The University of Denver always has prepared students to become leaders in business, law and other academic fields. A new sequence of courses offered through DU’s Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning (CCESL) aims to prepare students to become leaders in their communities as well.

Led by Director Jim Griesemer, DU’s Strategic Issues Program (SIP) each year sets out to see whether 20 leaders from varied backgrounds can examine an issue facing the state of Colorado or the nation in depth and then develop solutions through consensus. In 2009 the panel sought to develop a pragmatic solution to the multitude of issues entangled with immigration, both legal and illegal.

Armed with $2.4 million from the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Linseman has devoted the last three years to unraveling the mysteries of Lou Gehrig’s disease. The bulk of his work aims to identify some of the intra-cellular mechanisms by which apoptosis — or programmed cell death — occurs in ALS, in the hope that drug makers might someday use the information to develop better treatments. But well aware of the lack of time patients face, he’s also looking at more accessible potential remedies, such as antioxidant compounds in certain nutrients, that could provide relief even sooner.

While people in Haiti are hurting, DU alumni are helping out. Daniel Fong (BSBA ’06, MBA ’06) will depart from Denver on March 2 to contribute his much-needed skills as a paramedic and firefighter to International Medical Relief (IMR), a nonprofit organization that provides medical care after disasters. He will […]

Endangered sea turtles in Costa Rica can thank America’s bad economy for more miles of clean beach upon which to lay their eggs. When Bill Valaika (MS real estate and construction management ’03) saw his job prospects in real estate dwindling, he launched the nonprofit Habitat Healers to organize clean-up […]

Thanks to the efforts of the University of Denver community, some of the city’s neediest people will stay warmer this winter season. Approximately 600 winter items were donated during the DU Staff Advisory Council’s “Pioneers for People” coat drive, which benefits the Denver Rescue Mission. Items — including coats, hats, […]

Nearly 300 University of Denver students — including the men’s lacrosse team and the Delta Sigma Pi business fraternity — participated in a “Day On” Day of Service Jan. 18 in celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. “At DU, we have many programs that teach the importance of public […]

In the aftermath of the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti, the University of Denver quickly went into action with a variety of events to raise money for relief efforts and educate the community about the devastated Caribbean nation. So far, the University community has raised more than $8,000 in donations, […]

Peter Van Arsdale, a senior lecturer at DU’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies, is teaching courses on humanitarian assistance in complex emergencies and on global humanitarianism this winter. Here, he gives us a better perspective of relief efforts in the wake of the Haitian earthquake crisis. Can you explain […]

University of Denver students, staff, faculty and community members can make donations to Haitian earthquake victims through DU’s Living and Learning Communities. “If everyone donated a dollar, we’d raise $10,000,” says Jami Duffy, program coordinator of the Social Justice LLC. “It’d be amazing to see what the University community can […]

It began as a simple idea batted around by University of Denver MBA students — a Web site that links young professionals with local nonprofits. In October, the idea became a reality with the official launch of DenverKarma.com, an online network for Denver residents to learn about service opportunities at […]

DU is hosting a number of holiday donation drives over the next two months. Two student groups at the Women’s College (TWC) — the Law and Society Student Association and the Student Advisory Board — are partnering to collect toiletries, cleaning supplies and children’s books for the Women’s Crisis and […]

From maze-like fortresses buried in caves behind enemy lines to a traffic-choked intersection at rush hour, researchers at the University of Denver imagine robots boldly going where no human should want — or need — to go. Quietly emerging as a DU specialty, the study of robotics is garnering interest […]

Kristen Frost and Alysha Damratowski have taken numerous courses on public health, disaster mental health, clinical psychology and humanitarian aid as students in the University of Denver master’s program in international disaster psychology. This summer, they were able to put their knowledge into practice. Frost and Damratowski spent eight weeks […]

It’s common practice to sponsor someone in a race or walk-a-thon for charity, but growing a moustache? DU Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity brothers set up a moustache-a-thon, in which donors paid participants a set amount of money for each day fraternity brothers went without shaving. The fundraiser is just one […]