Our Community
City of Fort Collins
Located a short drive north of Denver, Fort Collins is a vibrant town full of local eateries, pubs, boutiques and home to Colorado State University. With 300 days of sunshine, snow-capped mountains, idyllic lakes and clear-running rivers, it is hard to deny that people like to get outdoors here all year round.
Fort Collins Ranked #1 on the List of Best Places to Live
For the past seven years, Livability.com has released a data-driven list of the Top 100 Best Places to Live in America.
We analyzed more than 1,000 small to mid-sized cities on factors like safety, affordability, economic stability, outdoor recreation, accessibility and community engagement.
This year’s list was also informed by a new metric: an “opportunity score” we used to determine each city’s landscape of opportunity, including variables like job numbers, broadband access, economic resilience and growth.
CSU Events
CSU prides itself on community involvement and the participation of our community to improve life in the Fort Collins Area. This includes many programs direly benefiting our community such as:
- Fall Clean Up
- The program is aimed at assisting elderly and/or physically limited neighbors in the Fort Collins area with outdoor yard work (raking leaves, trimming bushes, cleaning gutters, etc.) that they cannot complete themselves and cannot afford to pay someone to do.
- C.A.N.S. Around the Oval
- C.A.N.S., which stands for “cash and nutritious staples,” is one of the largest fund and food drives in Northern Colorado. The Student Leadership, Involvement, and Community Engagement office coordinates the month-long event, in which thousands of people in the CSU community and local community participate to raise awareness about hunger by “CANtributing” in various ways.
Fort Collins Schools
Poudre School District
Visit a PSD classroom and you’ll see enthusiastic staff teaching students in an inviting setting where learning is fun.
All PSD teachers are certified in Colorado. PSD teachers have an average of 11 years experience, 40% hold bachelor’s degrees, nearly 60% hold master’s degrees, and 1% hold doctorate degrees.
A student’s right to learn in a safe environment is a priority. Clearly defined expectations for student behavior and a variety of prevention programs contribute to a positive learning environment in our schools. Character education themes are woven into the fabric of all our elementary schools.
Thompson School District
Thompson School District is the 17th largest school district in Colorado, encompassing 362 square miles and serving approximately 16,000 students. The district’s territory includes all of Loveland and Berthoud, plus sections of Fort Collins, Windsor, Johnstown and unincorporated land in Larimer, Weld and Boulder counties.
TSD serves students in Pre-K through 12th grade with thirteen school-based early childhood programs, a dedicated early childhood building, one K-8 school, eighteen elementary schools, five middle schools, five high schools and two charter schools. Teachers and administrators collaborate with families and community partners to ensure that students are college, career and community ready.
Off-Campus Life
The mission of Off Campus Life is to promote positive relationship building and provide off-campus living information, services and educational programs that benefit the student body, university and surrounding communities.
Recreation
The Recreator is a comprehensive community resource that includes information on city of Fort Collins Recreation facilities, programs, events and activities. The Recreator features a diverse collection of community-wide opportunities for all ages and abilities. The Recreator is published quarterly and available throughout the community and online.
Athletics
CSU sponsors 16 NCAA Division I varsity programs (six men’s teams and 10 women’s teams) participating in the Mountain West Conference. The department serves approximately 380 student-athletes and awards 215 scholarship equivalents each academic year. Our mission statement, TO EDUCATE, ENGAGE AND EXCEL, embraces the philosophy of the entire CSU campus, whereby our priority is to provide access to education for student-athletes; engage the broader community by drawing thousands of stakeholders to the University and excel in all pursuits. Information about our intercollegiate athletic program.