Category: Featured Stories

From its early days as Fairmount College, Wichita State University has celebrated a rich history of women who have worked to build a better community and a better world. In commemoration of Women’s History Month, we’ve compiled a list of just a few of the women who have contributed to the greatness of Shocker Nation.

Wichita State’s Dorothy and Bill Cohen Honors College is proud to announce nine recipients of the Koch Scholars Program for the fall 2022 semester. These nine recipients will each be awarded $30,000 over the next four years.

Wichita State alumnus J. Robert Young has pledged a gift of $3 million to provide resources that will help students build successful careers. Of that total, $2 million will endow the J. Robert Young Executive-in-Residence Program in the W. Frank Barton School of Business. The remaining $1 million will support the Shocker Success Center project, which will consolidate 17 student services in Clinton Hall.

The Dean’s Advisory Board for the W. Frank Barton School of Business at Wichita State University is excited to announce Margaret Dechant as its new leader.

Dechant, CEO and partner at 6 Meridian, will take over for Clark Bastian. Dechant currently serves as a member of the board and looks to bring her knowledge and passion for the Barton School and WSU to her appointment.

When it comes to keeping our city clean, Wichitans can do better. 

That’s according to a litter study conducted by Wichita State University’s Environment Finance Center, which surveyed a dozen parks within the city limits during the summer of 2021

The Center for Entrepreneurship at Wichita State University has hired Troy Tabor as its new director, effective Jan. 23. Tabor has experience as a serial entrepreneur and business owner with a strong technical background.

As a young boy growing up in Oklahoma City Nicolas Reyes loved to hear the hum of the fighter jets from the nearby Tinker Air Force Base. Nicolas Reyes — a junior studying electrical engineering in Wichita State’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering — has always wanted to work in the aviation industry. He finally got his chance this past summer when he completed a virtual internship with Lockheed Martin. While there, Nicolas worked on the F-35 Lightning II for their location in Fort Worth.

The W. Frank Barton School of Business at Wichita State University has named Jon Rolph, president and CEO of Thrive Restaurant Group and a member of the Kansas Board of Regents, its Executive-in-Residence for the spring 2022 semester.

The Executive-in-Residence program was established last year to provide Barton School students, faculty and the Wichita community with vital perspectives and knowledge from industry leaders. Tom Gentile, president and CEO of Spirit AeroSystems, served as the program’s first resident during the fall 2021 semester.

A bequest from the estate of Richard “Dick” Smith will provide about $5.5 million each to Wichita State University and the University of Kansas to endow full-ride scholarships for students at each university.

A longtime resident of Wichita and the founder of Range Oil Co., Smith died in January 2021 at the age of 87.

The estate gifts were announced at a news conference on Feb. 9 attended by WSU President Rick Muma and KU Chancellor Douglas Girod, as well as Smith’s widow, Sondra Langel. Elizabeth King, WSU Foundation president and CEO, and Dale Seuferling, president of the KU Endowment, also attended.

In the hot, humid mugginess of east Texas in August 2021, Crystal Dozier and a group of students made two exciting discoveries at the Box Springs archaeological site. Dozier, WSU assistant professor of anthropology, used magnetometry and ground penetrating radar to discover the precise location of an assumed mound.