Stories of Success

Celebrating 30 Years of History! Today’s historical artifact is an agenda from October 8, 1992, outlining the next steps to develop the Foundation’s mission, governance, marketing, and funding priorities. (Our agendas thirty years later look pretty similar!)

The year was 1990. It was the year of the reunification of Germany, the first steps of the Internet, the release of Nelson Mandela, and the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope. It was also the launch of a new idea – a foundation dedicated to serving the students, staff, and community of the Cherry Creek School District.

Thanks to the Mitch Hanson Memorial Scholarship, named in memory of a beloved Smoky Hill High School teacher, Cherry Creek Schools students who had Hanson as an educator have been able to honor his legacy.

Fifth-grade students at Trails West Elementary marked their last year at the school with a special construction project, building a reading nook for the school’s library using materials funded from an Educator Initiative Grant (EIG).

David Rowe and Lesley Philipps, English teachers at Cherry Creek High School, have been working with their tenth-grade students to identify and grow their strengths using the CliftonStrengths for Students, thanks to an Educator Initiative Grant from the Cherry Creek Schools Foundation.

Fifth grader students at Sunrise and Summit Elementaries have been designing, creating and marketing their own sneakers, thanks to funding from the Cherry Creek Schools Foundation and other funding sources.

At Fox Hollow Elementary, fifth graders in Jen Sevy’s STEM class have been designing and making robotic creatures, thanks to an Educator Initiative Grant from the Cherry Creek Schools Foundation.

The Cherry Creek Schools community came together March 30 to honor some of the best and brightest educators in the district, while also supporting and honoring the Cherry Creek Schools Foundation, which helps make their innovative work possible.

Cherry Creek Schools recently announced the 65 honorees for Educator of the Year, a group of talented and dedicated individuals who will be celebrated at the Cherry Creek Schools Foundation Elevate Gala and Educator of the Year Event on Thursday, March 30. The event is an opportunity to recognize these amazing educators and support the Foundation, which supports schools with funding for classroom innovation, emergency relief for families, and mental health programming.

Multilingual students in Buffalo Trail Elementary’s Math Club are getting to embrace their love of math on a whole other level, thanks to an Educator Initiative Grant (EIG). Students in the club have been enjoying the new materials, explaining that they love math (even if it’s challenging) and how there are always adults who can help them learn new strategies and ways of thinking.

This past summer, students from across the district came together to experience the first Summer Leadership Academy (SLA), a program designed to empower students with skills like conflict resolution, communication, collaboration and more. This program was funded by donors like you to support students in pursuing their passion and pathway of purpose. Two students from the program, Issa Zavala and Jay Dreger, shared some of what they learned from this valuable program.

Thanks to an Educator Initiative Grant, Aurora's Poet Laureate Ahja Fox visited Prairie Middle School to share her passion of poetry with students who sat where she sat when she attended the school herself.