A leader on campus in broadening participation in STEM education as the most recent director of the BOLD Center, Tanya Ennis is committed to developing and studying strategies that can create a more equitable environment for racially minoritized and first-generation students. 

Ennis studied electrical engineering at an Historically Black College/University, Southern University, and then computer engineering for her Master’s degree from the University of Southern California before coming to CU Boulder to direct the Engineering GoldShirt Program and now the BOLD Center in the College of Engineering and Applied Science. Her work supporting underrepresented students to succeed as engineering students and her high regard for the School of Education doctoral program led her to enroll in the Learning Sciences and Human Development PhD program. 

I am a first-generation student and the first in my family to earn a PhD., and many in my family and my community have shared that I am an inspiration to them, and that my scholarly work has lasting impact. I stand on the shoulders of my parents, Ethel B. Davis and Ernest Davis, Sr., who did not have the educational opportunities I did. This is also true for many of the ancestors upon whose shoulders I stand today. I dedicate this award to my husband, Cedric Ennis, Sr., our children, parents, and ancestors.."

Ennis’ dissertation, “Yearning to Learn: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Black Engineering �鶹��Ժ Deciding to Stay or Leave Engineering Majors,” grew out of her desire to center and understand Black students’ experiences in engineering. She studied Black students’ decisions to stay or leave their engineering majors at a Predominantly White Institution, revealing the complexities of why Black students choose to stay or leave. Ennis’ findings emphasize the importance of friendships with peers who lend both social and academic support. Her impressive and comprehensive research has earned her the 2022 Outstanding Graduate and Outstanding Dissertation Award by the School of Education faculty committee.

“This is a critical insight that engineering colleges can act upon, through community-building programs and interventions that help create space for supportive peer interactions,” her nominators shared. “No other study has undertaken such a comprehensive look at their experiences to develop and test conjectures of just why students stay or leave.”

Her experience in the doctoral program at CU Boulder has also benefited from the support of faculty and peers. She credits these supports, her faith, and stepping into her power with helping her through the program while balancing her career in engineering and the adversity she has faced in her academic, professional, and personal life. Not unlike the students’ experiences she documented in her research, community and support systems make all the difference.

“I had great PhD colleagues,” she said. “We enjoyed learning together and formed very strong friendships during our time together.”

Off

Douglas Watkins already had a busy and fulfilling career and family life, when he enrolled in the master’s program in the CU Boulder School of Education to deepen his grounding in learning sciences. With a newly minted master's degree, Watkins hopes to inspire his young son.

Watkins is the secondary science curriculum coordinator with Denver Public Schools, and now the 2022 Outstanding Learning Sciences and Human Development Master’s Graduate. 

Since coming to CU Boulder, Watkins has pursued coursework across both the Learning Sciences and Human Development program and STEM education program area to deepen his understanding of learning theory and curriculum and assessment in science. 

As an older graduate student, with a full life already and young son, making the time to fit school work in with my 'normal' job and family commitments was tough. So, for me personally, I feel a great sense of accomplishment. I hope it means a lot for my son, too. I hope he is motivated to pursue advanced degrees in his life and can reflect back on how he saw me doing it so he knows he can do it, too."

 He has continued to be a strong partner to CU Boulder’s inquiryHub, a research-practice partnership between CU Boulder researchers and science education leaders that develops materials, tools, and processes to promote equitable student learning of STEM. Watkins is not just as a co-designer of curriculum and professional development but also a co-researcher for the inquiryHub.

As a student, he has contributed to two published manuscripts and one published on the partnership’s innovative assessment work, “Assessment to promote equity and epistemic justice: A use-case of a research-practice partnership in science education” in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science with Distinguished Professor Bill Penuel. 

“Douglas always brings thoughtful questions and infectious enthusiasm to his work; he is most deserving of this award.”

