For the 2025 DSF Alumni Artist Collaboration, DSF has partnered with Ellen Kaufman, DSF Alum from the University of Denver. Her painting "Our Roots" was inspired by her parents, who came to US as refugees from Belarus. The aspens in the Colorado mountains remind her family of the birches back home, helping Ellen connect to her roots. The faces in the trees represent the women in her life that have been a part of her educational journey, while everything is connected by the "superorganism" that is the roots of the aspen tree.