Chris Snedeker was looking for a way to serve the community when an email from Impact on Education dropped into his inbox. For Chris, serving his community is about engaging with people on a personal level and paying it forward. BVSD and Impact on Education have been ever-present entities in his life as his kids wound their way through the school system. The many challenges and great people—teachers, administrators and of course, their friends—on that path always impressed him, so it was easy to say yes to a request for help distributing food to BVSD student families.
After an online training, Chris was given a confidential list of eight BVSD student families who needed food deliveries. He showed up at Columbine Elementary School early the next Monday unsure of what to expect. The day prior he made a practice run to ensure all of the student’s homes were accessible.
At Columbine, Chris was greeted with cheerful smiles—yes, you can see twinkling eyes above those masks—helpful guidance and kind gestures. The BVSD personnel were busy pulling cartons of food off trucks, stuffing individual bags of food and organizing gallons of milk. Despite how busy they were, they took time to walk him through the procedure: delivering one and one-half gallons of milk and a full grocery bag to each student, each week.
“I encountered people who were energetic, conscientious and fun to work with.”
Setting off to make the deliveries, Chris didn’t know what to expect at the other end. BVSD advised volunteers to make contact and be friendly, but maintain distance. What he found with each and every delivery was someone who came to the door, smiled at him and said thanks with an evident depth of gratitude. This was true of each of the five households (eight kids). After a couple of weeks, the deliveries were doubled to 16 kids, but the friendly welcome and gracious appreciation continued.
Chris continues to deliver food each Monday to make sure BVSD students have the nourishment they need to tackle their studies. He says he is struck by the consideration, gratitude and friendliness he encounters at every step of this journey.
“I’m having fun and thankful for the opportunity to engage with members of our community that I rarely see,” Chris says. By giving in this way, Chris is seeing his own horizons expand. Helping the community he raised his family in is further strengthening his ties to Boulder, Impact on Education and BVSD.
Interested in volunteering with us? Learn more or sign-up on our volunteer page.
By Karen Antonacci
Today, Carlos Pacheco is the CEO of Boulder-based Premier Members Federal Credit Union and Board Chair of Impact on Education, but he still remembers the teachers who impacted him the most when he was a student in Northern California.
“There was Mr. Carney, back in 7th and 8th grade when you had one teacher for most of your classes. He was an ex-Marine and he was awesome. He joked around when it was appropriate but he always made sure you were learning and drove you to be better,” Carlos remembered.
Carlos’s parents immigrated from Lima, Peru and sacrificed and saved in order to send their six kids to Catholic schools in California. For Carlos, the experience solidified an appreciation of teachers who can lay a solid educational foundation for students.
Now, as a parent of two teenage daughters in the public school system, Carlos said he sees great teachers having even more of an impact as they had to provide remote instruction and stability through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I distinctly remember the teachers that made an impact on me and I see my daughters experiencing the same thing. Teachers are working tirelessly and more than anyone ever expected of them in the last year. If you have a good teacher, you will remember that for the rest of your life,” Carlos said.
IOE’s mission to support students in Boulder Valley public schools with resources to address critical needs and opportunity gaps resonates with Carlos. He said it’s vital to provide every student with the right tools so they can make the most of their education. When COVID-19 restrictions forced many students to learn online for the first time, he was impressed by IOE’s push to make sure BVSD students had what they needed to learn.
“We hope to be that connective tissue between what the public institutions are doing and what the private families are able to do and provide that connection, whether it’s technology, mentoring, supplies,” Carlos said. “It’s great seeing our ability to get out in the community and deliver school starter packs. You have to have the right tools to be able to get the most out of education like food or internet connection and we have the opportunity to close those gaps.”
Carlos compared education to a race and IOE’s work to making sure every student is in place on their starting blocks, and has their running shoes on.
“Everyone should be able to reach their educational attainment to the fullest extent, whatever that might mean,” he said “After high school I started junior college, but then I got a really good job and I didn’t go back and get my bachelor’s degree until later in life, but that foundation of K-12 was so important. We should eliminate those gaps and get students set up to explore their passions and pursue them in trade or business.”