In his own words

Please tell us a bit about yourself

  I was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada and moved to the Denver area after my son was born. I joined Denver Public Schools (DPS) as a teacher and then moved into an administrative position as a science curriculum specialist. After working for about a year within the Research Practice Partnership already in place between CU Boulder and DPS, I came to really appreciate what the research side of the partnership had to offer to help move the education system forward. It was that appreciation that prompted me to pursue coursework at Boulder, specifically within the Learning Sciences program. Tammy Sumner, Katie VanHorne, and Bill Penuel were really instrumental in convincing me of the utility in such a pursuit.”

What is one of the lessons from your time at CU Boulder that you’ll carry with you into the next chapter?

  Learning alongside and with Bill Penuel will always rank high. I'm incredibly fortunate to have had his mentorship and scholarly advice. But I think what has changed the way I see the world is the first course I took at Boulder: Education and Sociolinguistics with Dr. Mileidis Gort. She opened my eyes to the ways language and languaging can and are used to influence cultures or disadvantage peoples and cultures. The reason I came back to school and pursued this degree was to support me with being better at my curriculum coordinator job in DPS. I think the impression Dr. Gort left on me, and my new appreciation for sociolinguistics, have helped me as much or more than anything else.”

What does graduating from CU Boulder represent for you and/or your community?

  Graduating with a graduate degree from CU Boulder means a lot for me, personally, as it was a challenging time in my life to have gone back to school. As an older graduate student, with a full life already and young son, making the time to fit school work in with my 'normal' job and family commitments was tough. So, for me personally, I feel a great sense of accomplishment. I hope it means a lot for my son, too. I hope he is motivated to pursue advanced degrees in his life and can reflect back on how he saw me doing it so he knows he can do it, too.”

What is your best piece of advice for incoming students?

  My success in the graduate program came from two places: desire and support. For incoming students, I'd advise them to be sure they are motivated and passionate about what they are studying. If those aren't there, then I'd suggest changing studies. Additionally, I'd advise students to lean on their advisors if times get tough. I saw so many of my collegiate peers work with amazing advisors to figure out paths forward so many times over the four years it took me to complete this degree. CU Boulder advisor, especially in the SOE, are amazingly supportive.”

What continues to drive your passion for your work after graduation?

  I was passionate about my work before coming back to school. I feel I'm super prepared to continue exploring the new research, as it is communicated, in order to keep doing the best I can within the DPS system.”

Off

Lianna Nixon is an environmental photographer and activist, but on Earth Day 2020, she was not thinking about marches or demonstrations. That was the day she found out if her spot on the world’s largest polar research expedition was still on despite the spread of a global pandemic.

Photography and film are really great spaces to hold people. I am still learning and it’s a big learning process, but my goal is never to inundate people with the fear of climate change or environmental destruction. It is about inquiry and joy — to get people to fall in love with these wild spaces, so that maybe they can do something to help."

A few weeks later Nixon’s bags were packed, and she was aboard the Polarstern research vessel with nine cameras as part of MOSAiC, the Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate. She joined researchers from over 30 nations for almost six months of studying and capturing the dynamic beauty of the Arctic region and its implications for global climate change.

It was the trip of a lifetime, and yet Nixon’s powerful work at the intersection of photography, activism, and education has been budding for a long time.  

Even as an inquisitive child, Nixon has always been interested in the interconnections between the natural world and humankind. As a 19-year-old filmmaker, an internship allowed her to document rhino poaching in South Africa and organize activism back in the U.S. Now in her 20s, she frequently photographs in the Katmai National Park in Alaska to chronicle how the Pebble Mine threatens the last, largest sockeye salmon fishery that sustains massive ocean and coastal ecosystems and 14 indigenous communities.

Nixon mindfully works to bring these global issues and wild places home to connect with people’s hearts and minds no matter where they live or fall on the political spectrum.

“Photography and film are really great spaces to hold people,” she said. “I am still learning and it’s a big learning process, but my goal is never to inundate people with the fear of climate change or environmental destruction. It is about inquiry and joy — to get people to fall in love with these wild spaces, so that maybe they can do something to help.”

From polar bears to vibrant blue sea ice, Nixon’s breathtaking photography and savvy social media skills offer an educational lens on climate by tapping into our shared humanity and forging bold but accessible conversations about humans and the environment.  

