Category: Featured Stories

Wichita State University is home to nearly 5,000 first-generation students, individuals whose caregivers weren’t able to complete a college degree and who lack the firsthand experience to tackle college life. To help with their transition, Wichita State offers a number of resources to first-gen students to support them during their time in college, including F1RST GEN SHOCKERS.

Hear from Bobby Berry, assistant dean for the College of Applied Studies and a current employee at Wichita State who went to college as a first-gen student, about the first-gen experience.

Wichita State University is hosting the annual Expanding Your Horizons Workshop, a one-day event from 8 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28 that introduces middle school girls to a variety of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) areas.

Attendees will meet STEM role models, participate in hands-on activities and learn more about careers in those fields. The keynote speaker is Clarice Phelps, an American nuclear chemist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She is recognized as the first African American woman to be involved with the discovery of a chemical element.

Registration is $15 and includes lunch, a T-shirt and a WSU bag.

Since it’s baseball, call it that home run moment — the reaction you see when something finally clicks for a young student.

“They get really excited when they get an answer correct, because they know that they’re growing,” said Natalee Delgado, a freshman marketing major and Rudd Scholar at Wichita State University. “They’ll see that they got it correct and their little mouths just drop, and they get this big smile.”

That’s an experience 30 of Wichita State’s Rudd Scholars get often as they work with youngsters in the Bright Lights Educational Enrichment Program at the Leslie Rudd Learning Center at League 42’s McAdams Park baseball complex. Each afternoon, several of them work on math skills with students in fifth through eighth grade and literacy with students in kindergarten through fifth grade.

The art of looking convincing in a sword fight or brawl is crucial to stage and screen. Punches don’t hit flesh and knives lay flat against the victim.

The audience must believe it is real and dangerous.

“When I tell them I can kill the six inches around them, they definitely give me some interesting looks,” said Emily Redfield, a Wichita State University theater performance major.

In July, WSU seniors Redfield and Cat Kee attended the National Stage Combat Workshop in Ruston, Louisiana. The three-week course offered instruction, testing and certification with weapons such as swords, shields, firearms, rapiers, daggers and quarterstaffs.

The Association of University Research Parks (AURP) has awarded Wichita State’s Innovation Campus with the 2023 Emerging Research Park Award at its annual international conference held this week.

Each year AURP recognizes a research park or innovation district that, within 10 years, has created an exceptional ecosystem which brings technology from inception to market, creates high-paying jobs, and contributes to the economic health of its region.

In 2012, WSU had a bold vision of what the Innovation Campus could be. And now — as the Innovation Campus nears its 10th anniversary — an underutilized area of campus has been transformed into 120 acres of state-of-the-art research facilities, collaborative partnerships and educational opportunities with more than 50 partner businesses to date.

Wichita State University and Knowmadics are entering into a new collaboration aimed at enhancing the security, and resiliency of satellite constellations and satellite-based communications. The endeavor is intended to strengthen the security of data collection and transfer among space-based Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

The work will be performed through Wichita State’s National Institute for Research and Digital Transformation (NIRDT), led by Pierre Harter, the associate vice president of research operations for WSU Industry and Defense Programs. Dr. Ross Gruetzemacher, WSU assistant professor of business analytics, will serve as the technical lead. His areas of expertise include data science and artificial intelligence (AI).

The Wichita State University Math Circle pairs pre-college students with mathematics professionals from WSU to understand and work with interesting problems and topics in math at weekly workshops.

Students gain insight into topics that go beyond what they work with in their classrooms, ranging from the history of math in ancient cultures to the math hidden around every corner of modern life. Session topics and content are geared toward middle school students, but all K-12 students are welcome to attend.

Topics for each session are announced the week of on WSU Math Circle’s Facebook page.

Cessna Stadium opened in 1969 as a place meant to propel Wichita State football into a new era.

A crowd of 28,245 watched the Shockers defeat Utah State 17-7 on Sept. 13 of that year. The stadium featured stands that expanded the capacity to 31,500 from 12,500. A year-long fund-raising effort for $1.5 million resulted in “lush, green synthetic grass” known as Poly-Turf, a two-level press box with private boxes, covered seating for the 220 Turf Club members and a new running track.

“It was so cool – I was from back East and the stadiums held maybe 3-4,000 people,” said Ed Plopa, a freshman defensive back in 1969. “When we played Utah State, that place was going nuts.”

This Monday, as part of the Memorial ’70 ceremony, football players, friends and families from those years received a piece of Cessna Stadium seating.

Wichita State University has announced the creation of the WSU Retirees Association (WSURA), aimed at providing new paths for Shocker faculty and staff retirees to continue active engagement with the university. The new association adds to the existing array of perks available to retirees. 

The association was announced Oct. 4 at Wichita State’s annual Retirees Breakfast.  

Anyone who is officially retired from WSU is automatically a member of the association. The association is organized and led by retirees and will provide new opportunities for members to connect not only with other retirees but also with the wider WSU community. This association contributes to WSU’s strength as the only Kansas member of the Age-Friendly University Global Network and as an age-inclusive campus.  

The merger of a nonprofit project and local history is a perfect fit for Wichita State University junior Kian Williams. 

“History runs in my family,” Williams said. “I was immediately hooked.” 

Wichita State’s Public Policy and Management Center is working with the Kansas Aviation Museum on strategic planning. Williams, a junior majoring in political science and international studies, is an undergraduate student research assistant assisting PPMC program manager Kate Young. 

The research and writing Williams does to help the museum chart its future connects with the background that shaped a love for history. Williams, who uses they/them pronouns, volunteered at the Reno County Museum to help Ceeley Williams, their mother, who worked as the museum’s archivist.