Author: Caelin Bragg

Professionals looking to boost their skillsets can enroll in one or many of the Badge courses offered at Wichita State. These badges can not only teach you new skills, but also enhance your current knowledge base.

One such series of Badges is the Creative Interventions series, which offers a broad overview of creative, ethical and mindfulness-based approaches to practice, designed to support those working in social work, counseling, education and related areas.

Badges are bite-sized, one credit hour or less courses designed to work within the working professional’s schedule. They can be taken at your own pace and use Open Educational Resources, meaning you don’t need to pay for a textbook.

To learn more about Badges, including how to enroll for the fall 2025 semester, visit wichita.edu/badges.

Wichita State has been a leader in creating a standard for microcredentials, allowing employers to be confident that meaningful learning has occurred when you list the badge on your resume. Badges are developed with input from employers, government licensing agencies, trade associations and faculty.

Professionals looking to boost their skillsets can enroll in one or many of the Badge courses offered at Wichita State. These badges can not only teach you new skills, but also enhance your current knowledge base.

One such series of Badges is the Creative Interventions series, which offers a broad overview of creative, ethical and mindfulness-based approaches to practice, designed to support those working in social work, counseling, education and related areas.

Badges are bite-sized, one credit hour or less courses designed to work within the working professional’s schedule. They can be taken at your own pace and use Open Educational Resources, meaning you don’t need to pay for a textbook.

To learn more about Badges, including how to enroll for the fall 2025 semester, visit wichita.edu/badges. And employees at Wichita State can apply for Tuition Assistance to cover the cost of Badges. The final application window for Tuition Assistance closes Aug. 4.

Wichita State has been a leader in creating a standard for microcredentials, allowing employers to be confident that meaningful learning has occurred when you list the badge on your resume. Badges are developed with input from employers, government licensing agencies, trade associations and faculty.

Competing in its first organized event under head coach Amy Pollard-Yarberry, the Shocker dance squad put together an excellent performance at the 2025 National Dance Association (NDA) Dance Camp

As a team, the Shockers put together two first-place finishes, coming in first in the Division I Game Day Run Off competition and first in Division I Pro Team Dance. For its performance, the team earned a gold bid to NDA Nationals and a spirit stick.

The Shockers earned spots on the NDA All-American team, with Abby Allen, Audrey Menzies and Claire Baker all earning All-American honors.

Wichita loves nothing more than a good basketball reason to fill up Charles Koch Arena. This summer, the AfterShocks gave people six good reasons, and fans responded in increasing numbers all the way to confetti and a championship trophy.

On Sunday, the AfterShocks won The Basketball Tournament with an 82-67 victory over Eberlein Drive in front of 9,029 revved-up fans. The team will divide the TBT prize of $1 million.

Attendance in Koch Arena helped the AfterShocks secure home games throughout TBT.

“I feel really lucky we were able to play in front of that crowd, especially in a basketball game in August,” guard Conner Frankamp told reporters. “They’re so loud, it’s amazing in there.”

The table below is to assist instructors with certain dates regarding CES. The dates shown are for the fall 2025 semester.

• The first column includes the various start/end (part-of-term) dates for fall semester courses.
• The second column includes dates meant for instructors. This is the timeframe when instructors will receive emails about the CES process and procedures that they should complete. Instructors will receive additional emails during and after the student CES access dates.
• The last column includes the dates that CES will be available for the students to complete course evaluations.

If your course is in bold, then your fall 2025 CES evaluation process will start soon. Review the start/end dates in each column so you know when your access to the CES system will start and end.

The AfterShocks are champions of The Basketball Tournament (TBT). They will divide the $1 million prize after the Aug. 3 win, in front of 9,029 fans, the highest attendance for a TBT game at Charles Koch Arena.

The team won six games, four by 12 or more points, in Charles Koch Arena to win its first TBT title in six appearances. A 2022 semifinal appearance was its previous best finish.

Wichita State is one of the recipients of a renewed $20 million grant as part of the AI Institute for Foundations of Machine Learning (IFML), of which WSU is a founding member.

The grant will be awarded to the IFML institutions over the next five years and is used to support the development of more advanced generative AI that is open-sourced, which enables broader adoption and fosters innovation across a wide range of fields.

Dr. Kaushik Sinha, associate professor of computing in the College of Engineering, is the principal investigator for Wichita State’s $1.27 million share of the grant, which will be used to continue Sinha’s research and fund graduate students and support workforce development.

Wichita State’s College of Engineering is expanding student innovation and applied learning opportunities through a new state-funded partnership with Groover Labs, a downtown Wichita makerspace and official WSU partner.

On July 15, the Kansas Department of Commerce named Groover Labs one of two recipients of the Accelerating Concept to Commercialization in Kansas (ACCEL-KS) grant. Groover Labs and KU Innovation Park in Lawrence will share $800,000 to support at least 32 early-stage commercialization projects across the state.

James Wright’s work in the Environmental Test Lab for the National Institute for Aviation Research includes measuring salt spray fallout, welding and CAD modeling. 

Through each day of his paid internship, one benefit stands out – problem solving. Wright, a Wichita State University senior majoring in aerospace engineering, is from Joplin, Missouri, and works as a mechanical student assistant at NIAR. 

“It’s a lot of problem solving,” he said. “I think that it’s vital to learn how to operate in this sort of environment while you’re at school, so that once you make it into the workforce you’re comfortable learning things the hard way and clawing your way up when you’re in a new and unfamiliar situation.” 

Wichita State’s Lifelong Learning program has released its fall 2025 classes, designed and free for individuals aged 60 and above.

Classes are available both online at your own pace or in person from 1-3 p.m. at the Hughes Metropolitan Complex, however only a limited number of seats are available for those who sign up for in-person classes, so register soon. Deadline for registering is Sept. 10.

The following classes are being offered for fall 2025:

• Asian American History
• Geological Wonders of the 50 States
• Modern Ireland: From Imperialism to Peace
• Generative AI: Promises and Perils
• Shakespeare
• Talkin’ ’bout my (and your) Generation
• Hollywood vs. Broadway: Is the Relationship Symbiotic or Parasitic?
• Kansas Under Water: Geology of the Cretaceous Seaway
• Listen Up! Unlocking the Secrets of Sound
• Dreams of El Dorado: Triumph and Tragedy

Learn more about Wichita State’s Lifelong Learning program by going to wichita.edu/lifelonglearning. For questions, call 316-978-3258 or email lifelonglearning@wichita.edu.