deragisch says. “It clearly shows that companies are hiring again and certainly hiring college students.”

Anne Bliss (MLing'88, EdD'93), center, retired from the Program for Writing and Rhetoric this year.

This year, Anne Bliss (MLing’88, EdD’93) announced her retirement from CU’s Program for Writing and Rhetoric (PWR).  Within the cozy environment of the program, Bliss is a kind of walking history.  She is most certainly not, though, historical: after her decades as an educator, she is as energetic as ever.

 ”There’s very little difference between theory and practice for me,” Bliss says in a view reflecting her overall perspective. “Writing and rhetoric are part of life, and life is a rhetorical experience.  So, theories and life tend to mesh in interesting ways in and out of my classroom.”

She grew up in Fort Collins and began her college life at Seattle University where she earned her bachelor’s degree in 1965.  Returning to Colorado, she was a charter member in 1986 of the fledgling University Writing Program, for which she developed curriculum for at-risk students.  One might think that she stuck fast to life in Boulder, but that would be highly inaccurate.

Her academic journey has arguably been as global as is possible for someone in her field.    During the 2005 fall semester, Bliss was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to serve as a professor of English as a Foreign Language in Chile, where she also consulted with the Ministry of Education and conducted teacher-training programs in several young post-Pinochet regional universities.  Over the last decade or so, she also has taught variously for local migrant groups and in China, Vietnam, and Siberian Russia.  But Boulder and CU have always been her home base.

The PWR has been described as CU’s “front porch,” and Bliss has been front and center both to greet and challenge students. 

“Teach the students to think by asking ‘why?’ ” she remarks about her approach to the classroom. “It is a question that continually leads to deeper reasoning.  My approach also involves trust-building and developing a sense of community in the classroom. I firmly believe that if students are motivated and they trust their teacher and their classmates, they want to and can learn almost anything and any skill.”

“Anything” for Bliss has meant a cornucopia of subjects for her courses.   While English as a Second Language has been her mainstay, she has taught and presented widely on pedagogy, applied linguistics, cultural issues, environmental issues, business, teaching with technology, and, in a completely different direction, cowboy poetry.   

More than anything about her position, she has taken a true delight in watching how teaching not only can change a student’s academic success but, sometimes even life.

 ”I see myself as a coach more than as a teacher who delivers knowledge,” she says.  “I want my students to learn how to teach themselves, to question and answer and support those answers logically and substantively.”

The results speak for themselves, with the anecdotes piling on top of each other.

 ”One Korean student who groaned a lot when I ‘made’ him work on commas,” Bliss relates, “will tell you that his position as a VP in one of Korea’s major insurance companies came on account of those commas!” 

From mastering commas to running companies, the power of education is the very air Bliss breathes. 

The PWR is at a crossroads, and an important part of the moment means that teachers embrace the tradition of rhetoric part and parcel to the program’s name. Rooted in previous versions of the program but  welcoming new ideas, Bliss sees such curricular topics as technology and globalization as increasingly important to how students engage the world.

 ”I know that I, like many others in the writing program, am approached as a source of personal advice, or as one of my internationals students once said, ‘as the key to understanding America,’” she says.

Bliss might be stepping away from the semester-to-semester work of conducting writing classes and grading papers, but she has no intention of slowing down. 

 No doubt about it: the fun is far from over for Anne.  To start, she is bound again for Chile where she will consult with professor Carlos Vignolo who will be a visiting scholar at CU next term with the School of Education. And she will work with the Ministry of Education, the Fulbright Commission and  regional universities to set up a doctoral program in education. 

During her stay, Bliss will also visit Easer Island and touch foot in Antarctica, the Falkland Islands, and various spots in Patagonia ― and kayak the Straits of Magellan.  Returning to help in China and an invitation to work with English teachers in Pakistan are etched on her fall agenda. 

All that for her first semesters “off.” 

Peter Kratzke is an instructor in the Program for Writing and Rhetoric.

Too often in our time, citizens and others feel license to offer nothing but criticism of our leaders. But in the person of CU-Boulder’s “home grown” Chancellor Phil DiStefano, we have a leader that, so far, is well worth praising.

Having just completed his first 200 days in office, DiStefano has thus far proved to be both visionary and action-oriented. He has demonstrated a grasp of the possibilities of his office with imagination and the true scope of his office.

Just last week CU-Boulder was ranked fifth on the Princeton Review’s best value list of public colleges, the same week that the Amgen Corporation committed over a million dollars for the new biotech building on the east campus. Under DiStefano’s leadership NASA has committed more than 50 million dollars to CU-Boulder for scientific research. He has continued to attract and retain some of the most laudable deans in the country. CU-Boulder has been ranked as the no. 1 “green” university in the nation, while city- university relations continue to improve, just to enumerate a few of his early accomplishments.

