I'm A Hornet from President Shonrock
April 8, 2014
1. The 61st Annual Kansas Teacher Award banquet recognized seven (7) new Kansas Master Teachers including: Bonnie Austin of Dodge City, John Bode of Lawrence, Lori Gunzelman of Andover, Signe Truelove of Emporia, Carla Varner of El Dorado, Kathleen Wilhite of Olathe, and Maria Worthington of Blue Valley; THANKS for making a difference in the lives of so many students!
2. How would you like to receive a scholarship that covers in-state tuition/fees, double room occupancy, full meal plan, and average cost of textbooks for a year (Endly Scholars)? Next year’s The Virginia Endly Memorial Scholarship recipients include: new student Jordan Cook from Abilene, new student Tara Lierz from Holton, and returning student Peyton Weiss (ESU track & field); CONGRATS!
3. The MIAA Hall of Fame committee has selected the 2014 Hall of Fame Class. Our congratulations to Heather Leverington – Emporia State/ Track and Field (1997-2002). The Hall of Fame Ceremony will take place on Thursday night, June 5 in Kansas City.
4. At this year’s Hornet Telethon on Monday, March 24, 24 ESU Community members, retired faculty and guests, and ESU faculty and staff called nearly 400 new Hornets to welcome them to Emporia and to Emporia State as they prepare to start at ESU in August, 2014.
5. Judy Conway, Marketing and Media Relations, is being featured in an article shared with the American Red Cross Community. Judy is an active volunteer in many areas, and joined the volunteer team at the Red Cross in September 2013.
6. The Emporia Area Chamber of Commerce is collecting orders for handcrafted and hand painted Corky Bobble Heads…the first in a limited series of Bobble Heads!
7. Over a four year period from 2009-2013, Emporia State Women’s Basketball was ranked the most cost efficient athletic program in the MIAA; third when on field performance, cost efficiency, and graduation rates were considered; and fourth in on the field performance. The ranking comes from the Cost of College Sports annual review of superlative performing institutions, which recognized 54 teams from 47 institutions who are the most efficient and achieve the highest performance.
8. Congratulations to Dr. John Barnett, ESU Political Science faculty member, who was granted a Fulbright Scholarship to travel to Vietnam! Dr. Barnett will use the scholarship on his sabbatical in spring 2015.
9. The Emporia State men are slated for sixth and the women seventh in the MIAA Outdoor Track & Field Preseason Coaches Polls released Thursday, March 27. These are the same spots the two Hornet teams placed at the Indoor Championships.
10. Jones Field at Welch Stadium on the campus of Emporia State University will be the site for the 2016 Kansas Shrine Bowl that features 68 of the top high school senior football players in the state of Kansas.
11. Political Science majors continue being active. The Pre-Law and Public Affairs clubs both will journey to KU for visits with the respective programs in mid-April. Oscar Lara presently attends Paraguay’s National University for the semester; he is reporting back to us inspiring activities. Alexis Gatson, with Michael Smith, this summer will pursue a joint research venture on the history of electoral law that might be accepted for monograph publication.
12. Football will host a postgame tailgate April 19th at the Sauder Alumni Center, following the 2014 Hornet Spring game. Those in attendance will be boosters, alumni, the Hornet Football Staff, the Hornet Seniors, and some of our 2014 Recruiting Class.
13. Emporia State is entering its 151st year with a new address. Beginning Tuesday, April 1, the mailing address for the university is 1 Kellogg Circle, Emporia, Kan., 66801-5415 to recognize ESU’s first president and 150th-year celebration.
14. ESU’s new visual identity word mark will begin appearing on university stationery and business cards immediately along with the new campus address. For most areas of campus, the word mark is combined with the I’m A Hornet brand that was launched in 2013 in student recruitment materials.
15. The Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships hosted the annual meeting of the Regent and Washburn financial aid offices on Tuesday, April 2, 2014. The meeting provides a valuable opportunity to share strategies for implementation of any new federal and state regulation.
16. On Tuesday, April 1st, members of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee hosted over 200 senior citizens at the Hootin’ Hornet Hoedown. This is a free event for seniors in the Lyon County area to attend; a time to dance to live music and have an opportunity to interact with ESU student-athletes. “The Emporia senior citizens always show us support on and off the field, so this is our way to show our gratitude and to give back to the community,” said ESU track athlete and SAAC president Nikki Wetstein.
