Last week, I happily announced the addition of two great new staff members to the Pikes Peak Bulletin: Journalist Heidi Beedle, and Matthew Rogge doing Community Support and Accounts. This week, I am pleased to introduce another: Miranda Crowhurst, who will be contributing her talents in the role of Local Business Reporter, telling the stories of local businesses in Ute Pass, Manitou Springs and the Westside of Colorado Springs that contribute to the economic and community vitality of our area.
Miranda is well-suited to this role. She’s an Assistant Professor of Business at UCCS, and she has newspapers all over her background, starting when she was a child growing up in Cambridge in the UK. Her mother was a reporter for prominent national British newspapers such as The Guardian and The Telegraph.
“I used to sneak onto her computer and edit her articles for her in all caps,” Miranda said. “She would return to work to find sentences in the middle of her articles that read ‘THIS BIT IS BORING – CUT IT.'”
By the time she was in high school, she took photographs for her articles her “mum” wrote, and after graduating from the University of York she followed a similar path to her mother, working as an intern writer for The University of Cambridge Communications Office.
“Being nosy and chatty is definitely in the blood,” Miranda said.
Miranda also spent time in both Tanzania and Bolivia, where she is the co-founder and co-owner of an ESL institute.
“After starting my own language school in Bolivia, getting my MBA [at the University of Birmingham in the UK] and working as the senior video marketing manager for an international publishing company, I was ready to get back into the classroom,” she said. “I love working with young people and teaching teaches me new things all the time.”
Every entrepreneur has a story to tell. – Miranda Crowhurst
She added, “I really enjoy having my finger in as many pies as possible so as well as teaching, I work producing video content for The British Council via a marketing agency.”
(The British Council is the UK’s international organization – or should I say, organisation – for cultural relations and educational opportunities, operating in over 100 countries.)
It was love that brought Miranda to Colorado Springs.
“It was in Bolivia that I fell in love with an American, and that’s why I’m now living here in the USA,” Miranda said. “It was an unexpected life twist, but I am very much enjoying the mountains and how friendly everyone is. Making friends is often hard as an adult but I’ve been lucky enough to meet some fantastic Colorado locals.”
There are two core reasons Miranda feels inspired to write small business profiles for the Bulletin. One is her understanding of business.
“Having a small business myself, I know the sheer blood, sweat and tears that goes into building a company,” she said. “Every entrepreneur has a story to tell, and a passion that drives them, and I would love to share their stories with their local communities. Downtown Manitou and Old Colorado City are unimaginable without the businesses we all know and love, and I can’t wait to find out how they came to be.”
The other is her appreciation of journalism.
“Local newspapers are core to thriving local communities, but they’re core to democracies, too,” she said. “Without local papers, who can investigate local officials, and hold them to account? I am extremely proud to be a part of keeping your local paper on your table.”
Are you a small business owner and you’d like to be profiled? Or do you have an idea for a business profile? You may contact Heila at heila@pikespeakbulletin.org or at 719-373-1150.