Fueling a Diverse Talent Pipeline
We know that opening the doors to students from more backgrounds and giving them the resources to succeed not only enhances our educational environment, it also translates to a highly diverse and talent-ready workforce. As the job landscape in Colorado shifts and grows, CU Denver strives to create a talent pool that is prepared to enter the work economy today—and lead tomorrow.
Since launching our 2030 Strategic Plan, we are proud to report that we have made significant strides towards achieving our goal of building the diverse talent pipeline of the future:
Across the city, state, and country, our graduates are in demand from top companies and growing industries—and we provide scholarships, real-world learning, and other academic and career opportunities to help our students flourish. This includes expanding the Displaced Aurarian Scholarship program, which enabled student Val Gonzalez to start a new career. Read Val’s story below.
- Ranked #1 in Social Mobility by U.S. News & World Report two years in a row, highlighting CU Denver as the No. 1 university in Colorado for enhancing students’ socioeconomic mobility.
- Continued to recruit and enroll a highly diverse student body, with over 50% of CU Denver undergraduates identifying as persons of color and half being the first in their family to go to college.
- Partnered with the business community to launch the First-Generation and Multicultural Business Program, helping students build social capital and career networks, and gain exposure to careers of interest and access to resources.
- Created an Endowed Professorship in Jain Studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, providing our students yet another new opportunity to become better educated global citizens.
- Expanded the Displaced Aurarian Scholarship, providing tuition-free education for individuals displaced from the Auraria neighborhood when the Auraria Campus was built in the 1970s, as well as provide tuition-free education for their descendants in perpetuity.
- Launched a project to revitalize Historic Ninth Street Park, an anchor of the former Aurarian neighborhood, beginning with the historic preservation of the Centennial House as a geographic and emotional heart of CU Denver’s campus.
Lynx in Focus
Val Gonzalez
Master of Sciences Candidate ’24 Applied Mathematics
When Val Gonzalez walks near Ninth Street Historic Park on his way to a calculus or linear algebra class, he can’t help but think of the past— and of his family. This one-block stretch of preserved homes is part of Auraria, a historic and largely Hispanic neighborhood from which residents and businesses were displaced in the late 1960s and early1970s as the Auraria Campus was created. And for Val, his connection to this place is deep.
CU Denver
CU Denver
Student Commons Building
1201 Larimer Street
Denver, CO 80204
(303) 315-5969