When Matthew Telles walked through the doors of DSST: Green Valley Ranch in 2010, he wasn’t just another sixth-grader starting middle school—he was a founding student. The weight of that title settled on his young shoulders as he and his classmates set out to build something special, something lasting. Seven years later, he stood on the stage at Senior Signing Day, ready to take his next step into the unknown. However, the journey between those two moments was anything but easy.
At DSST, Matthew found not only challenging academics but also mentors who would shape his future. One of them was Mr. Wick, the director of the school’s Entrepreneurship (E-Ship) Program. Mr. Wick had a habit of asking tough questions—ones that couldn’t be answered with a quick response.
“Why do you get out of bed every morning?”
“What keeps you moving forward when things get tough?”
“How do you want to give back to your community?”
At the time, Matthew and his classmates threw out answers—"To make my parents proud!" "To be successful!"—but none of them satisfied Mr. Wick.
“None of your responses are sufficient,” he told them. “An answer may not come to you for days, weeks, or even years. But when it does, reach out to me.”
It would take Matthew nearly a decade to find his answer.
A Defining Moment
On the night of his Senior Signing Day in 2017, after announcing his college commitment to Lewis & Clark College in front of thousands at the Denver Coliseum, his phone rang. The voice on the other end was familiar but unexpected.
“Matthew?” It was Gabriel, a friend of Matthew’s cousin and a sixth-grader at DSST: Conservatory Green. “I saw you cross that stage today—I kept telling my friends, ‘I know him! I know him!’ And at that moment, I knew I wanted to go to college too.”
Matthew hung up the phone and cried, not out of sadness, but out of overwhelming joy.
That was it. That was the moment.
For years, he had carried Mr. Wick’s challenge with him, searching for the answer. And now, here it was: his purpose was to help students like himself, like Gabriel see their own potential, to create pathways to and through college for young people from communities like his.
The Road to College—and Back Again
As a first-generation college student, Matthew knew that getting into college was only the first hurdle—getting through it would be something else entirely.
Leaving Denver for Portland, Oregon, he found himself in unfamiliar territory, thousands of miles from home. The Pacific Northwest rain, the loneliness of being far from family, the pressure of being the first in his family to navigate higher education—it all weighed on him. More than once, he called home in tears, begging his parents to let him return.
“Mijo, you got this,” they told him. “Give it one more year, and if you’re still unhappy, we’ll welcome you back with open arms.”
So he did. And by his second year, everything changed.
He found a work-study job at the college’s Inclusion and Multicultural Engagement office, mentoring a group of first-generation students who were struggling just like he had. In helping them, he found strength. In sharing his story, he built a support system. What had once felt impossible now felt like home.
“Once I found my people, everything changed,” Matthew said. “We lifted each other up through the highs and lows of college life, all the way to graduation and beyond. And that sense of belonging made all the difference.”
By the time he graduated with a degree in Sociology and Anthropology, Matthew knew his path forward: he wanted to create real change in education.
A Mission-Driven Career
Matthew’s career has always followed one guiding principle: giving back. After college, he explored nonprofit work in Portland before returning to Colorado and joining the El Pomar Foundation Fellowship, where he helped direct funding toward middle school youth development programs.
Though fulfilling, the pull to do more, to be on the ground working directly with students and families, led him to his current role as a Community Organizer at Denver Families for Public Schools. There, he helps shape education policy, mobilizes families, and strengthens connections between schools and communities. He is, in every way, living out the mission he discovered on that fateful night in 2017.
Looking ahead, Matthew sees graduate school in his future—perhaps a Master of Public Administration—to deepen his impact. But no matter where his path takes him, one thing remains clear:
He wakes up every morning knowing exactly why he does this work.
And that’s a question Mr. Wick would be proud to see him answer.