Student Award Winners

President’s Award Recipient: Ashley N. Torrez

The first time Ashley Torrez attempted college, she was 20 years old, supporting herself and expecting a son. As a first-generation student, Torrez found the experience overwhelming. “I had to drop out.” She put her goals on hold for years, and when she tried again at 25, she succeeded.

She majored in Political Science after experiencing the power and difference political leaders made during Covid. Then she found her true passion in a Constitutional Law class. “I really just fell in love with the law and legal discourse. I loved seeing how laws have been interpreted over the course of history in the U.S.,” she said.

She added a Legal Studies minor and joined the University’s Mock Trial team. Torrez excelled on the team. Jeremy Castle, Ph.D., associate professor of Political Science and instructor of the Mock Trial course, said Torrez “stands out as a gifted leader and one of the most talented public speakers I have ever worked with.”

In addition to receiving the Political Science Outstanding Student Scholarship, she won three outstanding attorney awards in tournament competitions, one of those after a teammate became too ill to compete. Torrez filled in at the last minute, delivering closing arguments on both the plaintiff and defendant sides in separate matches — and won an outstanding attorney award for each. The following semester, she helped establish MSU Denver’s Human Rights Club.

Now, she looks forward to law school and to making a difference as an attorney. Ultimately, she’d like to become a judge. With her “grace under pressure and ability to think rationally,” Castle wrote, “I believe Ashley has the character and temperament to be an outstanding judge.”

She said her experience at MSU Denver has demonstrated that “this is the path I’m supposed to be on.”

Provost’s Award Recipient: Madison Hailey Larsen

Marketing major Madison Larsen is one of those lucky people who has known from a young age what career she wanted. “I fell in love with marketing before I even knew what it was,” Larsen said. She put that love to work back in elementary school, when she ran for student body president and orchestrated her winning campaign.

During her four years at Metropolitan State University of Denver as a student voter engagement ambassador, she has helped educate fellow students and community members about current issues and the importance of civic participation. Larsen “developed and implemented marketing strategies that translated complex civic information into accessible, student-centered messaging,” said Shayla Bischoff, the University’s Undergraduate Studies program manager.

The experience taught Larsen how effective marketing can be “and that mission-driven marketing is a powerful way of making impactful change,” she said.

The Aurora native, who graduated from Eaglecrest High School, was drawn to MSU Denver because her mother is an alumna and works on campus. And for nearly four years, Larsen has, too, as a marketing assistant with the University’s Advancement team. She’s thrilled with her choice to attend MSU Denver “because of the great amount of opportunity it’s provided me,” she said.

After her third year at MSU Denver, Larsen won an internship at the Denver office of Astroscale, a Japan-based company that works to make space a stable environment for generations to come, work that includes removing space debris. There, she helped launch the company’s LinkedIn page in the United States and impressed them so much that her internship was extended an additional semester.

She’s excited to keep doing that kind of work. “I’d love to have a career working for an organization with an impactful mission, that makes communities better.”