Our Kudos:
In addition to Faculty Citings, the Early Bird shines a spotlight each month on the accomplishments of Metropolitan State University of Denver faculty and staff members and University partners.
If we missed an award, accolade or opportunity to celebrate an accomplishment big or small, please submit an announcement by completing the Service Request Form.
- MSU Denver’s online newsroom, RED, won four Gold Pick Awards from the Colorado Public Relations Society of America. The Colorado PRSA has acknowledged RED’s outstanding work for:
- Digital platform – RED online newsroom
- Media relations – RED reboot
- Video – Cooking With Cannabis
- Feature writing – Dreamer Emergency Fund
- Supplemental Instruction Program MSU Denver’s Supplemental Instruction Program received accreditation through the International Center for Supplemental Instruction. After steady growth over the past year, the SI Program is better-equipped to gain more faculty members to train leaders for the classroom and has now joined the national conversation through this accreditation.
- Diane Yee, director of Campus Recreation, was part of the pilot class of the new Higher Education Consortium for Student Affairs Certification and subsequently interviewed by Athletic Business — Preparing for the Next Generation of Collegiate Recreation Leaders.
- NSF Engines Program Selects Finalists — more information here
- The collaborative cohort that formed across Colorado and Wyoming (CO-WY Engine) has been named a “Climate and Resilience” finalist in the first-ever National Science Foundation Regional Innovation Engines Competition. MSU Denver is a partnered university within the Engines — this partnership establishes MSU in innovative pathways, giving students access to better internships and opportunities to be Changemakers.
- Undergraduate student Valerie Castaneda and Emily Ragan, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, worked collaboratively to receive Institutional Review Board approval for relevant research to MSU Denver Open Educational Resources. Interviews were conducted with 11 undergraduates and one graduate student at MSU Denver. Key findings on joint research were presented at the state OER conference May 19, and Castaneda presented at the Colorado Learning and Teaching with Technology (COLTT) conference Aug. 3. Castaneda and Ragan will also present at the international Open Education Conference in November.
Academics in Athletics
- MSU Denver has had 79 student-athletes recognized as Academic Achievement Award winners by the NCAA Division II Athletic Directors Association.
- For a student-athlete to receive an Academic Achievement Award, they must have a cumulative grade-point average of 3.5 or higher on a 4.0 scale; must have completed a minimum of two years (four semesters) of college-level work at a two-year and/or four-year institution; and must have been an active member of an intercollegiate team during their most recent academic year.
- Women’s Soccer: Legendary teams, player inducted into Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Hall of Fame.
- Kylee (Hanavan) Palmer, MSU Denver women’s soccer star on NCAA Division ll national-championship teams in 2004 and 2006, has had her excellence recognized and immortalized.
- Roadrunners earn academic honors from American Volleyball Coaches Association.
- The MSU Denver volleyball team has earned the United States Marines Corps/American Volleyball Coaches’ Association Team Academic Award for the seventh consecutive year. The Roadrunners posted a cumulative GPA of 3.74 for the 2022-23 academic year.