announcements

Meet Alumna Areyana Proctor

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 18:26:55 +0000

Meet Alumna Areyana Proctor Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 03/04/2024 - 11:26

From Montbello to CU Boulder to U of Wisconsin: MA and PhD Candidate Areyana Proctor

Meet Areyana Proctor, a Graduate Student and Teaching Assistant in the MA + Ph.D. program at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in the Communication Arts Department with a focus in Media and Cultural Studies. Her research interests include media representation and public scholarship. She obtained her bachelor's degree from CU Boulder where she double majored in Media Production and Journalism and double minored in Leadership Studies (through the INVST and MLS pathways) and Sociology.

What is your personal story?

My story begins in Montbello, a neighborhood in the Far Northeast corner of Denver, Colorado that is characterized by underfunded education yet resilient and passionate spirits. I attended the University of Colorado at Boulder where I double majored in journalism and media production and double minored in sociology and leadership studies, which allowed me to strengthen my desire to combine social change and artistic practices, along with storytelling. During my time at CU Boulder, the two biggest catalysts that propelled me down the journey that I am on today were the INVST Community Studies and Multicultural Leadership Scholars programs.

Not only did these programs provide me with outstanding academic and professional foundations, but they also provided me with supportive communities that fueled my passion for social justice and were fundamental to my ability to remain at the predominately white institution of CU Boulder. With these programs, I was provided with opportunities including a research assistant for the Boulder Affordable Housing Research Initiative (CU BAHRI) where I had the chance to conduct qualitative research with residents of Boulder regarding the intersections of geographical racism and the lack of access to affordable housing, and work on production for a podcast that the initiative hopes to showcase and engage with the public through a partnership with the KGNU community radio station. I also had the honor of interning with Motus Theater, a Boulder-based organization that works with marginalized people including undocumented, formerly incarcerated, and transgender folks. Motus specifically works with people as they create a monologue detailing their experiences, especially with systems of injustice and oppression. I now serve as a member of the Board, and was recently nominated as a potential Board Vice Chair.

These experiences enabled me to become a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where I recently started an MA + Ph.D. program in the Communication Arts Department with a focus on Media and Cultural Studies. Although I am still developing my specific research focus, I am interested in further exploring media representation and its larger social impacts. As I continue my academic journey, my goal is to continue bridging theory and practice, and I especially hope to explore public scholarship and how what I research can have tangible impacts on the world around me.

What key moments in your life led you to where you are today?

There have been several key moments that have shaped the trajectory of my life. The first of those includes the emphasis on the importance of education that my provides provided to me. From a young age, I was encouraged to read and engage with the world around me, ask questions, and set big goals for myself. This allowed me to enter school with a sense of confidence in myself that other students from my background may not have had. Additionally, the mentorship and support that I have received from the adults around me have been monumental in where I am today.

I can specifically think of a teacher from high school, Dr. Dan Clarke, who gave my peers and me not only advice and words of wisdom, but also took actionable steps to support us and provide us with opportunities, such as allowing us to co-operate a business with him, or allowing us to film and photograph weddings with him as a part of his own business. In college, with professors such as Dr. Sabrina Sideris and Dr. Johanna Maes, I was provided with specific opportunities to conduct research, to see the power that I held within my own self, and who were always there for me for the plethora of projects that I conducted throughout my undergraduate. The opportunity to engage in research, particularly public-facing research through CU BAHRI, allowed me to envision work that I could truly see myself doing for the rest of my life.

Semester at Sea was a transformative experience for me. This immersive journey not only pulled me out of my comfort zone but also exposed me to a global perspective that went beyond what I had previously known. The friendships formed during this program and the exposure to diverse cultures enriched my worldview. These are just some of the key moments that I think have had tangible impacts on where I currently am today.

Where does your passion to serve come from?

My passion to serve comes from my encounters with systems that were designed for people who looked like me to fail, and from the feelings that I have felt now that I am on the other side of some of those systems. I wish for everyone in the world to have the ability to succeed in what they desire to do and to feel as if they are fulfilling their passions.

My passion comes from the lack of opportunities for my peers and me in our small high school in the ignored community of Montbello. It comes from seeing the desire and drive of my peers, yet not having the proper resources to place that desire and drive and wanting to find a way to ensure that everyone has access to those resources.

My passion comes from the shelters that I slept in with my mom and sister, and not wanting anyone to ever have to go through the pain of losing everything you know and having your life be uprooted due to structural inadequacies that weren’t made to protect you and your family.

My passion comes from the classes I have taken that have exposed me to these larger systems and structures that have been set up to fail certain people from the beginning, and from wanting to use my love of storytelling and activism to provide foundations and frameworks for all of us to work together to design a world that works for all rather than some.

How can GlobalMindED help you reach your goals?

