By RANDY GONZALES
FHSU University Relations and Marketing

There were hugs and tearful goodbyes. There was also a time to laugh and for final pictures to be taken for the participants, and a video was shown to remember their four days on Fort Hays State University’s campus.

FHSU’s inaugural Hispanic College Institute — the first of its kind in the state of Kansas — came to a close with a Saturday morning brunch that reunited students with their families. The almost 90 high school students in attendance last week grew close to one another, became “familia.”

There was also a sense of something else Saturday morning, that this was not an ending — but instead a beginning. There was a sense of hope. More than one student said the plan was to go to college at FHSU, including Carla Moran, from Kansas City. Mo., who will be a junior this fall at Alta Vista Charter High School. Moran is a DREAMer (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors), an undocumented student.

“We can go to college,” Moran told her fellow students. “I don’t have papers and I’m standing here — and I’m going to college. I know that each one of you feel that, the drive to leap through the barriers.

“You guys keep educating yourselves, keep standing up for yourselves,” she added. “I think each one of you has a voice.”

The students were divided into 10 “familias” with FHSU students provided for each group to lend a helping hand during the week. Several students thanked their FHSU “leads.”

“She has made me believe in so many things I never thought I could,” Cheyanne Woltkamp said of one of her FHSU student leaders. Woltkamp, from Kansas City, Kan., will be a junior at Wyandotte High School this fall. “I want to go to Europe to play soccer, and she made me believe that I can. No matter what obstacles may come my way, just jump over and grab them.”

One of the male groups called themselves the “cereal killers” because they bonded over breakfast each morning.

“Let the world know your name,” said Andres Mata, a “cereal killer” who will be a senior this fall at Salina South High School. “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.”

The importance of getting a college education was the message stressed during the week. FHSU President Mirta M. Martin — the first Hispanic president in the Kansas Board of Regents system — told the students in her speech Saturday they need a college education. By 2020, she said, 60 percent of adults in the United States will need a college education to maintain the country’s standing in the world. She added that Hispanic students were falling behind in getting an education.

“A college degree no longer is a luxury; it’s a necessity,” Martin said. “It’s a necessity to fulfill your dreams and aspirations. It is a necessity to become your best self. It is a necessity so our nation can have a future. It is the mission of Fort Hays State University to make sure you get that college degree.”

Jacqueline Chavez, from Johnson City, who will be a senior this fall at Johnson-Stanton County High School, won the talent contest held during the week. She won a $2,000 FHSU scholarship. Her talent was acting, and she did a dramatic portrayal from a favorite book of hers, “Speak,” by Laurie Halse Anderson. Chavez was overcome with emotion when her name was announced as the scholarship winner on Saturday.

“To know that I have a chance to go to such an amazing college just made it all worth it,” she said. “This is my first school choice.

“It was really amazing,” she said of the whirlwind week. “I actually have a family here now, and it’s amazing.”

Ernie G, a Latino comedian and activist who was brought in by Martin to help facilitate FHSU’s first HCI, gave of himself one final time on Saturday.

“This week has been about moments, moments of truth,” he said. “The moment you got off the bus. Moments when I performed for you. Then you got into your ‘familias’ and you bonded and shared your stories.”

Ernie G closed by singing “For Good” from the musical “Wicked.” He has sung it at other Hispanic college forums. This time, he seemed to choke up ever so slightly toward the end, singing, “Who can say if I have changed for the better, but because I knew you I have been changed for good.”

As a first generation Hispanic attending college, Chavez’s life will change for the good.

“I feel like I’m going to set the path for the rest of my family,” she said. “It is hard to be a first generation. We can make a better country, a better place for everybody.

“They’re going to be really proud of me, I know they are,” Chavez said of her family. “I want to make everybody that’s Hispanic proud.”

By DIANE GASPER-O’BRIEN and RANDY GONZALES
FHSU University Relations and Marketing

Joe Erdman looked at the group of teenagers in the audience and smiled. Then he proceeded to tell them they could be the next Joe Erdman.

