Mariya Vaughan
For our 10th Anniversary we wanted to take the opportunity not only to celebrate what the K-State First program has accomplished during the past decade, but to highlight some of our premier engagement opportunities that happen every year, to show gratitude to all of our donors, faculty, staff, students and campus and community partners, and to look towards the future and provide ways for students to continue to be able to access our high impact programs through our fundraising efforts.
Our idea was to focus on #10for10 throughout the year – we started by celebrating 10 people who have been integral to our success as a program, planned 10 major events, and wanted to fundraise for 10 need-based scholarships for students enrolling in University Experience first-year seminars.
We started off the year with a lot of positive forward momentum! Our program was highlighted in the Winter 2020 issue of Good for K-State, we announced a $60,000 endowed scholarship to allow more students access to CAT Communities, our 10th Anniversary Celebration Kick-Off event allowed us the opportunity to see all of the ways we are supported by and connected to our university and local community, we celebrated the amazing work being done by students and faculty/staff at our awards banquet, and several of the teachers that are a part of our program shared their experiences with failure and resiliency at this year’s Spotlight K-State. We were also a part of the Spring 2020 K-Stater Magazine issue, which focused on our community building efforts.
Then, as with all things this year, we had to switch gears and respond to our new normal during the COVID-19 pandemic. After that, our 10th Anniversary events and fundraising plans looked a bit different during the fall semester. We were inspired by how many K-Staters found ways to support, celebrate, serve, and care for our students, our colleagues, and our broader community. We took heart, and continued our work to increase access to our high impact programs and to meet the needs of our students and friends during the unprecedented upheaval.
While our 10th Anniversary events went virtual, they were still exciting opportunities for engagement and learning! One of the great benefits this year is that many were able to join in from anywhere in the world. A team of committed and creative people helped to make New Student Convocation a success; over 1500 people watched virtually and we formally welcomed first-year students to the university and campus community. Our premier program and campus-wide event, the K-State First Book Author Lecture with William Kamkwamba was available online, and students were able to watch together virtually with classmates and respond in real-time to what they were learning. And for our final event this semester, our team was able to share some of the ways we find joy in working together and how we leverage important unwritten rules and expectations in our #SquadGoals presentation as part of the Staley School of Leadership Studies What Matters to Me and Why series.
2020 and our 10th Anniversary went in a different direction than we expected, but
through the resiliency of our instructors, campus partners, and students, we found new ways to define success together. We offered 40 CAT Communities and 52 First-Year Seminar courses, which enrolled 594 and 978 students respectively. Our GPS program provided virtual mentorship opportunities for first-year and first-generation students. We created new awards to highlight the hard work of our Learning Assistants. We renamed our common book program to K-State First Book and distributed over 3600 copies of this year’s book. We provided virtual events available to people all over the world. And finally, we earned $120,000 for student scholarships, two of which are now endowed and available to students indefinitely.
Our team wants to thank you for the opportunity to reflect on the past by celebrating our successes, to meet the needs of the present through collaborations across K-State, and to look towards the future as we continue our work to provide high impact first-year programming and find ways to make sure students have access to them for years to come.
Thank you for your support of K-State First through our first decade and into the next! If you would like to donate to our program and support student scholarships and student success initiatives, you can do so here.