Impact Report

Support turns

‘Unstoppable’ moniker worn with honor

At UCCS, ’unstoppable’ women scholars shed obstacles, commit to success

Tiffany Sinclair’s journey took some unexpected turns.

She endured the sudden death of her husband from toxic shock syndrome, the diagnosis of her 11-year-old daughter with brain cancer, then the death of her mother from liver cancer.

So when Tiffany was notified several years back that the University of Colorado Colorado Springs had accepted her as a Karen Possehl Women’s Endowment (KPWE) scholar, she remembered being shocked.

“I thought, ‘Wow. Somebody heard my story,’” she said. “It was really the inspiration for me to keep going.”

Before there was the state of Colorado, there was the University of Colorado; and before there was CU, a courageous and tenacious few were so profoundly committed to the transformative power of an education.

The idea of a public university in the young Colorado territory was considered a valuable and worthwhile pursuit as early as 1861. But political disputes, economic distress and local jealousies stalled the idea from becoming a reality for years. Some folks clamored that Colorado didn’t have any use for an academic institution.

He had nowhere to go for the holiday. CU Boulder’s dorms were still open, which meant he could relax over the long weekend, albeit alone, in his room at Libby Hall. So he took that $5, walked to a grocery store, bought a raw chicken and a bag of rice, and cooked four days of meals with a rice cooker in his dorm room.

When he graduated in May, William Mundo reached a milestone in his journey at the University of Colorado Denver.

It’s a journey that almost didn’t even start.

It’s good for him—and us—it did.