- Congratulations to students preparing for commencement Saturday, May 16. Undergraduate exercises will begin at 9:30 a.m. in White Auditorium. Graduate ceremonies will be at 2 p.m. in Albert Taylor Hall on our campus. We will welcome Regent Joe Bain for both ceremonies, and Roe R Cross Distinguished Professor from the School of Business Dr. Don Miller will give the address for undergraduates. For more: www.emporia.edu/commencement
- Top activity for Emporia State University police officers during April included helping 89 students get into buildings or rooms after hours, responding to 37 vehicle lockouts and assisting the Emporia Police Department 18 times.
- Emporia State had three event champions, six provisional qualifiers and an automatic qualifying mark on Sunday at the MIAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in St. Charles, Missouri. Kyle Pfizenmaier’s javelin throw of 221-01 was an automatic qualifier and won the event. Samuel Saidi won the men’s high jump title; Andrew Etheridge ran a provisional qualifying time to win his first MIAA championship in the 110m hurdles. (He won a national championship in the event his freshman year). Duke Tibbs was a provisional qualifier with his second-place finish in the 400m finals. Tre Dickerson was a provisional qualifier in the men’s triple jump. For the women, Shelby Buster was the lone provisional qualifier for the hammer. The final meet of the season is the Sam Williams Qualifier on Saturday on Zola Witten Track and Welch Stadium. For more: http://bit.ly/1I8wLBx
- The baseball team is going to Kansas City on Thursday for the first round of the double-elimination MIAA Tournament. They will play Central Missouri at Community America Ballpark. The team advanced to the tournament with a win over Lindenwood University in the third game of their MIAA Opening Round Series. For more: http://bit.ly/1zsHBRh
- Both the Master of Accountancy and the Master of Business Administration online degrees at Emporia State University earned special recognition based on the value and educational experience they provide to students. Affordable Colleges Online, listed Emporia State at No. 19 on its list of the most affordable online Master of Business Administration degrees in 2015 — a significant jump from last year’s No. 42 spot. Top Accounting Degrees ranked Emporia State’s MAc degree as one of the Top 20 Master of Accounting Online Degree Programs of 2015. For more: http://bit.ly/1GKIMsx
- Congratulations to our softball players who continue to pick up honors. Centerfielder Stephanie Goodwin was named conference Player of the Year and shortstop Taylor Zordel was the Defensive Player of the Year to headline seven Emporia State softball players that earned All-MIAA honors from the league coaches. Dani Sprinkle was named first-team All-MIAA at utility/non-pitcher. Jessica Gragg was named second-team All-MIAA at third base. Three Hornets were named honorable mention All-MIAA. Jacie Stephens at catcher, Caitlyn VanVleck in the outfield and Kaitlyn Caston as a utility/pitcher. For more: http://bit.ly/1zsKzp1
- Connie Schrock, professor in Department of Mathematics and Economics, was busy during the largest Leadership in Mathematics Education NCSM conference in Boston, which featured more than 350 sessions over three days for more than 2,000 participants. Connie served as program chair for the event, and was a co-presenter for two sessions.
- Seven students — Stephanie Albert, Mackenzie Blitz, Ethan Francis, Montana Garrison, T.J. Huetenmueller, Elliot McNelly and Brian Mosier — attended the Kappa Mu Epsilon Biennial Convention at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, with mathematics and economics faculty members Brian Hollenbeck, professor, and Joe Yanik, chair and professor.
- The ESU Ambassadors organized Senior Week 2015, which included partnering with Career Services to produce programming for seniors, and they also delivered nearly 100 lunches to seniors currently student teaching. Over 200 seniors participated in the first ever Grad Blast, which featured numerous prizes and food from Chipotle.
- Congratulations to all the nominees at this year’s Newberg Outstanding Senior Awards Banquet, Nakita Elwood was named Outstanding Senior, and Abigail Black was named the Distinguished Senior. Nakita is a sociology major from Madison, Kansas, and Abigail is a math education major from Emporia. These awards were made possible through the generosity of Dwight and Ida Curry Newberg.
- Tennis honors — Emporia State players earned the Sportsmanship Award on both the men's and women's sides. Tawni Griffey shared the women's award while Andrew Davids was one of three men to win the award. Andrew teamed with Gerard Pont to earn honorable mention honors at #1 doubles while Patrick Cameron and Keenan Smith were named honorable mention at #2 doubles. Patrick was named honorable mention at #5 singles, and Payton Hays also earned honorable mention honors at #6 singles. Kaley Clark and Amy Fugit both earned honorable mention honors for the women. Clark was 11-8 on the year and 8-8 at #4 singles while Fugit went 14-6 for the season and was 11-5 at #6 singles. For more: http://bit.ly/1bWIkzl
- Twelve students were honored recently as the 2015 Shepherd Scholars. They are Benjamin Kerbs, biology; Tyler Huddleston, communication; Janet Weaver, psychology; and Chelsea Litfin, art, of Emporia; Peyton Wingert, mathematics, of Halstead; Brian Mosier, mathematics, of Kansas City; Olivia Henning, music education, of Newton; Isabella Khatri, modern language, and Madeline Malley, nursing, of Olathe; Derek Wilson, sociology, of Prairie Village; Abbey Davies, English, of Reading; and Jeana Johnson, mathematics, of Topeka. The endowment established by R. Hershel and Augusta Shepherd gives to junior students who have completed 60 credit hours and are high academic achievers. For more: http://bit.ly/1GVyzPw
- Congratulations to Casey Cagle who won the 2015 Emporia Entrepreneur Challenge. Casey, a student in the Start Your Own Business class at Flint Hills Technical College, created Prairie Earth Tours, a Kansas-based tourism company catering to international students and out-of-state tourists. Casey won $4,000. Second place and $2,000 went to Xiang Li, Emporia State MBA student, and Jiapeng Huang, ESU senior accounting major, for their Go Overseas business concept, which focuses on connecting U.S. students and Chinese educational organizations. Bryce Dakin and Tyson Johnson, Industrial Engineering Technology students at Flint Hills Technical College, won third place and $1,000 for Front Runner Outdoors/DC Systems Software, computer software targeted to the outdoor industry to track and sort trail camera pictures. For more: http://bit.ly/1E0wmvY
- A partnership between Emporia State and KanREN, our network and Internet services consortium, brings more speed to our Kansas City location. ESU’s Information Technology department oversaw the circuit upgrade that doubled in size while reducing the cost. The project significantly improves the digital environment for students at ESU-Kansas City and supports the growing infrastructure needs in the years to come.
