By RORY MOORE
Tiger Media Network
Fort Hays State University’s Office of Student Engagement hosted a Graduation Celebration in the Fischli-Willis Center for Student Success on Thursday. The event featured a craft station where students could decorate caps and mugs for graduation and customize picture frames to mark their connection to friends and campus life.
Student Engagement hosts the Graduation Celebration in the Fischli-Willis Center for Student Success. 
Students decorate caps, mugs and picture frames with encouraging messages for graduates. 
Cody Pfaff and Kaslin Wade put on decorations. 
Wade glues decorations onto a frame. 
Online students come by to join on the action. 
Pfaff decorated his frame to recognize two graduating members of his fraternity and his friends. 
Sarah Kaiser, who is graduating this weekend, decorated her cap to honor his family for supporting through her academics and fill-time job. 
A picture frame covered in beeds, stars, flowers and other decorative items. 
An encouraging message on a cap.
This marked the second time Student Engagement organized the occasion.
“It’s for graduates to come and take what they want,” Student Engagement Assistant Director Ali Colwell said. “Their friends can also come and take whatever [they want]. It’s really for anyone, but it’s directed towards graduates.”
Cody Pfaff, who will graduate next year, decorated his items to pass the time while recognizing others.
“I did this for fun,” he said. “The frame I decorated for me and FHSU Biology. I put Rush Siegp’s logo on a mug as well as on my frame.”
Pfaff is a member of the Kansas Zeta chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon. Two members, Zachary Schnaker and Ryan Benfer, are graduating, but Pfaff wanted to recognize all its members with his decorations.
“I would say this is more for the fraternity as a whole,” he said. “I wanted to honor how much of an impact both it and my brothers have had on me.”
The celebration extended beyond graduating students who attended in-person classes, as online students came by to decorate their caps to recognize each other and their families. One such student was Social Work major Sarah Kaiser.
“I have a soccer ball that one of my therapy clients made me [on my cap],” she said. “She’s 10 years old, and I told her she could decorate my cap. Then, I put on a thank you note to my husband and son.”
Kaiser’s note was a way for her to give back to her family for supporting her through academics.
“I could not have completed my Master’s degree without them,” she said. “It showcases all the hard work I’ve put in over the last year, being a full-time mom, wife, and student working 40 hours a week. This incorporates all that and the things that got me through school.”
FHSU will host its spring commencement ceremonies tomorrow and Saturday.