Coming up on studio 12 with Mother's Day around the corner, we're celebrating a single mom with an inspiring story.

She turned her dream into a thriving boba tea business.

And do you need someone to talk to?

One local grandmother is willing to listen.

It's all part of the grandma stand.

We'll explain.

Plus, we celebrate Cinco de Mayo by taking you inside Colorado's first ever college degree program in mariachi music.

Also, we explore the driving force behind data centers here in Colorado and what it means for our future.

All of that and more is right here on studio 12.

From the Five Points Media Center in the heart of Denver, Colorado.

This is studio 12.

Hello, I'm Ryan Hare.

And I'm bazi kanani.

Welcome to studio 12.

In a time when so many people are feeling disconnected, one simple idea is bringing strangers together through conversation.

It's called Grandma Stand, a grassroots movement where volunteer grandmas show up in public spaces to listen, offer support and remind people that they're not alone.

A new documentary captures these powerful, unscripted moments conversations about grief, anxiety, loneliness and life's biggest transitions.

And right here in Denver, in Cheesman Park was one of those grandma stands.

PBS 12 photojournalist Rico Romero went to meet Grandma Kathryn, who's creating that same space for connection and community right here in Colorado.

Take a look.

There's dog walkers, runners, walkers.

You're going to be outside.

This is.

This is the place to be.

We're at Cheesman Park with Toby Cheesman.

Park brings the, You know, the people that are fearless.

Yeah.

I walk my car out here.

I've seen a couple other cats here.

I love it here.

It's just great vibes.

There's, like, slack liners all the time.

People juggling, going on picnics and making all that stuff on the weekends.

You.

I see all age groups.

This is my big, you know, different park that I that I go to.

It's a pretty good spot, I will say.

I feel very grateful that people trust me enough to sit here and either answer my question or just talk about something that is meaningful or just, you know, disturbing or is something they're struggling with.

There we go in their life.

Oops.

Yeah, there.

Grandma stand is open for business.

Hey, how are you in my first month?

For you?

I'm here first.

For me?

Yes.

I came here because I felt comfortable with with being in Cheesman.

I feel like my grandparents were also just very, like strong individuals.

Like, I appreciate those.

Thank you so much, Carly.

So cool.

Thank you for stopping.

Thank you.

Tell all your friends I will.

Hi.

Would you do it?

Thank you, thank you.

This Cheesman Park has been so good to me.

So I'm Katherine Kendall, and I started the grandma stand in Denver in late summer of 2025.

The grandma stand started with Mike Matthews, and, he started it in New York, with his own grandmother, who, was missing the social interaction with people after she had moved from New York.

And he came up with this wonderful idea of setting up a purple lemonade stand.

I had no idea what it was going to be like when I came to Cheesman.

I set my little stand up and I was it took five minutes before somebody stopped to talk to me.

I don't have.

Time to appreciate what you're.

Doing.

Oh, you're so welcome.

Yeah, I just didn't know what to expect.

And I thought, okay, this is going to be really depressing.

If I'm sitting here and nobody stops to talk to me and, you know, they're, you know, I'm just kind of.

But again, that hasn't happened.

So I'm really, really glad.

Hello.

I can have a conversation with somebody who's my age.

Come here and talk to me.

And the next person is 19.

You know, you're to be commended for stopping and talking to me.

A lot of people look, but don't stop.

So thank you.

Thank you.

When I saw it and I read about it, I just it wouldn't leave my mind.

And your name is Julie.

Hi, I'm Grandma Catherine.

Yes, yes.

And this is, this is what?

Ali.

The grandma's stand is a group of volunteers that are wise, older women who set up a stand with a question that draws people in to connect, to build community, and to have a safe place that they can feel like someone is listening and they're being heard.

Question of the day is what?

You have to let go of.

That thought for a minute and she said, well, let me.

Start.

I need to let go of how I sometimes, not all the time, but I can get there if I really think about, you know, having a seven in front of my number or how old I am.

So the, the limiting thoughts of being in my 70s, that's how I'll say it.

I need to let go of the limiting thoughts of of what being in my 70s can be.

She absolutely nailed it.

I'm, of her age and then quite a few, and we're recently married and very compatible.

And we thought of, well, this is has a finite end to it.

Yeah, it is concerning.

That's reality.

But as your question perfectly points out, you have to let it go.

That's right, that's right.

And that's as honest as I can be.

As a 71 year old woman.

Having somebody tell you that they really value you and what you have to say means a lot.

You don't realize until you age how, invisible sometimes, you can feel.

And when people stop and they sit down, they're here because they want to talk to me as Grandma Catherine.

Oh, and who is that?

Is is Shiloh.

Oh, he's a year old.

