For most young people, starting college opens the door to lots of new things—new experiences, new classes, new friends and, for many students, a new place to live. But for recent University of Colorado Boulder graduate Sarah Lurie, she didn’t have to travel far from home.

As a Boulder native, Lurie completed the entirety of her schooling within a few miles of Boulder’s main campus. She attended University Hill Elementary just across the road from the University Memorial Center, went to Casey Middle School in central Boulder and graduated from Boulder High School located right down the hill from Macky Auditorium. 

After more than a dozen years of schooling in Boulder, attending CU Boulder seemed like a natural next step for Lurie. 

“It just made sense when I was thinking about college that CU Boulder was one that I was going to apply to,” says Lurie. 

Coming from three generations of Boulder graduates and with a strong desire to attend the highly regarded Leeds School of Business, everything seemed to align perfectly for Lurie to make her way to CU Boulder.

Once on campus, Lurie wasted no time getting involved. Starting her freshman year, she worked in the Volunteer Resource Center (VRC), eventually rising to the position of vice-chair of the Volunteer Resource Advisory Board. In her role, she helped evaluate the university’s volunteer programs. For Lurie, the resource center was an opportunity to broaden her horizons and meet new people. 

“The business school can sometimes be very bubble-like… [the resource center] was one way that I tried to venture to a new side of campus and engage with some different types of people,” says Lurie.

Lurie was also involved with multiple research groups during her time at CU Boulder. She collaborated with assistant professor Sabrina D. Volpone to examine how companies can better represent stigmatized employees. She also worked in the entrepreneurship division of Leeds School of Business to evaluate how to pair students with new high-growth ventures in the Boulder area.

Additionally, as part of the entrepreneur program at Leeds, Lurie started her own event planning business, which she launched after graduating in December 2020. Lurie’s other involvement at CU Boulder included the Herd Leadership Council, working as a Leeds marketing division student intern and serving as a teaching assistant for a critical leadership course.

Graduating from Leeds, however, wasn’t always a given for Lurie. During her sophomore year, she remembers thinking to herself: “This is really hard, I don’t know if this is the right major for me.” 

Lurie considered a switch to psychology, but through the support of the Norlin Scholars program, she redoubled her commitment to business and went on to be one of the Leeds School of Business’ top graduates. 

Since her graduation in December, where she received the Leeds Academic Excellence Award for having the top GPA in her graduating class, Lurie has continued to pursue both her research and her business. In February 2021, she began a new job as an operations coordinator for a consulting firm start-up in Boulder. 

Regarding long-term plans, Lurie hopes to pursue a master’s degree in industrial-organizational psychology. Although Colorado does not have a program for her intended area of study, the fourth generation Buff still hopes to remain involved with the campus community.

When asked about her advice for future Buffs, her answer was simple: “The biggest thing I would advise them [incoming students] to do is get involved in a ton of different things their freshman year and then start to whittle down which ones they want to be a part of for four years. Pick one or two and […] develop really good relationships with others in those programs and take advantage of what they have to offer.”