Carlos also serves as a Board Director for the Denver/Boulder Better Business Bureau. Perhaps then it is no surprise that when Carlos thinks about what lies on the horizon for IOE, he thinks like a businessman looking to franchise a successful endeavor.
Although other school districts have similar organizations to Impact on Education, he would like to see the successful effort to connect public school students with the resources they need for education replicated across the country.
Last year, we kicked off a partnership with Couragion, a locally owned software company working to inspire underrepresented students to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers. This women-led company uses an online platform to provide inclusive, work-based learning experiences that introduce students to jobs of the future.
We proposed a pilot program to the Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) to implement Couragion in order to meet the district’s career and technical objectives. Our goal was to see if this new software could more precisely align with these objectives than the Career Pathways program, an in-house mentorship program helping elementary students explore careers. Working with Arlie Huffman, Director of CTE Education for BVSD, and Katie Romero, Director of Student Support for BVSD, we were able to launch the program in the fall of 2020.
We targeted five BVSD middle schools for the Couragion pilot program to reach a cross-section of schools representing various geographies, academic environments, and socioeconomic demographics. Their school counselors received training in September 2020, and then their students received access to the platform for eight weeks.
4,580 career “quests” were completed by students throughout the program, with each student completing an average of 4.1 quests.
Students were surveyed each time they used Couragion, and the program showed an increased knowledge of STEM careers and school resources. The pilot results include:
The student participants demonstrated self-awareness, critical thinking and a broadened knowledge of career possibilities:
Some students also focused on a specific career goal:
The goals of this pilot program extend beyond career exposure to impact on course selection and the perception of how STEM classes can lead to careers. With our partners at BVSD, we are now evaluating next steps to determine if we should continue to offer Couragion to BVSD middle schoolers in the 21-22 school year and how we might deploy it most successfully in the future.
We recently shared the story of Earl and Barbara Bolton, announcing the $500,000 endowment they left to Impact on Education. Today, we’re excited to share the details of our newest college scholarship opportunity for Boulder Valley students, the Earl and Barbara Bolton Scholarship, and two other scholarships available to BVSD high school seniors.
All seniors who meet the eligibility criteria are encouraged to apply. These scholarships are only available to BVSD students.
All three scholarships are accepting applications now through April 18, 2021.
This $5000 scholarship is renewable for up to four years ($20,000). Applications are accepted from BVSD graduating seniors who demonstrate financial need, have an acceptance letter to a Colorado college (2-or 4-year) or university, and plan to pursue engineering, forestry, nursing, or medicine.
Born in 1920 and 1924 respectively, Barbara and Earl both grew up in Boulder County — Barbara in the City of Boulder and Earl in the City of Longmont. The pair met in grade school but fell in love while attending Boulder High School.
Earl was a distinguished Army veteran, and Barbara was the first draftswoman for Boeing.The couple settled in Boulder and worked with the National Bureau of Standards (now known as the National Institute of Standards and Technology), until retiring together in 1980. They dedicated much of their lives to aviation, education, and travel, and were both driven to give back to those in need.
Review the full eligibility requirements or the scholarship application.
This $1,000 scholarship is renewable for up to two years ($2,000). Applications are accepted from BVSD graduating seniors planning to pursue a vocational, technical or community college education (full or part-time).
Dennie Wise, a former Impact on Education board member, established a scholarship fund in his wife Donna’s name upon her death. He wanted to help BVSD graduating students access community college and trade school by offering a scholarship to students who choose to pursue post-secondary education at a vocational, technical, or community college. When Dennie passed away, his children contributed to the scholarship fund and requested the scholarship name be updated to honor both parents.
Review the full eligibility requirements or the scholarship application.
This $1,500 scholarship is offered to two graduating seniors (one male, one female) who have attended both Boulder High School and Foothill Elementary and plan to pursue elementary education.
James B. Gould and Bernice W. Gould left Impact on Education this scholarship endowment to aid Boulder High School students seeking to become elementary school educators.
