{"id":130324,"date":"2021-02-18T16:19:58","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T23:19:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=130324"},"modified":"2021-02-22T13:11:50","modified_gmt":"2021-02-22T20:11:50","slug":"after-26-years-and-a-wedding-at-uccs-cordova-to-retire-june-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=130324","title":{"rendered":"After 26 years and a wedding at UCCS, Cordova to retire June 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Anthony Cordova recalls that he never missed volunteering at Commencement until COVID-19 hit. “Even the years that I was graduating, I worked the event at the Broadmoor World Arena until it was time to jump in line.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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UCCS has never just been a place to work for Anthony Cordova \u201997, M.A. \u201999, the director of the Multicultural Office for Student Access, Inclusiveness and Community (MOSAIC) and the MOSAIC Gateway Program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Cordova, UCCS is the place where, as a 40-year-old first-year student, he could become the first in his family to earn a college degree. UCCS is where Cordova learned he was great at working with people. It\u2019s where three of his four children have earned their own college degrees, four of his nine grandchildren attended the Family Development Center, and his son-in-law also works. It\u2019s where he met his wife of 19 years, Andrea Cordova, chief of staff for Chancellor Venkat Reddy. And it\u2019s even where the two tied the knot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis has been my community, my home,\u201d Cordova said. \u201cFor Andrea and me, this became our family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, after more than 26 years working and learning at UCCS, Cordova will retire in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cordova poses with members of the UCCS Facilities crew in 1999. He worked closely with them while a student employee, doing maintenance for the University Center.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Cordova is a Colorado native who grew up in Avondale, east of Pueblo. A fiercely independent teenager, Cordova graduated from Pueblo County High School and \u2013 following an apprenticeship during which he worked on the Pueblo Dam \u2013 he became a heavy equipment operator for a rock quarry in Colorado Springs. Cordova spent 21 years there, eventually becoming a supervisor, before back injuries caused him to retire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Cordova applied for an early retirement disability pension through the quarry union, the orthopedic surgeon required to certify his disability wouldn\u2019t sign off on the pension until Cordova agreed to make his next step a college degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI stopped in at UCCS in July 1994,\u201d Cordova recalled, \u201cand by August I started at UCCS as a 40-year-old, first-generation freshman.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cordova pursued a double major in psychology and communication, then earned a master\u2019s degree in counseling. Along the way, he worked as a maintenance worker for the University Center as a student employee, often making repairs between classes, on top of being an peer academic advisor, working with the UCCS Pre-Collegiate Program, leading freshman seminar mentors and teaching his own classes once he was enrolled in graduate school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But of all his accomplishments, Cordova is most proud that he met his wife, Andrea, while they served on Student Government Association together from 1996 to 1997. The two were married at the Housing Village Lodge in 2001: \u201cthe cheapest way we could do it,\u201d Cordova recalled, \u201csince Andrea and I were both poor students.\u201d The campus didn\u2019t have the professional events team it does now, but friends from across campus helped to support their special day \u2013 including the UCCS\u2019 dining services team, who cooked green chile for the reception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Family, friends and colleagues gathered in celebration of the Cordova’s wedding, held on the UCCS campus.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

After graduating and becoming employed full-time at UCCS, Cordova not only designed the original MOSAIC space, but helped to paint it and install support beams. Now, MOSAIC represents a place where first-generation, marginalized and underrepresented students can simply “be.” Cordova will get to witness the expansion and renovation that will double its capacity and support UCCS’ growing student body, which will be complete in March 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recognition of his own conditional admission to UCCS, Cordova also helped create the MOSAIC Gateway Program to support students who face academic and social challenges but show strong potential to succeed in college. As he told audience members as he helped to present UCCS’ 2009 Diversity Strategic Plan, “Nothing makes as much impact on a student as someone saying \u2018I\u2019ve been where you\u2019re at.'”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, MOSAIC and the Gateway Program support first-generation, LGBTQIA+ students, ethnic minority and international students, undocumented and DREAMer students and more. In honor of his efforts, Cordova has been awarded the 2004 University of Colorado Staff Council Service Excellence Award, the 2011 Freedom Fund Education Award from the NAACP and the 2012 President’s Diversity Award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through all of his years at UCCS, Cordova has simply tried to help students shine despite the challenges they might face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI like to garden, and when you garden, you only have a certain part to play,\u201d Cordova said. \u201cYou try to make sure whatever you\u2019re growing has your best support, and then you let nature take care of the rest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always looked forward to helping students at UCCS for that reason. If you nurture them just right, and have opportunities to work with them and help them grow, they sure can bear some great fruit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cordova will retire from UCCS on June 30, 2021. But he doesn\u2019t plan to be a stranger. He\u2019ll continue teaching his first-year GPS class \u2013 keeping a two-decade tradition strong, even as a retiree.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cordova would be remiss if he did not mention the innumerable mentors and friends he has had at UCCS. Two stand out at the beginning of his academic and professional career.<\/strong> First: Connie Staley, professor of communication, who was his Freshman Seminar instructor during his first semester as an undergraduate. The other was Jan Tharp, director of student enrichment, to whom he reported early in his staff career.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stay tuned for details on a farewell celebration, and explore photos of Cordova’s many years at UCCS below.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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