Category: Kudos

Recently, four women made history to become Wichita State’s first all-female crew to officiate a WSU intramural Flag Football game. The officiates included the following students:

• Kimberly Stuercke, referee
•  Itzel Perez, line judge
• Jessie Mooney, field judge
• Elizabeth Martinez, back judge

To break the record, the referees, as well as every other intramural official, learned and applied life skills such as quick decision-making, conflict management, communication and teamwork.

Dr. Michael Rogers, human performance studies and research director Center for Physical Activity and Aging, was recently consulted by Consumer Reports for his expertise on treadmills, ellipticals, exercise bikes, rowing machines or stair climbers. The article focused on the type of equipment to select when trying to achieve fitness goals.

Wichita State University’s Esports Rocket League team traveled Sunday, Sept. 11, to Kansas City to compete at the Kansas Speedway Rocket League tournament. The event was part of a 9/11 remembrance celebration at the NASCAR Hollywood Casino 400 race. 

The Esports tournament was part of a major motorsports event Sunday. The Hollywood Casino 400 is part of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

The Rocket League tournament also featured two teams from Kansas State University and one from Missouri State University. WSU defeated both K-State teams, losing twice to Missouri State during the final match in overtime. Missouri State is known to have a strong Rocket League program, winning a national title in 2021. 

Congrats to Dr. Sarah Jolley and Vanessa Lohf, Wichita State’s Community Engagement Institute (CEI,) for their project being recently highlighted by the United Nations Foundation as part of its American Leadership on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) series.

The United Nations Foundation was formed to support the United Nations and serve as a strategic partner and resource for the United Nations in solving global problems.

In the first year of this project, Jolley and Lohf facilitated a virtual Learning Collaborative with the five community teams that involved presentations from community foundations in the United States, Canada, England and Sicily. For the second year of the project, CEI will bring the communities together four times as part of a Community of Practice to facilitate progress on implementation plans developed by each Foundation.

CEI is also documenting learnings from the process to develop a white paper on the results of the pilot project that will be shared with other community foundations in the United States and around the world.

John Colclazier — Wichita State University Environmental Finance Center (EFC) program manager and recent graduate of the Hugo Walls School’s Master of Public Administration — traveled to Nome, Alaska, to lead a workshop on water utility management in late August. Colclazier also led a workshop in Anchorage for water utility operators while in Alaska.

The EFC is a recognized leader in asset management for water utilities and leads workshops on this and other topics nationwide. The workshop was funded through a grant to EFC from the Environmental Protection Agency to have the EFC provide technical assistance to small water and wastewater systems throughout the country.

The WSU Environmental Finance Center (EFC) will have a prominent presence at the 13th annual Kansas Water Environment Association/Ks Section AWWA joint conference in Topeka, Kansas, Aug. 30-Sept. 1.

Five members of the EFC staff, including center director Tonya Bronleewe, will give presentations on drinking water and wastewater topics affecting cities, states and the nation. Other EFC staff members giving presentations include Brian Bohnsack, Michelle Dehaven, Jeff Severin and Baylee Vieyra.

The conference will also host 600 other drinking water and wastewater professionals. Presentations will include discussions on community engagement, workforce recruitment and retention, lead testing of drinking water and a pilot test of an asset management program for water utilities.

For more information, please contact Tonya Bronleewe, EFC Director, at tonya.bronleewe@wichita.edu.

Dr. Wei Wei, College of Engineering mechanical engineering assistant professor, has been one of 21 designated as a Keen Engineering Unleashed Fellow for 2022. The designation as an Engineering Unleashed Fellow recognizes leadership in undergraduate engineering education.

To get the designation, Wei and the other faculty members participated in the Engineering Unleashed Faculty Development National Workshop Program, creating resources that will help them and intercollegiate colleagues advance the community’s mission to integrate entrepreneurial mindset into practices that benefit their students, their institutions and society.

The book “Mexican Americans in Wichita’s North End” was recognized as the 2022 Best History Book at the International Latino Book Awards Aug. 20 which took place in Los Angeles The book documents the history of the Mexican American community in the Wichitan neighborhood known as the North End or El Pueblo.

The book was authored by Wichita State professors Dr. Jay Price, Department of History professor and chair, and Dr. Enrique Navarro, Latin American and LatinX Studies certificate coordinator and associate professor of Spanish, and Anita Mendoza, WSU alumna and community leader.

Alicia Sanchez—Office of Diversity and Inclusion assistant dean of students and director—was recognized as one of the 2022 Diversity and Inclusion Award recipients by the Wichita Business Journal Aug. 18.

The award honors Wichitans who work hard at making their companies, and the city’s business community, more diverse. The two received awards at the annual banquet, hosted at the Hyatt Regency.