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Grace Kasanya and her sister Annemarie attend a community ESL class at Community College of Aurora to learn English. They are from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and speak French and Swahili.

The Colorado Dream: Newcomers Welcome episode three looks at efforts by two educational institutions and some of the unique challenges facing first and second-generation African students.

Ayelech G-Michael her hair pulled into a white wrap and wearing an orange dress, sits in her home. Before her is a small table with teacups, saucers, and other coffee accoutrements. A pitcher of water sits in a bowl to the right of the table. To the left, a small electric burner is on, the element bright orange. Ayelech is holding a small black sauce pan of coffee beans over it.

Newcomers Welcome: Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony

G-Michael came to the U.S. to go to college in 1995 and then moved to Aurora five years later. She has owned a liquor store and a home health agency. Now, she works as an interpreter for medical and law offices, schools and the community. She also performs Ethiopian coffee ceremonies at events around Aurora, including the city’s annual Global Fest.

Fabrice Kombo, an immigrant from the Democratic Republic of Congo, poses with his wife Danielle Young Kombo, He is tall, with short black hair, while is wife has shoulder-length straight hair and a colorful dress.

Newcomers Welcome: Identity

The Colorado Dream: Newcomers Welcome episode four examines the relationship between Black African immigrants and African Americans. It also shares how Salwa Mourtada Bamba and other Black immigrants in Aurora identify themselves.

Five people sit behind a table, the panel for the event. Behind them is a large projector screen where photos and visuals were displayed while panelists talked.

Newcomers Welcome: Live Event

KUNC hosted a live community event and panel discussion to talk about the themes explored in The Colorado Dream: Newcomers Welcome podcast.

Students of various nationalities stand in three rows with their instructor Piangjai Cefkin. The students are wearing a variety of fashions, including t-shirts and jeans to more traditional outfits.

Newcomers Welcome: Trailer

In Aurora, Colorado about one in five residents is foreign born. The city created a plan called “Aurora is open to the world” and partnered with dozens of organizations that provide services to immigrants and refugees. But is the plan helping those most in need?

A young Salwa Mourtada Bamba poses in her stroller with brother Abed, sister Laila and Korto, a family friend in Liberia.

Newcomers Welcome: Arrival

The Black immigrant population in Colorado is growing faster than anywhere else in the U.S. They come from Africa, the Caribbean and beyond, and many settle in Aurora, where about one in five residents is foreign born. A lot of them have overcome great challenges to emigrate here, including Salwa Mourtada Bamba.

A man with dark hair wearing a dark jacket and pants stands next to a woman wearing a jean jacket and orange skirt. They are standing in a room surrounded by brown bags and boxes of food.

Newcomers Welcome: Integration

Aurora created an integration plan to help immigrants and refugees succeed. What does that plan look like? Meanwhile, more than 15 years earlier, Salwa Mourtada Bamba gets a job and enrolls at the local community college as she settles into her new life in Aurora.

Biomedical Innovations teacher Scott Troy consults a paper brain map with senior Zaira Villalobos. The class is studying how dementia affects different parts of the brain and students are working on group projects. They have to identify the different areas and create a wellness plan to treat people with dementia.

Career Education: The First

Biomedical Science is the most popular Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathway at Westminster High School in Westminster, Colorado. Biomedical Innovations is the final of the four year-long classes. Last semester, students studied how dementia affects the brain and created wellness plans to treat these patients. This episode follows three teens who will be first-generation college students. They are using the Biomedical Science and Health Occupations pathways to prepare for college and careers in the medical field.

Wings Over the Rockies: Exploration of Flight in Englewood, Colorado hosted U.S. Drone Soccer’s first academic tournament in North America last May. Drone soccer was introduced in South Korea in 2016 and has spread to other countries. In the U.S, the esport is both fun and educational. The students build, operate and learn how to fly the customizable drones. They can also practice coding by programming them using open source software.

Career Education: Tomorrow Starts Today

“Tomorrow Starts Today,” is the slogan for Westminster High School’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) program. The school offers 13 CTE career pathways that are designed to give students both job training and education to prepare them for future success. This episode features current and former students from the aerospace engineering and cybersecurity classes who want to work in some of Colorado’s fastest growing industries.

Junior Mya Kevil (right) shows the radish she grew to Westminster High School agriculture teacher Heather Crabtree. The Plant Science and Greenhouse Management class is a “super good way to learn how to take care of plants and just get some of the hands-on knowledge you don’t get in a ‘class’ class,” Mya says. Her career goal is to work at the Denver Botanic Gardens.

Career Education: Urban Ag

Westminster, Colorado began as a small farming community when the first settler arrived in 1870. Today, it is the state’s eighth-largest city. Even though it’s part of the sprawling, urban metro Denver area, Westminster has held onto its agricultural roots. There’s still a working farm about three miles from downtown. So it’s not surprising Westminster High School has a robust agriculture program. This episode features the school’s Career and Technical Education agriculture pathway and two students who’ve found success in the urban jungle.

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