Office at Anschutz Medical Campus honored for community work

Top photo, back row: Ian Abeyta, Dominic Martinez and Vicky Saulsberry; front: Jim Do. Bottom photo: Vicky Saulsberry, Tate VanWinkle, Medhat Ahmed, in front Christian Valtierra. Not pictured Benjamin Le.

The Anschutz Medical Campus-based Office of Diversity and Inclusion has been honored for “generous contributions” to Denver’s Skinner Neighborhood Center and Skinner Middle School. The team was recognized last week for continued service and volunteerism in assisting Skinner students and faculty.

The award was presented by Principal Michelle Koyama along with Sandy Baca-Sandoval, Neighborhood Center director and Ron Gallegos, Neighborhood Center volunteer coordinator.  This program provides students involved with College 4 Y.O.U. Pre-Collegiate an opportunity to explore the health sciences careers as part of visitations to area colleges. The Skinner Middle School Summer Academic Focused Education (S.A.F.E.) Program offers four one-week summer programs for aspiring seventh- and eighth-grade students that are held on the campuses of various local universities. Ninety percent of the students involved in this program are minority, first-generation and eligible for free and reduced lunch program. These students have earned a 3.5 GPA or higher and have a 95 percent attendance rate.

Through the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Skinner Middle School students will visit the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus June 25-29 with an academic focus on various health careers – medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Additionally, this summer students will work through PBL (Problem Based Learning) case studies similar to medical students. The purpose of this component is to bridge the concepts of medicine and research and prepare students for future science fair project submission to the Denver Metro Regional Science and Engineering Fair.