Final Post: Our Urban Planning Students

This is the final blog post covering the experiences of our urban planning students.

Since 2013, we have been following our Chief Sustainability Officer, Alex Bergeron, as he pursued his Master of Urban and Regional Planning degree from the University of Colorado Denver; and more recently, Liia Koiv-Haus and Jacob Schmitz the same. This comes to a close this week.

This week, Alex graduates from CU Denver with a Master of Urban and Regional Planning degree with emphasis on public lands management and environmental planning. It is very much a ‘full circle’ sort of thing for him. When he originally enrolled at the University of Rhode Island for a bachelor’s degree, he was in pursuit of a degree related to environmental management. Somewhere along the way, he determined that managing the urban environment would be more effective than counting deer (for example), as human activity is the cause of much environmental degradation. After moving to Colorado, however, his interests snapped back towards environmental planning. He credits this change of heart to the incredible – even life-changing – open spaces of Colorado and the greater American West. While Alex is still keenly interested in urban planning and affairs, it is use and interpretation of public and otherwise protected lands that he is most interested in planning. This is evidenced in his Capstone project (a thesis of sorts), which he produced for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and is titled “Browns Canyon National Monument Visitor Use Management Strategy.” Alex’s commitment to environmental sustainability is very clear to us in the work that he does for CAP Management and our clients, and we congratulate him on his achievement.

As for Liia and Jacob, they are actually no longer with CAP Management. Liia has realized that her schoolwork requires more attention than she could give it while employed at CAP Management. After all, she is pursuing a DUAL Master’s degree in both urban planning and landscape architecture. She is quite the go-getter! We do miss her and the high-quality landscape architecture skills she so thoughtfully lent us for some time.

Jake also has left CAP Management. He has landed a sweet position doing Geographic Information System (GIS) work for the federal government. We thank Liia and Jake for their good work and wish them the best of luck in their academic and professional pursuits.

CAP Management believes in a sustainable built environment. It is why we are so dedicated to employing students just as dedicated and giving them the opportunity to refine their skills. We hope to strengthen our relationship with CU Denver in the months and years ahead. Way to go, guys!