Oh, my goodness, he's he's having a nap.

He's having a snoozer on that.

Yeah.

And what's your name?

Ruby.

Ruby.

That's a fun name.

I like that.

When I first started, I was only answering questions about what is it that you're really doing here?

You know, I remember one of the first ladies that walked by and she said, what kind of shenanigans are you up to?

Well, I'm glad you stopped by to chat.

People also wondered if I was selling something or if, you know, if I sit down here or does this cost money?

No, it does not.

Thank you.

Lie.

Yes, yes.

Okay, guys, did I mean, I knew it.

I knew what I can tell, I could tell.

Oh, okay.

All right.

The joy that it gives me, I hope I can reflect that.

And with people, and they get that same kind of joy and caring when they leave my grandma stand.

Thanks for the stop the the to do list is back here.

Oh, yeah.

Well, you're well, you're at least while you're walking through the park, right.

There you go.

What I have.

Yeah.

Good for you.

This is not therapy.

This is, listening, being heard and, feeling like you have a space to do that.

It's all ages, all walks of life, all lifestyles.

And I love that.

I love that that's that's the Denver that I know.

Bye bye.

A really powerful reminder of how a simple conversation can make an impact, even with a complete stranger.

And don't miss the documentary grandma stand when it premieres right here on PBS 12 this Thursday, May 7th at 8 p.m.. As artificial intelligence continues to expand, so does the need for the infrastructure powering it.

And that means a significant increase in data center capacity.

But with that growth comes big questions about energy demand, water use, and whether our power grid can keep up.

At Colorado Climate Week in Boulder, Frannie Matthews spoke with Jenni Gerson, Data Bank's sustainability director, about what's driving this boom.

And about how new technologies are helping balance sustainability and the demands of a digital world.

Here's that conversation.

Jenny, thank you so much for joining us today.

We're at Colorado Climate Week here in Boulder, Colorado.

Thanks for having me, Frannie.

Really happy to be here.

So as we've seen emerging technologies mature and specifically AI, the need for data center capacity has, has as increased quite a bit.

And the projections for that need, have increased.

What's really driving that?

What's really driving that is the people using the services behind AI, behind the cloud, behind the data.

And so data centers are responding to that demand.

They're seeing that the large, tech companies, the hyperscalers, they need more space for their AI models and for their AI inference, where you actually, you know, when you're typing into ChatGPT, that's where the work is being done in an inference data center.

So when we think about this, there's a lot of discussion on data centers being built and the need for more capacity.

Can you tell us a little bit about how you view our capacity for grid to take care of this?

And there's been some studies on that.

And how important is location for where those data centers go in?

Yeah.

So a couple different things on that.

So when we talk about capacity utilities talk about it in terms of their peak capacity.

So they need to meet the needs of the hottest summer days of the year when everyone is running their air conditioning and they need to meet the needs of the coldest mornings of the winter when everyone is running the heat and so there's a difference from how much power we actually have, kind of on a day to day basis versus those peak demand situations to when a utility says they're out of capacity.

What they're saying is that they're they can't, they need to make sure that they can meet those peak capacity demand days.

So then if you move to a data center, data centers obviously are on 24 seven.

They need until I came along, constant load power.

That means at the hottest days and the coldest days, they they still need that power.

So that's something that utilities have to plan for and make sure that they're going to be able to meet the needs of that data center.

Then in terms of your question about location, our data centers are where people are.

So they're in major cities.

They're where the data is actually being transferred.

It's also where our customers are.

So we're not locating our data centers up in the Arctic Circle, which obviously there's more efficiencies for cooling if you can put it up there.

But our data centers, for latency reasons and for, where people are, where our customers are, they need to be around city centers.

So that's also where the utilities are having a problem, where the generation of the power and the power availability is not necessarily where it's being used.

And so the biggest issue, the biggest bottleneck on our grid, right now is actually with transmission and distribution.

So getting the power from where it is to where it's actually being used, there's plenty of power on the grid.

It's just getting it to where people need it.

So, let's talk about it from a general perspective, but also how it relates to Colorado.

In Colorado, we have the PUC, who, and it looks to me like they've been measured in, in the regulatory expansion.

Yes.

For for power, for data centers or power in general.

So can you talk a little bit about that and how that looks for us from a growth perspective?

Yeah.

So like I said the utilities always have to kind of plan for the worst.

But they need to have a good estimate of what the worst is.

And so the PUC is going to come in and say, what should we really be planning for?

They have to make many, many different kinds of models to look at.

What do we think we're going to need?

And it's really hard with data centers right now, because so many people are putting power requests in for the same parcel of land.

So there or for multiple parcels of land just to try and, you know, grab whatever is available.

