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This July, CU �鶹ӰԺ’s Precollegiate Development Program (PCDP) celebrates its 40-year anniversary. The program gives social and academic resources to Colorado middle and high school students — particularly first-generation students who live in geographically diverse communities — to help them prepare and succeed at the post-secondary institution of their choice. 

Over the past 40 years, PCDP has helped approximately 1,800 student and family participants from 60 middle and high schools. Ninety-eight percent of them attended college (73 percent at CU �鶹ӰԺ). In 2003, the program’s success led to a partnership with the Roaring Fork Valley School District to create the state’s first rural precollegiate partnership program. In 2009, CU �鶹ӰԺ helped create a similar program in Colorado’s Summit County School District.

Here, five PCDP alumni speak out about their experiences. 

Tyler Ting (BioChem; MechEngr’15)
Director of Regulatory Affairs at Avio Medtech Consulting
Carbondale, Colorado 

“The precollegiate program gave me a lot of confidence that, despite the fact I was a first-generation student, I would have the tools and resources to succeed. Also, I was introduced to two of my lifelong mentors, Herb and Kate Feinzig, through the program.” 

Hon. Joseph A. Salazar (���dz�’93)&�Բ�����;
Chief Legal Counsel for Adams 14 School District
Thornton Colorado 

“The first day of the summer program, my dad expressed his astonishment that his son was going to attend college classes at CU �鶹ӰԺ. He hadn’t finished high school. He was a printer. He grew up in the San Luis Valley, Denver and Brighton. What did he know about this world? His first visit was my third, and I saw myself in his expressions. I was so damn happy that my dad was excited about this journey. My mama was excited, too. She is a fiercely strong woman, and she was my guiding light to seize this moment and do something with it.”

Estefania Vigil (��������’13)&�Բ�����;
Financial Reporting and Technical Accounting Wenior Manager at EY
Basalt, Colorado 

“The program provided me with the resources necessary to make attending a higher education institution an attainable goal, as well as provided a lifelong mentor whom I can still call upon for advice. I also currently hold a position on the precollegiate advisory board as it instilled in me the desire to pay it forward in the form of mentorship.” 

Wenming Ye (CompSci’99; MS’00)
Senior Product Manager Lead for Google Cloud 
�鶹ӰԺ, Colorado

“My family immigrated to the United States in 1992. We lived off Folsom Street, and I was curious about college life and research work that was done at CU �鶹ӰԺ. The PCDP program provided me with a comprehensive understanding of the university system, enabling me to navigate the campus more effectively two years later. Most notably, it led to a system administration job with the director of the Center for Integrated Plasma Studies, where I developed a keen interest in high-performance computing systems. This interest played a crucial role in securing positions with the Microsoft HPC team and later at Microsoft Research, where I developed strong interest in machine learning and deep learning.”  

Nicole Lucero-Holub (�������Ѳ�����’93)&�Բ�����;
Vice President of Human Resources for the Denver Museum of Nature & Science 
Englewood, Colorado

“PCDP gave me the opportunity to experience the challenges of college-level coursework, prepare for the ACT and gain exposure to campus living. I had comfort knowing that I wasn't alone on campus as there were other PCDP graduates and friends, program staff and mentors, and not to mention Hispanic alumni that I’d get to meet at alumni events. … My mom always taught me that through my success I have a responsibility to pay it forward to our Hispanic community. After my freshman year in college, I became a counselor at the CU Denver Precollegiate program in 1989.”

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Illustrations by Ryan Olbyrsh