Amy Parsons: Hi, I’m Amy Parsons, President of Colorado State University and host of The Next 150 podcast. We have so many remarkable people in our community, and this is where we’re going to hear their stories, we’re going to get their perspectives on CSU’s next 150 years, and gather their very best advice for today’s CSU students. Let’s get started, Rams.

Well, hello Rams, and welcome back to another episode of The Next 150. Today, I’m excited to be here with two of my very favorite people, two amazing CSU alumni who actually are now both currently serving on our CSU System Board of Governors. They’ve both had amazing journeys from being a CSU student to being on the Board of Governors, and I’m looking forward to learning a little bit about more of that today.

So, thank you both for being here. And you both have done such amazing work in your careers championing students from your time here at CSU, all the way to your time now as the Board of Governors. And I know that our students are so inspired by your journeys, and thank you both for being willing to share more about that with us today.

So, Polly, your journey started right here at CSU.

Polly Baca: It did.

Amy Parsons: You earned your bachelor’s degree in political science.

Polly Baca:I did.

Amy Parsons: As did I, so we have that in common. You grew up in a small farm near Greeley, where you learned the values of hard work.

Polly Baca: I was born on a small farm, then grew up in Greeley.

Amy Parsons: You grew up in Greeley, yeah. I mean, you, Polly, have made history with so many firsts, being the first person to do so many things. There’s too many to count, but I’m going to count a few anyway. You were the first woman elected to chair the Democratic Caucus of the Colorado House. First woman of color, first Hispanic woman elected to the Colorado State Senate. First Hispanic woman in the U.S. nominated by a major political party for Congress. First to co-chair two Democratic National Conventions. Over your career, you’ve worked for three U.S. Presidents: Lyndon B. Johnson, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton, and championed issues from consumer affairs to social justice. You’ve served as the Vice Chair of the Democratic National Party, and in your work you’ve been recognized with so many Colorado, national honors. There are lots of awards named after you, Polly Baca awards, and Polly, we’re just so proud of you that you’re a CSU Ram and serving as one of our governors today.

Polly Baca: Well, thank you.

Amy Parsons: So, Nate, your dedication to creating educational opportunities for students is just as inspiring. You’re a proud graduate of Montbello High School, and you earned your undergraduate degree from CSU in history. So actually, all three of us got our undergraduate degrees from CSU in the liberal arts, which is awesome. Your master’s degree at CSU, your PhD at American. You served as the CEO of Denver Scholarship Foundation and President of Denver Public School Board of Education. And your work today continues to open doors for countless students, specifically first-generation, low-income, and ethnically minoritized students in Colorado and across the country.

In 2020, you both joined the CSU System Board of Governors.

Polly Baca: That’s right.

Nate Easley: That’s right.

Amy Parsons: So, you were part of the same group in 2020. And together today, you both champion student success and create educational opportunities for our students. So, what you have accomplished in your lives, what you continue to accomplish, is so inspiring to us at CSU, and we appreciate your volunteer service on our Board of Governors.

So, let’s get into some of the questions. I have just a few questions for both of you. And Polly, I’ll start with you. Can you share a little bit about what drew you to CSU in the first place, how you came to CSU?

Polly Baca: Actually, when I first started, I was a physics major, and Madame Curie had just made, I was just in awe of her. And I decided, and CSU had a great physics department. And I had a joint honor scholarship, which meant that I could go to any state-supported college or university. And I chose CSU because of the physics department.

Amy Parsons: Oh my gosh.

Polly Baca: But when I came on campus, my first week, one of the women in Allison Hall on my floor asked me to go to this meeting with her because they were just starting this club. And she said, “Polly, you have to go because you’re the only other democrat on the floor. I’m trying to start a young democrat’s club.”

Amy Parsons: Oh my gosh.

Polly Baca: So, I went with her and that began my incredible interest in politics and how we can change the world.

Amy Parsons: Well, you’ve had an incredible career. Talk a little bit about how your foundation as a student at CSU helped inform your career that you started when you left CSU.

Polly Baca: It all started, it’s all because of CSU that I was able to do what I have done in my life. And I say that all the time, because it was here at CSU first that I changed my major. And then in 1960, I was a sophomore, and at the time there used to be a foundation that offered internships to three college students through the state, around the state, of three democrats and three republicans to work with their political parties in a presidential campaign. And I won one of those three internships in 1960. So, guess who was running for president? It was John F. Kennedy. And I met all of the Kennedy’s and I was so in awe and inspired, and I just knew that we could make life better, especially for people like me, having suffered discrimination growing up. And I just knew that as a woman of color, that being involved in the political arena could make a difference. And so, that was what enticed me to go on.

Amy Parsons: And what enticed you to go on to ultimately serve on the board of CSU, sort of coming back full circle to the position that you hold today?

