2009 was the 10-year anniversary of SORCE -- the University of Colorado's Student Outreach Retention Center for Equity.

SORCE began as a student group and, in 2004, became a CU Student Union-controlled cost center funded by student fees. From the beginning, SORCE has always been student-run and student-initiated.

We believe that all people, regardless of identity or background, deserve the right to an education. To celebrate 10 years, SORCE held a celebration event this past April where current and past students, staff, faculty and alumni came together to reflect on our past and prepare for the future.

Our annual open house at the beginning of the school year introduced many students to our services for the first time. The SORCE office (University Memorial Center Room 227) contains multiple computers that students use throughout the day to finish homework, type and print papers, surf the Internet or simply just hang out with fellow students.

Throughout the year, we also hosted our bi-weekly Chili Pots, which provided a space to build community alongside a free bowl of chili and cornbread. Our final Chili Pot of the semester is 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in UMC 227.

Also this year, USGC, or the Underrepresented Student Group Council, was headed by SORCE Inner Campus Liaison Tynesha Matthews with much success.

While SORCE strives to provide various retention events on campus such as those above, we also work very closely with outreach to middle and high school youth. Our outreach coordinators Mario Flores and Nicholas Martinez helped plan and facilitate dozens of tours that brought literally hundreds of students to the CU campus.

The entire SORCE team and volunteers also helped with Ralphie's Roundup -- an event where students come watch CU Buffs football games for free -- as well as the various leadership conferences we co-host with Boulder Valley School District.

SORCE is saying goodbye to our current webmaster Jerome Jackson, who will be attending La Universidad de Belgrano in Buenos Aires, Argentina, next semester. SORCE is proud to welcome senior psychology and business major Eric Chan into this position.

We will continue on with representing the underrepresented, which has been our guiding philosophy for the last 10 years. We send a big thanks to our student staff, Director Victor Hernandez and Assistant Director Karen Shimamoto, volunteers and the general community for helping make this one of SORCE's most productive years yet.

Jerome Jackson is the webmaster for SORCE.