There’s a spot on CU Denver’s campus that is special for electrical engineering student Audrey Whitesell. Behind the Science Building—where she spends hours working in labs, going to classes, and hanging out with friends—is a grassy lawn where she can sit back and take in the campus and downtown Denver. And what she sees is a community, a place where she belongs.  

Whitesell transferred to CU Denver after community college, hoping to find a better fit. “I had friends that had transferred to CU Denver,” Whitesell said. “After talking to them about their experience, I decided to transfer in and I love it.” Her friends raved about the small class sizes, friendships they’d made, and how involved the professors were. When she got to campus, she saw that they were right.  

As a Filipino woman in STEM, she was also excited to find other students in her physics classes that looked like her—it made her feel a part of something bigger. Before, at times, she’d felt excluded from study groups and classroom discussion. Not anymore. “There are more women taking the exact same classes as me,” Whitesell said. “I don’t feel like I’m the only woman.” 

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