17. Congratulations to two of our graduate students, who, between themselves, have completed a Boylan Award Sweep. Brianna Henshaw has won one of the two annual Boylan Scholar Awards. Shiree Bent, who completed her degree last December, has won the Boylan Outstanding Master’s Thesis Award for her thesis, “Echoed Identities: Charlotte Delbo’s and Primo Levi’s Perception of Self in Their Concentration Camp Autobiographies,” directed by Roxane Riegler.
18. Emporia State’s Dr. Peggy Lane was awarded the Southwest Decision Sciences Institute (SWDSI) Outstanding Educator Award for 2014, on March 12, in Dallas. Currently, Lane serves as the executive director of the School of Business at Emporia State University Kansas City.
19. The Political Science department visited administrators and faculty of Penn Valley community college of Kansas City on March 6. Penn Valley plans to send student visitors to ESU for possible recruitment during the summer months. The Political Science Faculty Newsletter will be sent to over 200 alumni and to our community college contacts this week.
20. 725 miles later, Michael Shonrock and Jim Williams, Vice President for Student Affairs completed their tour of Western Kansas meeting with the community college presidents of Garden City, Seward County, Dodge City, Pratt, and Barton County exploring new ways to build partnerships with Emporia State.
21. The 61st Annual Kansas Teacher Award banquet recognized seven (7) new Kansas Master Teachers including: Bonnie Austin of Dodge City, John Bode of Lawrence, Lori Gunzelman of Andover, Signe Truelove of Emporia, Carla Varner of El Dorado, Kathleen Wilhite of Olathe, and Maria Worthington of Blue Valley; THANKS for making a difference in the lives of so many students!
22. Ottawa sponsors The First Friday Forum; Tyler Curtis, Executive Director of Alumni Relations and Michael Shonrock were guests of the recent community forum, invited by ESU Alum City Manager Richard Nienstedt; Michael talked about the WHY related to public higher education and the innovative partnership with ESU and the Kansas Leadership Center (KLC).
23. We received a nice "shout-out" and huge THANKS by Marc Jones (the top Ellucian VP) at the Executive Forum (~400 CIO’s of Ellucian colleges/universities). Emporia State University’s logo appeared on a slide about eTranscript Services offered through National Student Clearinghouse, etc. in their presentation and Marc mentioned that Emporia State had partnered with them in bringing this to a final product.
24. Kristie Ogilvie, Dean of the School of Business, and the ESU Alumni Association teamed to visit alumni and friends at several Kansas City-based businesses: Sprint, Concert Wealth Management, DST, and Analytics International.
25. The Emporia State University Ambassador organization hosted the 2014 CASE/ASAP District VI conference at Emporia State University. Ten schools participated in the weekend conference to share best practices and network.
26. Three student teams have made the cut as finalists in 3D Emporia, a venture idea competition that stands for Dream It- Design It- Develop It. Team members will present their final pitches during a gala on April 11. The teams and their ideas are:
*Biker, a business pitch to bring bike rental kiosks to Emporia State University. Emporia State students Soojin Bae, Jeffery Miller and Preston Mossman are involved.
*Rock Creek Ostrich Ranch, a ranching proposal trying to balance the growing demand for alternative red meat with good stewardship of natural resources. ESU students Nakita Elwood and Teri Whitson spearheaded that project.
*Williams Web Development, a web-based service to provide software managing low-cost scheduling and booking needs for education and corporations. Flint Hills Technical College student Joshua Williams pitched that idea.
27. The newest versions of the suggested Strategic Plan title, vision, mission, values, and goals were drafted and will be presented at the President’s Strategic Planning Council meeting on Monday, April 14.
28. On April 7, Gould Evans, consultant to the Emporia State Campus Master Plan, presented an initial draft of their final master plan recommendations to the ESU campus community. The presentation generated considerable interest and comment. They are receiving final input from the university community this week. It will be presented to KBOR at the May meeting.
29. The 2013 Service Awards ceremony was held on April 7. Congratulations to Laurie Pitman, Classified Employee of the Year, and Connie Corcoran, Unclassified Employee of the Year. Those faculty and staff recognized at the awards ceremony had a combined 760 years of service!
30. The Social Media Policy Workgroup was charged by the Kansas Board of Regents to “Review the Board’s policy on improper use of social media.” The Workgroup presented recommended revisions of the social media policy to the Board’s Governance Committee on April 8.
