“Ms. Sylvia!”

It doesn’t take long to hear her name while walking the halls of Wamsley Elementary with Sylvia Sanchez.

Students call out to her as she passes. Some stop to say hello. Others run up for a hug before continuing on their way.

For more than 20 years, Sanchez has served the Garfield Re-2 community and is currently the custodian at Wamsley Elementary, a role that can mean wearing many different hats.

When Coal Ridge High School junior Ava Karren walks onto the football field, she has a strategy.

“I try to not look as super scared as I definitely am, but I try to look confident when I walk.”

That may be easier said than done when the eyes of 50 musicians are trained on her.

This fall, Karren became the first dedicated drum major in the Coal Ridge High School band program, stepping onto the podium to lead a marching band that grew from just 17 students a few years ago to 50 today.

Coal Ridge has experimented with drum majors in the past. Karren, however, is the first student to take on the position as a dedicated role.

In many ways, she had the job before she had the title.

Lights, camera, action - wait, who runs those? 

We all know what happens when the curtain opens and the magic of the theatre takes center stage. But we don't always think about what's happening behind it: the people running backstage, answering questions on headsets, and scrambling to keep the magic of the theater alive. For the Rifle High School theatre students, they aren’t simply helping with the production: they’re running it.

Rifle Theatre teacher Megan Liggett estimates that about 90% of their productions are student run, giving students ownership over everything from props and sound to backstage operations and crew management. 

Walk into Jeremy Heiser’s classroom at Coal Ridge High School, and it can feel a little overwhelming.

Computers line the room. 3D printers fill workspaces. Laser engravers, cameras, design projects, and half-finished student creations compete for space. Somewhere in the middle of it all, students design, print, troubleshoot, rebuild, and try again.

That last part may be the most important.

“I’m going to let students screw things up, and then we’re going to talk about it,” Heiser said. “Engineering design process lives in everything we do, not just CAD class.”