Polly Baca: Well, it’s because it’s all started here at CSU. I owe my entire career, this is where they had, I gained the confidence that I could be something more than I had ever anticipated. I actually thought I was going to be a physics teacher. And then when I was exposed to the whole possibilities involved with politics, my whole view of the world was changed. I was able to meet people I never thought I would ever meet. I was able to engage with people that I never imagined engaging with, and I realized as a student that maybe I could do more too. And so graduating, I also got a job back east, or I was recruited to a job back east, and it was just, had I not come to CSU, I don’t think I would’ve ever accomplished what I have in my lifetime.

Amy Parsons: Well, you accomplished so many things as we talked a bit already about being the first. The first woman, the first Latina to do so many different things. Where did that courage, that inspiration come from in you to be that trailblazer in so many different arenas?

Polly Baca: It actually came from the pain of bigotry. When I was growing up in Greeley, Colorado, there were signs on stores that said, “No Mexicans or dogs allowed.” I was discriminated against all the way through high school, which meant what happened to me was that because of the discrimination and the bigotry, my mom and dad, they didn’t even have a high school education. My dad had eighth grade and my mom, 11th grade, but they both were absolutely committed to their three daughters going to college. And because they told us that we could do so many more things, but we had to get that college degree, and they all wanted us to be teachers. My other two sisters got their teaching degree, I was the only one that didn’t. But they inspired us to go on to school and education.

But it was the pain of that bigotry that burned this hole in my heart, that I was absolutely determined to change the way people were treated. First, my passion dealt with changing the way people treated Mexican-Americans, but that expanded to the way people treated anyone else. And now, you’ll find me supporting and fighting for whomever happens to be at the bottom or being discriminated against. It doesn’t matter who they are, I’ll be there working with them, side by side.

Amy Parsons: Well, we’re really fortunate to have you serving on the board and bringing that perspective into the work that you do now, leading Colorado State University’s System.

Nate, let’s talk a little bit about your journey to CSU. How did you first come into being an undergraduate student at CSU?

Nate Easley: So, when I was a 18-year-old or a 17-year-old at Montbello High School, there was actually a thing called affirmative action, and CSU was trying to diversify. So, there was a great admissions person. I was in the hallways just doing what I did in the hallways, and the admissions guy said, “Hey, you want to miss school today and go see a college?” I’m like, “Sure,” and it turned out he had an extra spot in his van.

Amy Parsons: Oh my gosh.

Nate Easley: And I called my mom and I said, “Hey, can I go?” And she’s like, “Sure.” And I came up and it was an overnight and the rest is history.

Amy Parsons: That’s a pretty good marketing strategy.

Nate Easley: Yeah, yeah. I was in the right place.

Amy Parsons: Like, hey, you want to get in the van and go to CSU?

Nate Easley: I know, it was before you could be abducted, so those things hadn’t been invented yet.

Amy Parsons: Sure.

Nate Easley: And-

Amy Parsons: What were your impressions? Do you remember that, when you first saw CSU?

Nate Easley: Yeah. Well, I wasn’t the minority where I went to high school. At the time I went to Montbello, it was 90% Black. And so my impression was, wow, there’s not a lot of people who look like me here. That said, there are so many really friendly, genuine people here, from faculty to other students.

One of my most memorable experiences was talking to a woman from the Western Slope, from a very rural area, whose experience was similar to mine as a Black dude from the urban area, where she said she felt like she was out of place. There weren’t many people dressed like her or many people who talked like her, and she didn’t understand a lot of the cultural nuances of a lot of the students, and neither did I. And I was just like, man, we have a lot in common.

So, my whole aim at going here was that I had a sister who had gone to the other place that I won’t mention

Amy Parsons: Thank you.

Nate Easley: And didn’t make her way through her freshman year, she partied her way through her freshman year, and then didn’t quite make it academically now. So my impression of the other place was that it was a party school. And so I came here because I thought it’d be so boring that all I had to do is study and I’m going to be focused. It turns out, it wasn’t exactly like that. There was a thing called College Days, and I got to see the Chili Peppers for free.

Amy Parsons: Heard about those, yeah.

Nate Easley: But my impression of this place when I first came was that it was going to be lonely but very friendly.

Amy Parsons: And how did you find it when you got here at CSU and how did you choose history as a major?

Nate Easley: Well, I started off like Polly. And let me just acknowledge that I’m sitting next to an amazing woman, so I am not worthy. But when I came here, I was a teen parent and I was married. And so I lived in Aggie Village, I was just pointing out on the way over that, that’s my old apartment and I was probably the only 18-year-old, because it was mostly graduate students and international students. So my first impression in terms of my residence was how international Colorado State was. I have a picture of my daughter with a kid from Poland and a kid from China, and there’s all three just diverse and beautiful. And so my first impression was that folks here are mature, it’s diverse, they speak different languages. Wow, what a great place.