Erdman, a 1985 graduate of Fort Hays State University, was the featured speaker at Friday’s Hispanic College Institute at his alma mater.

From a small high school in western Kansas — Thomas More Prep-Marian High School in Hays — and down the street to FHSU, Erdman now is working on the Orion project. Orion is America’s next generation spacecraft for NASA’s mission to Mars.

Erdman told the nearly 90 students from across Kansas, Colorado and Missouri how “you don’t have to be the smartest student in your class to succeed.”

But you do have to work hard and take advantage of opportunities that come your way. Erdman, whose bachelor’s degree is in industrial education, did just that.

After starting work as a draftsman at Martin Marietta Corp. in Littleton, Colo., he has worked his way up to a systems engineer for NASA’s Orion spacecraft. After Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. in Littleton won the bid as prime contractor for the program, Erdman was put in charge of harnessing integration for the service module of the capsule.

Orion, set to launch in 2018, will take astronauts to exciting destinations never explored by humans. It will serve as the exploration vehicle that will carry the crew to distant planetary bodies, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during space travel and provide safe reentry from deep space.

There are 40 miles of harnessing in the service module alone, Erdman explained.

Currently under development by NASA for launch on the Space Launch System, Orion is intended to facilitate human exploration of asteroids and Mars.

Erdman didn’t have a degree in engineering because “I didn’t have the confidence in myself academically to go into engineering.” However, he worked on his Master’s of Telecommunication degree at the University of Denver, completing it in 1992.

The HCI, in its first year at Fort Hays State, is a four-day residential program for Hispanic and Latino high school students to learn about the college admissions process. Several speakers were brought in to talk with the students. During a question-and-answer session with the students, one girl asked Erdman what he liked least about his job.

“Probably the paperwork,” he said.

His favorite part? “The integration,” he said. “I get to work with space launch systems, group support, the crew module.”

After Erdman’s presentation, Steve Jacobs, chief scientist with Faraday Studios, led an interactive talk with the students from his studio in Wichita. Jacobs’ presentation was about science communication.

“Scientists have to explain in single language what’s going on,” Jacobs told the HCI students via a remote broadcast on a big screen in the Memorial Union’s Ballroom. “A science communicator tries to get you to think like a scientist.”

Jacobs had the students conduct simple experiments using items such as golf balls, ping pong balls and balloons.

Friday’s activities for science, technology and math started off early in the morning with a high-altitude balloon launch on campus near the Robbins Center. The students contributed personal items such as signed ping pong balls to the payload.

The balloon set a new school record with the launch, reaching a height of 100,200 feet — almost 20 miles. Dr. Jack Maseberg, associate professor of physics at FHSU, led the recovery effort of the balloon. The ping pong balls which were on board were returned to the students.

By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

The wheat harvest is moving into the northwestern region of the Kansas.

Reports of harvests “considerably better than most” have been made in Ellis County.

Hays Mayor Eber Phelps is an Ellis County Extension Board Member. The group met Thursday morning where, according to Phelps, K-State Research and Extension Agricultural Agent Stacy Campbell said he had “yield reports of 60 bushels per acre.” Phelps also said he’s “heard–through the rumor mill–reports of as high as 80 bushels an acre.”

Phelps also talked with the weed scientist at the Finney County K-State Agricultural Research Center in Garden City who said “they were getting a lot of 60 to 80 yields in southwest Kansas.”

“Incredible,” said Phelps, “but the wheat prices aren’t where they’d probably like to see them.”

There was also good news in Osborne County, according to the Kansas 2016 Harvest Report.

Osborne’s Midway Coop Association manager Dell Princ reported Monday was their first day of harvest, and farmers are well above target for yields for treated fields.

“Leaving wheat untreated left some acres susceptible to rust,” said Prince. “But the farmers who put fungicide on this spring are seeing that it’s paid off.”

