When Mazin Klapperich stands in front of a classroom, he feels like a leader. He knows exactly what he’s doing thanks to the four years of classroom experience he’s already gotten as an undergraduate student in CU Denver’s School of Education & Human Development (SEHD). “I would not feel confident or prepared to go into a teaching role if I had not had these experiences,” Klapperich said.
The 2026 graduate is earning his bachelor of arts in education and human development this spring, along with his licensure to teach special education to students ages five to 21. From day one at CU Denver, hands-on learning opportunities and caring support and guidance from faculty, staff, and other mentors have set Klapperich up to succeed—even when he went through one of the most difficult periods of his life.
A Difficult Beginning
Choosing CU Denver was easy for Klapperich. The Cherry Creek High School grad had family split between Arvada and Englewood, and CU Denver’s centrally located campus right in downtown Denver was the perfect in-between for him. He entered the university knowing he wanted to be a teacher—high school math, he thought. “I’m a pretty logical thinker,” Klapperich said. “I enjoy the math process.”
But, right as he began his college journey, tragedy struck his family. His mother passed away. “That impacted just about every part of my life—academics, socially, physically,” Klapperich said. “It was an intense time.” When he was at his lowest, he found support in SEHD that helped pull him through. “My advisor [Batol Swade] is the sweetest person on the planet,” Klapperich said. She pointed him to campus resources, like free counseling sessions for students and scholarship resources.
What helped him most, though, surprised him. It was the teaching experience he gained as part of each year of CU Denver’s highly hands-on teacher education program. When he was in front of the classroom, he noticed he mustered something in himself that he wasn’t finding elsewhere. “You have to preserve that energy in the classroom so that you can give that energy on to your students,” he said. “It sort of helps you ‘fake it ’til you make it.’” Over time, how he felt when he was showing up for his students began to truly transform how he felt in the rest of his life. “This program really brought some life back into me,” Klapperich said.
Adjusting Course
He loved being in front of the classroom but, as his education progressed, the idea of teaching math lost its luster. “I just could not see myself doing this for the rest of my life,” he said. At first, he wasn’t sure what to do. Then, his on-campus job gave him the inspiration he needed.
Since his senior year of high school, Klapperich had worked in the office of the Statewide Assistive Technology Augmentation & Alternative Communication (SWAAAC), a Colorado Department of Education program located on CU Denver’s campus through a partnership with CU Denver’s Center of Innovative Design and Engineering (CIDE). The SWAAAC team provides multidisciplinary assistive technology services to students with disabilities. Through his work there, Klapperich had made connections with special education professionals around the state, so he decided to pursue that teaching track. “It just felt kind of natural, especially considering I would actually have a lot of support in people to turn to with questions,” Klapperich said.
Finding His Voice as a Teacher
SEHD’s internship program allowed him to get real-world experience with increasing responsibility, building his confidence and skills with mentored teaching experience over time. To ease into the work, he began his internships by observing teachers at work. Next, his mentor teachers had him co-plan lessons with them and take notes in individualized education plan (IEP) meetings with special education students’ parents. Before long, he was planning lessons and managing the classroom all on his own. He was also leading IEP meetings, rather than just taking notes in them.
He realized how far he’d come when one of his students’ parents recognized his name in an IEP meeting. “Her kid had mentioned me at home, and that felt really good,” Klapperich said. He realized he’d gone from holding himself back to being the part of his students’ day that they wanted to tell their parents about. “It feels really good,” he said.
Where Challenge Meets Support
SEHD also prepares its students for teacher licensure exams with ample support. “We have a great student support center run by Arianne Rivera,” Klapperich said. The resources he used the most were the study materials for teaching praxis exams, which are required for licensure. “Those practice exams are very pricey, and you have to take a lot of them, so it’s best if you are able to just knock them out and not have to spend the money to retake them again,” Klapperich explained. “Our school was very cognizant of the fact that this is pricey and it’s necessary, so they provided those supports.” Now, Klapperich is fully licensed and he’s looking for the right position.
Klapperich’s journey to becoming a teacher may have been full of more twists and turns than he ever could have seen coming but, at CU Denver, he found the right balance of caring support and challenging encouragement. “We have a really, really, amazing team at SEHD,” he said. “They kept pushing me out of my comfort zone, making me try new things, making me get back up there. And eventually, it does come to you.” Now, he knows he’s capable of helming a classroom on his own. After all, he’s already done it.