Category: Featured Stories

Sierra Marie Bonn struggled to balance her work and education, but with the help of scholarships from the Miss Kansas Organization, she was able to earn an undergraduate and graduate degree from Wichita State University. She graduates with her Master of Innovation Design and following graduation, she will compete in the 2024 Miss Kansas Competition and continue working on the non-profit organization she founded while she was a student, Let’s Go Full STEAM Ahead.

Christen Brouillette came to Wichita State University from Texas, which they found hard to transition to, but with the help of peers, faculty and the resources available at WSU, they were able to find success. They hope to work as a historian or archivist following graduation.

The military brought Morgan Campbell and her family to Wichita, and she decided to make it her home. She has earned a master’s degree in social work, and she plans “to promote safety, growth and opportunities” for families in her practice.

As a full-time employee of Wichita State University, Gabriel Fonseca struggled to balance work, classes and a personal life while he pursued his doctoral degree; but, ultimately, the support of the university community helped him persevere.

With two young children at home, U.S. Air Force Major Jade Driggs needed to learn to ask and accept help from others while she was working toward her Ph.D. in human factors psychology. She chose Wichita State University for its impressive human factors psychology program and the university’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Wichita State University’s Amanda Schmalzried has won the 2024 Bela Kiralyfalvi Student Playwriting Competition for her play, “The Angel of Death.”

Schmalzried’s play was among 29 scripts submitted from 24 colleges and universities across the nation. She is the seventh Wichita State student who has won the competition in its 49-year history.

“The Angel of Death” will be presented as a staged reading in March 2025 at the Welsbacher Theatre in the WSU Hughes Metroplex.

Three Wichita State University students have secured the prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation — an award worth $159,000 over three years.  

The students — Anthony Ciletti, a senior in mechanical engineering; Reilly Jensen, who is pursuing a master’s degree in biomedical engineering; and Max Proctor, a second-year master’s student studying biological sciences — were chosen among more than 12,000 students nationwide who applied for the fellowship.  

Wichita State University has offered the traditional educational pathways for over 125 years, typically ending at the point of graduation, but the need for learning continues throughout a person’s lifetime.

In a rapidly changing world, continuing education has never been more important. More and more jobs require skill-based certification of learning, which includes the attainment of validated durable and technical skills. To meet those needs, WSU was the first in Kansas to create badge courses for non-degree seeking students in 2015, after approval from the Kansas Board of Regents.

Alex Day, from Austin, recommends Wichita State University because of its supportive faculty and its College of Health Professions. She enjoys Wichita’s music scene and exploring the downtown science center Exploration Place, located on the Arkansas River.

Shockers come from all over, and students from selected major metropolitan areas in Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas may be eligible to receive regular in-state tuition at Wichita State. Read what some out-of-state students have to say about why they chose WSU — and Wichita — as their new home.

The seventh cohort of Rudd Scholars includes 15 Kansas high schools who have chosen to attend Wichita State University.

• Annaliese Jorgenson – Hillsboro High School
• Jose Urbina-Renteria – Wichita North High School
• Alexander Baird – Campus High School
• Faith Ekart – Sterling High School
• Kylee Mohr – Great Bend High School
• Richard Gwyn Jr. – Wichita Southeast High School
• Vatedis Coleman – Wichita Southeast High School
• Isabelle Christensen – Southeast of Saline High School
• Kane Huston – Paola High School
• Maimoona Mohammad – Wichita Heights High School
• Mya Scott – Conway Springs High School
• Vivian Chau – Wichita East High School
• Israel Torres Ayala – Wichita Northeast Magnet High School
• Adam Bosworth – Wichita North High School
• Shiloh Goetzinger – Hugoton High School

Each Rudd Scholar will receive a full-ride scholarship, which includes tuition, fees, on-campus housing, and considerable networking and coaching support along the way. All Rudd Scholars are from Kansas and will attend Wichita State, Emporia State, Fort Hays State or Kansas State.