Average yields are ranging from 55-60 bushels an acre. Test weights are averaging around 61 pounds per bushel and protein content is averaging 11.2 percent.

Prince said, “This is by far the biggest harvest we’ve had in a long time. The last few years the wheat had just burned up in the fields.”

The Kansas 2016 Harvest Report is provided by the Kansas Wheat Commission, Kansas Association of Wheat Growers and the Kansas Grain and Feed Association.

By RICHARD KERR
Hays Post

The Hays Public Library hosted “Kids in the Kitchen” on Wednesday afternoon. The event was designed to teach children about basic kitchen etiquette, as well as encouraging them to try new foods — a feat that can be somewhat intimidating for the young elementary crowd.

For a full event list of children and teen events at the Hays Public Library, click here.

By JORDAN HILDEBRAND
Kansas Wheat Harvest Report

The heat is rising and the combines are rolling across Kansas. Harvest is starting to climb up the western region of the state. Praise continues to mount for the yields, test weights and condition of the wheat.

Steve Binder, a farmer near Hays, said that most farmers in the area would be done in about five days. Binder said that this year’s harvest is “considerably better than most.” Yields are ranging around 40-45 bushels an acre on continuous acres and 60-65 bushels an acre on summer fallow. Test weights are hovering around 59 pounds per bushel and moisture is ranging from around 9-10 percent. Binder said that T-151 has performed well for the farm this year.

Rick Wolting, manager of the Farmway Coop in Lincoln reported seeing yields all over the board ranging from 40-80 bushels an acre. Trucks began hauling wheat into the location last week and Wolting estimates that the area isn’t quite half done.

Test weights have also ranged from around 58-65 pounds per bushel and Wolting’s location has seen up to 13% protein content.

Wolting said, “This year we’ve seen a lot better yields because more farmers sprayed fungicide which resulted in better plant health.”

Harvest started Tuesday for Richard Randall, a farmer from Scott City. Yields and test weights are performing “extremely well” for Randall. Test weights have been over 60 pounds per bushel and yields have been well above average for the area.

“Mother Nature’s given us a good crop,” Randall said. “We just hope we can get it out of the field in time.”

The 2016 Harvest Report is brought to you by the Kansas Wheat Commission, Kansas Association of Wheat Growers and the Kansas Grain and Feed Association.

By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post

As they prepare to return to the state capital for a special session Thursday, two local lawmakers say allowing the courts to keep schools closed after June 30 is not an option.

Earlier this month, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback called the state Legislature back to Topeka for a special session on June 23 in response to the state Supreme Court ruling that a portion of the Legislature’s school finance formula was unconstitutional.

The court has warned that schools will not be allowed to open after June 30 if lawmakers don’t approve additional fixes.

District 111th State Rep. Sue Boldra, R-Hays, said when the governor announced the recall she “was looking forward to it” and is hopeful that everyone can work together to address the issue.

40th District State Sen. Ralph Ostmeyer, R-Grinnell, called the situation “unfortunate” but was adamant that the Legislature will not shut schools down.

“We can’t afford to take that chance,” Ostmeyer said.

Neither Boldra nor Ostmeyer are members of their respective judiciary committees that have been working in the weeks leading up to the session on a plan to satisfy the courts, but they believe the two sides are not that far apart. They expect the state will have to come up with between $30 million and $50 million.

Alan Rupe, attorney for the four school districts suing the state said Kansas will have to boost education funding by nearly $30 million for the 2016-17 school year to comply with a state Supreme Court order.

Boldra said she was hopeful the courts would have kept schools open under the current formula and allowed legislators to fix in the next session.

“We already have marching orders that we have to have a finance formula ready for the 2017-18 school year,” Boldra said, “So we knew that we were going to have to do something and we would have to get it done quickly.”

Ostmeyer said the courts are overstepping their authority.

