TeRay Esquibel is building a brighter future for DPS graduates

TeRay Esquibel is one of the Top 25 Young Professionals of 2021

Lisa Ryckman //March 3, 2021//

TeRay Esquibel is building a brighter future for DPS graduates

TeRay Esquibel is one of the Top 25 Young Professionals of 2021

Lisa Ryckman //March 3, 2021//

TeRay Esquibel, 27

Founder & Executive Director, Ednium: The Alumni Collective | Denver

It started with TeRay Esquibels simple question: How can we close the achievement gap if the community we seek to help is left out of the discussion?

Esquibels answer: Ednium: The Alumni Collective, an organization he founded last year to tap the experience of DPS alumni for insights on what was missing from their education.

TeRay doesnt do anything unless theres a community benefit,” colleague Perla Bustillos says. And the communities he prioritizes are made up of people like him who grew up in unstable environments, with fragmented families, a lack of resources, and with people in positions of power telling them they will not succeed in life.”

A Daniels Scholar while at the University of Denvers Daniels School of Business, Esquibel now is a fellow of the Latino Leadership Institute and Impact Denver. He serves as board chair of Beacon Network Schools and has led RootEDs strategic partnerships and facilitated funding and strategic support for 10 community organizations working toward public education equity, accountability and excellence.

TeRay brings that inner drive to succeed with him every day, in everything he does,” Bustillos says. He knows he must succeed not only for his family, as a first-generation college graduate, but also for other members of the community that he was raised in and is still a deep part of.”

His No. 1 goal: Looking back and being proud of what I created, what I stood for and how I treated people.”

This article is part of the ColoradoBiz’s 2021 Top 25 Young Professionals. Click here to read more about the latest class of up-and-coming movers and shakers.