{"id":61087,"date":"2021-09-23T13:11:42","date_gmt":"2021-09-23T18:11:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=61087"},"modified":"2021-09-23T13:11:44","modified_gmt":"2021-09-23T18:11:44","slug":"fhsu-celebrates-business-college-students-donors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=61087","title":{"rendered":"FHSU celebrates business college students, donors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By UNIVERSITY RELATIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ethan Lang wants to start his own financial planning company in his hometown someday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nHays native is confident of reaching that goal sooner rather than later because\nof the quality education he is receiving from Fort Hays State University \u2013 and\nthe philanthropy of donors in the Hays region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lang\nwas one of more than 150 FHSU business majors \u2013 on campus and online \u2013 who were\nhonored at the annual awards ceremony for the Robbins College of Business and\nEntrepreneurship (RCOBE) earlier this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Including\ndepartment-level scholarships, the RCOBE awarded approximately 270 student\nscholarships exceeding $300,000. And that doesn\u2019t include the stipends the\nnumerous graduate assistants receive through their respective business\ndepartments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe\nvast majority of these funds, nearly every dollar, is provided solely by\ndonors,\u201d said Dr. Cole Engel, master of ceremonies for the RCOBE awards\nceremony. \u201cThis is above and beyond the university scholarship program, and we\nhave a host of very generous donors. Several are FHSU alumni who value their\neducation and have become quite successful professionally. Now, they are in a\ngood position to give back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lang\nis a junior, majoring in finance with a concentration in financial planning.\nLast year, he was selected as one of two Robbins College ambassadors, an honor\nthat comes with a $5,000 stipend. That, coupled with three other scholarships,\nearned Lang a total of $8,500 for the 2021-22 school year \u2013 from the business\ncollege alone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis\nis huge for me,\u201d Lang said. \u201cBeing a financial planning major, I know what\nlarge amounts of debt and taking on student loans can mean for a person. Not\nhaving to do that means I will be in a position to reach my goal of starting my\nown business a lot sooner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Engel\n\u2013  associate professor of economics, finance, and accounting \u2013 has\nfirst-hand experience of how much impact those types of scholarships can have.\nHe has two bachelor\u2019s and a master\u2019s degrees from Fort Hays State and was aided\ngreatly by scholarship money from some of the same donors who are still giving\ntoday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\nwas able to graduate from college debt-free because of scholarships through\nthis program as well as community scholarships,\u201d Engel said. \u201cThen when I was\nin graduate school, I was a teaching assistant so my tuition was taken care of,\nand we received a stipend, too. That all allowed me to start my professional\nlife without any debt, so I was able to buy a house immediately and contribute\nto the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Engel\nalso most likely was able to give back to the university more quickly than\ngraduates with those carrying student loan debt with them after graduation.\nThis year alone, three students received $2,000 Dr. Cole J. Engel scholarships.\nStudents apply for business college scholarships through the university\u2019s\ngeneral scholarship application, which matches those eligible for certain\nscholarships. A committee selects the recipients, and the RCOBE ceremony and\nreception is a way of honoring those students as well as recognizing the\ndonors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\nsee it as an event that brings the whole business community together \u2013 faculty,\nparents, students, donors,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a perfect way for the parents to\nmeet the faculty, and most importantly, for the students to meet the donors.\nIt\u2019s just a great way to start the academic year and to celebrate\nphilanthropy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Engel\ncalled off names of students at the ceremony, who came forward for a quick\nphoto with their donors. He reminded the students that \u201cgiving is not just\nabout making a donation. It\u2019s about making a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David\nSchulte, a junior from Halstead, said that the RCOBE scholarships have made a\nhuge difference in his college career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\nhave made an enormous impact, and I feel very fortunate,\u201d said Schulte, a\nfinance major with a concentration in economics. He also is getting a minor in\nbanking. Schulte received five scholarships this year worth $8,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBesides\nhaving rent and tuition and books paid for, it also helps takes care of a lot\nof other expenses,\u201d Schulte said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even\nmore importantly, Schulte said, are other campus opportunities he is able to\ntake advantage of while still maintaining a 3.96 GPA as a member of the Honors\nCollege. This year, he holds offices in numerous organizations: the Economics\nClub, the Finance Club, the Student Government Association, and Alpha Kappa Psi\n\u2013 the professional co-ed business fraternity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\nfeel that if I was going to another university, I would have to be working 30\nto 40 hours to make ends meet,\u201d Schulte said. \u201cWith these scholarships, I\u2019m\nable to seek out positions where I can get valuable experience in my field.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lang\nechoed those sentiments. A member of the Tiger track and field team, he earned\nAll-America honors at last spring\u2019s NCAA Division II National Outdoor\nChampionships. As a freshman, he was part of FHSU\u2019s Financial Planning team\nthat placed fourth in the nation. He helped that team qualify for the top eight\nin the nation again this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lang\nwasn\u2019t sure he wanted to attend college in his hometown \u2013 until he visited the\nRCOBE his senior year of high school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\nwas born and raised in Hays, Kansas, so this community is special to me,\u201d he\nsaid. \u201cFort Hays State has great programs and opportunities, and we can take\npart in a lot of those opportunities in part because of our amazing donors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Muhammad Chishty, dean of the RCOBE, applauded the\nphilanthropy of FHSU donors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The Robbins College of Business and Entrepreneurship wants\nto provide an excellent education at an affordable price to our students. Our\ngenerous alumni and donors have made that possible by their continuing gifts,\u201d\nChishty said. \u201cThe many endowed scholarships have transformed the lives of our\nstudents by making it possible for them to attend college \u2013 and begin\nmeaningful and rewarding careers in their chosen professions.”\n\nLearn\nhow you can support students within FHSU\u2019s Robbins College of Business and\nEntrepreneurship by visiting https:\/\/foundation.fhsu.edu<\/strong><\/a> or\nby contacting the FHSU Foundation at 785-628-5620 or foundation@fhsu.edu<\/strong><\/a>.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By UNIVERSITY RELATIONS Ethan Lang wants to start his own financial planning company in his hometown someday. The Hays native is confident of reaching that… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"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":[11722],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-releases"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61087","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=61087"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61088,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61087\/revisions\/61088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}