Community Engagement and Public Service Activities

 This project provided stop-gap ventilator solutions that can treat non-critical Covid-19 patients experience breathing difficulty. The device is a modified snorkel mask using a 3D-printed valve to convert the mask to a medical device. It operates with positive pressure ventilation that gently expands the lungs to ease the patients efforts to breathe. It promotes distention of distal alveoli with a Positive End-Expiratory Pressure (PEEP) option. The goal of the device it to help patients not tire out and, through that process, arrest the decline to needing intubation. The device also is well-sealed which can contain aerosolized virus and protect medical personnel.

A Creative Collaboration between Access Gallery Artists and Metropolitan State University of Denver Communication Design Students

In Fall 2020, 12 students in the Community-Based Design service-learning course at MSU Denver collaborated in a creative exchange with four Access Gallery artists with the goal of creating campaigns—a series of communication pieces that seek to educate and inform the public by celebrating the creativity of people with disabilities. Through shared discussion about contemporary disability and civil rights issues, Access Gallery artists identified topics that were important to them and their art- and design-making practice. Over the course of several weeks, Access Gallery artists made artwork that responded to their selected topic(s). At the same time artists and students were participating in discussions that informed approaches to campaign messaging, presentation, and design. Students were responsible for facilitating a systems approach to campaign deliverables that included branded messaging applied to various formats including posters, billboards, bus shelters, and public space communications, stickers, yard signs, and social media. As part of this course’s service-learning designation, students are to “interpret and communicate the learning experience to a wider forum and disseminate information to audiences beyond the classroom.” This exhibition at Access Gallery provides that opportunity. Community-Based Design students and faculty are thankful for the creative exchange and knowledge-sharing with Access Gallery artists and staff over several weeks of working together.

A gala benefiting We Don't Waste, a food rescue organization. This is an annual event occuring in every September. This is the major fundraiser of the year for this nonprofit organization. Our students perform a variety of tasks including food preparation, cooking, serving, cleaning and event management. 

Students from the Skills and Methods of Teaching Dance Technique course engaged in a collaborative Service Learning Project in partnership with Girls Athletic Leadership Schools (GALS) of Denver and the Center for Visual Art, MSU Denver. This project culminated in students teaching a series of classes in jazz, hip hop, tap, contemporary, and modern dance for GALS students in connection with a visual art project. Students in this course were also placed at dance studios across the Denver Metro area to work with instructors in observing and assisting with their dance classes.

MSU Denver worked with El Sistema Colorado to help in their mission to provide free violins and music lessons to youths within the community. This project created 3D printed demo violins to help aid in teaching children how to properly hold a violin, get comfortable, and eventually graduate to a fully functioning violin.

MSU Denver's 2023/2024 1Book/1Project/2Transform presents an author visit from the book selection, All Boys Aren't Blue, George M. Johnson. A memoir highlighting a young queer Black person's journey of trials and triumphs. The 2023/2024 selection covers topics of: gender identity, toxic masculinity, brotherhood, family, structural marginalization, consent, and Black joy. This book selection was not only marketed to MSU students within classes utilizing a crafted teaching and learning guide, other Auraria Campus institutions, DPS students, but also the greater community that wants to be involved. MSU Denver crafted an all-day event to build connection through one central book, connect with the author, and included a book signing and keynote speech.

Metroplitan State University of Denver’s Center for Visual Art and Department of Art have partnered to offer eyewear by EnChroma, Inc., to students, faculty, staff, and visitors with color vision deficiencies, or color blindness. EnChroma is an independent, Berkeley, California-based company that develops leading patented lens technology to improve the lives of people with color vision deficiency (color blindness). EnChroma’s Color Accessibility Program helps public venues, schools, state parks, libraries, museums, and other organizations purchase and loan EnChroma glasses for use by visitors. The CVA’s art exhibitions and MSU Denver’s art and art history classes are now more accessible to colorblind individuals.  Guests at the CVA may check out the glasses free of charge at the front desk while visiting. Students in the Department of Art may check out glasses from the Art office.

Jill Mollenhauer, MSU Denver professor of Art History, learned about EnChroma and reached out to offer the glasses to students. “Color is used in art as a primary tool to communicate a wide range of information, from the overall mood or tone of a work to culturally-specific symbols that allow a viewer to ‘read’ the central message,” said Mollenhauer. “We hope that by providing access to EnChroma glasses, we can enhance the accessibility of all that art has to offer for our students and other members of our campus community. We are also pleased to support EnChroma’s mission to increase the public’s awareness of color blindness and its impacts.”

According to EnChroma, one in 12 men (8%) and one in 200 women (0.5%) are color vision deficient; an estimated 13 million in the United States and 350 million worldwide. While people with normal color vision see over one million shades of color, those with red-green color vision deficiency are estimated to see only about 10% of hues and shades. As a result, many colors appear dull, muted, washed out and indistinguishable; purple looks blue, red seems brown, gray appears pink, and green and yellow can look similar. EnChroma’s patented lens technology is engineered with special optical filters that increase the separation between color channels to help people with color blindness see colors more vibrantly, clearly and distinctly.

The 14th Annual VFW CABA Charity Airlift took flight again. MSU Denver's Precision Flight Team and Aerobatic Team continue a tradition of service. Over the years, this initiative has distributed more than 80,000 pounds of holiday essentials to communities statewide, including rural and underserved areas including Grand Junction, Durango, Montrose, Cortez, Alamosa, Pueblo, Las Animas, Burlington, Greely and Fort Collins. The mission reflects MSU Denver’s commitment to supporting and current and former members of the military.