And that means not only is one data center company looking at several parcels of land, but many data center companies could also be looking at the same parcel of land and asking that utility for the power commitment.

So then we're getting estimates of the full scale of the power that's required.

That's much, much larger than what's actually going to get developed.

And so the PUC has to say, well, what's real?

What is really going to get developed?

We already saw in the first quarter of the year, not all data center projects move forward.

They got delayed or they got canceled.

And so then if the PUC has allowed for more buildout of generation in the grid, the ratepayers are paying for that.

And that's obviously problematic.

So can we talk about the use of cooling and that evolution of the of the technologies for cooling.

Yeah.

So initial data centers are very small compared to what we're seeing now.

And they could use what any building uses for air conditioning.

So same thing that might be in a condo building or in an office building.

Just more of it.

So much larger scale.

But very traditional, air conditioning.

And that was good for that density of compute.

Now, like you said, we have an evolution of data centers.

With cloud, it got more dense.

We needed better ways to cool the data centers.

So at that point in, the most efficient thing people could do was evaporative cooling.

And so that is where you're seeing higher amounts of water being used for cooling.

And it is the most efficient technology out there.

So that means you're not using it as much power for cooling, but you are using more water for cooling.

So a lot of cloud data centers were built using that technology.

Again, great.

On the power side, less great on the water side.

Then as people were seeing one more, more need to get cooling closer and closer to the actual chip.

The next technology that came around was this closed loop system.

So liquid cooled, either water or a mix of some things that can bring cooling directly to the chip, directly to the server, directly to the back of the rack, and it's closed loop.

So that means that once the loops are filled, you are not consuming water.

So that's great that is what data Bank uses for our standard design for our new builds.

You do not consume the water.

It recirculate throughout, the piping.

So that's good.

It's not quite as efficient as the evaporative cooling.

So there's still some companies saying, well, but we get more out of this evaporative cooling technology.

And in some areas where you're not water stressed, and in other areas it could be argued as well.

Evaporative cooling might be a really good technology.

Even if you are using water, the amount of water that data centers do consume, I think has been sensationalized in the headlines a little bit.

It's not as large as people think.

You know, golf courses consume much, much more.

The almond industry consumes much, much more.

It's like a percent of a percent.

It's a very, very small number of the overall water consumption in the U.S.. So then there's that trade off.

People are seeing that data centers are consuming water.

It doesn't look good when we have systems that are consuming water.

So some data center companies are choosing to do the closed loop.

Some are sticking with that open loop.

Evaporative cooling technology.

What are some of the things that you're kind of excited about seeing mature.

Yeah.

So we are starting to look at water technology.

And water efficiency technology on our sites.

Some things, where we do have water towers, because we were part of that movement where we saw evaporative cooling, as the most efficient source of cooling out there.

How can we do better with the water that we're using there?

So we're doing things like piloting, increasing the amount of cycles that we use of that water before you have to flush it.

And so that's, you know, watching the water, making sure that there's not mineral buildup, adjusting the chemicals, but it's essentially educating the engineers that we can do a little bit better here.

We don't have to flush the system as often as we once thought we did.

There's a couple other innovations in water, but it's really been behind where we can see more power, innovation and more energy efficiency innovations.

Because water doesn't cost as much money, power is much more expensive.

So I'm excited that there are water technologies that are coming.

I do think that's something that we will be able to take advantage from, but right now, there's not that much out there.

When you look at the data centers that are built and how how, capable are they of retrofitting into some of these newer technologies?

Yeah.

So majority of our fleet was old, including buildings that were not built as a data center but were retrofitted to be a, data center.

So, like a warehouse that was turned into a data center.

And we've been able to do a fair amount in those environments.

The, the easiest low hanging fruit is just pulling out old lighting and putting in LEDs with occupancy sensors.

It doesn't sound like a lot, but these are built big buildings.

Lighting is typically on 24 over seven.

And so by doing that, there's a fair amount of savings.

We were seeing return on investments for those projects somewhere between 2 and 5 years.

So it's pretty good project to do.

The other thing we do is look at airflow.

So again the the servers need to be cooled and the heat needs to be pulled out.

And so you look at airflow dynamics, and try and get the if you're using an air based methodology, how do you get the cold air to the server.

And then efficiently pull the hot air away without those two mixing?

So we do things called, containment, either hot air or cold air containment.

And you build the data center in a way, and you can retrofit these.

But not as easily, so that the cold air is going under a fake floor.

And it comes up through floor tiles that have little holes in them.

So perforated floor tiles get to the front of the servers, get sucked through the back of the servers, and then the, ducting systems pull that hot air out and around.

Data centers has to be apt to be on seven by 24.

And so, at times, if you had a power outage, you have to have a resiliency plan.

