There's a particular kind of pride that comes not just from personal achievement, but from knowing your success belongs to something bigger than yourself. For Ben Garfield, a member of the first graduating class at DSST: Cole High School, that feeling has been a compass ever since he walked across the stage at Senior Signing Day.
In 2004, when Ben's class was in kindergarten, Cole Middle School, then a district-run school, was closed by the state for underperforming. That history didn't fade into the background. It became fuel. "For me, it wasn't just about my own success at school, but lifting up all of us as a community and proving everyone wrong that kids who attended Cole could in fact graduate from high school, go to college, and break out of cycles of disenfranchisement," he said. "I still look at the world through that lens, hoping to not just find success for myself but to ensure that those around me do too."
That worldview took shape inside the halls of DSST: Cole, which opened its doors in 2011, and followed Ben all the way to Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where he studied in the College of Social Studies, a rigorous, interdisciplinary program spanning government, economics, history and social theory. The transition wasn't seamless. Like many students who venture out of state for college, he described his first year as a genuine culture shock. But he leaned on what DSST: Cole had built in him. "I really returned to a lot of DSST Core Values, mainly Courage and Doing Your Best, and leaned into the resilience that was built in my time at Cole to push forward and find success," he said.
He credits DSST's broad, exploratory approach to learning for steering him toward his major. Despite the science and technology emphasis in its name, DSST gave him a foundation that stretched across disciplines, something he found mirrored in Wesleyan's liberal arts structure. That breadth, he says, prepared him to thrive across wildly different academic formats, from semester-long papers to weekly quizzes.
Today, Ben is back in Denver, working in communications at Colorado PERA, the state pension fund, where he helps teachers, government employees and retirees navigate the benefits they've earned. He's also pursuing his MBA at CU Boulder through a hybrid program that lets him work full time while earning his degree. The through line in all of it? Community. "My focus is really on just doing the little things I can throughout my work to incrementally make my communities a better place," he said.
When asked about a DSST memory that still stands out, Ben didn't hesitate. Senior Signing Day, the moment his class of 75 students stood on a stage at the Denver Coliseum and declared, collectively, that they had done it. "That moment for my class to all get up on that stage and be able to say to every Cole student who would follow us that we had succeeded, that the often vague goal of college was not just within reach but had been accomplished. I think that day really was such an accomplishment not just for the 75 of us, but really for every Cole student who came after us and who will come after us," he said.
His advice for current students is as honest as it is hard-won. Ben spent much of high school convinced he should be able to figure everything out on his own, and it wasn't until college that he fully understood the power of asking for help. "No one will ever be able to do anything completely on their own, and it isn't a sign of weakness to ask for help," he said. "Whether that's asking what might feel like a dumb question in biology class, asking a friend to proofread an essay, or going to a professor's office hours — it's those moments that will help you grow and will make pushing through the hard times that much easier."
Ben Garfield is proof that the DSST: Cole story is still being written, by every student who walks through those doors, and by every alum who carries it forward into the world. The DSST alumni community is growing, and stories like his are exactly why it matters. If you're a DSST alum with a story to share, we'd love to hear from you.