Through all of the experiences that I have had the honor of engaging with, the power and importance of community has really stood out to me. With an emphasis on providing community and networking opportunities, GlobalMindED can be very helpful in allowing me to continue to connect with people around the world who have similar goals and passions and whom I can either learn from or work alongside to enact tangible change in the world around us.

This article was written by GlobalMindED: An Inclusive Success NetworkTM dedicated to creating a capable diverse talent pipeline, closing the equity gap for women and people of color, and connecting underrepresented/ underserved students to role models, mentors, internships, and jobs.

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Rumi Natanzi: On the Frontlines of Social Justice and Human Rights

Anonymous — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Rumi Natanzi: On the Frontlines of Social Justice and Human Rights Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 11/07/2023 - 00:00

Rumi Natanzi: On the Frontlines of Social Justice and Human Rights

University of Colorado Boulder senior, Rumi Natanzi, has a rare passion for social justice and human rights. An Iranian-American student and native of Boulder, she was initially unsure of what major to choose when she first arrived as a transfer student. An advisor pointed her to the Leadership and Community Engagement Major led by Roudy Hildreth. “My activist work grew out of the courses I took and the mentors I’ve had within CU Engage,” she stated.” “My first semester at CU I took Sabrina Sideris’s course, Intersectionality Theory, and that class really changed my life and the way I think about things, my disposition, and my goals.” Professor Sideris in reflecting on Rumi’s contributions to her class stated, “I found her to be radiant, curious, intelligent and artful in the way she brings her ideas and perspectives into sentences. She contributed frequently and elevated the conversation, adding insight and wisdom,” Rumi points to her experiences in Sideris’s course as foundational to the development of the leadership skills and activist work she’s now involved in, specifically the grassroots organization, Bouder4Iran (B4I).

The death of Mahsa Amini on September 16, 2022, in Tehran became, for Rumi, an urgent call to action. “That’s the person I am and that’s how I feel all the time,” she stated. “It’s hard for me to understand how people don’t feel that way.” Described by Farnaz Fassihi of The New York Times as “an innocent and ordinary young woman,” the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini ignited a passionate wave of protests worldwide, resulting in 22,000 people detained and 500 killed in violent clashes. Amini was arrested in Tehran for opposing the mandatory hijab and subsequently died while in the custody of the morality police. Her death sparked what became known as, the ‘Mahsa movement,’ the most recent serious challenge to the legitimacy of Iran’s ruling clerics since they took power in 1979.

For Rumi, the year 1979 has a different meaning. It is the year her father immigrated to the U.S, to study chemical engineering in Missouri. Little did he know that he would arrive just months before the Islamic Revolution, making the U.S. his permanent home, something he had never envisioned. Rumi started attending protests and at a young age and was always aware that her identity as an Iranian-American was political. He was very outspoken when the Iranian Republic was established Natanzi told me. “He raised me to be a very critical thinker and to always consider non-Western perspectives when approaching an issue. I would go to protests for Free Palestine or stop the war in Iraq,” she added.

For the past year, Rumi has worked tirelessly to organize and amplify the voice of Iran. “It started as a woman’s revolution but it’s really about the people of Iran,” she stated. Rumi was a major inspiration behind the establishment and persistent work of B4I. “It’s an activist network of people coming together and trying to leverage our privilege in whatever way we can to bring attention to this issue,” Rumi stated. Since its inception Rumi has attended weekly meetings, organized a campus panel on the Woman-Life-Freedom movement which was followed by a community working session held at KGNU. Natanzi who still has family in Iran told me it was difficult to hear about everything that was happening after Amini’s death and how the economic conditions had gotten worse.

Dr. Roudbari, who works alongside Rumi promoting and organizing for Boulder4Iran, spoke to Rumi’s deep understanding of the underlying complexities and passion for a well-informed and culturally sensitive approach to social justice. “Rumi’s commitments to housing equity, gender rights, and struggles for human rights are deeply inspirational! Importantly, her passion is not limited to the pursuit of knowledge—she is also generating and sharing knowledge and engagement,” he stated. “She is brave and willing to try things that are scary -- including organizing in the community with activists and professors who are much older than her, having meetings with US senators and members of the US Congress, engaging in public engaged scholarship on the radio about complex geopolitics and even interviewing a Nobel Peace Prize winner in Farsi, a language in which she is familiar but not fluent,” stated Professor Sideris.

