Ask questions. Open up. Advocate for yourself.

That’s the advice Reisher Scholar and peer advocate Amanda Espinel would give to anyone considering attending UCCS. And it is advice she exemplifies daily, in every interaction.

“Right now, I’m in this rebellious stage of life,” she said. “I might teach, but I’m also looking toward activism work and advocacy. My degrees have given me the frameworks for intersectionality, inclusiveness, diversity, equity, and inclusion and all the things that are really important.”

A post-traditional, first-generation student, Amanda was also one of the first to double major in History and Women’s and Ethnic Studies. She’s pursuing a graduate degree in history and hopes to earn a Ph.D. in history as well.

“The rest of my life is still a big question mark…and that’s on purpose,” Amanda said. “I just know I want to make some sort of small change in the world.”

Amanda decided to go back to school in her mid-thirties after working in restaurants and teaching yoga.

“I would go through phases where I’d wonder, ‘Is this all I’m going to do with my life?’” she said. “I worked with Jared Benson and he’s a history professor at UCCS. He had this wealth of knowledge. He’s the reason I started realizing how much I liked history and wanted to learn more.”

Amanda spent two years at what is now Pikes Peak State College, earning her associate’s degree with a history designation. She transferred her credits to UCCS her junior year and was awarded the Reisher Scholarship.

The Reisher Scholars Program gives students the financial means to complete their undergraduate degree, with support from the program starting midway through college. The Reisher family established the Reisher scholarship program at The Denver Foundation in 2001.

“I was a little nervous at first with Reisher because the whole point to me going to school in my thirties was I didn’t want to rush through anything. I didn’t want to just pick something, and then get the degree,” Amanda said, explaining how because she was a transfer student, to remain eligible for the Reisher Scholarship she had to graduate within two years. “I knew that if I wanted this funding, and I wanted two undergraduate degrees, I had to commit.”

Knowing the scholarship’s requirement, Amanda convinced her academic advisor to let her take 15 credit hours a semester.

“I was busy and stressed out and had five classes to deal with, but I graduated without debt, so that to me it was worth making it happen,” she said. “If I didn’t have Reisher giving me that deadline, I could have extended it longer and then all of a sudden, I’d be in my forties before my master’s is done.”

Amanda also chose to stay on as a Reisher Peer Advocate, even though the scholarship does not cover graduate school attendance.

“I love it,” she said. “My main role is helping empower current scholars to make choices for themselves. It’s transformative to be able to sit there and tell a scholar, ‘Hey, we got you until you graduate, and we want to see you succeed.’”

She encourages other post-traditional students to grasp the opportunities given to them at UCCS through scholarships and relationship with faculty and staff.

The advice Amanda has for students is this: “Don’t shrink in class because you’re older, because you have a lot to offer the people that are in the class. Make yourself known. Create connections. I always heard about college being for networking, and I never really understood it or cared. But I get it,” she said. “You’re just as important as a 20-year-old student. You have just as much to offer, and this school has a lot to offer you.”

Mirrored from Communique - Written by Abigail Beckman