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Carol Lally '90
graduated with a degree in English. She is now an intellectual
property lawyer.
Neal Baer '78 earned
his degree in political science. He is the executive producer and
writer for the hit show "ER."
Colorado
U.S. Senator Ken
Salazar graduated
from CC in 1977. Elected
to the senate in 2004,
he had been the state's
attorney general.
Holly Ornstein Carter
'85 received her degree in political science and is now a writer and
documentary filmmaker.
Karen Andersen Medville,
a research scientist at Arizona State University, graduated in 1985.
Marcia McNutt,
president and CEO of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute,
earned her degree in physics in 1974.
Jay Engeln graduated
in 1974 with a degree in biology. He is the 2000 National High
School Principal of the Year.
Basketball star Verdel Baskin,
an English major from the Class of 1999, is now an El Pomar Fellow.
Laura Hershey, a
disability rights activist, graduated in 1983 with a degree in history.
Jazz singer Lorna
Kollmeyer, a liberal arts major from the Class of 1980, owns an
ornamental plasterwork company.
Richard Koo, 1982
alumnus with a degree in math, is the co-founder of Vitria.com.
Mountain climber Jake Norton,
Class of 1996, was a history-philosophy major.
Paul Markovich
graduated in 1988 with an international political economy major and is
the co-founder of MyWayHealth.
J. Ralph Armijo, a
business administration major, graduated in 1974 and founded Navidec,
Inc. and DriveOff.com.
Theatre artist Liz Stanton
earned her degree in business and economics in 1988.
|
 Ken
Salazar
Class of ’77
Political Science Major
U.S.
Senator, Colorado (elected
2004)
Colorado
College
Trustee (Honorary)
Denver, Colorado
Growing up on a ranch in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, Ken Salazar
learned firsthand that money and material possessions aren’t nearly as
important as family and education. Colorado College allowed him to
continue living out his priorities.
 When a friend from Centauri High School shared his CC experience with
Ken, both agreed it was a great option for him. “It was close enough
that I could continue helping on the ranch,” he says, “and the Block
Plan would provide me the opportunity to go to the ranch to work between
blocks.” A combination of grants, loans, and scholarships made
everything possible.
His life on the ranch led to an ongoing concern with issues including
water rights, land use, and environmental protection, so political
science seemed a natural choice as a major. “I took to heart one of
the teachings of the liberal arts,” he explains, “and that is to
learn a lot about a lot of different things.” That breadth of learning
helped him make a difficult decision a few years later and continues to
help him deal with an amazing variety of legal issues.
After graduation, Ken took a year off to choose between going to law
school or pursuing a doctoral degree in political science. He chose law
and went to the University of Michigan. For 11 years, he worked in the
private sector for some of the largest law firms in the West, and for
more than 7 years, he worked in the public sector, serving as the
Colorado governor’s legal counsel and as director of the state’s
Department of Natural Resources. With more than 18 years’ experience
informing his decision to enter public service, Ken says he was never
truly tempted by the money. “I was making more than $200,000 a year
when I resigned from my law firm to campaign for attorney general,” he
says. “Today, I’m making $80,000 a year, which is set by statute.
But I was ready to make that decision, and I’m still comfortable with
it today.”
“Comfortable” is not a word you’d use to describe the typical
14-hour day, six-day week of this public servant; Ken would probably
suggest “rewarding.” And he says it was his undergraduate, liberal
arts education that prepared him for the challenge. Any given day could
involve rulings on issues ranging from education and school finance to
gang-related criminal activity, from natural resources and environmental
protection to consumer protection and business regulation.
“CC taught me to think through complex problems and prepared me to
make difficult decisions,” says this member of the college’s board
of trustees, “and I’ve had to make many in my life.” He also cites
CC’s emphasis on writing as the most substantive skill needed in his
field, adding, “I can’t think of another place that would have given
me the same kind of experience.”
With Colorado College’s relatively small total of living alumni -- roughly 22,000 around the world
-- it may seem surprising that Ken runs
into as many fellow graduates as he does. Then again, CC is the alma
mater of one of Colorado’s U.S. Representatives is Diana DeGette, a
’79 grad, along with two state senators, Dave Owen ’55 and Tom
Blickensderfer ’79. Richard Skorman’75 is a Colorado Springs city
councilman, and Jennifer Moulton ’71 serves as Denver’s city
planner. In fact, Ken says, “All the CC alumni I know have been very
successful, regardless of whether they made decisions to go into the
private sector and corporate life or go into public service. I run into
CC alumni almost every day of my life, and I think they are a singularly
accomplished group. If you look back to the record of success we’ve
had at CC, I think you can predict that if you go to CC, you’re going
to do well no matter what you decide to do in life.”
And Ken’s family ranch in southern Colorado?
“My parents are 84 and 77,” he says, “and the ranch is
still alive and well.”
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