“One of the downfalls of my generation is we have access to so much, resources, the Internet but we have become so insular in our understandings about the rest of the world and we’re desensitized to so much,” Rumi stated. “We care but we don’t feel compelled to do anything.” Rumi is definitely an outlier of her generation, deeply committed to the work of social justice. She recently attended a march in Washington, D.C. for the one-year anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini. “It was such a sad day but it also felt happy in a sense, seeing friends and community come together.” The experience had a profound impact on her. “It solidified that right now social activism is something I want to pursue further. I feel like I have a duty given my privilege and positionality to continue to do whatever I can with my resources and education to help the fight,” Rumi stated, “My whole life it’s always been say you’re Persian,” she stated. “It was like hide your identity in order to protect yourself from hatred, danger or violence. This march was a reclamation in a way. I felt empowered and proud to be Iranian.”

Written by Nandi Pointer

Listen to KGNU radio story featuring Rumi and other CU Boulder academics and activists from July 2023

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INVST Antiracism Studygroup

Anonymous — Tue, 09 May 2023 06:00:00 +0000

INVST Antiracism Studygroup Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/09/2023 - 00:00

What We Are Reading: Rest is Resistance
by Tricia Hersey
Article by Dr. Sabrina Carolina Sideris, Director, The INVST Program
sabrina.sideris@colorado.edu
www.colorado.edu/invst
On Instagram: @invstcu

The INVST Program is a 33-year-old leadership training program at CU Boulder with a focus on community, social justice, and activism for sustainability. We offer community-based learning for eco-social transformation. Process is important to us. Relationship building is our highest priority. We believe that justice and sustainability are possible and we look to changemakers who are bringing that into reality every day, everywhere. With well over 400 alumni, we draw inspiration from members of the INVST family who have chosen to work as elected officials, judges, pro-bono lawyers, urban planners, caregivers, educators, wellness practitioners, small business owners, social movement leaders, parents, and creatives. They work to bring about positive eco-social change as a lifetime commitment.

The INVST Antiracism Study Group recently read Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey. We enjoyed it so much, some of us even went back and read it a second time.

An important set of ideas to contemplate as we begin summer break, Rest is Resistance distinguishes self care and wellness from rest.

Rest is actually activism! It is not an activity like yoga, swimming, hiking, or travel. Of course rest can occur while someone is doing fun outdoor activities in Colorado. What rest is is getting quiet and still so you can REALLY hear your inner voice, the wisdom that has been growing inside you all along, the inner knowing that has been passed along by those who raised you, nurtured you, taught you, those who lived long before you were born. Particularly for folks who have experienced historical oppression due to their identities, to rest is to resist a harmful set of structures and norms.

We’ve got access to all kinds of wisdom that does not look like information. In college, we exchange facts and delve into books and articles, write papers, take exams. We perform by sharing what we know through presentations. And we do lots of this! Grind culture keeps us in a state of exhaustion. In that tired state, learning can become a series of motions we go through. Accomplishing goals, placing check marks next to items on our to-do list, saying yes to all the invitations we receive … but are we fully saying YES to any one of these things? When was the last time you gave your undivided attention to the endeavor of thinking hard about who you really are, how you can support your community in the way it most needs you, and how you can agitate for transformative, inconvenient justice?

Hersey says, when we put people to sleep, we are waking them up. She asks, how will your ancestors speak to you in your dreams if you never take naps? How can we tap into states of discovery and creativity without daydreaming? As leaders, we are not just called upon to fulfill goals and complete tasks. We are asked to be visionary guides for our communities who are struggling to solve urgent, complex, knotty, confusing problems. Only by resting deeply and dreaming, and by integrating this healthy habit into a lifelong commitment to changemaking, can we be available to the most creative parts of ourselves when they arrive, when they speak to us, when they call us forth.

“There has been no space for any of us to dream of anything outside of
what we have been born into. To hear the simple and bold proclamation,
‘You are doing too much. You can rest. You can just be. You can be’
is revolutionary. To believe it and continue to dream up ways to feel and find rest, care, and healing is liberation.”
–Tricia Hersey, The Nap Minister

As summer break arrives, the CU leadership community might want to consider integrating the following into our lives:

Just sit down for half an hour and do absolutely nothing
Stare off into space
Contemplate the way the grass looks when the breeze blows across it
Dream
Make a “Not To Do” list
Silence the alerts that ding and ring
Spend a full day without looking at a screen
Take an app off of your phone
Daydream
Find a rest role model like Tricia Hersey, The Nap Minister
Become a rest role model by telling others: when you are unabashedly resting, they cannot interrupt you with work!

What would happen if all of us were well rested, tapping into our imaginations, playing and experiencing pleasure, and capable of imagining a different world?

Young people in college who study leadership are frequently go-getters who fill their days with action and activity, never pausing. We tell ourselves we will rest after the school year ends. We tell ourselves we will rest after graduation. Professors tell ourselves we will rest when we finally earn tenure or when we’re on sabbatical. But our daily habits in college set in motion our lifetimes as leaders. What young leaders do every day with their time, attention, and energy could very well determine how they will live out their adulthoods.

