Women Leading Change: This RRCC Student Wants to Build Spaces that Keep Lands Beautiful

When Gabi Cedeno was a child living in Colorado Springs, she remembers how much she enjoyed going out and exploring nature with her family.

She remembers first being worried about protecting nature when a historically large wildfire nearby was all everyone was talking about. Then it happened again. And again.

Now, as a young adult in college, she still feels a connection to the child-like wonder and amazement she remembers first having for nature, trees, and animals.

“I’m a Colorado native and I wear that proudly. I want to see the beautiful trees,” Gabi said. “I don’t want to take those experiences away from the younger generation. I’m also still so young and I want to keep exploring too.”

A path to hope

As she explored what she might want to do after high school, she thought about working in architecture. But there were so many things that were interesting. So even though she wasn’t confident she wanted to go to college, she enrolled at Red Rocks Community College two years ago.

“I thought coming to college would narrow things down for me but in a way, it has broadened my interests,” Gabi said. “Red Rocks has a great community, and I’ve met really great people I really love.”

Gabi started in the RRCC program for architectural engineering.  

There was just something missing about it.  

“I don’t want to be building buildings just to build things. I want to build something that’s meaningful,” she said.  

Seeing the increasingly hot summers, this year’s missing winter, and other natural disasters, Gabi said is upsetting. It’s times like that she is glad to be at RRCC.

“Finding a community with people who care about our Earth and our state, that’s how you avoiding getting a nihilistic mindset about all of these problems,” Gabi says. “Here, at Red Rocks, it’s easy to feel hopeful. I feel I can take this on. I can make a difference.” 

A support system ideal for growth

Gabi works two days a week in the IDEA lab helping other students who come in and need help on a project or wanting to use the school’s specialized printers or other tools.  

She has felt especially passionate about getting to use some of the safety skills, including OSHA training, that she learned while she was a student in Jeffco Public Schools. There, she participated in an internship program where she got to spend a semester working construction.  

Now she helps do training in the IDEA lab to ensure safety is a priority.

Through her work in the IDEA Lab, and talking with advisors and mentors at RRCC, she switched to a general studies program so that she could leave her options more open when it came time to transfer.

Even as she moved slightly away from architecture and engineering, she was happy to have the IDEA lab as a place where she could still work with others in those fields.

“The support system is amazing,” she said. “It’s just a creative space for bringing people together. It’s great to be surrounded by so many smart people.”

Gabi just learned she was accepted into the CU Boulder program for Environmental Design next year, which will allow her to continue to explore her interest in architecture tied to environmental work, while also trying landscape architecture, planning and urban design, and an interdisciplinary path called environmental products of design.

Gabi is excited to explore all of those options.  

She just knows whatever career she ends up pursuing, she says wants to be building things that can help maintain Colorado’s lands and open spaces accessible to animals and people who want to enjoy the beauty.