{"id":23443,"date":"2016-06-16T21:11:10","date_gmt":"2016-06-17T03:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=23443"},"modified":"2016-06-16T21:11:10","modified_gmt":"2016-06-17T03:11:10","slug":"kpwe-luncheon-honors-unstoppable-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=23443","title":{"rendered":"KPWE luncheon honors unstoppable women"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Courtesy<\/a>
Courtesy BlueFoxPhotography.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More than 400 people gathered May 15 for the annual KPWE Unstoppable Women\u2019s Luncheon to celebrate the achievements of this year\u2019s graduates and influential women in the Colorado Springs community.<\/p>\n

Lt. Gen. Michelle Johnson, Superintendent of the U.S. Air Force Academy, was honored as the recipient of the 2016 Unstoppable Woman award, which recognizes a local mentor who\u2019s provided guidance and leadership to other women.<\/p>\n

\"Courtesy<\/a>
Courtesy BlueFoxPhotography.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Having a mentor can be key to success in life, Johnson told attendees. It was for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cMentors can make you uncomfortable but they also make you better,\u201d Lt. Gen. Johnson said. \u201cThey can provide something solid to stand on in the darkness and will also help you learn how to fly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson learned the roots of hard work on her family farm. She graduated from the Air Force Academy, received an advanced degree from Oxford, earned a Rhodes Scholarship and became an Air Force pilot. Through it all, she discovered she wanted to contribute to the world. This pushed her to seek leadership positions, earn advanced degrees and importantly, never settle for less.<\/p>\n

Her philosophy was reflected in a video shown at the luncheon that profiled KPWE scholarship recipients and how they arrived at UCCS to pursue their degrees. KPWE scholarships are awarded to women from backgrounds woven with hardship. Many seek their bachelor\u2019s degrees later in life. Some by that time have children, jobs and other responsibilities\u2015making the pursuit of higher education more challenging but rewarding.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I started with nothing and KPWE catapulted me to a place where I feel like I\u2019m living my dream,\u201d one recipient told attendees.<\/p>\n

\"Courtesy<\/a>
Courtesy BlueFoxPhotography.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The KPWE program began in 1998 when Karen Possehl, a Denver resident, created a gift that provides more women the opportunity to attend college.<\/p>\n

At Tuesday\u2019s luncheon, Possehl celebrated the KPWE graduates for achieving something great in the midst of many obstacles. Her continued support for KPWE has ignited the Colorado Springs community. Many prominent women serve as program mentors and stay connected to scholarship recipients during and after their time at UCCS.<\/p>\n

Anne Winslow, a prominent community member in Colorado Springs, closed the event with remarks, \u201cSupporting scholarships gives hope to the individual and the community, through this program these women are empowered.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information about the KPWE program, contact Susie Sargent, program manager, Development Office, ssargent@uccs.edu<\/a> or 255-5108.<\/p>\n

— Caroline Kelly, Advancement Communication<\/em>
\n— Photos courtesy\u00a0BlueFoxPhotography.com<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Wendy<\/a>
Courtesy BlueFoxPhotography.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than 400 people gathered May 15 for the annual KPWE Unstoppable Women\u2019s Luncheon to celebrate the achievements of this year\u2019s graduates and influential women in the Colorado Springs community. Lt. Gen. Michelle Johnson, Superintendent (More)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":23472,"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":[1,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-events"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Wendy-Nelson-KPWE_0162-750x500-1.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mBpJ-667","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23443","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=23443"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23471,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23443\/revisions\/23471"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}