We must learn lessons about rest as resistance -- particularly in a white supremacist, toxically capitalist society where the grind is so often glorified and normalized. Rest is Resistance is NOT about wellness. It is about refusing work as a form of resistance, as an uprising, since work in this nation’s history -- especially for enslaved Black people -- has been associated with force, violence, family separation, and dehumanization. To stop working is to resist and to carve out space for dreaming of a future that attempts to finally heal that past.

If you’d like to put this book by Tricia Hersey at the top of your summer reading list, buy it from a Black-owned small business such as Semicolon Bookstore or Mahogany Books. Enjoy your daydreams!

The INVST Antiracism Study Group meets on Thursday from 12:30-1:30 pm MT on Zoom at Meeting ID 356 200 9142. All are welcome, regardless of whether you’re associated with INVST or CU Boulder. We’d love to have you. Write to invst@colorado.edu to seek more information.

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Deepening Partnerships in Detroit

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 20:25:17 +0000

Deepening Partnerships in Detroit Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 01/26/2022 - 13:25

Richard Feldman (left) from The Boggs Center hosts the first group of INVST students

INVST is thrilled to announce an evolving relationship with friends new and old from Detroit, Michigan.

In July and August 2022, plans are in the works for INVST to travel to Detroit for a meet-up with the Visionary Organizing Lab and Semester in Detroit, two social justice training organizations with whom we have a lot in common. This exchange will be the centerpiece of the Economic Justice Summer for the INVST Class of 2023, marking a new phase in our relationship with some of the most visionary community leaders in Detroit.

Semester in Detroit is an interdisciplinary blend of Detroit history and culture, creative writing, and community organizing for environmental justice and public engagement. Led by Stephen Ward, professor of Afroamerican & African Studies, we have linked up with this organization because of our previous relationship with the James and Grace Lee Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership. An exciting array of activists and grassroots efforts inspire INVSTers. For several summers, INVST has been visiting Detroit to study the legacy of Jimmy and Grace but in 2022, we will add these new friends from Semester in Detroit to the mix.

We will also spend meaningful time with the Visionary Organizing Lab, an incubator for social change. Visionary Organizing Lab uses history and an experimental approach to education to teach college students how to see and transform historic divides and systems of oppression. Already, they led us in a three-day workshop in August 2021 and we cherished our time together. It provided the foundation for some of the action-taking we are now up to, back at home. Meeting up again in 2022 gives us something fabulous to look forward to!

It has always been a unique feature of INVST to travel straight to the places where social and environmental problems are being tackled by bold, creative, powerful solutionaries. That’s a term from Grace Lee Boggs: solutionaries. Our travels in July/August 2022 will be invigorating.

Get ready to grow and expand, Dear �鶹��Ժ!

INVSTers will be immersed in the community. Through a tour of the city and opportunities to work on urban farms and sit with community leaders, they’ll explore topics including the historic rise of auto worker organizing, art in social movements, and the unique environmental challenges facing Detroit. INVST students will learn to see and transform historic divides and they will come to understand systems of oppression. With expert facilitators, students will (re)learn the wisdom of their own voices and create their visions to build and sustain a more humane world.

INVST students and staff volunteer at Feedom Freedom Growers, one of many community farms in Detroit that partners with The Boggs Center. Wayne and Myrtle Curtis at Feedom Freedom say, “Creating healthy, productive, life affirming communities begins with a collective of people who are giving their work and time to make a difference. We have to create for ourselves the conditions that are best for us, and by educating our minds and hearts we can take control of what goes into our bodies and what comes out of our pockets and purses.”

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Second-Year INVST Student SOL Projects

Anonymous — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 18:19:10 +0000

Second-Year INVST Student SOL Projects Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 12/21/2021 - 11:19

During their second year in INVST, in a collaboration with the community, students create action projects to bring about social justice and positive change. This year, INVST students are focusing their attention, skillfulness and time on reproductive health services, mental health programming, and affordable housing. SOL stands for Serving * Organizing * Leading.

This year, Ellie, Mariam, Kieran, and Fabi are Rewriting Repro. They are partnering with a reproductive justice organization led by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) to work on capacity building. To these four INVST students, capacity building means using the resources that the organization, Interfaith Alliance, already has in place to further grow their strength and power. By developing storytelling workshops, helping to deepen an understanding the art of storytelling, and by respectfully engaging on-campus audiences, the INVST students plan to collect stories from BIPOC at CU Boulder who have stories to share about accessing the reproductive healthcare they need and want. An important partner and mentor to the students as they embark on this learning and action project will be Sam Carwyn, an INVST instructor, storyteller, and reproductive justice advocate.

