Winter 2017-18
TODAY
SAB
K-State Student Alumni Board alumni newsletter
Wildcat Welcome Day
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Ambassadors
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Last Look with the 2017 Student Ambassadors By Paige Engle fter meeting each other in high school while attending a YoungLife camp and reconnecting once we were both at K-State, being selected to serve together was so much fun for us! Both of us felt extremely blessed to have the opportunity to represent K-State in such a unique role. One of our most memorable alumni interactions for me ironically occurred in Lawrence. During my freshman year, I (Paige) was a part of Quest Freshman Honorary and was mentored by a senior named Allison Harwood. She instilled so much confidence in me that year and was always pushing me to challenge myself in new ways. At the Lawrence event, I
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happened to sit down at a table with Allison’s parents and brother! I had a blast spending the evening with them. It was cool being able to share with her family that without Allison’s mentorship, I more than likely would have never ran for Ambassador, or been at the event with them that night. We all can agree that there’s no better feeling than watching a prospective student fall in love with K-State. The most rewarding part of our job was undoubtedly interacting with the high school students. This year, we’ve run into several students on campus that we spoke with at recruiting events during our term. It’s so cool to think that we could have
been a reason someone chose to attend K-State! Looking ahead, we’re so excited to see Darrell and Michelle thrive during their term. They are two bright, full-oflife, engaging students that we trust to represent our university well!
Meet Our New Ambassadors: Michelle Anderson & Darrell Reese Jr. Name: Michelle Anderson Major: accounting and finance; leadership studies minor Year: sophomore Hometown: Topeka, Kansas “I am so honored to get to represent K-State with Darrell, and I’m excited to connect with Wildcats from all across the state. I can’t wait to swap K-State stories and make lots of memories!” Name: Darrell Reese Jr. Major: mechanical engineering Year: junior Hometown: Frisco, Texas “I decided to run for Student Ambassador because I saw it as a huge opportunity to represent K-State and to tell many students and alumni about the joy, passion and love that I have for being a student at K-State.” [2]
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PRESIDENT’S CORNER [ FROM THE PRESIDENT ] By Matthew Grosdidier, president
Another semester in the books! I can’t believe it is already February, and we are well underway in planning for our various events in the spring. It has been a great year so far and there are awesome things coming up in the next few months for SAB! Last August, four SAB members travelled to Columbus, Ohio, for the national CASE ASAP conference. We had an outstanding time meeting students from across the country and sharing ideas about our different groups. I would like to thank Jorge
Mendoza ’10, one of last year’s Distinguished Young Alumni recipients, for showing us around The Ohio State University while we were there. Jorge is currently working as a scholars programs manager at the university and it was wonderful to reconnect after meeting him last February for DYA. In the fall semester SAB had the opportunity to partner with the Asian American Student Union (AASU). We had a “Wildcats Pho-Ever” event where SAB and AASU members served Pho to K-State students. It was a blast working together and this program will definitely happen again in the future! We also had our second BrandingU, a workshop focused on helping students better prepare for interviews, applications and scholarships. We partnered with the Career Center and
Jim Hohenberry, director of Nationally Competitive Scholarships, to improve the content of the event. We received positive feedback from the addition of a mock interview breakout session and are looking forward to improving again next year! February and March always bring a busy time for SAB, and this year is certainly no different. We are in the process of selecting our next SAB class, hosting Just for Juniors events, having a great time at the Wabash CanonBall, and honoring two new DYA recipients. This year we are recognizing Megan McCall ’08, ’11 and Bryce Huschka ’07 for the outstanding work they do in representing our university. Needless to say, it is an eventful time and we are excited to jump into our spring programs!
SAB & KSUnite
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tudent Alumni Board prides itself on being some of the best and the brightest leaders across this great campus. As such, we think that it is important to acknowledge and address controversy and conflict when it occurs on our campus. In light of recent events and the KSUnite rally, we have had discussions and created plans to address and rectify the campus climate to the best of our abilities. We are working on programs and workshops to convert these difficult conversations into tangible and productive reactions. Know that we, as a group of student leaders, stand for diversity and inclusion throughout our campus and believe that it is paramount to our K-State Family.
S(ABroad) Two of our active SAB members will not be joining us for this semester, but for an incredible reason! Junior Tori Thomas is spending the semester continuing her biological systems engineering studies in Prague, Czech Republic. Sophomore Kelly Wilkerson is spending the semester in Budapest, Hungary, continuing to pursue her degree in communications studies and disorders. While we miss them dearly at our membership meetings, we are so proud of these young women for going out and seeing the world!
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