On Sept. 26, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper announced boards and commission appointments to the Education Leadership Council. Colorado Mesa University President Tim Foster was one of 25 individuals appointed to the council. Foster was among four appointees from the western slope of Colorado, and one of two Mesa County residents to be selected. Felicia Casto of Whitewater was appointed as well.
“I got a call from the governor’s office and from members of the legislature that they were forming this leadership council to look at K-16 and sort of ‘how do we get more kids to go to college,’” Foster said. “They asked me to participate, so I said ‘yes.’”
Currently, the council is in an organizational phase, looking to establish specific goals and develop what Foster referred to as a “strategic plan.” The council is looking at education from kindergarten through postsecondary school and searching for ways to drive improvements to the system.
The governor’s website defines the council as a “multi-stakeholder group” that will serve as a forum for discussion about initiatives that can be created or employed to improve education from early childhood through the postsecondary level.
Though his role has not yet been clearly defined, Foster is interested to see the direction the council takes and how he can help.
The council is not the only area where Foster has shown an interest in education that begins prior to students enrolling at CMU. This year, CMU has provided advisors to the four high schools in Mesa County to serve the purpose of preparing students at those schools to take the next step in their education.
“We looked at Mesa County and analyzed that less than 50 percent of them are going on to do anything past high school,” Foster said. “[the schools] are obviously always resource starved and so we went ahead and stepped up and told them we would put a […] career advisor, not counselor, in each of the four high schools.”
Though CMU benefits from students enrolling, the effort was made primarily to encourage students to extend their education beyond high school, no matter where that may be.
“[…] try to start to adjust this issue of catching them in ninth grade to say ‘okay this is your career expiration, let’s do some ACT prep, get your ACT score, now let’s figure out what major will fit your career preferences, what schools have those majors, get your financial aid stuff in line,’ and I think really hold some hands to help get them to college,” Foster said.
The education community outreach has not been without cost for CMU. Foster estimated the program has come with about a $250,000 price tag. After making the offer to the local high schools in August, CMU hired four advisors and the program is up and running, with consideration of expanding to include Montrose High School in the near future.
Between his involvement in the Education Leadership Council and the high school advisor program, Foster hopes to improve education in the community and see more high school students continue their education at CMU or another postsecondary institution.
