Your CU colleagues share their experiences using this benefit for themselves and their dependents.

Becky Aker

Accounting Technician III
Center for Student Involvement
University of Colorado Boulder

Becky Aker has worked at CU Boulder for five years, most of that time as an accounting technician in the Center for Student Involvement. 

As of fall 2020, she’s the mother of three CU Buffs – a senior, a sophomore and a freshman. Her oldest daughter is majoring in evolutionary biology and recently applied to dental school. Her son intends to pursue an aerospace engineering degree. Her youngest daughter just entered the pre-business program in the Leeds Business School. 

Putting three children through CU Boulder at the same time is no small undertaking. It’s made more affordable, thanks to the campus’s dependent Option A – a 30% discount for dependents whose home campus is Boulder. 

“I don’t know that it’s affected their choices and their pursuits, I would say that it has affected their choices as to where they’ve gone for school,” Aker said. 

Aker encourages eligible faculty and staff to explore the Tuition Assistance Benefit’s many positive outcomes. 

“I would say, definitely check into it and look at it,” she said. “I have a senior and she has no student loans, and the sophomore, he doesn’t have any student loans, yet.”

Mark Paquette

Principal Program Coordinator
Career Development Center, College of Business
University of Colorado Colorado Springs

Mark Paquette guides UCCS students through the ins and outs of identifying and securing jobs that align with their career goals. After spending 15 years in the financial services sector, Paquette moved to higher education with a focus on student career services.

 A UCCS staff member since 2019, he’s pursuing a Master of Arts in Leadership with a concentration in Student Affairs in Higher Education (SAHE) from UCCS, using the Tuition Assistance Benefit. Though he recently relocated to Massachusetts with his husband, he continues to work with UCCS students, thanks to the current remote work protocols, and is continuing his degree program.

For him, it’s about more than earning the credential itself. It’s about the work and the rigorous curriculum behind it. “A degree is visible evidence of the rigorous curriculum a student has completed,” he explains. With his own master’s degree, he is aiming to become a more well-rounded career services professional and to continue helping students transition to the world of work. 

Steve Zweck-Bronner

Senior Managing Associate Counsel
Office of University Counsel
Anschutz Medical Campus

Steve Zweck-Bronner has worked with CU for nearly 30 years. Currently, the Senior Managing Associate Counsel for the Anschutz Medical campus, Zweck-Bronner is technically a System Administration employee, who works on the Anschutz campus. 

As a System employee, he and his dependents are able to use the Tuition Assistance Benefit (TAB) at any of CU’s four campuses as if any one of them were his home campus. 

That’s good news for a family with two kids in college. His eldest daughter is in the veterinary program at Colorado State University, and his sophomore son attends CU Boulder, where the dependent Option A – a 30% discount for dependents whose home campus is Boulder – has made a profound difference. 

In his experience, the application process is incredibly easy and Zweck-Bronner encourages anyone contemplating the TAB program for themselves or their dependents to jump on the opportunity. “You gotta use it,” he said. “I mean why would you walk away from it?”