But then when I would go to class, it turns out I didn’t like math as much as I thought I would. And Dr. Sims was our African-American history teacher, and I just fell in love with Dr. Sims, I fell in love with his class. And I thought, I want to be like him when I grow up. And so I changed from engineering to history.

Amy Parsons: What a unique experience you had, being a teen parent coming to CSU. How did that inform your time at CSU and how you saw just being a college student?

Nate Easley: Well, it really did shape me culturally because I always felt like I belonged with the people on the outside of culture, because I didn’t really fit in with the white students here, I didn’t fit in with the Latino students here, I didn’t fit in with the Black students because I had a wife and a kid. And so I was most comfortable with other, what I call cultural nomads, people that don’t quite fit anywhere. And what that did was my friends from here were white, Indigenous, Black, just about, international. One of my dear friends used to work for the state department and had come back with his wife so she can do a graduate degree. And so I had a really different experience than the traditional experience. And I had to get used to people saying, “You’re 18 and you have a family? Wow, I could never do that.” And now it turns out that family has really been an important aspect of who I am. So, it helped to shape the Nate that I am today.

Amy Parsons: Well, you’ve become such a leader, Nate. I mean, through politics, through leadership, through nonprofits and championing student success. How did your time at CSU and that foundational educational experience help to set you up for the work that you’ve done professionally?

Nate Easley: Well, I’d say first of all, the faculty. I still have friendships with the faculty that I had when I was an undergrad, and the administration. Blanche Hughes was one of my mentors when I was here as an undergraduate. And she always reminds me, “I’m not that much older than you, Nate.” So, she’s only like five years, but back then I’m like, wow. And Dean Crabtree was my advisor, and oh man, he introduced me, metaphorically there, well, not metaphorically, to Miles Davis’ music. I always say he introduced me to Miles. And one of the things that Miles says that I love is, “Sometimes it takes a long time to learn to sound like yourself.” And when you listen to his music, you know it’s Miles Davis. And it took me a long time to learn to speak with my own voice, and I think it makes me a better governor that I’m okay with speaking with my own voice. And so, Dean Crabtree still shapes my life today.

And I can go on with administrators, Blanche, lots of folks who, if it hadn’t been for them from helping me with money to making sure I got my financial aid done. Back then a Pell Grant pretty much covered most of my expenses. Sorry, folks. So yeah, it was just really the people here. I feel like there’s family here and every time I come back, I have a story about every corner or that building there or the Student Services Building, because it’s just family.

Amy Parsons: Yeah, yeah. I feel that same way about family as an alum at CSU myself, it’s such a special environment. It’s wonderful to hear, I mean, you were here in different decades and to hear still that sense of community and home and friendliness and welcoming of people, which is something that, of course, we want today for all of our students who come to CSU. And you being part of the Board of Governors is a big piece of that and helping students feel welcome.

So Nate, was it an easy decision for you to join our Board of Governors when they approached you to take this on?

Nate Easley: Absolutely. So I always tell people, “Drown me in the shallow water before I get too deep.” But I felt like my ancestors were very proud when I got that offer. And that I owed it to them as the only PhD on the Star side or the Easley side to ever exist to represent them well. And so, when the governor gave me that offer, I was first of all, humbled. And secondly, felt a certain obligation to not only represent my ancestors, but to also represent all those that had similar experiences as me, whether that was growing up in the rural area, like the woman I had spoken to as a freshman, or growing up LatinX or Black, and coming to a place where I was the only Black history major on campus. So I was like Tigger. I was the only one, and it wasn’t always easy. I had a professor ask me why Africans allowed themselves to be slaves in the new world.

Polly Baca: Oh my goodness.

Amy Parsons: Wow.

Nate Easley: My freshman year. I’m like, “I missed that part in the book. You’re supposed to be telling me.” But I actually did my senior thesis, first of all, I did a senior thesis that I didn’t have to, on why Africans became slaves in the new world. And I have a really good response to that because of that provocative question and that embarrassing moment. And if it isn’t for adversity, you don’t develop into the person you are. And Polly and I were having that conversation on the way up here. It makes you better at… So I feel better about who I am and that’s why I refer to my ancestors because of that professor’s question my freshman year.

Amy Parsons: Wow. Thanks for sharing that story. I mean, now as Board of Governors, you know that here at CSU we always talk about how student success is our number one priority. Bringing students into CSU, our access mission at CSU as a land grant, but making them successful here, graduating with valuable degrees, ready to be leaders. Share with me, share with our listeners what advice you would give to today’s college students who are just starting their academic journey at CSU. I’ll start with you, Nate, and then we’ll end with Polly.

