{"id":117648,"date":"2019-12-18T17:13:34","date_gmt":"2019-12-19T00:13:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=117648"},"modified":"2020-01-10T14:11:21","modified_gmt":"2020-01-10T21:11:21","slug":"commencement-feature-sierra-brown-is-taking-the-opportunities-as-they-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=117648","title":{"rendered":"Commencement Feature: Sierra Brown is \u201ctaking the opportunities as they come\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a>
Sierra Brown, student body president from 2018-19, is preparing to graduate from UCCS with a degree in English. \u201cThere have been plenty of tears,\u201d she said, \u201cbut this school has dug its way into my heart.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As former president of the UCCS Student Government\nAssociation Sierra Brown prepares to graduate, she can confidently say that her\nfuture plans \u2013 and her life itself \u2013 have defied her every expectation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brown, an English major who was raised in Aurora, Colorado\nby her mother and grandmother, suffered a triple-whammy loss early in her life.\nDuring her last two years of high school, first her father, then her mother and\ngrandmother, unexpectedly passed away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI ended up taking a year and a half off,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI\nhad no idea what I was doing anymore. My mom didn\u2019t go to college, so she\ndidn\u2019t really know anything about the process to begin with, and when she\npassed away, I didn\u2019t have anyone to talk through it with.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As she processed her grief, Brown tried community college,\nthen part-time online classes through CU Denver. Nothing was working \u2013 until she\nvisited UCCS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brown toured UCCS in December 2015 with a few friends. She\nrecalls that as her tour group sat at Sanatorium Grounds in the University Center,\nformer Chancellor Pam Shockley-Zalabak dropped by to say hello.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
When Brown toured UCCS, a conversation with Chancellor emerita Pam Shockley-Zalabak convinced her UCCS was the right fit. \u201cI thought to myself: This is it.<\/em> This is the community, the school, that I need. I can grow here. I can change things here.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe was on her way to a meeting, and she stopped and talked\nto us for 10 or 15 minutes,\u201d Brown said. \u201cShe didn\u2019t talk about the things that\nthey typically focus on during a tour, like how great the academic programs\nare. She kept saying how much opportunity there was at UCCS, and how the school\nwas growing and thriving \u2013 and how they needed more students who want to excel\nand help the community grow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought to myself: This is it.<\/em> This is the\ncommunity, the school, that I need. I can grow here. I can change things here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within two weeks, Brown had applied, been accepted and was\non her way to UCCS. She started classes the very next month \u2013 and growth was on\nthe top of her mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brown was quickly elected to the judicial branch of the UCCS\nStudent Government Association, where she served as justice. By April, she and\nher fellow justice Laveen Khoshnaw had been sworn in as chief justice and\nassociate chief justice, respectively. A year and a half later, they became\npresident and vice president of the student body. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brown reflected that she and Knoshnaw learned tough lessons\nabout leadership during their time serving on the SGA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Brown has often reflected on her time as student body president. \u201cI feel like there\u2019s a point in everybody\u2019s leadership position,” she said, “where you sit back and wonder, \u2018Am I doing anything? Am I actually effecting change?\u2019\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel like there\u2019s a point in everybody\u2019s leadership\nposition where you sit back and wonder, \u2018Am I doing anything? Am I actually\neffecting change?\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI had to step into a position where I wasn\u2019t\nliked all the time, and I wasn\u2019t used to that. Sometimes I had to be a leader\nfirst before I could be a friend.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But those lessons came in handy when Brown was named chair\nof the Intercampus Student Forum \u2013 and especially when she was asked to serve\non the search committee for the new president of the University of Colorado\nsystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really took patience from that experience,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy choices were criticized,\u201d she continued. \u201cI faced\npersonal attacks. I had to learn to thicken up my skin\u2026And I got to see how\nmuch the community cares about students.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She continued, \u201cAfter President Kennedy was announced as the\nfinalist for the presidency, there was an uproar \u2013 but at the same time, I got to\nsee alumni coming together and community members stepping up to make their\nvoices heard. I saw that they cared. It sounds so crazy to appreciate that\nmoment, but it was really great, because sometimes you need to see that support\nto know it exists.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having stepped down from her presidency in 2019, Brown spent\nher final semester at UCCS focusing on classes and preparing to graduate with a\nbachelor\u2019s in English. And without student government to keep her quite so\nbusy, she\u2019s been busy reflecting on all that she\u2019s learned and overcome while\nat UCCS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m realizing that I\u2019m so much more than the positions that\nI\u2019ve held and the things that I\u2019ve done here,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s so important for\nme to step back and realize that even though I\u2019ve had support, and I definitely\ndidn\u2019t have to do it alone, I\u2019m still really proud of myself for getting to\nthis point.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere have been plenty of tears,\u201d she added, \u201cbut this school has dug its way into my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
\u201cI used to say that I was an unlucky person,” Brown said, “because so many bad things happened to me all in a row. But I am really a lucky person. I have had so many opportunities and so many doors opened to me. My life constantly defies my expectations.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

After graduating, Brown plans to move to Japan to teach\nEnglish as a second language. She\u2019s giving herself three years to travel, learn\na new language and explore the world before heading back to the U.S. to pursue\nadvanced degrees in student advancement in higher education. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I come back from Japan, I\u2019ll get the opportunity to\nchoose where I want to go,\u201d she said. \u201cThat ability to choose is so enticing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI used to say that I was an unlucky person, because so many\nbad things happened to me all in a row,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I am really a lucky\nperson. I have had so many opportunities and so many doors opened to me. My\nlife constantly defies my expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Brown prepares to walk across the stage at the Broadmoor World\nArena, she has one final piece of advice for students finding their way, just\nas she did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTake the opportunities as they come,\u201d she said, \u201cand don\u2019t be afraid. There are so many ways that you can navigate your life. So find those people who are willing to navigate with you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brown will be one of more than 550 graduates participating in the 2019 fall commencement ceremony Dec. 20 at Broadmoor World Arena. A record-setting number of more than 1,000 students will be conferred degrees for the summer and fall terms during the 2 p.m. ceremony.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Sierra Brown prepares to graduate, the 2018-19 student body president reflects on all that she\u2019s achieved \u2013 and all that\u2019s yet to come. (More)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":117670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[53,86,42,140,63,60],"class_list":["post-117648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","tag-academic-affairs","tag-college-of-letters-arts-and-sciences","tag-commencement","tag-department-of-english","tag-student-life","tag-student-success"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Sierra-Featured-Image-2.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mBpJ-uBy","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=117648"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117672,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117648\/revisions\/117672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/117670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=117648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=117648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=117648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}