About One Dream

One Dream aims to ensure that students, particularly those from low-income backgrounds, receive the support and guidance necessary to complete high school and become civically engaged, lifelong learners with the knowledge and skills to adapt to changing local, regional, and global demands. One Dream supports K-12 graduates as they progress through postsecondary pathways—college, technical training, military service, or others that lead to meaningful careers. Transitioning to thriving careers, achieving financial self-sufficiency, and building a strong foundation for generational wealth and prosperity. 

 A young person’s zip code should never dictate their future. Yet students from low-income or first-generation families too often cross high school stages without a clear path to postsecondary opportunity and thriving careers.

One Dream steps in with justice‑centered, resilience‑informed guidance. Our Transition Specialists walk beside each student, turning complex forms, deadlines, and gatekeepers into stepping‑stones.

We see racial identity, culture, and orientation as sources of power, not hurdles to clear. When that strength meets opportunity, young leaders emerge, lifting their families, sparking innovation, and building generational wealth.

Equity and justice aren’t slogans for us; they are the blueprint we follow to move whole communities forward.

One Dream pairs a high-school–based crossover support model with our GPS-style “To-and-Through” advising. Each trained Transition Specialist partners with a student from the moment we begin working together—whether that’s during high school, the summer after graduation, or later—guiding them through the pivotal transition to postsecondary life.

Although colleges, skilled-trade programs, and other pathways offer advisors and mentors, first-generation and low-income students often don’t connect with these supports in their earliest, most stressful months. By staying the same caring adult before and after graduation, our Specialists bridge that trust gap, turning confusing forms, deadlines, and gatekeepers into stepping-stones.

We are continuously beside students as they pursue college, skilled trades, tech, military service, or other pathways they envision—and remain with them until they secure thriving, livable-wage careers. This continuous relationship empowers young people to achieve financial self-sufficiency and lay the groundwork for generational prosperity.

Most programs step in for a semester, a summer, or a scholarship year. One Dream stays for the entire journey, high school, the summer melt, post‑secondary training, and into their thriving, livable‑wage career.

Same Specialist, Start to Finish
The Transition Specialist students meet early on is the same trusted professional who checks freshman‑year grades through to their senior-year grades, and later coaches a salary negotiation. It's the same person who sees them off to MEPS and shows up at their Boot Camp graduation. No hand‑offs, no getting lost in the shuffle.

Relationship Before Requirements
We build rapport first, then tackle forms, deadlines, and crises. That bond turns a menu of campus services into a human safety net.

To‑and‑Through—and Beyond
Our metric isn’t simply enrollment; it’s sustained, self‑sufficient employment that seeds generational wealth.

Because the relationship lasts, the impact lasts, moving young people from uncertainty to opportunity, and on to prosperity.

Craig Peña, MSSW, is a Denver native who has spent more than three decades clearing pathways for young people and systemically marginalized communities. His north-star belief—that every student holds inherent beauty, capacity, and individuality—guides One Dream’s justice-centered work today. He is the Founder and Executive Director of One Dream Educational Nonprofit.

A proud graduate of Denver Public Schools, Craig earned a B.S.S.W. from Colorado State University and an M.S.S.W. from Columbia University. He began his career in New York City, supporting individuals and families living with HIV/AIDS during the height of the epidemic and later overseeing mental health services for homeless and formerly homeless New Yorkers as Deputy Director of the Residential Development Unit for the NYC Department of Mental Health.

Back in Denver, he directed the city’s first School-to-Work program, served as Vice President of Social Services at Servicios de La Raza, and founded several successful Latino-centric apparel companies. He then re-entered public service with Colorado GEAR UP, helping more than 2,500 low-income, first-generation students pursue postsecondary degrees or apprenticeships. At Denver Public Schools, he forged landmark agreements with colleges, secured over $500,000 with the City and County of Denver to place students in high-demand career tracks, built partnerships with 14 union apprenticeship programs, and organized skilled-trades conferences across multiple high schools.

Today, through One Dream, Craig leads postsecondary transition and persistence support for students across Colorado and beyond. He partners with universities, apprenticeship programs, and community organizations; has been contracted by CU Boulder TRIO, CU Denver, and Prosperity Denver Fund; and has served as a technical advisor on Colorado’s “Promotion of Apprenticeships” legislation.

Craig’s commitment to equity runs deep: he was a named plaintiff in the Keyes desegregation case and the DPS English Language Learner Consent Decree and co-authored Resegregation in Denver Public Schools, used in regional teacher-education programs. A bilingual (Spanish–English) dual citizen of the United States and Mexico, he regularly engages students and families in their home language to demystify postsecondary systems and build trust. Away from work, he enjoys cooking, snowboarding, whitewater expeditions, and big-game hunting, and is the proud father of two adult sons.