are the region's most sought-after professional jazz musicians. Many of our faculty also teach at the excellent university programs in our state including University of Denver, University of Colorado, MSU-Denver, and University of Northern Colorado. CCJA faculty members are dedicated educators and pass on their passion and immense knowledge of jazz to the young musicians they work with. CCJA employs a special mentoring program of "near-peer mentors" that play along students in our programming. Near-peer mentors are often recent alumni of our program, either recently graduated from a college music program or working on their degree. This extra bit of mentoring at a personalized level helps our students thrive and understand the musical concepts further, while giving these young mentors and opportunity to educate.