Dave Espinosa knows what it’s like to be the first in his family to attend college. He had plenty of support from his family and his professors, and he knew it was that support that led to his success.
So when his Denver Metro Chamber Leadership Foundation Leadership Denver (LD) class decided to plan a day for high school students heading to college and give them the lowdown on things like managing their finances and stress—and send them away with $500 worth of goodies and a refurbished laptop—he was proud to pay it forward.
“It was through the help of many people that I’m able to be where I’m at today,” said Espinosa, a project manager for PCL Construction.
Whether it’s a sense of thanking those who supported them by supporting others or a desire to make a mark in the community, what inspires people to lead is deeply personal. But what may be most universal among Leadership Foundation alumni is the sense of accomplishment in giving back—and the confidence it inspires in them to do even more.
For Kara Penn, mentoring those first generation students on Ready, Set, COllege day was a moving experience.
“You could just see the impact unfolding in the moment and to just be present in that was a real gift,” said Penn, a fellow LD classmate, project co-chair and Mission Spark principal consultant. “I got a little choked up to just see the power and the energy in the room and just see the skip in people’s step as they left.”
Business Altitude caught up with Leadership Foundation alumni to find out what sparked their connection to leadership and what’s driven their community engagement.
The Ripple Effect
For many alumni, their introduction to the Leadership Foundation was the buzz they heard from others who had experienced its programs. And as those people got involved, it’s created a web of civicminded professionals from different industries and sectors across the region.
“For me, Leadership Denver was just this eye-opening expansion of connection—deep, authentic connection—to others with passions and talents and abilities and networks that I just had not touched at all in my little finite world,” Penn said. “So it just blew open this region for me and blew open Denver for me and inspired and energized me to be connected to so many people who care.”
And it’s getting outside of the day-to-day routines of their careers that was most eye-opening, alumni said.
For Jennifer Erixon, that meant connecting with people outside her world of affordable housing. She quickly discovered that people who didn’t work in her area could still play a role in addressing that issue and could become a sounding board for her.
“What Leadership Denver provided me with was a really high-level group of people who I consider to be my thinking partners,” said Erixon, an LD’11 alumna and senior vice president of acquisitions for Alliant Capital.
Those new connections also created new perspective.
“I think the real value of the program is the dialogue you have for the year with the community leaders moving these issues forward,” said Seth Belzley, a corporate and energy attorney with Hogan Lovells and an LD ’14 alumnus.
That dialogue and those connections often continue after participating in a Leadership Foundation program. Belzley saw that overlap as he learned about the National Western Stock Show redevelopment. It sparked a new connection that he wants to make between the Stock Show and a school Belzley is involved with that focuses on early childhood education through museum experiences.
“A big part of being a community leader is just helping to connect the dots,” he said.
Breaking Down Silos
Opportunities to hear from people across sectors and making those new connections ultimately help break down barriers and encourage more collaboration, alumni said.
“Because of Leadership Denver and having a broader understanding of the issues that we all face, it’s caused me to be more comprehensive in my approach to my work,” Erixon said.
Seeing that commitment to improving the region flattened any sort of hierarchy—especially when working on service projects—and fostered that team spirit, alumni said.
“It is based upon mutual respect. You have this idea of wanting to move things, wanting to tackle big problems, but then learning that you cannot do that alone and you have to check your ego, you have to work together as a team, you have to play together with the public, private and nonprofit sectors and you have to pull it together,” said Mark Cavanaugh, executive director of Independent Higher Education of Colorado, an LD’15 alumus and Ready, Set, College co-chair. “No one business is going to get this thing done.”
It’s a reflection of how business is done in the Denver metro area, said Dennis Moore, an LD ’10 alumus, Leadership Foundation board member and Denver Broncos vice president of marketing and sales.
“We all roll up our sleeves and get involved,” he said. “It’s just something you do here.”
Addressing a Need
The 2015 Leadership Denver class is by no means the first or last to create a service project around an issue where there may be a gap or where a specific, local impact can be made. But, once that impact is made, the challenge is figuring out whether it can be replicated or repeated in years
to come.
For the 2012 LD class, hearing about the connection of reading by third grade and high school graduation rates was powerful. So much so that their service project focused on giving 12 summer reading books to students from kindergarten to second grade at Hallett Fundamental Academy through the project they called Read12.
Classmate Marsha Nelson, a participation specialist for the Denver Operation Group of Mortenson Construction also implemented the Read12 program at John Amesse Elementary School. After three years of proramming, the class is working with the Denver Public Schools Foundation to offer the program to corporations interested in working in schools.
“I know it really had a positive impact on the children and families of Hallett, so I’d like to see it in some form move on,” said classmate Tony Price, campus recreation director for Metropolitan State University of Denver.
It’s the same challenge faced by LD ’15, which is in discussions with partner organizations who connected them with the 80 high schoolers who attended Ready, Set, COllege to determine if the program would be a fit for one of them to take on in the future.
“Just starting something up and getting the ideas and the programming is a big lift, but we do think we have a model that can be replicated and sustained,” Penn said.
It was an opportunity to celebrate those students and create a center of support, Cavanaugh said.
“We discovered the need was definitely there,” he said.
After graduating from Leadership Denver in 2011, Denver City Councilman Chris Herndon knew he wanted to create a program that created leadership opportunities for youth. From there the Northeast Denver Leadership Week was born. It started with 10 students and this year has grown to 85 who live or attend school in northeast Denver.
“It has just grown beyond my wildest imagination,” Herndon said.
He modeled the format of the program after LD: every day is themed around a different topic. His goal is to expose students to leadership and career opportunities.
The Leadership Foundation has molded Herndon into the leader he is today, he said, and it also is what confirmed that he would run for office, providing a supportive group in the process.
“I definitely think I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Leadership Denver,” Herndon said.
The programs and projects can often be just the spark, and what alumni do after may be the most telling of the long-term impact of the Leadership Foundation. “It fundamentally made me more curious,” Erixon said. “I think as a leader that is the quality that makes us all better.”
Sara Crocker is the communications manager for the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.