CSU-Pueblo: Helping Students Succeed

The university offers a variety of majors including in-demand fields such as cannabis biology and gaming.

By Teree Caruthers on June 15, 2022

Jeff Adkins

With an enrollment of nearly 4,000 students, Colorado State University Pueblo plays a vital role in developing job-ready graduates year after year. The university in Pueblo, CO, offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs in more than 70 fields of study, including new, in-demand fields such as cannabis biology and chemistry.

“The university is responsible for doing our very best to meet the needs of the workforce that currently exists, but more importantly, we’re responsible for helping develop the workforce and the economy of the future,” says Timothy Mottet, president of CSU-Pueblo. “The university has to play a role in helping develop those new economies.”

Mottet points to the growing cannabis and gaming industries as examples.

“We have a new degree in cannabis biology/chemistry, which is actually a double major in biology and chemistry with an emphasis on the cannabis plant. We’re training the scientists who will help develop the region’s cannabis and hemp economy moving forward,” Mottet says. “Another example is our brand-new degree in gaming and immersive media. There’s a new demand for gaming professionals in Pueblo, and this degree program will help drive that economy.”

Jeff Adkins

Work-Study Program Powers Future

Yet another example of the university’s response to workforce demand is its innovative work-study program. Mottet says students were opting out of pursuing degrees in fields such as education and health care in the past because of the costs involved with experiential learning.

“Certain career paths require long, unpaid clinical or student teaching (apprenticeships), and it requires a student to quit the job that may have been helping pay their tuition,” he says. “Now, we have a partnership with the Department of Education, which allows us to move our work-study dollars off campus and into the community. It allows us to fund these unpaid, experiential and required learning experiences.”