CABPES’ Approach to New Year Resolutions

There’s always a lot of press about New Year resolutions, but according to a Pew Research Center survey, only 30% of Americans make these specific, and often daunting, goals. The other 70% admit they don’t enjoy declaring specific resolutions—often because they doubt they’ll finish them.

CABPES' mission is evident in all that we do.

At CABPES, we believe setting goals is essential for both our organization and our students. However, we also acknowledge that stating you want something can be scary. What if you don’t achieve it? What if others say your goals aren’t important? Or that they’re beyond your reach? Or that you don’t deserve to have them?

There are many ways anxiety or internalized feedback can cause students, organizations and companies to delay progress.

For that reason, CABPES uses a two-step process for setting our new year resolutions.

Step One

We begin by selecting four accomplishments from the prior year that had the greatest impact on our students, our organizational effectiveness and our reputation.

Narrowing a comprehensive list of achievements to just four is an important step in bolstering confidence and establishing a foundation for future success. Our top four achievements in 2025 are:

• In February, CABPES’ student team won the 2025 Future City Regional Competition! Our teams have participated in the Future City competition since 2019. Each entry presented learning opportunities that enhanced STEM skills, resilience, and team spirit. Learn more about how our teams advanced over the years from third place to second to first in this News Story.

  
  

• In November, CABPES President and Executive Director Dewey Brigham, Ph.D., was accepted into the American Express Leadership Academy’s latest cohort. The Academy’s goal is to “strengthen the non-profit sector by building the capacity of its leaders.” Learn more about the organization on its website.

• Also in November, CABPES participated in the STEM Together 2025: The STEM Education Action Symposium. At this event, CABPES exhibited a pedagogical results poster at an event attended by educators, students, scientists, policymakers, industry partners and community leaders. Click the image below to view the poster on the University of Colorado's Center for STEM Learning's website.

• In December, CABPES was awarded an NBA Foundation Grant for a second year. NBA Foundation Grants are designed to “spark meaningful change by investing in nonprofit partners that support workforce development and career readiness.” To date, more than 2,000 CABPES alumni have earned MS and graduate degrees and more than 5,000 CABPES alumni work in STEM-related fields.

Step Two

While looking back is invigorating, identifying priorities for the coming year is essential for long-term success.

As we enter 2026, CABPES leadership is focused on the following priorities:

• Secure a permanent home for CABPES

• Formalize CABPES’ workforce development efforts

• Launch a professional development program

Stay tuned for exciting developments on these efforts!