As an undergraduate at CU Boulder, Nixon took an education course that resonated with her social-justice orientation and questioning of conventional education. The Learning Sciences and Human Development master’s program in the School of Education just clicked. She is the program’s 2021 Outstanding Graduate to honor her research’s ability to invite understanding, experience, and action.

“The learning science degree has been really transformative,” she said. “It reminded me that learning doesn't happen just in my head, it’s also embodied, holistic, and interconnected with the things that we do in our everyday lives. 

“It also helped me ground myself in what kind of community I want to surround myself with — a community that challenges you can hold space for you to thrive and be supported as well.”

With mentorship from Learning Sciences Professor Susan Jurow, Nixon weaves together her expertise in environmental and social justice and the arts to design transformative learning experiences. She integrated MOSAiC filmmaking into her capstone project, where she uses educational equity and social justice frameworks to examine questions of power, justice, and learning in climate communications.

Her film is an exciting task with substantial responsibility, as she applies the anti-oppressive pedagogies of her education studies to address story bias and missing voices and ultimately change the best practices for inclusive storytelling.

“I was depending a lot on the script style of Sir David Attenborough of the BBC, and while he is influential in my storytelling, he also is a privileged, white, male scientist and asking my narrator Elmahdi, an African male, to embody that was wrong on many levels,” she said. “It took that kind of work and humility to realize those things, and sometimes we need that as storytellers.”

Nixon also acknowledges the privileges that have afforded her experiences, and she is paying forward by working to change climate communications and nature photography, both predominantly white and male, by honoring mentors and mentoring young women. 

Despite its occasionally daunting nature, the collective work on climate action gives her hope for the future. 

“Part of this activism work has been about handing over the power to the youth, the ones who are heirs to our planet and whose futures are at stake,” she said. 

“I am in Susan Jurow’s class called ‘radicalizing possibilities.’ I think that’s really where the future is going to be. We’re just emerging, and the future is really challenging, innovating, and supporting an incredible space that will make room for a lot of possibilities. 

“I’m optimistic about what the future holds for education and the climate because of the passionate people that are in this community.”

Lianna’s advice for students

It sounds very cliche but don't lose sight of your strengths and your passions. I think those are really key drivers and sometimes in academia, we can lose ourselves within it. There's still a lot of work that needs to be done in how we protect ourselves in the academy. Allow yourself to explore. I wouldn't have been as successful without taking some theater and community engagement classes. Going into other schools, colleges, and institutions and having those intersect with your degree in education can be really helpful and transformative in how you are looking at what you want to do in your life, as well for the School of Education.”

Graduation, A Poem by Lianna Nixon

From the North Pole to Zoom meetings,
Blazing Trails and shattering ceilings
Coming together for justice and equity
Contributing to practice and pedagogy
Intrinsic, expansive, challenging
Dedication to education everlasting
As tassels take place on my left endless possibilities begin to unrest
I am thankful, I really am for all of you
For your support and kindness rings true
For this community hold each other up
Now it is my turn to pass on its love
Here’s to the challenges and opportunities ahead
It’s time we part ways, no important words unsaid
I am an Education Buff, I always will be
Looking towards horizons of curiosity"

Off

College opportunities, not to mention graduate studies, were rare in the small Southern African country of Zimbabwe where Tafadzwa Tivaringe grew up. With unyielding support from his parents, his community, and mentors, Tivaringe, or “Taphy” as he is known, did his undergraduate and postgraduate training at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, and now Tivaringe is earning his PhD in Learning Sciences and Human Development from the CU Boulder School of Education.

Through rigorous research, I am committed to understanding how education policies and learning environments can be inclusive and democratic. That way, we can get closer to Mandela’s vision of education’s role in transforming society."

Even though a doctoral degree is often called a “terminal” degree, Dr. Tivaringe is just getting started, as he works to transform the educational system from the inside out. 