And I'm assuming that you've got battery backup for short term.

And also the longer term may be diesel.

Can you, give us some sense of magnitude of how often these, systems are engaged and what the environmental impact is?

Yeah, it's not as much as most people would think, but of course, it depends on, the resiliency of the grid region that we're in.

So Texas, for instance, we do see a lot more rolling outages.

And that is where we have to rely a little bit more on our backup diesel generators.

But we have data centers that have never had to go on backup power.

We always test them, of course.

And testing is very limited.

Most of the time when you test the generators, it's on a no load run, meaning there's little to no emissions coming out.

And then of course, we do a loaded run to make sure that everything is going to work if it needs to work.

So the environmental impact of our emissions is always being monitored.

We do have to comply with Air Quality District's requirements for things like particulate matter and NOx, and carbon emissions.

And so that's something that we always have to make sure that we're well within those limits, so that we can maintain our permits to operate.

Well.

And I would think that, innovation in, batteries is going to make a big difference on that, that you'll be able to have battery backup out for a longer term outage of that.

I'm very excited about batteries.

Not everyone is excited about batteries.

There is some community pushback, unfortunately, thinking that batteries are dangerous, that they light on fire, that they, release toxic fumes.

And of course, yes, there have been incidents that they have lit on fire, but that's, you know, a small, small risk, they're very safe technology.

And in fact, we have put utility scale batteries on three of our data centers, and they help with that peak capacity shaving.

So I, I spoke about those kind of peak times these batteries kick in when the, the grid is about to hit one of those peak times.

So they don't take the data center off line altogether, but they shave just a little bit.

These batteries are connected to an entire network of other batteries in that community.

And it creates what's called a virtual power plant.

So it negated the need of that community to build a new power source just by using all of these batteries tied to buildings, to shave a little bit at each building, but all together created that capacity that was needed.

Funding for the Business of Colorado on PBS 12 is provided in part by Collegiate Peaks Bank.

I bought up and from the generous support of viewers like you.

Thank you.

Such an interesting look at what's happening behind the scenes of the technology.

So many of us are now using every day.

Absolutely.

And to see all of our Climate Week stories with Franny.

Be sure to check out our YouTube channel.

Starting a business is never easy, but doing it while raising three kids on your own is on a whole other level.

Tonight we meet a single mom in Denver who turned a long held dream into reality.

After years of setbacks, career changes and starting.

Over, it was a hard road to get there.

But still, she did it.

What began as an idea decades ago is now a space built on resilience and family.

PBS Twelve's Erica McLarty introduces us to the woman behind a Boba and tea shop.

It's called Tea in Denver's Little Saigon district.

Here's more with Erica.

In a small tea shop tucked in to the Little Saigon district.

Okay, let me read it out for you.

There's something more than Boba being served.

I'm here at teehee, where everything is handcrafted and a piece of art.

But what makes this place really special is the story behind it.

For one single mom of three.

This place is years in the making.

So we're in my little space called Teeny Little Tea House.

She calls it her little space.

But getting here took decades.

The year 2000, I started my own boba shop.

And, I wanted to introduce it to everyone in Denver.

I think it did it work just cause it was too new of a concept?

But I did feel, you know, like a little frustration.

Kind of like, why are we so behind on trends?

Because Boba back then had already been around for 20 something years.

So, after a couple years.

Yeah, I decided to call it quits.

So she walked away, tried new careers, raised a. Family.

I pretty much did like different jobs.

Got married, had kids, and at that, you know, I'm still a full time mom and doing everything so.

And just not happy.

Then life changed.

My ex and I separated, I would say before Covid hit.

A single mom, three daughters, and a lot of uncertainty.

I always in the back of my head was like, I'm not happy.

What would make me happy?

And I always it always led back to the time.

That I had the shop.

Let me cry.

Okay.

Sorry.

During Covid, it's kind of when, she started basically stuck in the house together.

So I was like, okay, well, we need to do something like to get our minds off of everything.

So we started an Etsy shop.

We started a craft, and it was soapmaking.

So like, the soap era was kind of I feel like it was throughout the first kind of year or so of being just like with my mom only.

So she was like a single mother the first time we were on the house and she wanted to pick up a hobby, so we all started making soap together in her basement.

Then something unexpected.

All of a sudden I got, like, this big giant order for soap.

First of all, I soap.

And it was a very unusually large order.

And so after everything was done, I was like, let me, research this person.

Like, who are they?

I thought it was like, maybe a teacher.

And I found out it was like a Hollywood producer.

I don't know if I could name it, but I'll tell you.

But, it's John Orlando.

Yeah.

So I tell that story a little because from that money, Yeah.

So I got the seed money.

Now with the seed money, a second chance at the dream.

