Category: Featured Stories

The Woolseys have made an additional gift from their trust of $1.3 million to Wayne and Kay Woolsey Hall at Wichita State University. A portion of the gift will be used to create the Kay Woolsey Garden, with the remainder going toward the Woolsey Hall Technology Fund.

Alia Michaelis is working in several Wichita-area hospital emergency rooms to record patient-physician interactions. This applied-learning opportunity is helping prepare her for a career in medicine.

More than 5,000 Shockers each year take what they’ve learned in the classroom and transfer that knowledge into real-world environments.

As part of the consolidation plan with WSU Foundation (WSUF), the WSU Alumni Association (WUAA) Board of Directors voted to dissolve 501(c)(3) May 12. The passage of this resolution follows the board’s decision in March to proceed with plans to consolidate with the WSU Foundation.

“With the adoption of the resolution, we are now working to wind down our business operations and finalize plans for our consolidation with the WSU Foundation,” says Cindy Hoover, WSUAA board chair. “Courtney Marshall, who’s in her seventh year as president and CEO of the WSUAA, has agreed to continue in her position with the WSUAA through June 30.”

“My work here at the WSUAA has been a career highlight for me,” Courtney M. Marshall says. “Through the years, I’ve met countless, wonderful Shocker alumni and friends all across the country who love Wichita State. It has been my pleasure to serve this university and our Shocker community.”

After winning the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championship, the Wichita State Varsity Esports Valorant team qualified for a direct bid to compete in the Collegiate Esports Commissioners Cup, a milestone for WSU’s Esports program.

Wichita State University is working with a group of community organizations to make a popular pathway more welcoming and accessible to Wichita walkers and bikers.

If you’ve had a chance to walk or bike through the Redbud Trail, you may have viewed the strategically placed Wichita-themed monuments along the way, indicating the direction and distance to area landmarks and medical facilities. To create this signage, Wichita State partnered with Bike Walk Wichita and Wesley Healthcare on a project to  provide healthy opportunities for the community to get active and build relationships.

Listen to an audio tour that explores WSU history. Join KMUW’s Carla Eckels on a campus audio tour as she discusses Wichita State’s rich history. The seven-stop tour starts at the Ulrich Museum of Art and ends at the Carnegie Columns at 17th and Fairmount.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development (EDA) Alejandra Y. Castillo visited Wichita State University’s National Institute for Aviation Research Wednesday to learn more about university and community efforts to transform the regional economy.

Castillo, along with a delegation from the EDA and Small Business Administration, including regional administrator Vercie Lark, toured NIAR’s Advanced Technologies Laboratory for Aerospace Systems (ATLAS) alongside WSU President Rick Muma, WSU senior vice president for Industry and Defense Programs John Tomblin and WSU associate vice president of strategic initiatives Debra Franklin.

The delegation learned how ATLAS uses transformative technology such as automation and machine learning to change the way manufacturers develop and produce advanced materials.

Following the tour, the group took part in a ‘Coalition Conversation’ with city, county, state and industry representatives. The South Kansas coalition is a finalist for EDA’s $1 billion Build Back Better Regional Challenge. The conversation was a learning opportunity for EDA to understand how the finalists built their coalition and created a collective vision for their region.

The vison of South Kansas’ proposal, Driving Adoption: Smart Manufacturing Technologies, is to empower the equitable adoption of productivity-enhancing emerging technologies for sustainable, precision manufacturing competiveness and profitability.

The conversation centered on equipping and enabling the people of the region with adequate training to meet the demand of the skilled workforce of the future through strategic partnership at all levels.

 “We are proud that the American Rescue Plan’s Build Back Better Regional Challenge is helping to drive place-based, cluster-oriented, transformational economic development here in the Wichita region and across the nation,” said Castillo.

“I’m so excited about this moment in time for our country because when we talk about economic development – pushing the country forward – everyone’s in agreement.”

The South Kansas Coalition is comprised of a regional consortium of industry, government and economic development leaders representing 27 counties in South Kansas and led by WSU-NIAR.

Additional members of the roundtable discussion included Sedgwick County Commissioners David Dennis and Pete Meitzner; John Rolfe, president and CEO of the Wichita Regional Chamber of Commerce; Jeff Fluhr, president of the Greater Wichita Partnership; Keith Lawing, president and CEO of the Workforce Alliance of South-Central Kansas and Debra Franklin, WSU vice president of Strategic Initiatives. 

Former Wichita State University students might remember Clinton Hall as a dark and cold building, but starting in September, it will begin its metamorphosis into the bright and welcoming Shocker Success Center.

This project will completely transform Clinton Hall into a holistic resource for student services, said Elizabeth King, president and CEO of the WSU Foundation. Centralizing access to these services will help students stay on course to graduate.

While the renovations will bring about remarkable opportunities for students, the construction will cause some temporary disruptions and closures of the sidewalks and parking areas adjacent to Clinton Hall. We’ll be making every effort to minimize the inconvenience for our students, faculty, and staff.

The Dean’s Advisory Council for the College of Health Professions (CHP) met April 29 to discuss the significant impact of simulation and robotics on the training of healthcare professionals.  A major limitation to training in most health professions programs has been the ability to identify and recruit hospitals and health clinics to provide practical experience working with patients in a clinical setting.

Recently, the availability of high-fidelity manikins and robotics has allowed programs to provide practical experience to students through simulated situations in a safe environment for learning.  Simulation training has been shown to better prepare trainees for interacting with human patients and result in better health outcomes.

The CHP has invested over $1 million in new simulation facilities and equipment that will allow the College to provide cutting-edge training to students from undergraduate through doctoral programs.

“High-fidelity robotic simulation will continue to be an important and growing part of training in the health professions,” said Dr. Gregory Hand, dean of CHP. “Our goal is for the college to be second-to-none in providing health science simulation across our programs.”

More than 2,400 Shockers are eligible for graduation in spring 2022. While each of their journeys is unique, they all share a common connection to Shocker Nation. Here’s what some of our graduates have to say about their time at Wichita State and the future.