10/22/2026
Big props to Julia DeDent for bringing top-tier Collaboration to CEC Early College every single day! 🤝 Thank you for connecting campuses, lifting up fellow educators, and putting teamwork into action. We’re thrilled to celebrate you as this week’s LOD award winner! 🏆
“Julia DeDent exemplifies our shared core value of Collaboration through her tireless work at CEC Early College. Spanning two campuses, CEC's eleventh grade class has the unique opportunity to take their core courses at the Auraria campus; however, the 11th-grade teachers are permanently located at Auraria, rather than CEC. Julia is our connection to our school by ensuring that our students' needs are heard and met at both campuses to support this opportunity in perpetuity.
As a collaborator and co-teacher, Julia is second to none. A brilliant educator, Julia's perspective benefits all of our students as she considers how scaffolds may be applied to support all of our students to meet grade-level (at least!) expectations. As a physics teacher, I have particularly benefitted from Julia's collaboration when it comes to introducing math-based concepts. Rather than students balking at the cross-curricular connections, they are quick to recognize that we're applying ideas from their math classes to physical processes, and are willing to take academic risks because they know that there is a tightly woven net to catch them if they fall.
In addition to her willingness to collaborate with core teachers, Julia also supports students' growth as leaders. While she primarily focuses on the 11th-grade this year, Julia, along with our colleague Jen Taurman, helped support CEC's student leadership program for three years. In this class, students not only had the opportunity to help build community at CEC, but to practice leadership skills that will benefit them for years to come.”
– Madelyn Percy, CEC Early College
