Service to College and Community
Preface
In Breckenridge, CMC is embedded into our community with the college serving Summit County and the community supporting CMC. It is a beautiful interdependent, mutually beneficial relationship. We as faculty are representatives of CMC and must always positively facilitate this relationship. It is an honor to be a member of such an amazing college and community and I take pride in my role in both. In my role as a faculty member, I have impacted my community in many different ways including offering numerous presentations on mental health to the community, moderating panel discussions, leading activities, and bridging the college and community.
I have served the college through a myriad of opportunities for colleague support and committee work. I have participated on several hiring committees including four within the discipline (Steamboat, Rifle, Edwards, Glenwood – not including three failed searches spanning multiple rounds) as well as three committees outside of Human Services including EDU Summit/Leadville, EDU Edwards, and ESL Summit. I have also acted as a member of the Institutional Review Board for research requests for six years. In addition, I have found participating on the Summit Campus Graduation committee to be a meaningful way to serve the college and help facilitate incredible graduations. Finally I have provided mentorship to new ESL faculty, Lindsay Gilmore. These services to the college have been highly significant to me, as well as a benefit to the college and students.
Serving our community is something that I truly enjoy doing. I am grateful to be able to provide support to such an incredible community that also picks me up when needed. Assisting a community is best done by first listening to the needs. Collaborating with local non-profits has allotted me substantial opportunities to serve the people around me. Club Forget Me Not is a local organization that I helped start and now act as a board member, therapy team member, webmaster/photographer, and wellness coordinator. This group was created in response to a series of deaths in our community, providing an outlet for children who have lost a parent or sibling. This support was truly needed and it is a gift to serve so many families.
Our local non-profit, Building Hope, is all-things-mental-health in Summit county and serves in so many ways. Partnering with them on speaking engagements, moderating mental health discussions, teaching classes, and leading support groups are a few of the ways I have collaborated with them to serve our community. Three events jump out as memorable for me with the most impactful being the experience of moderating a panel with Olympic silver medalist Nick Goepper promoting positive mental wellness. Second, speaking and moderating a showing of the Five Point Adventure Film Festival with a rich discussion about individual and community mental health. Third, having our “Cooking up Hope in the Kitchen” class featured on a television show about community mental health initiatives with Tamlin Hall.
At one point the term “community college” became outdated , but CMC is a college for our community. Serving our community strengthens everyone and allows our mountain towns to truly thrive and flourish.