A Message from President Dr. Paul Burkhardt
Colorado Gives Day is a powerful reminder of what we can accomplish together when we invest in our shared future. At Naropa, every gift supports students who are learning to lead with wisdom, compassion, and courage—qualities our world urgently needs. Your contribution today helps sustain scholarships, programs, and resources that make a Naropa education accessible to all who seek it.
Thank you for joining us in nurturing the next generation of mindful leaders. Together, we are making a difference—right here in Colorado, and far beyond.
— Dr. Paul Burkhardt
President, Naropa University
Naropa University provides students with the education and mindset to make a difference in our ever-changing world. Your gift will help create hope and pave a clear and bright path to empowering future leaders who are committed to making a difference in our communities. Every contribution through Colorado Gives Day, no matter the size, plays a vital role in supporting their educational journey. Together, we will ensure these bright minds have the resources they need to succeed.
"The students and faculty are what make Naropa the magical institution that it is. It has given me the freedom to expand on previous knowledge, enhance my career and life interests, integrating both Eastern and Western philosophy into a mindfulness-based practice." --Celeste Da Silva Cunha, 2025
"Through contemplative practices and the embrace of loving-kindness toward myself, Naropa helped me find my center. I learned that creativity thrives when it’s nurtured with compassion, not only for the world around us but also for ourselves. " --Nicole (Niki) Mathurā, 2024
"I have never been part of a school that cares so much about what the students think...Every time I would meet with an administrator, staff, or professor, I found myself in awe of their genuine gratitude for my opinion, and that I’m treated like a person and not just another number or issue." --Jamie Peachy, 2024
Inspired by the rich intellectual and experiential traditions of East and West, Naropa University is North America's leading institution of contemplative education. Naropa recognizes the inherent goodness and wisdom of each human being.
It educates the whole person, cultivating academic excellence and contemplative insight in order to infuse knowledge with wisdom. The University nurtures in its students a lifelong joy in learning, a critical intellect, the sense of purpose that accompanies compassionate service to the world, and the openness and equanimity that arise from authentic insight and self-understanding. Ultimately, Naropa students explore the inner resources needed to engage courageously with a complex and challenging world, to help transform that world through skill and compassion, and to attain deeper levels of happiness and meaning in their lives.
Drawing on the vital insights of the world's wisdom traditions, the University is simultaneously Buddhist-inspired, ecumenical, and nonsectarian. Naropa values ethnic and cultural differences for their essential role in education. It embraces the richness of human diversity with the aim of fostering a more just and equitable society and an expanded awareness of our common humanity.
A Naropa education - reflecting the interplay of discipline and delight - prepares its graduates both to meet the world as it is and to change it for the better.
Renowned Tibetan Buddhist scholar and lineage holder, the Ven. Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche (1940-1987) founded the Naropa Institute (now Naropa University) in 1974. He was enormously influential in spreading the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism to the West. Trained as a Buddhist scholar and educated at Oxford University, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche wanted to create a place where students could study Eastern and Western religions, writing, psychology, science, and the arts while also receiving contemplative and meditation training.
"'Contemplative' here doesn't mean one tames thought or one dwells on some particular theme a lot. Instead, it means being with discipline fully and thoroughly as a hungry man eats food or a thirsty man drinks water." -Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche
Organization name
Naropa University
1974
Tax id (EIN)
84-1029228
Category
Education
Organization Size
Large Organization
Address
Naropa University 2130 Arapahoe AvenueMailing
Naropa University 2130 Arapahoe AvenueHeadquarters
Naropa University 2130 Arapahoe AvenueBoulder County, CO, US