She never let go.

But it didn't happen overnight.

And then I moved to, like, a little horse trailer that I sell out of.

I looked for, like, maybe almost three years.

Like, I felt like I was looking at plate spaces and nothing.

All right.

Until one day, the right place found her.

The space just felt right and, like, very nostalgic to me.

So I was like, okay, I really like this feeling.

It was hard because doing everything like alone pretty much.

And it's kind of like, who I don't have anyone to, like, kind of lean on, like, I didn't even tell my parents.

It's a month, except for.

But she wasn't really alone.

Her three daughters are.

Why?

I'm proud of my mom.

Because she's.

Hardworking.

And she loves me and my sisters and her family and she's never gives up.

She opened this shop all by herself.

Sometimes I'm like, wow, how can she even do that?

Watching her be solo is a really good role model for all of us.

At the end of the day, loving yourself.

And giving yourself grace.

Isn't just for you.

It's for your kids.

When they see their mom happy, they realize that they could do anything they want in life to.

I think it's very admirable what she did.

Like waiting to make sure we're all okay first before kind of starting her dream.

We got this like, you know, do your thing.

Like just seeing her grow and the shop become everything she want it to be.

It's just been very inspiring.

It's the pantheon coconut cream.

And it's the most popular drink here.

So, like, whenever something happens or she's struggling, she always just finds a way to just push through it like a almost like a superhero.

She's very passionate.

She loves people.

Joy.

She's extremely hard working.

She's here every day.

She's committed.

Thank you so much.

It's an incredible story.

And the drinks live up to it.

We call it the tiger salted cloud.

And it's more like a traditional boba tea.

That's the lychee.

Very short kick.

Yeah.

Just being a full time parent.

You don't really have that much time for yourself.

It's like that five minutes right there that you're just brewing the octopus, brewing the tea itself.

Like gave you my moment.

Oh, my gosh, that's so good.

Running a business and raising kids all at once can be challenging.

I honestly don't know.

I just had, like, this is what I have to do pretty much all the time to just do it.

I think it was probably.

It's probably one of the most difficult things in the world to raise children.

Well, especially alone.

And she was able to do it with three girls, and we're all extremely close knit.

This is a very personal thing.

Like, I think when people come in, like, you can feel that it's a very family centered business.

Like everything in here, every single drink, every single.

I guess choice in here was a very personal thing for my moms, and we kind of together came up with the name Tiki.

So Tiki is like something cute.

Haha.

Like, you know, when you're laughing.

And I think for me, I love everything cute because it comes.

It comforts me a place to share with your friends and laugh and with community.

Just like a light hearted, fun vibe.

You can get boba and hang out and have a good time.

We get really busy.

Like, I will get emotional as well.

I'll step back there and, Yeah, it's just like seeing people in here and that makes me happy.

Wow.

Incredible.

One huge soap order from a famous Hollywood producer.

And she got the seed money to start her dream business.

It's a really encouraging story, and I also really love how close Kat and her three daughters have become.

Very touching.

Yeah.

So cool.

To learn more about TV, you can go to Teco.

One of the purposes of PBS's 12 flagship show, Colorado Inside Out, is to guide you through some civics 101 that includes the happenings at the state Capitol.

How lawmakers spend 120 days in session every year, and creating the budget and the spending plan for the state is their most important and most difficult job.

The calendar says that work has to wind down soon, so let's check in now with Kyle Dyer and her team at CIO.

For more.

Hey, Vassy and Ryan.

The legislative session and a week from tomorrow.

So our insiders are really focused on some of the down to the wire issues on our most recent Colorado Inside Out.

Here's a listen.

All right.

What else you guys keeping your eyes on?

Because we have what, I don't know, a handful of days and some change before the end of the session.

The legislature has approved a budget, but still, there's a lot still to be done.

Eric, before the second Wednesday of May.

Well, the first thing I'm looking at at the legislature right now is exactly what you reference.

It's the clock.

The clock is ticking down.

I think Ed probably follows that most closely at this table, and we'll have the exact number, but I think we're down to single digit number of days, maybe ten, maybe a few more if they're working on a weekend in there.

But we're getting to the end of this session.

That's when the sausage tends to get made.

Is, in an ugly process at the end of the session, to the clock is number one on my list.

Number two on my list would probably be Senate Bill 135, which is the, Tabor issue that the Democrats want to put before voters to refer to voters, in November.

That has, you know, lots of ramifications and not exactly full disclosure, full truth and advertising as to what's in it.

That's a high, high issue as well.

Okay.

All right.

Erin.

Yeah.

It always feels like I'm watching the clock as well.

You know, the end of this session feels like a knife fight in the phone booth.

And at the, specifically, what I'm looking at as a civil rights and criminal defense lawyer.

