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The INVST Program is thrilled to welcome Ava Branon and Grace Weitzel to our team. They are our new Undergraduate Research Assistants who will be mapping local community organizing by Boulder and Denver’s social justice, climate justice, and racial justice leaders. Ava and Grace will be assisting us as we re-design a beloved INVST course, INVS 4931-4932, Community Leadership in Action, Parts 1 and 2.��

Beginning in August 2025, in these courses, INVST students will study the concepts and practices of antiracist community organizing. By partnering with grassroots leaders from minoritized identity groups (BIPOC, low-income, LGBTQ, undocumented) who work to solve public problems, we will shift how we build and sustain partnerships off campus and with whom.

This re-design work is based on the deliberations and decisions reached by the INVST Advisory Council. Areyana Proctor, Maymuna Jeylani, and Daniel Escalante, as well as staff Allie Van Buskirk and Annie Miller, helped INVST articulate these important choices on how to evolve our program. The results are some important shifts in developing a more culturally responsive curriculum.��

Undergraduate researchers Ava and Grace will learn about intersectional social movements, differing approaches to change-making, and an array of organizing tactics. They will come to better understand urgent social and environmental problems in the Boulder/Denver area, including environmental racism, food insecurity, housing inaccessibility, and the exclusion and oppression of immigrants and transgender people and communities. Ava says that her goal in participating in this research is to “improve diversity, equity, and inclusion on both the university's campus, and in Denver/Boulder communities." She goes on to say,�� “I applied to the INVST undergraduate research position after I experienced culture shock at ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ on the basis of race, sexuality, and socioeconomic status. I am most looking forward to the impact this position will have on minority student's livelihoods and the relationships I will form with co-researchers and mentors. As a researcher, I will hold empathy for the populations and demographics being studied, and provide unique personal convictions and lived experience.”

Thanks to funding that INVST received from the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), while this work occurs, we will be able to expose Ava and Grace who are new to research, to hands-on opportunities while they consider their possible educational and�� professional futures. Grace shares, “I am most looking forward to developing my knowledge of and relationships with local organizations in Boulder and Denver, and getting involved with so many different groups! I am also excited to see the results of my research in what The INVST Program does next year.” She adds, “My vision of myself as a future researcher is to be someone who is unafraid to pursue knowledge and equity. I hope to become someone who researches with the hope of helping my community and the people around me to live better and brighter lives.”��Researchers will work closely with faculty; connect with inspiring community leaders off campus; and gain first-hand experience with social science, collaborative decision-making, and intellectual rigor.