{"id":136328,"date":"2021-11-18T17:37:27","date_gmt":"2021-11-19T00:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=136328"},"modified":"2021-11-19T07:59:40","modified_gmt":"2021-11-19T14:59:40","slug":"sandy-ho-honored-with-2021-woman-of-influence-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=136328","title":{"rendered":"Sandy Ho honored with 2021 Woman of Influence award"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Sandy Ho, Assistant Dean and Director of Student Affairs for the UCCS College of Education, was named a 2021 Woman of Influence by the Colorado Springs Business Journal. Photo credit: Bryan Oller<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The Colorado Springs Business Journal uses the words “dedication,” “strength” and “tenacity” to describe the winners of its annual Women of Influence Awards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sandy Ho, Assistant Dean and Director of Student Affairs for the UCCS College of Education, has no shortage of such traits. But it\u2019s Ho\u2019s matter-of-fact approach to service that solidifies her as a deserving winner of the 2021 Women of Influence Award. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow can I be of service?\u201d is one of Ho\u2019s guiding principles. When it comes to her work at UCCS, it seems that it\u2019s a principle rooted in practice as much as philosophy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t just serve at the behest of what other people think they need,\u201d she said. \u201cI leverage my expertise, my lived experience, my professional experience and my network of community members that I have partnered with and collaborated with to serve the community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ho applies her expertise and education to a variety of efforts on the UCCS campus, including student support services, alumni relations, and student mentoring all while serving as an assistant professor in the UCCS Department of Languages and Culture as well as an instructor for the Gateway Seminar Program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently she\u2019s increased her focus on advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts at UCCS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy background is in administration, student affairs and policy, but I have been doing more work with DEI. I think having that top of mind, I can bring that into spaces where it\u2019s lacking,” she said. “I\u2019m trying to serve historically excluded and marginalized communities and to create more access for potential students that we don\u2019t lift up as much.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her efforts have not gone unnoticed. In August 2021, Ho was named the winner of the 2021 Colorado Springs Independent Pikes Peak Transformational Award for her work in promoting inclusive campus policies and curriculum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat motivates me is bringing access and lifting up the voices of those who need to be included in conversations and celebrated and not just included like, ‘Yeah, we\u2019re letting you in,’ but actually saying, ‘You belong, and you matter, and we need you.’\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ho\u2019s influence on the UCCS community reaches far and wide, due in part, to her own expansive support system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m very dedicated to my parents and my extended family. A few years ago, my youngest sister passed suddenly, and it brought into perspective how important it is to love the people you love and not assume that they\u2019re going to be around forever,\u201d she said. \u201cMy spouse has been very supportive. I\u2019ve had so many mentors: Dr. Brian Burnett, Dr. Regina Lewis, Colette Berge, Joe Garc\u00eda and all of the supervisors I\u2019ve had on campus. They\u2019ve been so supportive of my passions. And Jesse Perez, who nominated me for the award, he and I work diligently to do the DEI work together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked what her advice is to future community influencers, Ho said: \u201cFor young women and those who identify as nonbinary, I recommend connecting with other people. I know it\u2019s tough, and you\u2019re not sure how to go about it. Engage with the community. Find what you love, and do that.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dedicated, strong, tenacious \u2014 or, as Ho puts it simply, \u201cI\u2019m inspired to do what I can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the full feature story on Ho from the Colorado Springs Business Journal<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sandy Ho, Assistant Dean and Director of Student Affairs for the UCCS College of Education, has been honored with a 2021 Women of Influence Award. (More)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":136330,"comment_status":"closed","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_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,49,47],"tags":[53,331,82],"class_list":["post-136328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-campus-announcements","category-education-and-public-affairs","tag-academic-affairs","tag-campus-announcements","tag-college-of-education"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Communique-B-Story-300x170px-6.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mBpJ-zsQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136328","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\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=136328"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136332,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136328\/revisions\/136332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/136330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=136328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=136328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=136328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}