Buffs, Campus Leaders Come Together For One-on-One Event

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The One-On-One With Colorado Women’s Basketball event is a program favorite. In its fourth year under head coach Linda Lappe, this year’s event was held Oct. 28 with nearly 250 fans, faculty and staff members in attendance. 

The premise of the One-On-One event is to have each student-athlete pair up with a prominent female member of the university’s faculty/staff, and get to know them outside of a classroom or office setting. The pairs then introduce each other to fans in attendance for the main program.

A diverse group of campus leaders joined for this event, ranging from professors, to department heads, to CU Regents. 

“This event is special for us; it lets our fans know exactly who we are on and off the court,” said sophomore guard Lauren Huggins, whose presenter was Dr. Susan Hendrickson, a senior instructor of chemistry and one of Huggins’ former professors. “We also get to meet and interact with influential women within the CU community and through that we build relationships that will help us in the future.”

Student-athletes and their “presenters” first sat down at a team dinner to learn about each other. Following the dinner, the public event began with a reception where players and presenters could greet the fans in attendance. Former head coach Ceal Barry, who held a similar event during her tenure, served as the event’s emcee and brought each player and presenter to the stage.

“We always have such a blast hosting this event,” Lappe said. “It shows a true commitment from both the faculty and staff on campus and also from all of our fans in the community.”

Each student-athlete introduced their presenter, their role within the university and what they learned about them, and vice versa.

“I was really nervous because in knew it involved talking in front of a lot of people, but as it came close to my time to talk I got really excited about everything people were saying about our team,” said freshman center Zoe Correal who partnered with CU Regent Dr. Irene Griego.

“(Dr. Griego) is a lovely woman,” Correal said “I learned all the things she’s done in our community in Boulder and elsewhere; she taught inner city in Denver; she was an administrator for lower income schools. She’s just done so much for our community it was wonderful to meet her.”

After introductions, the presenter was then allowed to ask the player any question, touching on a wide variety of topics, which always prove to be very entertaining, as both student-athlete and presenter let their own personalities shine.

Campus leaders certainly didn’t disappoint in asking the "tough" questions. For instance, sophomore Haley Smith, a Mechanical Engineering major, was asked to assign a periodic element to each of the personalities of her classmates. Freshman Alina Hartmann, was asked to assign a word or phrase in her native German to each member of the senior class and then translate that meaning.

“We want to thank the women leaders from campus for agreeing to give up a night to spend with our team,” Lappe said. “The experience our players gain from spending time with such amazing women is invaluable and this continues to be an event the fans don’t want to miss out on!"

Here is a list of the campus leaders that participated and the student-athlete they were paired with:

Sandy Hicks, Assistant Vice President & Chief Procurement Officer – Junior forward Arielle Roberson

Melissa Zak, CU Boulder Police Chief – Sophomore forward Zoe Beard-Fails

Amanda Linsenmeyer, Director, CU Boulder Women’s Resource Center – Senior forward Jen Reese

Scarlet Bowen, Director of GLBTQ Resource Center & Associate Faculty, Women and Gender Studies – Junior forward Jamee Swan

Melinda Piket-May, Associate Professor of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering  - Sophomore guard Haley Smith

Liz Garfield, Executive Assistant to the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs – Sophomore guard Desiree Harris

Dr. Irene Griego, Regent, Representing Congressional District 7 – Freshman forward Zoe Correal

Dr. Susan Hendrickson, Senior Instructor of Chemistry – Sophomore guard Lauren Huggins

Margot Neufeld, Senior Director of Development – Freshman center Bri Watts

Kristi Anseth, Distinguished Professor and Tisone Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering – Senior guard Jasmine Sborov

Lissy Garrison, Senior Director of Development, Music, Arts & Culture – Freshman guard Alina Hartmann

Valerie Simons, Director, Institutional Equity and Compliance and Title IX Coordinator - Senior guard Lexy Kresl

Bianca Williams, PhD., Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies – Freshman guard Brecca Thomas