“The power of the purse is with the Legislature, not with the courts,” said Ostmeyer, adding he believes if the battle over school funding were to go before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Kansas courts would lose the battle over funding.

“Let our local officials say we haven’t got the money, we’re going to have to shut our school down. Don’t let the courts step in and have to do that,” said Ostmeyer.

But he added, “I’m not going up there with the idea to tell the court to go to hell, we’re going to shut the schools down.”

Boldra also said she does not believe the courts should tell lawmakers how to set the budgets but said she has faith in leadership and added if they can get everyone to agree, they will avoid shutting down schools.

“Shutting down the schools in rural Kansas would really destroy communities, destroy towns because so much of the economic base of communities is vested in their public schools,” said Boldra.

Keeping the schools closed after June 30 would be an unpopular move, according to Ostmeyer, because “it affects so many people.”

“Brownback is totally disdained by the public,” said Ostemeyer. “It’s total hatred out there and what bothers me, he’s a good person.”

Ostmeyer announced in May he will not seek re-election and said if he has one misgiving about not running again is the negativity surrounding state government.

“There’s two sides to every story,” said Ostmeyer.

Republican legislative leaders said Wednesday they are close to an agreement with Kansas school districts on a plan aimed at satisfying a court mandate to help poorer schools.

Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman Ty Masterson said Wednesday that he’s optimistic about a deal on a $38 million proposal.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Ron Ryckman Jr. said the plan is likely to shift some existing education dollars to poor districts to provide extra aid.

Hays Medical Center

Eighteen registered nurses at HaysMed were honored recently at a recognition ceremony and luncheon. They completed the year long RN Residency Program offered at HaysMed.

The program began a year ago in July and the nurses spent the first 3 weeks in a classroom setting. The remainder of training focuses on clinical experience, one on one mentorship with their preceptor, high-fidelity simulations and on the job training. Additionally, nurses receive training from professionals in several departments, such as radiology, pharmacy, cardiac care, OB and others.

The RN Residency class included Jennifer Anderson, Cassandra Armbruster, Calie Borthwick, Eric Bose, Sheylynn Eickhoff, Whitney Hoban, Leah Houston, Emily LaBarge, Elizabeth McElroy, Christy Moeder, Cole Reichert, Gage Reichert, Desirea Renz, Gwen Sillmon, Hali Sprenkel, Amber Thompson, Christina Thomsen and Annie VonFeldt.

The RN Residency Program at HaysMed is one of only two in the state and has been offered since 2008. Shari Hertel, RN heads the program and has oversight of all the training. HaysMed also works closely with critical access hospitals in the region through a rural residency program to provide training to nurses practicing in the rural setting.

“It is a great program.” said Hertel. “Having one year of focused, on the job evidenced based learning produces nurses who are more confident and competent in their skills which translates into improved patient care.”

Currently there are 11 nurses scheduled in the next program which begins in July. The program is open to newly graduated RNs.

By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

The Ellis County Fair is less than 30 days away.

Along with the usual–KPRA rodeo, car races, truck and tractor pulls, the Pride of Texas Carnival and a demolition derby–this year will include several new activities and events at the Ellis County Fairgrounds July 16-23.

With the theme “Heroes in the Heartland,” the featured musical attraction will be a concert Fri., July 22, by country group Little Texas.

“They have that song ‘Slow Ride Home’ that they produced when they came through Hays a few years ago for CW2 Bryan Nichols,” Fair Board President Jill Pfannenstiel told Ellis County Commissioners Monday.

As the band neared Hays on Aug, 9, 2011, American flags greeted them at every turn — they were just ahead of the funeral procession for the fallen soldier. Nichols, a ’98 graduate of Thomas More Prep Marian High School, was killed  Aug. 6, 2011, while serving with the 158th Aviation Regiment in Afghanistan.

Nichols’ family will attend the Little Texas concert in his honor, Pfannenstiel said, and will meet with the band members.

