As tens of thousands of students prepare for Colorado State University’s graduation ceremony this week, a few graduates are taking a moment to recognize their progress.
One story in KUNC News’ “Unseen but Everywhere” series focused on college students’ struggle to find affordable housing, and how one local nonprofit — LuMin — supplies subsidized, apartment-style living to students. Now, some of the students in that program are getting ready for graduation.
Eight Colorado State University graduates stood in front of community leaders, meal volunteers and more at LuMin’s annual ceremony to celebrate their graduation and receive their honorary stoles from the program. Two more students also received stoles, but they will finish classes in the summer and fall.
“It's one of my favorite nights and one of the worst nights, because you build a relationship with these students,” said Pastor Paul Judson, who leads LuMin’s housing initiative. “That's what it's all about, the housing initiative is to get students to this place. But some of these students have been with the initiative for one or two or three years now, and I will really miss them.”
Recent data from Career.io shows that those with bachelor’s degrees in Colorado on average make about 64.5% more in wages annually than those with high school diplomas. LuMin organizers believe that helping students get an education is the ticket to ending generational poverty.
“This is really important stuff,” Judson said. “If you have a roof over your head that’s secure and you're in a safe setting, you can accomplish things. But if you don't have that, then it’s a struggle.”
The students talked about their next steps. Some chose career paths that were inspired by their own struggles. Joel Ibarra is going into construction management and hopes to create more low-income housing. Isabel Martinez Salcedo majored in psychology and plans to work at The Matthews House in Fort Collins, a nonprofit that offers support to youth in poverty and abusive situations.
Regardless of degree, each student expressed that they relied on LuMin’s housing program to make it through school and thrive.
“LuMin has helped me a lot not only with housing, but also just gave me a lot of chances and opportunities to kind of improve myself as a person,” said Emmanuel (Emma) Razo Flores, who has been in the program for the past year. “LuMin helped me just make time honestly to work a second job, to buy another car, just to go to school to learn a lot. I can't thank them enough for everything they've done for me.”
One student — Oscar Godinez-Avila — didn’t think he would make it this far. He had to drop out of CSU a few years ago when he couldn’t afford housing. When he came back to school, he would still use the sinks on campus to clean up and skip breakfast because he had no place to store his food. He couch surfed until he found LuMin in his last year of school.
He teared up at the ceremony sharing how the program helped him.
“I've been able to do amazing things with the community (that perhaps) I just wouldn't have had the chance to do otherwise you know, working a minimum wage job or something to try and make base rent,” Godinez-Avila said.
Godinez-Avila will work on getting a master’s degree in history at CSU in the fall and hopes to get his Ph.D in the future. In terms of housing, he can stay in Prospect Apartments until the end of July but then he will need to find a new place to live. He will receive a small stipend for his work as a graduate teaching assistant, which is “very modest, but significant” to him.
Since the story was published by KUNC News, LuMin has received more than $60,000 in donations for the initiative from listeners, according to Judson. One listener wrote that they “would not have known about (the) organization had it not been for the (radio) piece.” Godinez-Avila also received $1,500 directly for his schooling expenses.
LuMin has worked with 35 students total and has had 23 graduates in their program since it started its housing initiative in 2021.
