CLIMB Program Celebrates 12 Students at Colorado Mountain College Edwards Campus

Have you ever wondered what it truly takes for a local student to step out of the familiar shadow of their parents’ home and into the wide, open sky of independent adulthood? It’s a question that hangs in the thin, dry air of the Western Slope, especially here in the valley where the mountains loom large and the community feels small enough to know your name. For twelve students from the CLIMB program, that leap happened this past Tuesday, not in a boardroom or a sterile office, but in the conference room at Colorado Mountain College’s Edwards campus, where the air smelled faintly of old books and fresh coffee, and the light filtered through high windows onto a quilt that told the story of their journey.

CLIMB, which stands for the program’s focus on life skills, work, and independence, has been weaving this safety net for young adults since 2009. It started as a vision of pioneer teacher Donna Johnson, supported by a dedicated team including Casandra Stewart, Brandi Crawford, and Renata Marshall. Now, under the coordination of Macey Black, with Anna Kasey, Bridget O’Neill, and Ms. Sam lending their energy, the program has found its permanent home at CMC since 2011. It is a place where the rigid structures of traditional schooling give way to the messy, beautiful reality of learning to cook a meal, navigate the bus system, and eventually, hold down a job.

The celebration was intimate, yet charged with the kind of quiet pride that comes from overcoming significant hurdles. One student shared how she had finally made it to Moab, a trip that sounded simple to an outsider but represented a monumental victory for someone who had never before spent a night away from home, let alone in another state. The journey there wasn’t just about geography; it was about trust. It was about learning to carry your own weight, quite literally, when the support of your family is no longer within arm’s reach.

That trust is built on the backs of generous donors. Vail Valley Cares, through its Thrifty shops, has long been the financial engine that makes these excursions possible, while EFEC covers the annual trip to Regis University in Denver. During the ceremony, a student stood up to thank EFEC, her voice steady, while another acknowledged Jami Rahn and the foundation for making those classroom experiences in the field a reality. These aren’t just checks written to a nonprofit; they are lifelines that allow a student to experience the world beyond the valley floor.

If you look closely at the quilt Ms. Sam helped the students create, you can see the texture of their growth. It’s not just fabric; it’s a record of late nights, of failed recipes that turned into successful ones, of bus rides that went wrong and were fixed. The program doesn’t just prepare them for the workforce; it prepares them for life. And as the ceremony ended and the students gathered their things, the room felt different than when they had arrived. It felt lighter, charged with the electricity of possibility. You could feel it in the way they held their heads a little higher, in the way they looked at each other, no longer just classmates, but partners in this new, uncertain, and thrilling adventure of being adults.