Is this $10.2 million footnote, for the Canon City correctional officer hiring less, non-security hiring, staff and other roles.

Our criminal justice system, specifically, our incarceration institutions is expanding, and we can, I think debates for the reasons for that.

But the reality is it's, you know, where our correctional institutes are at capacity.

And with that capacity comes the need for staffing and more resources.

We really got to make sure that we're taking care of these folks.

So with all of the budget concerns that we're currently dealing with, 13 of 20 agencies cut, and we still have this $10.2 million footnote.

I fear there may be, a crisis afoot with our incarceration institutions.

Okay.

All right.

And and to.

Eric's point, the legislature has to end at 11:59 p.m.

on May 13th.

But who's counting the bill that I think I'm really watching?

The closest here is one that's flying under the radar a little bit at Senate Bill 137 and is a bill.

That's a big business community priority.

But it's also sponsored by the House speaker, the Senate president, and the minority leaders in both chambers.

It's a bill that would require more thorough and more frequent review of all state rules and regulations to make sure they're not outdated, to make sure they are actually effective in doing what they want to do, to make sure, frankly, that they're they're not putting more of a burden on people and businesses than they are creating a benefit for the state.

It's a fascinating bill because as much as, organizations like mine talk about regulations, and we are the sixth most regulated state in the country, and we just did a study that found 98 businesses have either relocated out of state or expanded out of state, costing us some 13,000 jobs, in large part because of regulations since 2019.

This takes it, with a real scalpel, not a machete.

It requires agencies to look at these issues, look at whether these rules are working as they are not supposed to.

And if they're not, bring them back and audit them or let's put them up for sunset review.

It's good governance, as the House speaker said.

And I think it's something worth watching.

The one that has really attracted our readers, though, is the one that would now give you speeding tickets by a camera.

If you're going between 5 and 10 miles an hour over the speed limit.

A camera would be able to send you speeding tickets.

You pay $40 unless it was your first violation.

If it's your second, you would have to pay and it's by camera.

That is what's driving our readers.

While the $5 is 5 to 5.

If you're between 5 and 10 over.

Wow.

But there is also the other, camera bill that was the camera that also has been shot down.

Right.

That's dead now.

Yes, yes.

So okay, I think.

The I think the speeding one might go through and it will change many of our lives.

But.

That is just one of the topics on our most recent show.

So definitely check it out on YouTube.

You can also listen to our podcast.

And of course we will have a new show for you.

Ready to go this Friday night at eight right here on PBS 12.

As we celebrate Cinco de Mayo today, we're honoring a musical part of culture that continues to bring people together.

And mariachi isn't just music.

It's a powerful tradition passed down through generations and rooted in history and community.

And now that tradition is being preserved and elevated right here in Colorado.

Metro State University, Denver, launched the nation's first Bachelor of Arts degree in mariachi performance and culture.

We went inside the classroom to meet the professor, leading this one of a kind program, and to hear from the students keeping this tradition alive.

Take a look.

Here we go.

Ready?

This is your note.

Eminem.

I started out with cello, but, there was a need for violins in my school.

I think it was like around eighth grade.

Then just kind of pick a, comfortable.

Mom.

Oh.

Or.

Oh.

So I switched over to violin and I found out that it was the best instrument ever.

I fell in love with.

It when I played classical music.

People love it.

They're involved.

But nobody's like clapping along and singing.

People aren't dancing.

I grew up in Mexico, so growing up over there in a really small town, it was really interesting because there would be mariachi groups playing all the time, and my dad would be playing music at home, mariachi music all the time, and he would be singing it as well.

Sing the top line for me, this is number eight.

Ready?

Ooh, okay.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Oh.

Oh oh.

I didn't even know that.

Like mariachi was.

And he was taught, to be honest.

I thought it was something that you would just wear, like, hey, can I, can I join you guys?

Hi.

My name is Falcon and I am in my second year here at MSU.

So for the long run, it's called, Mariachi Ensemble.

And what I personally really like is that for me, especially living here in the United States, it's been kind of hard to make friends from my own heritage and with common interests.

And I feel like here in mariachi, I feel like we're all in here because we want to be and we're all with shared interests, and it feels like a family, and that's why I really like it.

This is, a class that anybody at Metro can take at Metropolitan State University.

Here we go.

For me, playing the violin is something that I've just been doing throughout school.

Just my whole life.

My head is really busy all the time.

I'm constantly thinking thoughts.

There's something always going on in my head, and it's.

Sometimes it's tiring.

And when I play the violin, it goes quiet, and I can, I, I immerse myself in the music and I feel.

I feel the music.

I feel it in my car.

It's.

It's really nice.

