Evelyn\nIrigoyen-Aguirre, <\/a>Garden\nCity, is an organizational leadership major, currently employed through the\nStudent Engagement Office as a transition specialist working on FHSU\u2019s Care\nTeam, Diversity Events, and the Hispanic College Institute\u2019s amazing Tiger\nTeam. Evelyn is planning to attend graduate school at FHSU to begin her career\nin student affairs \u2013 and that makes me very happy!<\/p>\n\n\n\nAccording to Evelyn, the transition\nto remote learning has inspired a different perspective on the importance of\noffering different ways to learn. \u201cI admire and respect those who enjoy online\nlearning. I am thankful FHSU has been able to provide the best support and\nresources with the help of the Kelly Center.\u201d She continues, \u201cThere have been\nnumerous professors who have cared about me as a person. Everyone at FHSU is\nvery caring and helpful. I have had the opportunity to work with professors in\nteacher ed, geosciences, HESA and especially the Leadership Department. Whether\nI was working with them, traveling in study abroad, taking their courses or\nworking in community events, they are all able to value who I am and teach me\nto become a better leader.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kaytee Wisley, Wichita, is a\npolitical science major heading this fall to the University of Virginia for a\nmaster\u2019s degree in public policy. Kaytee has been very involved in student\nlife, including serving as the legislative affairs director for the Student\nGovernment Association and the Honors College. She is really thankful to be\nable to participate in both organizations virtually when classes transitioned\nto remote teaching and learning. I am excited for Kaytee\u2019s journey into public\nservice. I know she will put her talents, heart, and knowledge into making our\nworld better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kaytee described her transition to\nremote learning this way: \u201cI am currently in my political science capstone\ncourse and bioethics, and both have made the switch very well! I think the\ncourses are a bit different because we do have Zoom discussions, which isn\u2019t\nsomething I\u2019ve had in my past online courses. We still meet during the regular\nclass time, which has helped me maintain a regular schedule! I think the\ntransition is allowing us to be more innovative, especially student\norganizations.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kaytee also talked about the FSHU\ncommunity: \u201cI\u2019ve been really shocked at how well the community of Fort Hays is\nstill coming together while we aren\u2019t able to physically come together. I still\nfeel connected to campus and connected to my peers even though I am not seeing\nthem in person. It has been really beneficial to know that the support systems\nwe had before are still there, just in a slightly different form.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Holly Dethlefs, Ravenna, Neb., is\ncurrently student teaching and has accepted a position for the 2020-2021 school\nyear teaching sixth grade in Nebraska. She and her fianc\u00e9, who are getting\nmarried in October, have been together for more than six years and have four\n\u201cfur babies\u201d along with their livestock. Holly is very excited and optimistic\nabout her fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her transition to remote learning\nwas a bit different since she was in the middle of her student teaching.\nAccording to Holly, \u201cUntil March, I was in the fourth-grade classroom learning\nfrom two great mentor teachers. I miss my students so much. The COVID-19 crisis\nrequired us to transition to instruction through packets and through online\nlearning on their iPads. I have taken online classes before, but it was\ndefinitely different for fourth-graders to try to continue education online.\nWhile my student teaching experience is not turning out how I expected, this\nexperience has definitely taught me how to be flexible, adapt, and to continue\nto keep my students\u2019 education as the top priority.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kate Westerhaus, Junction City, is\nmajoring in biology and secondary education. She is currently completing her\n\u201cincredible student teaching experience\u201d at Hays High School and is excited to\nbegin her first year of teaching at Hays Middle School. It is always extra\nspecial when our alumni make a home in Ellis County!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Through taking online classes, Kate\nsaid, she has observed multiple ways of setting up online classes and found the\nmethods most effective for delivering content online. Her technology classes at\nFort Hays, specifically Instructional Technology with Dr. Rigler, have\nintroduced her to a wide array of learning platforms that she can utilize in her\nclassroom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kate says, \u201cThese experiences at\nFort Hays have tremendously helped me in my remote student teaching. I miss\nseeing all of my students in person every day, but I am so thankful that we\nhave so many ways to communicate digitally. This transition to remote learning\nhas stimulated my creativity and made me realize all of the things we commonly\ntake for granted. I think that in challenging times like these, we must remain\npositive and find the good in each day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well said, Kate. Indeed, we must all remain positive and find the good in each day. I am so pleased that our students, through the support of caring faculty, have learned lessons of resilience and how to thrive in the midst of challenges. Those talents will indeed make our 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":"I recently had an opportunity to talk with some of our graduating seniors to learn more about their experiences and reflections as they complete their… <\/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":[12323,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-life","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&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55604"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55605,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55604\/revisions\/55605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}