Organizational History:

The CSLF was founded in 1991 by students involved in the Colorado Student Association. From 1991-2003, CSLF was headed by an all-student board of directors responsible for planning annual leadership conferences at various college campuses throughout the state, and planning monthly discussion groups and forums for student representatives from Colorado’s colleges. The original founders of CSLF, many of whom were students at isolated rural colleges in Colorado, felt that an independent organization was needed to encourage communication and cooperation between the students of Colorado’s higher education system. Today, the Colorado Student Leadership Foundation is still the only student-led organization that brings students together from all regions of Colorado on a regular basis. For a decade now, CSLF has been hosting conferences and educational forums for students to interact with other students, faculty, and community activists. Today, with an expanded mission and board of directors, CSLF looks to bridge gaps between students and the non-profit and business communities in Colorado.

Programs, Activities, and Accomplishments:

Currently, the CSLF offers three main programs: Our monthly statewide meetings, staff campus visits to various student groups, and annual student leadership conferences. Our monthly meetings bring together higher education students from Durango to Denver together in order to discuss challenges of student-administration relations, community service, and leadership development during our regular board meetings or perhaps over lunch after a round of golf or other activities. These activities allow opportunities for our more inexperienced student leaders to interact with experienced student and with staff. In the future, we hope to begin a program that regularly brings community organizations to campuses in a fashion similar to that of career fairs. CSLF staff regularly takes part in panel discussions, forums, and presentations to various small groups on campuses around the state on the subject of state and local government.

CSLF works closely with career centers and "cooperative learning" offices on campuses to assist higher education administrators with placing students in internships and professional leadership programs while also acting as a liaison between these offices and business groups such as chambers of commerce and commercial associations. These groups also regularly sponsor leadership conferences of their own, and CSLF works to assist these groups in interacting with and recruiting higher education students for their leadership programs.

The CSLF constantly seeks to maximize its effectiveness by collaborating with other groups who have similar missions. We currently work with the Colorado Commission on Higher Education in campus outreach, and we have also worked with the Colorado Student Loan Program to provide student perspectives on student loan policies. The CSLF is a member of the newly formed “Civic Canopy” group made up of numerous civic education organizations around the state which should prove to be a valuable alliance, and we are pursuing a closer relationship with several other member groups like the Colorado Civics and Service Learning Compact and the Colorado Campus Compact. We are planning to assist Colorado Close-Up with matching high school groups to college students who will act as group leaders for their legislative training sessions.

Students get together for pizza following a CSLF meeting, 2003