I'm originally from Pueblo and I was in a mariachi program, and, MSU I think it was when, Doctor Fisher first came in.

He did like a, like, a teaching thing for a day.

And that was like my first introduction to the band.

And.

I am the assistant professor of music at Metropolitan State University and director of Mariachi Los Caminos, the MSU Denver.

Very cool.

That's a lot of words.

I think it was about a year ago.

Doctor Fisher told me that, like, some exciting stuff was happening here at MSU.

Let's try the top part first.

I've been teaching here since the fall of 22, and, found that, mariachi was part of it.

One, two, three, four.

And I see you don't have that yet again.

And when there's a lot of students will say, oh, yeah, my, my grandmother, when she was cleaning or my, my uncle was in a mariachi band and on Sundays we just Sunday afternoons it was mariachi.

You need us to get it wrong a lot more than good.

Good.

But my students, actually, a lot of them know more than me.

So that can be intimidating.

And and, so I really need to be on my egg.

How how how do you do that?

Stopping.

My parents always had, like, little, electric keyboards lying around.

They had, like, all of these little instruments around the house because we're kind of a musical family.

All these instruments laying around that I would constantly be picking up and playing and playing until my parents were one day, like, do you want to pick up an instrument?

And I was like, absolutely.

I do do.

I come from a decently musical family.

So, it, I had always played the guitar.

But I had never really taken it to serious until I joined that class.

It really started with this idea of, I talked to some mariachi, kind of mentors, and I was like, so, as they were talking about their experience in mariachi, a lot of them had gone to college, but they couldn't study their own instruments, they couldn't study guitar, and they couldn't study viola.

They couldn't study mariachi guitar, they couldn't study mariachi trumpet.

And so I thought, that's an inequity.

I was immediately, like, intrigued.

And then here I am.

So and then I thought, well, so how does this fit into something bigger?

The first step was to reach out to Chicano Studies and say, okay, what classes could we make?

Or what classes could we collaborate on to create this degree?

Yeah, there's some Chicano study courses, some business courses.

I think it's a it's a pretty well rounded, degree.

It gives you a little bit of everything.

And as I looked at some other programs, there are a few other, mariachi major programs.

And I thought to myself, well, it seems like this is a preexisting degree with mariachi built on it.

And I said, it doesn't seem like it feels like we could contextualize a little bit more of what we're doing in terms of my mariachi kind of understanding what they're doing, what they're saying, and how to integrate into the culture, in a kind of a responsive way that ties that those pretzels that I worked with, their program director, Sarah Jackson.

Marty, who walked me through how to do all this.

So I worked with the, chair of the kind of, studies department, Adriana Nieto, and, the chair of the world Languages department, to get, like, Spanish in there and also some business courses.

And that's what we built the degree around.

Of course, there music courses.

But due to the requirements of a music degree, preexisting music degree, they would have had to do a lot more courses than I thought were relevant, and not as many courses that I thought would be relevant to mariachi.

And.

That was kind of how I thought about the degree I said private study.

And then I want to have a, I want to have a program that's relevant to the students because I never want the students to say, why am I even in this class?

What is the point of this?

So yeah, the.

Degree will teach me, like the more technical part of, like, how to handle money and all that stuff.

But the real, like, experience comes from just like if you're at work, just ask it to me, it it, it just really means that I can connect with, like, this part of me that, like, I've always wanted to, but, like, haven't really gotten the chance to, unless, like, I actually go to me.

So, yeah, tomorrow will be my first gig.

It's happening here at the school on the Kalamazoo building.

The Kalamazoo building is, kind of a special place for the for the university.

And while we're not housed there right now, it's it's the the mural that they've made, you know, that they've created for the for the building is a very, very special thing for actually Mexican culture.

Like if you go to Mexico, you see murals all over the place.

That's a very important representation of, of Hispanic culture.

Mariachi for me is, the embodiment of Mexican culture.

Okay.

Whenever I play mariachi music, especially mariachi music, it feels like I can feel it here from my heritage.

I'm honoring my parents in it.

It feels different than playing classical music and music on my own, because this is music that I am honored to play, music that I am representing.

Like the whole country, by playing.

It's so much bigger than just Mexico.

But, but it's such a, beautiful, expressive, style that people love, you know, when they go to a mariachi concert, they're happy.

And that's what my actions are.

Like.

And to learn more about the mariachi major at MSU Denver.

Head to MSU Denver.

Dot Edu.

If you've ever wondered who the next generation of civic leaders in Colorado could be, all you have to do is take a peek inside a civics.

Big regional competitions are happening across our state, and this week we head down to Lamar, where middle school students from Colorado competed to answer questions about government history and civic responsibility.

Take a look.

