Student-led Initiatives - Colorado College

The Partnership for Civic Engagement supports student initiatives by providing workspace, guidance, and other resources. If you want to learn more about these opportunities or suggest other ways we can provide for student initatives, contact Kira Pasquesi.

STVP Partners are students who want to make a meaningful contribution to a non-profit organization through a combined sharing of skills, money, and time. STVP's primary mission is twofold: building the long-term capacity of a selected non-profit organization and fostering a student community of committed philanthropists. By combining related elements of philanthropic education and nonprofit service, STVP will impact the Pikes Peak Region in a number of unique ways:

• The partnership will support a non-profit organization through partner financial investments and volunteer services. This will build the organizational capacity of selected non-profits, enabling them to serve their constituents more effectively and successfully.
• STVP will function as an entry point for Colorado College students who are new to philanthropy or are interested in enhancing their philanthropic and volunteer experiences.
• Through educational programs, STVP will facilitate workshops for partners and other CC students, providing a complex understanding of the social needs of the community, the challenges facing the Region's nonprofit sector, and the best practices in personal philanthropy.

To learn more about The Student Venture Partnership Program, visit their website.

The Roosevelt Institution is a student think tank which provides the opportunity for students to synthesize their ideas for change and publish them in a journal distributed to national, state and local policy makers.  The Colorado College chapter of the Roosevelt Institution provides the opportunity to link students’ motivation to work for change with their intellectual capital.  Roosevelt’s philosophy of change fits well into the liberal arts educational ideology by both working within the established system and questioning the existing system itself.  The available resources – access to a spectrum of journals, books, experts and professors to consult with, and a campus of intellectually supportive students – can make the policy-generating process a reality.

• Creates a forum for discussion on the challenges facing our local, national and international communities
• Encourages progressive change within those communities through innovative policy proposals
• Provides an organized framework to turn the unique intellectual capital at Colorado College into influential policy proposals

To learn more about the think tank, please contact student leaders David Carlson or Amy Steinhoff.

Coffee Conscious Spring Break
In collaboration with the new Sacred Grounds Coffee Shop, students organized a spring break trip to Oaxaca, Mexico to learn about and provide service to fair-trade coffee growers in the region. The group aspires to limit on-campus coffee consumption to organic, shade grown, fair trade coffee.

No More Deaths/No Mas Muertes
The No More Deaths movement is a diverse coalition of individuals, faith communities, human rights advocates, and grassroots organizers who are engaged in direct and symbolic action to save lives, advocate for immigration policy reform, and raise public awareness about the present-day crisis of migrant deaths in the deserts of the Southwest. The group embraces an action plan that includes movable desert camps, support of migrant aid centers, maintenance of water stations, Samaritan patrols that search the desert for migrants in need, and advocacy on behalf of migrant-related issues.

For more information and instructions on how you can help, please visit www.nomoredeaths.org and click on the link for “Humanitarian Aid is Never a Crime Campaign Toolkit.”

New Voters Project
Approximately 60 students worked on campus and in the community to register over 800 young people between the ages of 18 and 25 to vote in the 2004 presidential election. Several CC students participated in internships through the New Voters Project and developed skills in organizing, leadership, and non-partisan political campaigning.

Election Protection
Over 30 members of the Colorado College community volunteered with the non-partisan Election Protection Coalition to serve as watchdogs at local precincts in the 2004 elections. People for the American Way ranked Colorado Springs among the top 35 cities in the nation where voter intimidation and disenfranchisement was most likely to occur on November 2nd. To help address this concern, CC poll watchers stood outside. To help address this concern, CC poll watchers stood outside polling places educating people about their voting rights, documenting cases of intimidation, and contacting lawyers when necessary. Participants later reflected on their experiences and a Cipher article publicized the event to the broader campus community.