Meanwhile, Rylee, Cat, and Kenzie are focusing on making sure CU Boulder students are connecting with the mental health resources and programs they need. As we all crawl toward the end of a second year of social distancing, isolation and pandemic-induced melancholy, the need for mental health and wellness resources has grown. Rylee, Cat, and Kenzie hope to foster an

environment on campus that encourages students to gain tools in their lives to be vulnerable, build community, heal, reconnect and feel safe, balance their relationship with the natural world, and deepen their interpersonal relationships. There has never been a better time to reach out and link up with caring, compassionate providers who attend to mental health and whole-person wellness.

Lauren, Lia, Ellory, Julianne, and Areyana are hoping to make INVST training accessible to more CU students by aiming their attention at housing costs for college students in Boulder. They observe: housing in Boulder is expensive. INVST is a program dedicated to eco-social justice. In order to live up to its values, INVST can form a partnership that ultimately will provide affordable housing for more INVST participants. To benefit existing and future INVST students, Lauren, Lia, Ellory, Julianne, and Areyana will strengthen the bond that INVST has with local housing co-ops such as those under the Boulder Housing Coalition, a 501(c)(3).

After completing their Community SOL Projects, these INVST students will have the tools, skills, and experience they need to work in a small group toward a common goal. Many INVSTers go on to become the leaders of local schools, small businesses, values-centered community-based initiatives or perhaps they run for office, volunteer in their neighborhoods, start mutual aid organizations, become artists, authors, teachers, or practitioners of the healing arts. No matter where these INVST students from the Class of 2022 are headed in the future, their INVST experience of turning ideas into action in collaboration with the community will stay with them forever.

Learn more about the Community SOL Project, INVST’s culminating learn-by-doing opportunity for each year-two INVST student, here: /invst/community-partners/sol

Article by Dr. Sabrina C. Sideris, Instructor, INVS 4931: Community Leadership in Action.

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Inspiring INVST Educator Allie Van Buskirk

Anonymous — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 19:56:26 +0000

Inspiring INVST Educator Allie Van Buskirk Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 06/08/2021 - 13:56

In the summer of 2021, we sat down with Allie Van Buskirk (Class of 2008) for a conversation about her many years as an INVST leader. Allie reflects on her contributions to our learning community, the ways she has grown and changed, and the unique needs of college students learning to eliminate the harmful effects of our political, social and environmental arrangements.

Allie, you were an INVST student in Via Ajooba Sol, the cohort that graduated in 2008. For the past 4 years, you have been the instructor of INVS 3931-3932, the Community Leadership Internship, Parts 1 and 2. In between, you have held lots of other leadership roles. What are all the different roles you have had within INVST?

After graduating as a student in the INVST program, I became a Fundraising and Advisory Board (FAB) member and eventually co-chair. I was on the INVST board for over 5 years, and I supported the FAB in developing our methods, documenting board governance and identifying and evolving the two major annual fundraisers that we still utilize today -- BINGO and an auction. When working at Project YES, I was the internship supervisor for a handful of INVST students and also served as a SOL Project advisor a few different times. I facilitated the Climate Justice Summer experiences three different times. This was definitely one of my favorite roles in INVST! Before becoming an instructor, I assisted the Program Director with the staff training for the Summer Program Facilitators and student orientation for a hand-full of years. When Annie Miller was on maternity leave after having a child, I stepped into her role as the Administrative Assistant for three months. Finally, after getting my masters degree, I was able to achieve a goal I had since being a first-year student in the program -- teaching INVS 3931 and INVS 3932. Basically, I have served INVST in every role that you can besides the Program Director!

How have you grown as a communitarian?

I have memories of believing, in my early years of college, that the best way to support communities was through a structured and organized approach taken by non-profit organizations. Upon graduating from CU, I looked to such organizations to find my place in eco-social justice work and I believed that a career in this field would support me in my goal of contributing to my community, in ways large and small. Although I gained incredible experiences and skills early on by doing so, over time, I also started to recognize some of the ways the culture of such organizations can perpetuate harm. In INVST, we have students read Incite’s “The Revolution Will Not be Funded,” and Dean Spade’s book called “Mutual Aid,” to understand critiques of such organizations. Large agencies and charities are often beholden to the desires of funders who may have interest in maintaining the status quo as well as often perpetuating work cultures that are unsustainable. I certainly found myself in situations where I was compromising my health for the work, and was also noticing the influence that philanthropy and specifically foundation funding was having on mission drift, or even the extinction of programs that I was involved with. This certainly spurred an evolution of my growth as a communitarian as I started to shift away from more structured or sanctioned opportunities to participate and towards a grassroots organizing approach that centers around developing relationships.