Much of Tivaringe’s passion stems from his lived experiences. In his parents’ colonial Zimbabwe, then Rhodesia, the education system of their youth was designed for them to complete high school and to be absorbed into the work force as “semi-skilled workers,” but his parents and many others in the community strived for new educational futures for their children. 

“While my childhood friends and I took our parents’ wishes to heart, the reality for many of us was that the pathway from high school to college was marred by barriers and potholes that made it incredibly difficult to access college education,” he said. 

Tivaringe credits good fortune, amazing mentors, pathway programs — such as an undergraduate fellowship that allowed him to conduct research early in his postsecondary studies— and family and a community that unflinchingly believed in him to be able to access college and graduate education.

In 2014, Tivaringe was appointed a local researcher on the International Study of Youth Organizing, a project that led to a fateful collaboration with Ben Kirshner, CU Boulder learning sciences and human development professor and the study’s co-director. Kirshner was committed to understanding the story of youth in Africa and he took an interest in Tivaringe’s development as a person, both in ways that were refreshingly nuanced. 

“Our great working relationship culminated in him taking me under his wing to pursue a PhD in Education at CU Boulder,” he said. “Beyond that relationship, I was drawn by the school’s strong reputation in two of my core areas of interest, human development and ed policy.”

Finding like-minded mentors, who care for their colleagues and students on a personal level made all the difference for Tivaringe. Graduate studies can be seen as an isolating and self-driven experience, but he found mentors make up one’s team, and success is tied to how well that team works together. 

“I have learned that doing good scholarship and being a good person are two sides of the same coin,” he said. “It’s commonplace for people in the academy to focus on the academic project and lose the basic understanding that we are all just human beings who thrive if we center basic care for each other — what we call Ubuntu back in Southern Africa. 

“In my experiences with faculty and staff at CU Boulder, particularly in the School of Education, I’ve observed that people care about academic rigor as much as they care about being great human beings.”

For Tivarange’s mentors and peers, the feeling is mutual. He is well-liked and well-respected by professors and peers.

During his time at CU Boulder, he contributed to public scholarship in a multitude of ways, including skillful evaluation of CU Engage programs and his dedication to collaborative partnerships with the Research Hub for Youth Organizing. In 2019, Tivaringe received a prestigious invitation from the United Nations to attend the WIDER Development international conference due to his work in Cape Town and doctoral research. The faculty selected Tivaringe and his impressive three-article dissertation, “The Possibilities and Limits of Using Education as a Lever for Structural Transformation,” for the 2021 Outstanding Graduate Award for Outstanding Dissertation.  

“I am most impressed by the rigorous and nuanced approach he takes to examining the social world and the role of education in it,” wrote one faculty nominator. “Indeed it is remarkable that in the arc of Taphy’s 3-article dissertation, some of which is already published in top-tier journals, he manages to offer a sobering yet powerful analysis of both the possibilities and limits of public education in efforts to improve social mobility for historically marginalized groups.”

He sees his own story as representative of the potential for change among communities that, like his, remain underserved and marginalized by various systems.

“That potential demands that we create systems that ensure that graduands like me are not merely a function of a fortuitous alignment of key determinants of college success,” he said. “We have to continue devising strategies that broaden access to education across all levels.”

However, Tivaringe does not believe stories like his should be left up to chance, but rather, his work and passion center around change.  

As inspiration, he cites Nelson Mandela’s famous quote, “education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world,” and he argues for the need to continue the legacy and work of transformative leaders like Mandela. 

“Unfortunately, many people across the world still do not have access to education and/or their experience of education is truncated by unwelcoming environments and/or pedagogies that are marginalizing,” he said. 

“Through rigorous research, I am committed to understanding how education policies and learning environments can be inclusive and democratic. That way, we can get closer to Mandela’s vision of education’s role in transforming society.”

Taphy’s special thanks

I would really like to thank my academic mentors, Ben Kirshner, Terrenda White, Susan Jurow, and Roudy Hildreth from the School of Education and Andrew Philips and Srinivas Parinandi from Political Science who invested so much in my development as a scholar.”

Off