Review the full eligibility requirements or the scholarship application.
Impact on Education ReFUND CO Registration #: 20043010248
Will you help us turn tax season into a new season of giving? ReFUND CO allows you to donate some or all of your state tax return to the Colorado non-profit organization of your choice. Choosing to pay your refund forward to Impact on Education means, you’re helping meet the critical needs of students in Boulder Valley schools, including IT, child care, meals, and supplemental instruction.
Last year, Colorado returned more than $1 billion in refunds to 1.9 million state taxpayers. Imagine what that could do for community-based programs like us!
Will you share your refund in support of Boulder Valley students?
It’s a simple process to donate and you’re in charge of where your donation goes:
Find more details here: RefundWhatMatters.org
We’re excited to share the second round of Student Advisory Board interviews with local community leaders.
Our students asked the leaders questions about how high school impacted their lives and careers as well as issues facing high school students today. They also sought advice for making the most of their time in high school and early on in their careers.
In this edition, we hear from the first Colorado African-American member of Congress, the first female Boulder city manager, a healthcare CEO envisioning healthcare as an industry of service, and the co-founder of a wildly successful yoghurt company.
Below, our students provide a glimpse into their conversations, and you’ll find links to each individual interview.
Joe Neguse represents Colorado’s 2nd District in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was elected to his first term in November 2018, becoming the first Colorado African-American member of Congress in our state’s history. He was interviewed by Jasper Brockett and Audrey Bahintchie.
Jasper enjoyed learning “the degree to which he was involved with things in college” and getting a behind the scenes look at life as a Congressman. Audrey related to how his immigrant parents have influenced how he lives his life, “as I too take on life with the beliefs that were passed down to me from my mother.”
Jane Brautigam is the former city manager of the City of Boulder. She is the first female city manager and longest serving Boulder city manager in modern history and shared her story with Elle Vickey.
More a conversation between the two than an interview, the experience of hearing that Jane enjoyed being a city manager more than being a lawyer surprised Elle. She found it interesting that Jane “believed in doing things that were able to help more people and reach her community.”
Isaac is the CEO of Avista Adventist Hospital in Louisville, Colorado. He shared his experience as the son of Cuban immigrants and his journey into healthcare with Sara Cuervo and Lolita Grandbois.
Sara was surprised to hear Isaac talk about how higher positions often have less control but thought it made sense because “you have to rely on others, have trust, and allow for nuance to be a good leader.” Lolita enjoyed the opportunity to hear about Isaac’s journey to CEO “and getting to know him on a personal level.”
Koel Thomae is the Co-Founder of Noosa Yoghurt. She shared her story of building a yoghurt company with Bella Chang and Paul Masters.
Paul found it interesting to “hear from someone with an outside perspective on what it’s like to live in the United States.” And Bella was struck by the importance of building a strong team. Even though Koel didn’t have a background in dairy, “she paired up with someone with dairy experience and she was in charge of the business and marketing.”
Each of the leaders’ What I Know Now interviews highlights the uniqueness of success. We’re proud our Student Advisory Board leaders could bring out each leader’s individual story and learn so much in the process.
In this edition, we hear from the first Colorado African-American member of Congress, the first female Boulder city manager, a healthcare CEO envisioning healthcare as an industry of service, and the founder of a wildly successful yoghurt company.
What do a Google engineer, a Colorado House representative, and two entrepreneurs have in common?
Our Student Advisory Board recently set out to learn from leaders in our local community about how high school impacted their own lives and careers. These virtual interviews discussed favorite classes, important life skills, and issues such as equity, allowing students to glean key insights from a diverse group of community leaders.
How do their high school experiences contrast with those of current students in the Boulder Valley School District? What advice can they offer students navigating personal and academic growth as they look toward their futures?
And of course: what do a Google engineer, a Colorado House representative, and two entrepreneurs have in common? Each community leader emphasized the importance of written communication skills as critical to their success, one insisting that a pen and paper should travel with you everywhere you go!
Below, our students provide a glimpse into four of these conversations, and you’ll find links to each individual interview.
