President’s Award winner finds her passion for civic leadership

Ammie Kellim needed a jolt. The Covid-19 pandemic had upended her senior year of high school, and she had been sidelined by medical challenges. “I was kind of lost,” she said. 

But something changed when she attended her first class at Metropolitan State University of Denver. As she sat on her bed and logged in to her first remote college class, Kellim felt something incredible. “I could feel this spark come back into me,” she remembered. “Suddenly, I felt something I thought I may never find.” 

The spark, Kellim said, was passion and academic fulfillment — something she now embodies as the recipient of the MSU Denver President’s Award for fall 2024. 

The child of two MSU Denver graduates, Kellim decided to follow in her parents’ footsteps by attending the University. But her experience in and out of the classroom was more than a date with destiny; it was a journey tailor-made for a campus leader. While earning a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with a minor in Psychology, Kellim forged a path that combined civic leadership and academic excellence. 

MSU Denver was a place to find her spark as she pursued her newfound passions for public speaking and debate. As president of the University Debate Team and a member of the MSU Denver Mock Trial Association, Kellim has helped bring new verve to both programs while honing her critical-thinking and communication skills. 

The result has been transformative, Kellim says. “MSU Denver really gives students an abundance of opportunities to be successful in any way that they wish,” she said. 

For Kellim, that has meant not only giving back to her fellow students as an assistant teacher in Child Psychology but competing with the Debate Team and traveling with the help of University funding and the Student Travel Fund. She helped rebuild MSU Denver’s Debate Team following the aftermath of Covid, and her busy debate schedule took her to New York, Yosemite National Park and Washington, D.C., among other places, where she competed in tournaments and had meaningful conversations with notable judges. She has also helped enlist national and global debate teams to gather at MSU Denver and discuss important world issues.

The result, said Jeremiah Castle, associate professor of Political Science and Kellim’s instructor in Constitutional Law, has been stunning. “I simply do not know how Ammie finds the time to do all of these activities, let alone excel at them as she has,” Castle said. “Ammie has been one of the most active and engaged members of our prelaw program, and she is on track to attend law school after graduation.”

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“The University has offered so many things that have prepared me to have adeptness in the world after graduation — in law school and just in life,” said Kellim, who juggles nannying and home responsibilities with her busy academic and extracurricular schedule. “Learning to balance so many things with all of the support and opportunities offered by MSU Denver has been really incredible.” 

In law school and beyond, Kellim plans to combine civic engagement and courageous communication into a career protecting the environment. 

In the meantime, she’s preparing for law school with spark to spare. “I’ve met some incredible people,” she said. “It’s not just networking; I’ve been given a voice.”