Of course, the fair focuses on 4-H, whose members are busy working on their projects.  One major change this year for them and open-class participants is a new system for fair entries.

“I’ve been working on it since January and we’ll be rolling it out,” Pfannenstiel said.

“Everyone pre-enters to the fair online on the computer and we’ll print entry tags.  This year will be a trial year to work out all the bugs but it will be good.  It’ll help us on entering the results and getting them published to the media quicker.”

Also new is the July 19 Old Timers Showmanship Contest–for those age 19 or older–which will be a fundraiser for the Ellis County 4-H Council.

“So if you know someone with some animals out there already and you want to try showing a pig,  goat or beef, you can come out and show.  It’s $15 to enter,” she explained, “and you can win some of the money back and the rest will go to the 4-H Council.”

One change fair attendees will surely notice is new bathrooms.

“We’re in the final phase of getting those finished–finishing plumbing and putting up the partitions,” Pfannenstiel reported. “They’re looking great.  We had a business donate an air conditioning and furnace system to us as a fair sponsorship for the next few years, so that was really nice. We’ve had lots of good help, lots of good volunteers out there working on that so it will be a nice addition to the fairgrounds.”

Commissioners assured Pfannenstiel the county would again help with building the demo derby pit and the tractor pull track as it has in past years.

More information and ticket locations for the 2016 Ellis County Fair is available on the website and Facebook.

By DIANE GASPER-O’BRIEN
FHSU University Relations and Marketing

The project took nine months and more than 300 man-hours to complete. But it took just a few minutes to unveil a historical project that the artist hopes will impact students for a lifetime.

Three large murals hanging high above the walkway of the main entrance in Fort Hays State University’s Memorial Union were unveiled at the annual President’s Gala Saturday night. They are the first of six murals that are called “The Journey.”

Gasps and utterances of awe were heard throughout the crowd of 300-plus as the mural covers dropped to the floor as the artist stood back and watched.

“I wanted to bring a look of our history to the campus,” said Joel Dugan, assistant professor of art and design at Fort Hays State who painted the murals. “I think this will be a marker for our region of western Kansas, hopefully an anchor like the WPA markers. Those are monumental markers for all those towns.”

Dugan was referring to the Works Projects Administration projects of the 1930s in which construction of public buildings and roads provided millions of Americans with employment during the Great Depression. The projects are identified with nearby markers.

The center panel of “The Journey” is a painting of Picken Hall, the first building on campus. It is flanked on the left by a painting of Historic Fort Hays, a frontier post for the U.S. Army in the mid to late 1800s from which the city of Hays and the university got their names. To the right of the Picken Hall panel is a painting of the train station in Hays, signifying the importance of the railroad in the city’s history.

“Wow, I was very impressed,” said Bobbi Dreiling, a 1970 FHSU graduate who now lives in Wichita and was in attendance at Saturday’s event. “And I was impressed with the artist. He seems very excited about his students and showing they can make a living in the arts.”

The train station holds special significance to Dreiling; she and her husband, Rich, got engaged at the train station.

Both of the larger murals intrigued retired professor Ellen Veed as well.

“I rode the train to Hays for my interview at Fort Hays State,” said Veed, who taught mathematics from 1960 to 1998. Veed, who still lives in Hays, said she was also impressed with the color the murals bring to the Memorial Union walls.

“I especially liked the brightness,” she said. “Those skies are my skies.”

Dugan, who is entering his sixth year at FHSU, came up with the idea for the murals after taking students in one of his classes to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Mo., during the fall of 2015. The students were captivated by the artwork of Thomas R. Benton and came back to FHSU wanting to emulate Benton’s work.

“We were talking about the importance of public art, how it builds a culture, ” said Dugan, who approached Dr. Mirta M. Martin, FHSU president, about the possibility of painting historical murals to hang on campus.

They agreed upon a site — the student union — that Dugan hopes will “leave the open door to let viewers to be active participantsd.”