A more recent example of my growth as a communitarian occured here at CU in the last few years. Before my role as an instructor in the Leadership Studies Minor, I had primarily spent my time participating in and facilitating conversations in community with people who thought a lot like I did. In the leadership classes here, I was exposed to an environment where that wasn’t the case and tension was regularly present. My positionality in this space really pushed me to learn to espouse my values authentically and articulately, and hold myself and others accountable in a way I didn’t know how to before. Relationship building and developing community amongst students has always been natural for me, but I take this role much more seriously now. I’ve been working to recognize and act on the responsibility that comes with my privilege, to develop the self awareness required to show up in all spaces and name the racialized, gendered, etc. dynamics that are at play and work to create environments that are supportive and beneficial for all community members.

Allie Van Buskirk (top left) participates in the INVST Antiracism Study Group, one of many ways we contemplate -isms, reflect upon our own participation in social dynamics, and plan for action and transformative change.

How have you changed as an activist or leader? And which of those terms do you prefer, or would you like to choose your own?

I consider myself to be more of a community member than an activist or leader. If I had to label my experience in this realm, I suppose I would say that I have become more radical in my approach. I initially associated activism with martyrdom, and didn’t take care of myself in the non-profit jobs I had after graduating from CU. Something that has become essential to me is engaging in eco-social justice endeavors in a healthy way. I take the lifetime commitment aspect of our mission very seriously! And, I have been learning how to maintain my commitment while also resting and experiencing more joy in my life. Also, over time, my analysis of social justice issues has become more nuanced. I’ve become less interested in the reform approaches I’ve spent my energy on for most of the last decade and more excited about dreaming into and enacting new and creative ways of being with and supporting one another. I spend a lot of my personal time in groups focused on embodiment practices, practical spirituality, and engaging with what we call “mythic resistance,” the act of connecting to the stories of our lineages to challenge the dominant narratives of this time. I have come to believe that the merging of these and other contemplative practices, combined with action rooted in social justice principles, will cultivate the radical imagination that is needed to guide us into a more just and sustainable world. I am excited to participate in navigating this path forward.

Recall a memory from the INVST classroom. When did you have a magical teaching moment with INVSTers?

I have magical moments with INVSTers all the time! My favorites are moments where all of us in the room are teaching and learning from each other. I also value the classes where we spontaneously drop the activities that are planned for conversations or processing that needs to happen in that moment with those particular people. Although oftentimes that means something challenging is going on, these moments are filled with the rawness and vulnerability that deepens our self-awareness and relationships with one another. There is a presence in those conversations. There is honesty and love and support. Everything feels real. These moments have meant the most to me when working with INVST students.

Allie Van Buskirk (top row, second from left) has generously given her summers to travel with INVST students on their Climate Justice Summers. Here she is in Delta County at Thistle Whistle Farm where CU students learn how organic farming, protecting our waterways, and coal mining do or don't mix in the rural United States.

What is your advice for INVST staff who may join our community in the future?

Trust the students. The students in INVST are always a really beautiful guide for knowing what needs to be happening. Also, INVST is a unique program because we have some serious longevity, while at the same time, we seek to adapt to what is going on in the world around us. We strive to meet the present needs of the communities we work with. It's a really interesting dance to upholding aspects of our program that have worked very well for over 30 years, while creating space for something new. My advice to future staff is to give more attention to areas in which we can evolve and grow to best meet the current moment and the students we serve. Lastly, I strongly believe good things come when we give ourselves permission to be vulnerable, so I hope that whoever steps into my role will be excited about participating in an environment where we relate to each other from a heart space, and continue to cultivate that.

Article by Areyana Proctor, Allie Van Buskirk and Sabrina Sideris

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Mariam Lara & Mental Health in the Latinx Community

Anonymous — Tue, 24 Nov 2020 04:42:29 +0000

Mariam Lara & Mental Health in the Latinx Community Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/23/2020 - 21:42

Mariam Lara is a member of the INVST Class of 2020-2022. She has been passionately involved in destigmatizing mental illness in the Latinx community for the past couple of years. We had the chance to connect in October and she shared with me her work, drive and personal evolution.

SAMLA stands for Supporting Action for Mental Health for Latinx People. Initially, it emerged as a grassroots movement formed by Latina women in response to two mental health crises that happened in the city of Longmont. One resulted in a child being taken from their family. Initially called Chispaz, the group had the goal of destigmatizing mental illness, providing mental health resources, and building community around Latinx mental health support.

Mariam joined the movement last year. She participated in two events: at the first, a presentation called “Semillas” at Front Range Community College, Mariam spoke from her perspective as a Latina college student, of the problem of hiding mental health challenges within the college community. The second event, “No Estamos Solos” was a collaboration with CIRC and bilingual mental health professionals, and aimed to address the struggles in dealing with immigration and the stigma of going to therapy. Mariam recalled how powerful it was for her to see people in her community speaking up and calling for mental health resources.