But what is most impressive about Chancellor DiStefano thus far are not his skills per se, but the complete “authenticity” from which they spring. Phil DiStefano the person clearly understands the boundaries between himself and his office.

He has already demonstrated an ability to work with Colorado legislators on terms that clearly state CU-Boulder’s case without ruffling feathers.

He has shown a keen understanding of the important partnerships that must be forged with the private sector in order for CU-Boulder to fulfill its mission of preparing students for an ever-changing workplace.

Finally, he has risen above the intra-campus conflicts that often plague the CU system, and under his leadership the university has a “chance” to truly become an integrated system of higher education rather than a loose confederation of campuses.

It is on the last subject that I want to encourage Chancellor DiStefano to continue his efforts. What sometimes plagues the university most is a narrowness of vision for what the “entire” CU system could be.

From the department level on up, the CU system often suffers from a narrow vision and an overly proprietary orientation.

Professors who seek to create truly interdisciplinary programs and experiences for students face a shortage of resources compared to their colleagues who pursue more “pure” agendas of research and teaching.

Department chairs right up to deans and chancellors too often work to secure tighter control of their faculties and budgets rather than demonstrating true vision and leadership for what those budgets and faculties can achieve.

Faculty struggle all the while with lower salaries than many of their counterparts around the country, low public esteem and their own low expectations for the university that rise from the other factors I’ve listed.

Where Chancellor DiStefano can truly make a profound change in our midst is to continue to re-focus CU Boulder’s collective gaze outward — toward students, the public and their representatives — while at the same time working to shore up the various internal challenges that hamper CU-Boulder’s progress. Based on what I’ve seen of his leadership thus far, real progress on these and a host of other issues is within the university’s grasp in these unprecedented economic times. This progress will require equally visionary leadership from the Board of Regents, a legislature willing to see all of CU in a new light, parents and business leaders willing to act as advocates for CU-Boulder and finally, a strengthened, rejuvenated faculty during these constricted state budgetary times.

This is the proverbial tall order. But, as John F. Kennedy reminded us, “This will not be accomplished in the first 100 days or the first 1000 days, but let us begin.”

Jim Martin is a former CU regent. 

There is a mellowness and gentleness that permeates through this town of twelve hundred, and it has transferred into the newly arrived surf culture as well. Territoriality and competitive behavior don’t show up and there is a collective feeling that there is room for everyone here.  The waves are long and consistent and the empty beaches go on for miles.

Sitting so close to the middle of the earth, the temperature varies more between night and day than it does between winter and summer. Cold is not a concept that’s understood beneath the eight-sided palm structures called ramadas that dot the beaches. The only changes to the luscious summer warmth come from gentle puffs of ocean breezes.

Although there are probably 20 places to eat in town, an open-air beach restaurant called Bambu is the town’s social center. Built by a Dutchman and his Ecuadorian wife 15 years ago, Bambu is the perfect place to hang out and face the sunsets while nestled next to the greenery of the river. The restaurant tables are dug into the sand, covered with conch shells and interspersed with groups of hammocks strung in the shapes of stars, triangles and circles. It takes most of us gringos only minutes to realize that this unusual setup is actually the only way to truly enjoy a hammock. The conversations are lively as you sit and swing, or you can lay back and just listen while gently rocking in the soft sea breeze.

This place is a far cry from Pearl Street or the Hill, but it was here, among the hammocks and conch shells, that we met Carrie Gibaldo (EnvsSt ’06) and Emily Fahle (A&S ex’04), two former CU students who have achieved “Buff Life” status by combining adventure and service with strong shots of courage, empathy and humor.  At the time, they were both working at Canoa’s only bilingual elementary school, a job that neither woman had trained for nor expected when they first ventured to Ecuador.

Carrie graduated cum laude from environmental studies. She talks about spending her life in Boulder, studying, collecting samples, snowboarding much as she could and working with Ed Von Bleichert (EnvsSt’94) in the Facilities Management office to implement sustainable cleaning products on campus. She was one to keep the rebellious campus spirit alive and proudly told us about her hard work with CoPIRG protesting unlabeled genetically engineered food at local supermarkets, including one protest so large it shut down the King Soopers at 30^th and Arapahoe for a short time.

Carrie came down to South America for the simplest of reasons—she wanted to polish her Spanish language skills and Ecuador was the cheapest ticket around. She met Emily while working as a volunteer at an organic farm and preserve called Rio Muchacho, about a half hour north of Canoa on the highway that leads to the Columbian border.

