Whether it\u2019s for the holidays or a class reunion \u2013 coming home is such a special time to rekindle relationships, share joyful (and sometimes mischievous) memories, and take time to reflect on our growth. A university, like a family, provides roots for that growth. And like a family, there is often a lot of planning, preparation and heart that accompanies traditional coming-home events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And so I begin this column\nexpressing my deep gratitude to everyone who will work hard throughout this\nweekend to create a wonderful homecoming celebration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Homecoming also provides us\nwith an extra special opportunity to recognize our alumni through our awards\nprograms. Celebrating their success is especially important. In fact, if you\npay special attention to our mission, our work with our students is not really\nmeasured by their success while they are students. Our mission is about\ndeveloping engaged global citizen leaders. Thus the true measure of our success\nis how our alumni live their lives after they graduate; how they serve their\nprofessions, their communities, and our world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I really value how our\nawards align with that mission. The Alumni Achievement Award, established in\n1959, honors graduates of the university for outstanding accomplishments\nthrough career and profession, meritorious service in community betterment,\nphilanthropic activities, and educational achievements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Past recipients of this\naward include George F. Sternberg, a 1933 graduate whose first paleontological\ndiscovery was of a nearly complete plesiosaur at the age of 9. He became a\nworld-renowned paleontologist and is credited with discovering the famous\nFish-Within-A-Fish fossil. John C. Thorns Jr., a 1950 graduate, is also a past\nrecipient. In addition to serving as a faculty member and Art and Design\nDepartment chair, he also founded the Hays Arts Council and was a leading force\nin establishing the on-campus art gallery now named the Moss-Thorns Gallery of\nArt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oh!, and by the way: Don\u2019t\nmiss the ribbon cutting for our beautiful Art and Design Building at 9 a.m.\ntomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Distinguished Service\nAward, established in 1974, recognizes individuals, alumni or friends of the\nuniversity, who have demonstrated a continuing concern for humanity on a\nuniversal, national, state or community level; who support spiritual, cultural\nand educational objectives; and who endorse and exemplify the highest standards\nof character and personal attributes. This truly mission-centered award has\ncelebrated the compassion of people like Earl and Winona Field (Earl was a 1937\ngraduate) and Steve Shields, president and CEO of Action Pact Development and\nan emeritus member of the FHSU Foundation Board of Directors, who is\nrelentlessly focused on positively impacting the quality of life and healthcare\nfor senior citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Young Alumni Award,\nestablished in 1977, recognizes the outstanding achievement and recent accomplishments\nof 10-15-year graduates. The award is based on professional and educational\nachievement, community activities, honors and awards received and other\nnoteworthy items of merit since graduation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last year\u2019s recipient,\nJennifer Lapka (a 2003 graduate) really touched my heart, and we have remained\nin contact throughout the year. Jennifer is the founder of Rightfully Sewn, a\ncharitable organization with two special purposes. One is to provide seamstress\ntraining for at-risk women so they can enter, and thrive in, the fashion\nindustry. The second is to re-establish Kansas City as an \u201cepicenter of garment\nmanufacturing\u201d and then market Kansas City fashion designers in the production\nof \u201caffordable, high-quality, American-produced garments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am so eager to meet this\nyear\u2019s award recipients and hear the amazing stories of how they delivered big\non our mission. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The four recipients of this\nyear\u2019s Alumni Achievement Award are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Buck Arnhold \u201974, \u201976, \u201980, a retired\nartist living in Olathe whose commercial work has included art for Boulevard\nBrewing Co. and the Kansas City Chiefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Kevin Faulkner \u201983, \u201983, a retired investor\nrelations officer who lives in Pebble Beach, Calif.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Dr. Leigh (Bunn) Goodson \u201994, president of\nTulsa Community College in Tulsa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Michael R. Miller \u201985, \u201986, \u201993, Kansas City, who is a retired\nspecial agent with the FBI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two recipients of this\nyear\u2019s Young Alumni Award are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Dr. Cole Engel \u201907, \u201907, \u201909, Hays, an\nassistant professor of accounting at FHSU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Joshua W. Snider \u201905, an attorney and the\nmanaging shareholder for Gordon Davis Johnson & Shane P.C. in El Paso,\nTexas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. Christie (Patterson)\nBrungardt \u201901, and Dr. Curt Brungardt\n\u201981, \u201984, Council Grove, both emeritus professors of leadership studies at FHSU,\nwill receive the Distinguished Service Award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their accomplishments and\ngenerosity are truly inspiring, their impact profound. The stories of their\ncontributions, in large part rooted in the strong relationships and learning\ndeveloped at The Fort, will be recounted and celebrated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And I, like all of the presidents before me, will take great pride in how generations of faculty and staff have facilitated the fulfillment of our mission, and in doing so, made this world a better place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tisa Mason is president of Fort Hays State University.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Whether it\u2019s for the holidays or a class reunion \u2013 coming home is such a special time to rekindle relationships, share joyful (and sometimes mischievous)… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Mason-Tisa-040A6662.jpg?fit=750%2C1050","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49123"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49124,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49123\/revisions\/49124"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}