In her own family, Mariam describes the unspoken understanding that “whatever happens in the house, stays in the house.” There is shame surrounding appearing weak or speaking of depression or anxiety. The norm is to put up a strong shield and “pray it out.” Mariam wants to normalize pursuing mental health resources within the Latinx community. “Sometimes we need more than praying and pushing it away can make it worse.”

Through this work, which began as an exploration into her own mental health and an interest in understanding herself better, Mariam has found her voice as an advocate and cultural representative for her people. She transferred from Front Range to CU Boulder in the Fall of 2020 and joined INVST and PA (Public Achievement). Mariam speaks of her anxiety and fear of public speaking. “If you would have told me a couple of years ago that I would be doing this, I would have thought no way.”

She credits Karen Moreno, one of the founders of SAMLA, and a mentor to Mariam who encouraged her to get involved, telling her the importance of representation of Latinx leaders, and supporting her in embracing her identity and building her leadership skills. She has been a strong inspiration for Mariam and has guided her from speaking at school meetings to mentoring at the youth center, to helping her build her resume.

In INVST and PA, Mariam feels that she can share her views and be proud of herself and her culture. With her INVST cohort, where not all members share her identity, she has had the opportunity for cross-cultural exchange and has found support for her passion and vision. She appreciates how her INVST cohort embraces practices such as meditation and mental health support.

Mariam finds hope in the younger generations talking about mental health more and exposing the toxicity of the machismo culture of keeping everything inside and putting on a strong front. She puts out the call to everyone reading this to support SAMLA through financial gifts or otherwise, so that the program can continue to stay relevant and provide mental health services to Latinx and BIPOC communities during the pandemic when these resources are more important than ever.

Mariam studies sociology at CU Boulder in addition to pursuing the 2-year INVST Program and Public Achievement.

Written by Annie Miller

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Building a Better World

Anonymous — Thu, 28 May 2020 17:33:16 +0000

Building a Better World Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 05/28/2020 - 11:33

Architect Taliah Weber is an INVST alumna from the Class of 2005.

Taliah Weber (left) at the ribbon cutting ceremony for Montview Elementary School in Aurora, CO. Taliah helped design the new music and art rooms and created an art courtyard, as well as renovating the school’s interior. This was a nice project, Taliah says, because the upgrades were long-overdue.

She is seeking a professional development opportunity to travel and learn about educational spaces in other cultures. Taliah is applying for a travel grant for architects to better understand international communities and cultures. This exposure will improve Taliah’s design ability, back at home. She works primarily on schools, so Taliah is interested in visiting schools in Finland and South Korea.

These two nations have some of the most highly regarded school systems in the world, and they have the highest levels of equality in education across socio-economic levels. Taliah is interested in how their spaces are designed, how students and teachers use the spaces, and what she can bring back to her work on public schools in the Denver Metro area.

Taliah’s desire to listen and learn from and with diverse communities is a fabulous expression of her commitment to life-long learning. Her career and contribution show what kinds of things INVST alumni get up to in life.

With her architecture firm, Eidos Architects, Taliah led a site visit to a retirement home under construction. The site visit was part of a mentorship and education program for younger staff.

PHOTO CREDITS: Eidos Architects

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The March Was Just the Beginning

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Apr 2018 23:21:40 +0000

The March Was Just the Beginning Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 04/20/2018 - 17:21

Today is the 19th anniversary of the shooting at Columbine High School.

On this day of remembering, a national school walkout unfolds, led by youth who are passionately advocating for reforms to gun laws. We sat down with a current INVST student, Olivia Gardner who is in her first year of INVST training. Olivia was an organizer of the March 24, 2018 March for Our Lives Colorado.

INVST: How did you get involved in organizing against gun violence?

Olivia: There was a message sent out on FaceBook about students getting together exactly a month before the March for Our Lives. In the first meeting we had, we created a board called Never Again 5280. We held an election online, across the state of Colorado. I was elected as secretary.

INVST: Leading up to the march, how did you get the word out? How did you coordinate different schools across Colorado? How did you know how to include the voices of different youth? Olivia: There are seven different congressional districts across Colorado, so we had seven different representatives for each of the districts, plus a high school coordinator and a college coordinator. So we all took on the area of Colorado that we were in. It’s kind of like a big web of connection, letting each other know -- a lot of social media interaction.

INVST: Was March for Our Lives Colorado completely independent from the march that took place in Washington, D.C. or were the talking points and central themes issued from a central organizer to you and the other 799 solidarity marches that took place in various cities? Were you independent, or did you receive guidance from a central organizer?

Olivia: Everytown Organization is a non-profit that focuses on gun safety, and they were the ones who helped with every march. They are that national voice. They were a guiding source for how the day would roll out. But most of it was the students just doing the research, coming up with talking points, and finding resources. For example, Jessica, our Director for Political Affairs needed help finding different definitions of what an assault weapon is, which was actually hard to find research on.