Well, I was asked to be a judge here today at the the first inaugural civic B for Lamar, Colorado.

So I'm very excited to do that.

All right.

And welcome, to the National Civic B here in Lamar, Colorado.

One of the biggest challenges that we've seen in rural America, especially, is getting that next generation to step into civic leadership roles in our communities.

So to see a program like this happen in our community, in our region, it really helps bolster and train these students to look at that other side of what the leadership roles will be in the future.

Well, I was asked to volunteer to be a judge today.

I'm excited about it.

We read the entries the kids had.

It's very interesting and especially looking at the age bracket they are and their perspective on things.

A lot of it is community, things in their community that they feel like could be improved upon for their community.

Some of it's ideas just for kids.

Some of it is for the whole community.

So it's it's interesting to see how they perceive it.

Thank you all for submitting your responses to our round.

Great question.

Knowing our country's history and what our like principles are, I like that's important.

Knowing what our country is built on and knowing what people went through to get us where we are today.

It just makes me think about, like, how to help.

Like all these other people, to have such good ideas.

And I think it's really eye opening, like to see how.

I. Don't know how I can help my community and the needs we have in our communities.

It's important to understand that Baca County is really, really rural and our place and that it needs to get more attention.

It's important that people understand what our Founding Fathers brought and thought about in the Constitution and today's role.

Not all of their ideas have been brought forth in Arkansas, up in the, High courts.

As we reached the end of the round two.

As we get ready to transition in round three.

If you'll take a look at the leaderboard up here.

There are some really great ideas.

They're very involved in their community.

You know, you wouldn't imagine that as middle schoolers, but I was very impressed with, how ingrained they are with their community and how important it is.

They take it very personally.

I had like a few ideas I was thinking about doing, like our network of community gardens, because we already have a community garden, and we're making a new one over by the high school, and middle school doesn't have one by and our grocery store is just closing down.

So we need another like food source on the other side of town.

The biggest takeaway that I found reading those essays was that, man, these kids really are involved in their communities.

Even if, you know, they we might judge them for being really young or, you know, they might not be in the know, but it seems like they're really understanding of what problems there are in their communities.

I think young people get a bad rap sometimes, but I think the kids are growing up to be really intelligent, and I think our future is pretty bright with them.

Can we just all give them awards because they're all so good and our first place winner, and you can hear how close these scores were is Carson check.

Congratulations.

How are you feeling right now?

I'm kind of shocked, but, I'm happy as well.

It's just it's a lot.

We all thought it'd be someone else from our school, but I. I really thought, I want to try and prove them all wrong.

And I want to try my hardest, even if I don't get first.

That's all right.

That's part of why I'm shocked.

It originally started as an assignment in social studies class, and then we learned it was where the National civics be, and we thought, okay, well, I'm just going to apply and see what happens.

I had no clue what I was getting into because I like, googled a bunch of stuff and I didn't know what I was getting into, really.

And I showed up and it was like a lot easier than I thought it would be.

My social studies teacher was Sabra really contributed?

She.

I didn't even want to go.

And she's like, you have a shot at this thing?

I might as well try.

It's really important because if you don't know what civics is and how it works, then you don't really understand how to benefit your country and what good you can do for your country.

What are you going to be doing to get ready as you now move on to the next level?

Definitely a bunch of Khan Academy.

I'm just going to study more about civics and prepare for state in the best way I can.

Well, I think it's important so that they understand how things work.

Not only in their community, but in government also.

And this gives them a view and start to see if that's something they would like to pursue.

Also, get them to start to understand that the steps you have to go through to get something accomplished.

It isn't just I have an idea and do it.

I have an idea now, what steps do I take to make that idea reality?

And then from there, moving out in the community and actually making some of this work and realizing that, hey, I was involved in that.

I have a buy in in the community.

I'm part of the community because this is my idea, and hopefully some of them will get involved in opening businesses or, you know, being on council, mayor, Commissioner.

I wish something like this existed when I was growing up.

I've had some background in local government, so I think I just would have, you know, enhanced my skills going into those jobs.

So yeah, definitely wish that was around.

But I'm happy that I'm able to be a part of this now.

Support for the civic is brought to you in part by the Daniels Fund, in commemoration of America's 250th and Colorado's 150th anniversary.

Lamar is just one of the communities competing in the civic space.

Will feature more of the competitions from across our state.

Right here on studio 12.

The top three students from each region will be will go on to compete at the state civic SSB.

That's on July 24th at the Cable Center on the Duke campus.

Thanks for watching studio 12.

Don't forget to follow us on social media and on YouTube.

We look forward to seeing you again next Tuesday night at eight.

I'm bazi kanani.

And I'm Ryan her.

Thanks for joining us.

We'll see you next week.

But.

You.