When Lia Bendix graduates this week, it won’t be her first degree.
Bendix, originally from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, earned a degree in French and Francophone Studies from Carleton College in Minnesota before transferring to CU Boulder to pursue music education. This time, she'll be awardeda Bachelor of Music Education degree.
“In my experience, music classes are amazing places to build community within a school, often with people that you would never encounter during the rest of the day, and to build non-cognitive skills such as perseverance, teamworkand leadership,” she says.
Lia Bendix, who was named"Outstanding Graduating Student for the College of Music," graduates thisweek. She plans to teach music.
Her degree will be one of the 1,614degrees that CU Boulder will be awarding during at the midpoint of the academic year, including1,214 bachelor’s degrees, 299 master’s degrees,97 doctoral degrees and four law degrees.
On top of the double degree, Bendix will be able to add another accolade: Outstanding Graduating Student for the College of Music.
“I am honored! When I heard about the honor, I was very flattered that my work and effort had been acknowledged in such an official way,” Bendix says.
A longtime member of the college’s top choral ensemble, the University Singers, Bendix has focused her studies on choral music education—an area about which she’s deeply passionate.
“Music is often a respite for students,” Bendix explains. “Children who maybe don't feel like they have a place in the rest of the school can feel like they belong in a music class where they can express themselves and connect emotionally to a piece of music.”
After graduation, Bendix plans to substitute teach in the area before looking for choral or general music teaching positions in the Denver, Milwaukee and Cleveland areas.
Broadcast news major learned the "magic" of directing and anchoring
When Steven Nelson took his first class in television production at CU Boulder, he began to get a behind-the-scenes view of the craft he’d been steeped in as a consumer. It felt like watching “a magician show histricks,” he says.
Whilegrowing up in California, Nelson listenedto San Francisco’s morning DJs and avidly followed late-night TV hosts. Then, as a student at CU Boulder, after three semesters of not knowing which major he would choose, his passion for broadcast and video drew him to the broadcast journalism track within the .
At first, Nelsonfeltoverwhelmed. He had to refer to notes foreach step of the first three-minute studio segment he directed as part of an assignment. But after several years as an anchor and director for "," a weekly student-run sports television show, he now comfortably directs 30-minute programswithout notes.
Steve Nelson, who graduates this week, followed a broadcast journalism track within the College of Media, Communication and Information (CMCI).
Nelson knows that, like many in the television industry, he will need to start small and work his way up.
“After graduation, I’m gonna start firing away with my resume to all sorts of TV and radio stations,” he says.
But ultimately, he sees himself as anchoring or directing major sports broadcasts and telling the stories of athletes.
“I love the uncertainty of live TV,” he says.
Psychology,education perfect mix for public engagement
Charlotte Truesdell will also graduate in December. The psychology major, who is also getting aminor in education, is graduating one semester early because of the 15 credits from the International Baccalaureate (IB) program she earned at Summit High School in Breckenridge.
Charlotte Truesdell hopes to be a mentor through AmeriCorps and then pursue either a teacher's license or a degree in counseling.
After graduation, Truesdell plans to work in her hometown andstudy for the GRE. Eventually she'd like to be a mentor throughAmeriCorps, which engages Americans in intensive service each year at nonprofits, schools, public agencies, and community and faith-based groups, and then either pursuea teacher's license or a degree in counseling.
While at CU Boulder, Truesdell was very involved with Public Achievement, ayouth-led, civic engagement initiative thatseeks to promote student voice and transformative change for individuals and communities.Most recently she'sworked with Columbine Elementary School in Boulder, empowering fourth-grade students to work on the issue ofanimal abuse. The previous year she mostly worked with third-grade students, whoshared their experiences of growing up as Latinos in Boulder.
"I liked that I was able to be part of those conversations and facilitate them," Truesdellsays. "I got really close to a lot of the students. They talkedabout these issues in anamazing way."
She was also very involved with New Era Colorado Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that empowers young people to be active inthe democratic process, including gettingstudents registered to vote.
Truesdell said she lovedworking with both organizations.
"Since going to CU Boulder, I care more about what's going on around me," she says. "I'm more involved in my community."
Note: Graduation numbers can fluctuate on a daily basis as applications for degree completion are received. These numbers reflect the most accurate information available either at the time of publication, or through periodic updates to the content.