Emily was also a Buff.  She spent two defining years at CU, loving Hallet Hall and many snowboarding adventures.  For her junior year, seeking a more international experience, Emily headed back home to the East Coast to the completely overseas curriculum of the Quaker-led Friends World College. Upon graduation, she headed south Peru and Bolivia.  After a while though, the freezing temperatures of the Andes left Emily craving warmth. Through the backpackers grapevine she heard about the warm water and beauty of Ecuador’s Pacific coast.  She landed in Canoa by chance and met Jimmy Byrd, an expat who had been living in the area for ten years. The town’s leaders, in hopes starting a private school to improve the educational opportunities for their local children, had recently approached Jimmy asking if he could spearhead such an effort.  Wanting to make a difference in their newfound community, Jimmy and Emily decided to take on the project.

A year later, the first classrooms were ready to go.  Emily, in her brief weekend encounter with Carrie, had convinced the environmental science buff to join her in the school’s inaugural year.  Teaming up with two local women, Yessinia Paz and Betty Gomez, they provided education, leadership and care for local kids at Canoa’s first and only bilingual elementary school, La Escuela Bilingue Los Algarrobos.

Their efforts fulfilled a critical need for the town that is at the cusp of significant economic change.  However, the journey has been full of obstacles.  School supplies are practically nonexistent, and training and mentorship possibilities are few and far between.  The kindergarten kids are not used to sitting down, listening, sharing or saying please and thank you.  Many of them aren’t even familiar with Spanish, the language in which they are taught for half of each day.

As is always true, patience, hard work, caring and sincerity pay off and it’s obvious as we visit that the children and their parents love the young women trying to make a difference in their lives. Even the most rambunctious of the lot cling to their teachers at the end of the day, not wanting to leave. They love to practice their English in town, saying “hello” to everyone they see while walking down the street with smiles spread wide across their faces. In the evenings you can find moms and dads outside on the streets with their little ones, all of them practicing the latest English homework.  They recognize the language’s growing importance in their lives.

Meanwhile Carrie and Emily dream wistfully about how easy it would be to get things done if they just had a Target store nearby.  Paid practically nothing ($150 a month last year), their work is a labor of love and commitment, a gift to the world from two former CU students living a true Buff Life of adventure, service, empathy, humor and courage.

You can take a look at their school and the excitement and challenge of their Buff Lives at the school’s website www.jamesdeanbyrdescuela.org

Finishing this story, we contacted Carrie to find out where she was now and how she was doing.  Her reply…

It was great to hear from you, I have wondered over the course of time whether or not you decided to go forward with a story related to the school – I am glad to hear that you have. As you know now, I did indeed leave Canoa upon the kindergarten’s graduation at the end of the school year, but only after much heavy-hearted, personal debate. In the end, it was just too overwhelming to try to support myself on such a meager salary and no savings. I was heart-broken to have to leave but still hope to return soon, and I continue to be involved in the school from afar.

Leaving itself was a nightmare, as after a year of working at the school I no longer had near enough money to just fly home. I ended up meeting a woman who needed help on her sailboat and sailed with her to Panama. We hit storms on the way and it turned out to be an adventure I will never forget; sixteen days on the open sea – what an experience! From Panama, I was able to find my way to Costa Rica and then a very cheap flight home. I worked briefly at Eldora ski resort and then came back to my previous job in Montana at Glacier National Park. The season in the park flew by and ended in October. I decided to “winter” in Montana and I am currently working in a group home for severely emotionally disturbed teenage girls. It is great to be working with people again and I enjoy it immensely, but without a doubt plan to return to Canoa as soon as possible. I miss the kids terribly.

Carrie

Author’s note: There’s a theory that students at CU and the students that CU attracts are some of the most adventurous and caring in the world. The more my wife and I travel, the more we keep stumbling upon them in the strangest places. We’re in the midst of documenting as many of these “Buff Life” stories as we can find. If you know a fellow alum living a life full of exploration, adventure, courage, empathy, service and humor, give us a heads up at kent.zimmerman@colorado.edu.

The Air Force ROTC group outside of Folsom Field

Amidst the traditional silver and gold school colors, CU-Boulder’s campus recently showcased its Air Force-blue heritage.

During a bi-biennial reunion held in Boulder Sept. 17 to 20, 105 alumni from the school’s Air Force ROTC Detachment 105 cadet corps descended upon the city for camaraderie and a chance to mentor the detachment’s next generation of officers.

The inaugural reunion was held in September 2003 with 50 people. Since then, attendance has grown, as has year-group representation. This gathering was the largest yet and spanned the most years, 1955 through 2009.

“I was just ‘shocked and awed’ at the masterful way all the planning came together,” says Medley Gatewood (Geol’62), who attended his first Detachment 105 reunion. “It was great seeing my friends among the distinguished alumni, but I much appreciated meeting and making new friends too.”

Two Air Force ROTC members

The three-day event kicked off with a welcome from Ron Stump, director of CU-Boulder’s Alumni Association and former associate vice chancellor for student affairs.  Along with Mike Grant, associate vice chancellor for undergraduate education and Parent Relations director and retired Air Force Col. Barney Ballinger, a former Det 105 commander, they provided alumni with an hour-long update about the university, including initiatives, construction, tuition and student demographics.