Bhavna Chhabra is the Payment Engineering Director and Boulder Site Lead for Google. She was interviewed by Noah Mollerstuen and Maya Clements. Bhavna shared her unique journey to engineering, emphasizing the importance of hard work and communication skills.
Noah’s favorite part of the interview “was the opportunity to get advice from an industry leader on what students in our position can do to create a more equitable and inclusive school system,” while Maya enjoyed learning what it’s like to hold an influential position, and hearing “ about the trials and tribulations that come with the path when you’re a minority in your field.”
Justin Gold is the Founder of Justin’s, a local natural foods company. He was interviewed by Lindsey Kendall and Mattie Pape. Justin shared his entrepreneurial journey and the importance of surrounding oneself with diverse and smart people who will challenge your thoughts and ideas.
Lindsey was surprised to hear Justin share two important skills for running a business: positivity and curiosity: “Those are the things you are told when you are young, but to know he still thought those were important was surprising.” Mattie enjoyed hearing “how his unique experiences shaped his company. This taught me that all of our unique interests can grow into something big.”
KC Becker is a former Colorado state representative and Speaker in the Colorado House of Representatives. She shared her high school experiences and political journey with our students, Abby Cohen and James Clemson.
When talking about “how to encourage diversity in both government and at school, she told us Colorado is one of two states with a majority female legislature, and emphasized how diversity can only be achieved through active effort,” says James. Abby says it was “an amazing opportunity. I really value her viewpoints … even though we disagreed on a few things.”
Pete Estler is an innovative tech entrepreneur who founded and served as CEO of Quintess, was Chief Executive Officer of dbINTELLECT Technologies, and later founded and served as CEO of MatchLogic. He shared his entrepreneurial lens and perspective with Emery Jansen and Roane Edwards.
Emery found “it was incredibly fascinating to research our interviewee and brainstorm questions that would truly challenge him…Pete recognized the importance of diversity of thought, meeting people from all walks of life … and he emphasized that experiencing life and exiting the bubble Boulder County kids live in is vital to gaining perspective and learning how to better collaborate.”
In this edition, we hear from the first Colorado African-American member of Congress, the first female Boulder city manager, a healthcare CEO envisioning healthcare as an industry of service, and the founder of a wildly successful yoghurt company.
What do a Google engineer, a Colorado House representative, and two entrepreneurs have in common?
As I think we all know by now, last week’s rally and subsequent storming of the U.S. Capitol were not isolated incidents nor are they a temporary problem that can quickly be resolved.
It was interesting (and difficult) timing that we held a Board and staff conversation about race, equity and inclusion the very next night. The session was led by a talented facilitator who helped us understand and reconcile our own biases and develop tools to overcome them as individuals and as an organization. We left the meeting feeling empowered and hopeful that we were having the hard discussions that can really make a difference, and that our entire team is deeply committed to equity.
As we reflected on the work we did that night, we realized that our work to embrace diversity, to champion equity, to become more inclusive and to ensure justice is finally poised to move beyond talk and into action.
For a long time in education, and especially in Boulder Valley, we’ve talked about our persistent achievement gap. Students of color fare worse in almost every conceivable way, scoring lower on standardized tests, enrolling in fewer advanced classes and offered fewer post-secondary options. Our students reflect similar realities along economic lines.
Our affluent and middle income students perform well while their low income peers lag significantly behind. And despite all of the talk about the quantifiable facts that are laid bare when you look at student academic performance, very little action is taken to address this achievement gap.
Last week, over 50 of BVSD’s talented professionals serving on the post-pandemic recovery task force met to discuss the robust recovery work that will address these persistent inequalities exacerbated by the pandemic.
Educational equity was a priority when our organization was founded nearly 40 years ago. Since March, however, we’ve been particularly concerned about how disruptions to learning would impact students, especially those who are traditionally underserved.
