Category: Featured Stories

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.

Four years ago, Juan Aguilar made a decision that is about to make his last two years in college a whole lot more affordable.

In 2019, Aguilar — a first-generation student from Garden City, KS — applied for the Doris and Ralph Klose Scholarship, which covers tuition, books and fees for juniors and seniors who are studying math or science education at Wichita State University.

Aguilar, who is studying middle school math education, is currently in his junior year of college in the College of Applied Studies; and he’s grateful he made the decision to apply for the Klose Scholarship years ago.

Ella Tucker, senior at Epic Charter Schools in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has been awarded the 2022 Wichita State University Clay Barton Scholarship. She will receive $12,500 a year for four years to attend Wichita State. The $50,000 Barton Scholarship is one of the largest business scholarships in Kansas.

Wichita State University has selected the 2022 recipients of the Harry Gore Memorial Scholarships. Each student will receive a $64,000 scholarship to attend WSU in fall 2022.

• Caden Carlson, Aurora High School in Aurora, Nebraska
• Brynna Mays, Topeka West High School
• Audrey Menzies, Piper High School in Kansas City, Kansas

The students competed in the Distinguished Scholarship Invitational in November, with more than 400 total students participating. To be invited to compete in the invitational, students had to have a 27 or higher ACT score, or a 3.5 or higher GPA, or rank in the top 10%of their class. Once invited, students completed an application, including essays, and competed in an on-campus leadership competition.

As with Gore Scholars before them, the three recipients this year are involved in their schools and communities and plan to do the same at Wichita State University.

The Promise Bridge is seen as a connection between Wichita State University’s Innovation Campus and the main campus.

GoCreate, a Koch Collaborative, is strengthening that connection with its role in building the 300-foot-long pedestrian bridge that will span over a water feature south of the future Wayne and Kay Woolsey Hall. Woolsey Hall is the future home of the W. Frank Barton School of Business.