ON MARCH DAY

INVST: As Secretary, what was the role you played on the day of March for Our Lives Colorado?

Olivia: On the march day, I was the site manager. I made sure the press riser was where it needed to be, as well as the March for Our Lives banner on the stage. We had volunteers from Moms in Action and �鶹��Ժ in Action, and students from across Colorado helped in any way they could, putting trash cans at Civic Center Park so that we didn’t leave the park a mess, and so much more. The day of the march I made sure everything was organized and where it needed to be.

INVST: And at March for Our Lives Colorado, what was the message that you hoped would make the local press? What did you want the news to look like, that night or the next morning?

Olivia: That the march was just the beginning. It was kind of like the momentum in this whole movement. It was just the first step. Now, it’s about actual legislative action and change.

INVST: How did you walk that line between sadness and poignant reflection and grief, and also, launching something? How did your event generate momentum? Did you and your colleagues have any discussions about that?

Olivia: With my colleagues, we had a lot of discussions. Leading up to it, right before the march, when everything was in place, that’s when we started really getting focused, and there was a lot of conversation. But even on stage, most of us were in tears.

INVST: For anyone who wasn’t there, what was the mood like?

Olivia: It was an uplifting mood, but at the same time it was melancholy. It was a reflection of how much we have let this continue on. With our speakers, we had Connie Sanders who lost her dad at Columbine, and we had Tom Mauser [father of slain Columbine student Daniel Mauser] and then we had Aurora Theatre shooting survivors, who talked about how their best friends were killed in the shooting. Colorado is the launch pad of shootings within the nation, which is really disgusting.

INVST: So what’s next?

Olivia: We had a Town Hall on Saturday, April 7th at a high school. We invited all Colorado representatives. It was a discussion to see where they stand. We also invited victims to come and talk, so I facilitated a panel with Connie Sanders and Tom Mauser, who talked about what they want to see. We are organizing another event on May 19th, a Gubernatorial Debate from 6-8 pm at Manual High School. We are also collaborating with the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center. It will be a Candidates Forum on gun violence that is yet to be scheduled. Youth leaders will be the moderators and the ones who ask the questions.

INVST: There’s a lot of attention on everything that’s happened since the March for Our Lives. I saw that Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students [in Florida] are now required to wear see-through backpacks to school. �鶹��Ժ including, but not limited to March for Our Lives movement leader Emma Gonzales, are saying, “You are making a lot of changes, but not the right changes.” How do legislators make sure their eyes are on the prize? How do they pass the right changes?

Olivia: It’s about remembering and keeping the focus. We want to make sure that the people we have in office are actually working for their constituents -- working for the people who actually voted them into office. The march was just the beginning. Now we are working for legislative action and change.

Olivia Gardner is a first-year INVST student and a Sophomore at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her community organizing was featured in March 24th's Washington Post article by Donna Bryson titled In Denver, staving off a sense of hopelessness by lobbying for change.

INVST student Olivia Gardner describes how she helped organize the March for Our Lives Colorado

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“Don’t Let Anybody Tell You That You Can’t Do Something”

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Oct 2017 21:42:13 +0000

“Don’t Let Anybody Tell You That You Can’t Do Something” Anonymous (not verified) Sat, 10/28/2017 - 15:42

L LeNard, along with two other members of her INVST cohort, Hannah Mook and Andrea Baeza Brienbauer (INVST Class of 2017), are putting the finishing touches on a children’s book that they created for their second-year SOL (Serving*Organizing*Leading) Project. The book explores immigration issues and is written in a historical fiction format. The story itself is inspired by and compiled from the memories of Boulder residents Eleanor Montour and her mother Alicia Sanchez.

With immigration issues in the headlines, Lenard, Mook and Baeza started thinking about this project. LeNard said, “There was a lot of talk about what we could do. We did a lot of research on what was going on in the community and it was luck that we stumbled upon the opportunity to make this book.” The students worked in partnership with The Boulder Latino History Project, a collaborative and grassroots initiative that is documenting and describing the history of Latinos in Boulder County over the past century.

All three INVST students took part in illustrating and writing the book. They are now making final edits and consulting with community partners to ensure that the Spanish translation is appropriate and relevant. LeNard shared that the creation of the book was a journey full of fun and learning. “One of the most exciting things was the fact that when Eleanor read our draft, she loved it and was able to recognize some of the places; they are drawn realistically in the book. It made me happy she thought it was super cool.”

The book will be published soon. Stay posted for details on a book launch celebration.

“One of the most exciting things was the fact that when Eleanor read our draft, she loved it and was able to recognize some of the places; they are drawn realistically in the book. It made me happy she thought it was super cool.”
More at INVST's Facebook Page.

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