Modeling an Ambitious Future: Susana Córdova on Making School Relevant for All Students

Today’s students often see a different reality than the one adults know, explained Colorado Commissioner of Education Susana Córdova, and their classrooms are not always keeping up with the pace of change.

The experience of covid, of growing up online, of seeing the rapid rise of artificial intelligence that can perform many academic tasks with expert ease—all of it is challenging the relevance of a slow-moving school culture, Córdova told the audience at Prepárate™ 2025, part of a closing-day conversation with College Board CEO David Coleman. “I’m worried we’re going to see more and more students become disengaged,” she said. “Kids are living in a very different world than you and I are living in.”

Prepárate is a long-running, national gathering of advocates and educators focused on strengthening opportunity for Latino students. Sponsored by the College Board, the conference draws hundreds of people from across the country for three days of conversations and professional development centered on Latino student success. This year’s conference was hosted in Denver, and Commissioner Córdova was on hand to receive the Modelo de la Comunidad Award for outstanding commitment to improving education for Latino students and others.

To keep students invested in learning, Córdova is advocating for what she calls “the big blur,” eroding the firm lines between high school, college, and working life. “One of the goals we’ve set out for ourselves is that we want every student—100% of high schoolers—to graduate with either 12 credits, a workplace learning credential, or a meaningful work experience,” she said. “I do believe that’s something that’s within reach for every student.”

She pointed to the small town of Holyoke, in the far northeastern corner of Colorado near the Nebraska border, as an example of what’s possible when a school district commits to blurring the lines between the classroom and the wider world. “Every one of their students has a work-based experience before they graduate high school,” Córdova said. “They have partnered with every industry in town.” That includes trucking companies, day cares, farms, and medical clinics—all of the different places a student might consider building a career or at least finding a solid job.

That early exposure helps students see what kind of skills they need to learn, what kind of credentials and pathways might put them on track for career growth, or whether they might prefer a completely different field from what they initially thought. “How much better is it when you’re 17 to figure out what you’re interested in, before you go to school for years?” Córdova asked.

Encouraging more career exploration is especially important for first-generation students who may not have a broad sense of what fields are available. Córdova pointed out that lots of students without any family history of higher education are only aware of a few professional roles—teachers, doctors, lawyers. “I certainly didn’t know what an investment banker was,” she said. “If you don’t know those things, you have no way of knowing if you’d be interested or not.”

Raising the ambitions and sense of possibility for younger students has to be a priority for schools, especially those serving lower-income, rural, or immigrant students. Those are the kids who can most benefit from challenging coursework and more connections to the professional world.

“What can we expose you to? How can we help you see a pathway from where you are to where you might want to be through exposure to new and hard stuff?” Córdova asked. “When you think about the changing demographics of our nation, we will never thrive as a nation if we are not all taking responsibility for all of our students.”