When Phoenix Espinoza joined the Presidential Ambassador Program her first year at Colorado State University, she was terrified of public speaking.

Three years on the job later, Espinoza, a senior biomedical sciences student, laughs recalling how the skills she has learned through the PA program have allowed her to walk up to important strangers and happily and confidently introduce herself.

“I didn’t know how to talk to people when I started this program,” Espinoza, who currently serves as the PA membership chair, said. “I was a little baby freshman, and I mean, this program has given me everything from self confidence to poise. I’m now fine with public speaking, which I was terrified of doing before. … I really owe so much of who I am today, professionally and personally, to this program.”

Espinoza is one of 16 presidential ambassadors — highly motivated and involved students from every corner of campus that represent the university administration team and Office of the President to celebrate the impact of philanthropy and personally represent positive student impact at CSU.

Sreya Karumanchi, a second-year presidential ambassador and incoming membership chair, was inspired to join the program by a former presidential ambassador who came to speak about the impact of interacting with donors and university alumni.

Karumanchi, a chemical and biological engineering major with a biomedical engineering minor, had the opportunity through the PA program to interact with a donor who personally impacted her as a first-year who confirmed her dedication to philanthropic gratitude.

“It’s a gift to pursue an education, and so having a donor or a foundation be so passionate about investing in the future of our generation through education is very powerful,” Karumanchi said. “I’m very lucky where the foundation that has been a part of my life really lives by its values and really integrates it into how they tell us about how we can use our time and opportunities as a young adult to really contribute and give back.”

A large component of the PA program is interacting with donors and university alumni at campus events to show the impact of the student experience at CSU.

“For donors and alumni and all the university staff, … they’re all people who really stick behind what they believe in, and they really root for their cause,” Karumanchi said. “They want to give back their time and talent to the things that they think are important. And it’s very important to be around that and see that that never really dies out.”

As membership chair, Espinoza — and next year, Karumanchi — is in charge of organizing events, putting together schedules and planning PA engagement behind the scenes during the week.

“I have so much that I do behind the scenes with emails and coordinating and receiving our event requests and emailing out our agendas to our (presidential ambassadors) and making sure everyone has everything they need and answering all the questions,” Espinoza said. “I also am in charge of team bonding and recruitment. … It’s a lot of fun stuff.”

Part of the membership chair’s team-bonding experiences involve excursions and activities like pumpkin patches, pottery classes and hikes, inspired by Espinoza’s desire to enhance group camaraderie.

“Finally, after years of trying to perfect (team bonding) and sculpt it, we got funding at the beginning of this year for team bonding,” Espinoza said. “It has been absolutely amazing, and for me, it’s been a game changer because I feel like I’m way closer to this team than I have been my other teams just because we’ve had that outside experience. And I hope that the other (presidential ambassadors) feel the same way.”

As part of summer presidential ambassador training, each student participates in an activity called share your story, where each participant can take as much time as they want to share about themselves with the group, which both Espinoza and Karumanchi cited as their favorite memory from the program.

“For some people, that’s just … a couple of things that (they) like to do,” Espinoza said. “And for others, it’s 30 minutes of, ‘Here’s everything I’ve ever been through and how I’ve overcome it.’ And every single time that we have done that exercise, it has been so eye-opening because I realized that every single person on this team is so incredibly and uniquely beautiful, and every person has a story that is just as sculpting and powerful as my own.”

Joseph Godshall, a junior studying political science with business administration and legal studies minors, is a first-year presidential ambassador who got involved in the program through hearing former presidential ambassadors speak. For Godshall, the team has been the most impactful part of the experience.

“It’s hard to like articulate it, but I would say what’s impacted me the most, and therefore would be my favorite part about being in the program, is the people specifically,” Godshall said. “Just being able to bond with my team outside of the normal scope of, like, campus leadership, it’s been really awesome. I’ve grown a lot from the program, but I’ve grown more from being around these people.”

Godshall, who serves in leadership in the Associated Students of CSU and in other areas of campus, said the leadership experience he has gained through the PA Program has instilled a sense of service leadership in him.

“I fill a lot of leadership roles across campus, but I’ve really learned what it means to be, like, a humble leader and serve,” Godshall said. “Our mission is revolving our own gratitude and philanthropy, and I think I’ve really learned what it means to be a leader without being in charge. Having accountability and integrity, those are values that we really put forth, and then also just operating with kindness is something that we try to do here, and that’s been really impactful in my own life.”

As a returning member of the PA Program, Godshall said he hopes to continue the development of the group’s impact.

“My hopes would just be to make sure that I can give back to the program the way that it’s given to me,” Godshall said. “I’d really like to invest more time into kind of growing it … a little more … to just be able to invest in the people the way that they’ve invested through me.”

As Karumanchi enters her time as one of the student leaders of the PA Program, she said she hopes to continue the group’s personal connections to CSU.

“The power of our group is that we all have different connections to the university, different parts that connect us to CSU,” Karumanchi said. “Why do we love being here? What brought us here? Every voice and every perspective is so important, and it’s so individualistic that it (becomes) a group where all those voices are put together. And the beautiful part is that it changes every year, who all comes and who all has different perspectives.”

Reach Allie Seibel at news@collegian.com or on social media @allie_seibel_.