Nate Easley: Okay. Yeah. Well, I have a freshman in college now, and no matter what I try to tell him, he doesn’t listen. So I’m going to ask you guys to give him advice at some point, we’ll make that a… But if I could talk to myself when I was a new freshman, I would say, first of all, know what it is that you want to do in life. Not what you want to acquire, but what you want to do. What is your purpose? Write it down, because you need to be goal oriented towards that purpose. And know that you will manifest that thing, whatever it is. And for me, I didn’t really know, but based on a lot of different things, I decided I wanted to make other educational opportunity available to other people like I had it, because it changed my life.

And so, my advice would be to be goal oriented and to write it down. If you can fast-forward to when you’re 60, what kind of life do you want to have lived? And then go towards that goal. If you don’t know what you want, you’re never going to get it. And that’s easy to say but most people don’t have life goals. And so it’s really, really important.

And the other thing I would say is, if you want to be president of a college one day, call-

Amy Parsons: No one wants to do that.

Nate Easley: Call President Parsons and have the audacity to call her and say, “I want to be you one day. How do I do that?” And spend… And first of all, people love talking about themselves, and spend time figuring out how she did it. Right? And if you want to be Polly one of these days, you want to be a state senator, give Polly a call. Ask her, “How’d you do that?” Right? And just listen and take notes.

Amy Parsons: That’s great advice.

Nate Easley: And try to be, you know, mimic that person to fake it until you make it, as Miles Davis would say.

Amy Parsons: Yeah.

Nate Easley: Yeah.

Amy Parsons: That’s great advice. Polly, what advice would you give?

Polly Baca: Don’t let any moment go by when you’re not learning something or enjoying the moment. Meaning that life, I mean, I’m 84 years old, but I still consider life as being rather short. There’s so much to be involved with and so much to enjoy and so much to get engaged with. And also, I agree with Nate, that you have to have your goals, but it’s okay if they change along the way, meaning that I thought I’d be Madame Curie, I ended up going into politics. I never thought I would ever run for office. But when the opportunity… This is the other thing. You never know when opportunity is going to present itself, but when it does, just grab hold. Don’t be afraid. And even if you’re afraid, do it anyhow and get in there and just take advantage of that moment in time because it may not come back.

So enjoy what you have, but always work hard. It’s really important that you take advantage of every moment and work every moment. And then take advantage of what the opportunities that present themselves. I was scared to death when the job in Washington D.C. was offered to me. I didn’t want it because I was afraid to go back east, but I knew, I knew that I had to do it because I had been in prayer. I couldn’t find a job, and I had been in prayer about, what was I supposed to do with my life? I had all this wonderful opportunity in college, but now the next step. Take advantage, go ahead and do it. Even if you’re afraid, grab hold, live your life to its fullest, but work hard and have your goals. Have your goals, but be prepared to let the road change a little bit along the way. It’s okay, it’s okay.

Amy Parsons: That’s terrific advice from both of you. That’s a perfect place to end. Thank you, both, I’m really inspired by your words today. And I’ve had the great privilege of knowing you both for a while, but I learned more about both of you today in this conversation, so, thank you for that.

Nate Easley: Can I just give a couple of other things as Polly was saying?

Amy Parsons: Of course.

Nate Easley: Invest, so that one day your money will work for you.

Polly Baca: Yes.

Nate Easley: Because that’s freedom.

Polly Baca: And save.

Nate Easley: Yeah, invest and save. So, don’t waste your money. And the more you do that as a young person, the more it’s going to pay off when you’re an older person. And study abroad, because you don’t really know what it means to be from this part of the world until you’ve been somewhere where you don’t speak the language and you’re the only one. And you can’t appreciate that unless you go somewhere really far from here and do something. So, I’d say study abroad.

Polly Baca: Or travel if you don’t get the opportunity to study, just go ahead and travel, go wherever you can and learn from others.

Nate Easley: That’s absolutely right.

Amy Parsons: I think you’ve both articulated a lot of the value of coming to a place like Colorado State University and the exposure and the opportunities that you get here while you’re a college student to expand your horizons and to find your path. So, thank you both for that. Thank you for your service to Colorado State University and serving on our board, and thank you for being such impactful, significant leaders for the state of Colorado.

Nate Easley: All right.

Amy Parsons: So, thank you.

Polly Baca: Thank you.

Nate Easley: Go Rams.

Amy Parsons: That’s a wrap.

Polly Baca: That’s right. Go Rams.

Amy Parsons: Great advice. Go Rams.

Thank you for listening. I’m Amy Parsons, President of Colorado State University, and you’re listening to CSU’s, The Next 150, where we explore what comes next for CSU by chatting with changemakers who are already leading the charge and shaping our next 150 years. I’m gathering their very best advice for today’s CSU students. Stay tuned to wherever you get podcasts for our next outstanding conversation. Go Rams.