A highlight of each reunion is the Detachment 105 “Cadet Career Day,” which provides cadets the opportunity to meet with alumni who are still on active-duty or have served in the military. This year nearly 50 alumni addressed more than 270 cadets, sharing information about 15 career fields, deployments around the world and other unique Air Force opportunities.

The group also gathered with past and present Detachment 105 cadre members, as well as friends and family, for its traditional “Roll Call,” a jovial dinner full of bantering, toasts and a slideshow. A portion of the evening offered tributes to alumni who have passed away or who have been killed in the line of duty.

During this year’s dinner, a special U.S. flag was presented to retired Maj. ZJ Humbach, a former Detachment 105 cadre member and former faculty member,  in honor of her retirement from 24 years of active duty. The flag flew around the world to eight countries, “visiting” alumni in Iraq, Afghanistan, the DMZ in Korea, Japan, Turkey, Germany, the Republic of Palau and Belgium, as well as six states in the U.S.  Alumni provided pictures of themselves with the flag, which were bound into a commemorative book and presented to Humbach.

A group of ROTC members at the reunion

The guest speaker at this year’s Roll Call was Robert Sandusky (Aero’63), an aerospace consultant, and former Det 105 cadet.  He shared his perspective on the AFROTC program 50 years ago and also explained his path in fighter jet development over the years.

The weekend culminated with alumni cheering the Buffs on during their 24-0 win over Wyoming.

“The high operations tempo of our military lifestyle makes it difficult for many of us to meet up regularly, or even attend these reunions, but knowing we have this to look forward to every two years keeps us looking forward to the next one,” says Emily White Gebo (Hist’00).

The next AFROTC Detachment 105 Reunion will be held in 2011. For more information, please contact Rebecca Ernst Lange (PolSci’00), the event’s primary organizer, at rollcall@colorado.edu.

Christina Reams, a student at CU, checks out UCSU's Adopt-A-Block booth at the Sunday Flea Market

For years it’s been a CU tradition to organize a mass cleanup of the Hill on Homecoming weekend.  Student volunteers and Greek organizations team up to give the front yards, sidewalks and corners a much-needed sweep after multiple weekends of fall partying.

But this year, student government leaders decided a one-time cleanup isn’t enough, says Ashley Michelson, the neighborhood and city relations director with UCSU.  To keep the neighborhood looking sharp throughout the month of October, and hopefully beyond, UCSU created the Adopt-A-Block Uni Hill Community Competition.

The competition gives student groups the chance to adopt a block on the Hill and take responsibility for keeping it clean throughout the month.  Volunteers are encouraged to pick up trash, rake leaves and work with residents to make improvements on their block, Michelson says.  Judges rate the cleanliness of the block each Monday. They will announce the winner of the competition during the Homecoming game on Oct. 31.  Organizers say they hope the competition will turn into a long-term program where students, residents and groups will permanently adopt certain blocks on the Hill.

UCSU tri-executive Christine Thai makes a sign to put up on the block that UCSU adopted for the competition

Two weeks into the competition, eleven groups have signed up to adopt a block.  They were excited about the opportunity to improve the neighborhood, says Christine Thai, a student government tri-executive and one of the competition’s organizers.

Beautiful weather last weekend gave volunteers an ideal opportunity to get outside with rakes and trash bags, spiffing up the streets for Monday’s judging.  Already, the blocks between 11th and 12th look better than they usually do, says Stephen Pavone, a senior at CU and Adopt-a-Block participant.

Surprising to student leaders has been that, in addition to student groups, permanent residents of the Hill have also signed up to adopt a block.

“We were definitely expecting more student groups [to join the program],” Thai says. “Instead, it ended up becoming more of a community event, which is great.”

Pavone, who adopted a block without a connection to a student organization, lived on the Hill for two years.  Now, even though he lives farther east, he spends most of his Saturdays and Sundays at his friend’s house near 12th and Pennsylvania Avenue.

He says he saw the competition announced in the Colorado Daily and, after participating in multiple weekends festivities on the Hill, thought it would be a good way to do his part.

“My friend and I were feeling pretty bad about [our partying] over the weekends,” he says.  “I figured I would engage in community a little bit and volunteer for something.”

“I think it will make me feel better about myself on Sundays,” he adds.

The Hill, he says, has a good vibe of tradition and he supports the effort to make the neighborhood’s cleanliness on par with the rest of Boulder.

His words echo the goals that Thai says the competition is meant to promote.

“We want to encourage students to come out and interact with neighbors,” she says.  “We want to promote a sense of ownership of the Hill.”

One house on the Hill after a weekend of partying