Tracy Ross
Reporter
Maddy Ahlborn could have pursued her Master of Arts degree anywhere, but she chose Adams State University in Alamosa because of its low cost and plethora of scholarships.
While she was there in 2015 and 2016, she didn’t write a standard dissertation for her thesis, the school let her do her own thing.
Her focus was visual art, but she also took a playwriting class and honed her spoken-word poetry in the theater department. She worked with sound professionals in the music department and brought it all together in a one-act play she wrote, directed and built the set for that was performed in the school’s Cloyde Snook Gallery.
Ahlborn says after she melded the different mediums to create her course of study, the university created the School of Visual and Performing Arts where other students can do the same but in a more streamlined manner.
That has paid off not only for Adams State but for the San Luis Valley — 8,000 square miles surrounded by the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the La Garitas and the Conejos-Brazos peaks in southern Colorado with a population of around 40,000. Because after Ahlborn graduated in 2017, she stayed in the valley and built an arts center in Monte Vista that offers classes and gatherings, open mic nights and DJ’d dance parties, and attracts not only Alamosans but out-of-towners exploring the mystic valley that sprawls from Poncha Pass in the north to the New Mexico border.
Ahlborn is filling a void and creating community at the Church Project and San Luis Valley Great Outdoors, where she is also working with Adams State to create an artists retreat. And as an Adams State grad, she’s a contributor to the economic impact of the 104-year-old school throughout the valley.
A report commissioned by the school that came out in July says Adams State generates $61 million in spending and has a total economic inpact of $107 million per year. Likewise, $45 million in direct spending by the university in the valley creates jobs throughout the community that then lead to more spending “creating more jobs and wealth and so on,” Adams State president David Tandberg wrote in an email.
The $13 million students spend annually similarly expands to $22 million when its total impact across the valley is considered, he added. And on-campus events attract thousands of visitors from outside the valley, who spend close to $2 million per year while they’re in the area.
“There is an economic multiplier effect,” he said. “I use the analogy of throwing a rock into a pond. The splash is the direct spending and the ripples that extend far further are the indirect and induced economic impacts.”
College is key economic driver
The fact that Adams State is such a major engine isn’t surprising, given the only other large-scale economic driver in the region is the health industry. Colleges are often a key economic driver for their surrounding towns and cities. What’s important is the school’s “service region,” which “is fundamentally different from any other service region in the state,” Tandberg said in an interview.
“The San Luis Valley is rich in people and history, but economically, it’s the lowest income region in Colorado,” he said. He’s right: The poverty rate is 15% and more than 40% of residents are covered by Medicaid. The median household income is around $50,000 compared to the statewide median of close to $88,000 and the population of adults with college degrees is 14% lower than the rest of the state, according to the university.
Adams State is also Colorado’s only rural anchor institution, Tandberg said, “which means the university is the biggest game in town, and fundamentally, its region would be absolutely changed if that university wasn’t there, economically, culturally, socially and civically.”
The school was founded in 1921 by former Gov. William “Billy” Adams to bring teachers to the area. Today, it’s a “majority-minority institution,” where 52% of students identify as students of color and 38% identify as Hispanic/Latino. Other colleges in the state that have that designation include Colorado State University-Pueblo, the University of Colorado Denver and Fort Lewis College.
Madeline Ahlborn at the church she bought in Monte Vista and transformed into an arts space for the community. (Beata Ramza, Special to The Colorado Sun)And Wil Rickards, head of the school’s outdoor adventure program, said the same “acequia spirit” that inspired residents in the 1920s to pony up money to build the school when the state legislature wouldn’t, lives on in Adams State today, as it pursues its “major goal of changing the lives of the kids that come here, to make sure that they come in as one demographic and leave as a different one, with way more potential and the ability to have more money over a lifetime.”
No surprise: The biggest beneficiary of the school’s economic impact is Alamosa.
But Jake Rissler, vice president of advancement, says it spreads to smaller towns across the region. Nearly three-quarters of the teachers in the valley have a degree from Adams State. Alumni own and operate numerous businesses, including Del’s Diner in Fort Garland and Highland Cabinets in Alamosa.
And Adams State hosts the Colorado Small Business Development Center for the region, which, from August 2024 through July of this year, supported 258 unique clients through one-on-one advising and training, supported small businesses in raising $653,000 in capital formation, helped create and retain 19 jobs, aided eight business launches and helped clients secure $927,000 in contracts and increase sales by $72,500.
An Adams State family
Adams State has been woven into the fabric of Sandy Ortega’s life since she graduated from there in 1974. She’s now president of the Adams State Alumni Association board, and winner of the prestigious Billy Adams Award, which recognizes those who show his same dedication to education.
Three of her siblings are also proud alumni, and her nephew, Diego, followed in their footsteps.
“The university didn’t just educate us,” she wrote in an email to The Colorado Sun. “It kept us rooted in the San Luis Valley while allowing us to contribute meaningfully to our Valley. Mi esposo, Antonio, and I own and operate multiple small businesses. One, as growers of natural produce from the Valley soil, that is sold at various farmers markets around the Valley. The produce even extends beyond to organic restaurants on the Front Range. One proud example of our produce is the Bolita bean — an heirloom native bean of the San Luis Valley.”
Physics professor Matt Nehring adjusts a drill press in Adams State University’s machine shop in Alamosa. Nehring helped develop a new mechanical engineering program for the San Luis Valley college in partnership with Colorado State University. (John McEvoy, Special to The Colorado Sun)Current and former students pay rent, buy food, go to movies, pay taxes and put their children in local schools. And it all adds up.
Looking back, Ortega recalls the San Luis Institute, a historical extension of Adams State built in the 1930s through President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s public works program. It operated for a few years in the 1940s before becoming a high school.
It was ahead of its time, Ortega wrote. “It brought higher education directly to our community when travel to Alamosa was much more challenging. That early commitment to accessibility showed Adams State’s dedication to serving the entire Valley, not just those who could easily get to the main campus. It’s that same spirit of reaching students where they are that has made Adams State such an anchor institution for our region.”
Section by Tracy Ross | Reporter
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Grassroots AI community becomes nonprofit
Rocky Mountain AI, which started as a Meetup in early 2023 for Boulder-area folks interested in generative artificial intelligence, morphed into a volunteer-run massive community and then this week, announced it has become a nonprofit organization.
“The group was humming along just fine, but we had no budget and no bank account so we were limited on different fronts,” said founder Dan Murray. “I would not say that it was unmanageable at any point. We have a large group of volunteers to help make everything happen and that makes all the difference.”
The group numbers around 3,000 and 11 special-interest groups, including Women in AI; Ethics and Safety; AI in Education; and subgroups in Denver and Fort Collins. Incoming president is Jason Cormier, founder of the AI Marketing Forum. Future meetings are posted on the original Rocky Mountain AI Interest Group page. >> rockymountainai.org
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➔ Denver airport job fair is Aug. 12. The annual in-person job fair at Denver International Airport is a week from Tuesday and is in partnership with Denver Workforce Development. Job openings include customer service, project management and technicians at the airport, concession stands, rental car companies and the city of Denver. The two-hour hiring event starts at 11 a.m. Aug. 12 and will be located on the plaza that connects the airport to the Westin Hotel. >> Register in advance
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