The pandemic shifted our funding priorities from addressing achievement and opportunity gaps to addressing newly identified critical needs of our students. In 2020, we raised $2.4 million to support students in the Boulder Valley School District. This funding allowed us to provide:
Now, we are finally at a place where we can create targeted interventions to address both the academic and social-emotional well-being of students. I’m encouraged by the forthcoming BVSD plan and how it might create lasting change for students in our community.
While overcoming disparities and addressing inequities among local students will take time, we’re working to ensure that meaningful action is taken now to ensure changes that endure far beyond the pandemic. We are hopeful that this work may one day be seen as a turning point, and that a positive legacy of these trying times will be the way we finally moved beyond talking about equity to finally addressing it.
Our Student Advisory Board is a fun and collaborative leadership experience for Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) high school students.
We launched this program in 2019 to help advise our efforts and guide our investments. Our Student Advisory Board brings together students currently enrolled in Boulder Valley’s 13 high schools to share their perspectives and insights and create an initiative focused on an issue of importance to them.
A new leadership opportunity for the 2020-2021 Student Advisory Board involves conducting interviews with members of our local community. Pairs of students are preparing questions and sitting down for virtual conversations with a diverse group of local leaders to answer the question: What do you know now?
Looking back from high school to the present, what stands out? What lessons or insights do you want to share with students? And what advice can you offer as students navigate issues from equity to diversity to innovation in public schools?
Students will be interviewing leaders from a variety of industries, including government, tech, natural foods, and healthcare. Each interview will be a little different, but we hope you’ll be inspired by their honest conversations about topics important to our students and maybe learn something new.
Edition 1:
Edition 2:
In this edition, we hear from the first Colorado African-American member of Congress, the first female Boulder city manager, a healthcare CEO envisioning healthcare as an industry of service, and the founder of a wildly successful yoghurt company.
What do a Google engineer, a Colorado House representative, and two entrepreneurs have in common?
For the holidays this year, I bought each member of our small staff team a 2021 wall calendar (purchased from a local business, of course!). While calendars may not always be a coveted gift, this year, they felt significant. There’s something special about wrapping up the challenges we faced this year and anticipating brighter days in the year to come.
As I reflect on 2020 and the work we accomplished at Impact on Education, I’ve found many reasons to be grateful.
This year, with incredible supporters behind us and in partnership with some of the most committed professionals I’ve ever known, we helped students in our community in ways we could never have imagined a year ago. While the public health and economic crises created unbelievable hardship and loss for our community, we are fortunate they also allowed us to jump into action and respond in ways that I hope will be lasting.
Specifically, how incredible is it that 2020 was the year we eliminated the digital divide among students in BVSD, by providing home internet to all who needed it? The year when we finally understood the role that social emotional well-being plays in academic achievement? Or the year we recognized quite how many students don’t have enough to eat without the nourishment they receive at school?
2020 is the year we responded more boldly, more completely and more rapidly to eliminate barriers faced by students in BVSD.
Many of our job descriptions changed this year while searching for innovative ways to engage students in learning. And while things were far from ideal for students, our community came together to support our public schools and stood in solidarity with our most impacted students.
I hope we all learned to identify and acknowledge our privilege this year. I certainly have plenty, but still had my struggles. As tough as some days are, as troubling as individual stories of struggle are for us to handle, it seems that as challenges grow, so does the generosity of this community. With new supporters joining us in record numbers, we were able to keep pace with the growing needs of our students and contribute in some incredibly meaningful ways.
Moving into 2021, I hope this spirit of helping our neighbors, this commitment to equity, and the belief in the power of public education, stays with us.
Since 1983, we’ve been BVSD’s support system, providing supplemental funding and resources to expand what’s possible and promote equity in public education. This year, we were challenged in ways we have never been challenged before. And the fact that we’ve been able to rise to meet those challenges gives me hope.
All of us here at Impact on Education appreciate the opportunity to do this work and all who help make it possible. We hope you feel confident in our ability to reach new heights in 2021 and share our anticipation of the brighter days ahead.
With gratitude,
Allison Billings
Executive Director
info@impactoneducation.org
303.524.3865
Impact on Education
721 Front Street, Suite A
Louisville, CO 80027
Tax ID #84-0943046