He specifically was talking about the center panel, which features a silhouette of a person walking in front of Picken Hall, named after the first president of FHSU, William S. Picken.

“I wanted to allow the viewers to interpret the silhouette as themselves,” Dugan said. “They can see themselves going out into the courtyard and find themselves walking down that pathway.”

Martin said she well remembers the welcome feeling that overcame her when she first walked across the FHSU campus two years ago when she came to Hays as a finalist for the presidency.

“These murals embody the frontier spirit of Fort Hays State,” Martin said. “They signify the journey of our university over the past 114 years and its transformation to become the destination of choice.

“Fort Hays State University is most fortunate to be able to attract such incredibly talented people,” she added. “We see them throughout our faculty our staff, our community. Joel Dugan is one of those people. His talent transformed a plain canvas and made it come alive with our history. These murals will adorn the walls of our union, and they will bear testimony to our journey.”

Dugan began work on the project in October and spent many a night and weekend working on his project. He painted them in a separate location, then moved them to the union a few days before the gala.

He will continue that journey with three more murals going up in the Memorial Union during the next year. The next one — depicting the seal, or brand, of the university — is scheduled for completion and unveiling for Homecoming 2016, which is set for the weekend of Oct. 1-2.

That will hang over a portrait of Dr. Martin, which is set for completion and unveiling at the 2017 President’s Gala.

The other two murals will identify 1) the arrival, the introduction and the exchange of what takes place when students come to campus and are guided and transformed during their college career; and 2) their graduation and transition into the community.

“This is the history and significance of what we take for granted,” Dugan said. “I hope these murals stand as a legacy piece. The ability to establish a legacy is really important.”

Fort Hays State University Relations and Marketing

The Fort Hays State University Foundation has named Jason Williby as its new president and CEO. Williby had served as director of development for the university’s fundraising arm since 2014. The two years prior he was the foundation’s vice president of institutional advancement.

Williby, who grew up in Oberlin, takes over as president on July 1. He replaces Tim Chapman, who announced in January he was stepping down as the Foundation’s president, effective June 30. Chapman will remain on staff in an advisory role during the transition.

“The past decade of leadership from Tim Chapman has propelled us to new heights, with a great staff and incredible alumni and donor support,” Williby said. “I want to thank him specifically for his hard work; none of our work would be possible without his positive leadership. I look forward to following suit and taking the FHSU Foundation even further.”

Williby was selected as the next president/CEO following a rigorous application process. He was chosen from a field of 50 applicants and three finalists.

“During the arduous selection process, Jason clearly articulated his vision for the future of the Fort Hays State University Foundation,” said Jeff Peier, chair of the Foundation’s executive committee. “I look forward to continuing to work with Jason and his dedicated Foundation team as he seamlessly transitions into his new leadership role and continues to build on the historic success of the Foundation. I have every confidence that Jason will be extraordinarily successful in building the culture of philanthropy about which he is so passionate.”

Williby, a graduate of FHSU, is incredibly passionate about his alma mater and considers FHSU his home.

“My vision for the Foundation is that we build a culture of philanthropy starting from the day freshmen move into the residence halls, throughout their life as a student and an alum,” he said. “The importance of people making their annual gifts cannot be overstated to the students.”

Williby knows there are challenging times facing fundraisers and higher education.

“We have a couple of challenges in front of us,” he said. “One, we’d like to have a stronger agriculture and oil economy, but those things come and go.”

State funding is a second challenge, with FHSU facing another budget cut of almost $1 million following the budget that Gov. Sam Brownback signed in May, which cut $30.6 million from higher education budgets.

“There’s a real pressure on the university in the decrease in state funding, which means the university is going to lean on the Foundation even more with private dollars to support them,” Williby said. “That’s a message that alumni and our friends need to know, and know how important they are to us right now.”

Prior to joining the Foundation, Williby was executive director of the Wyandotte County Chapter of the American Red Cross from 2007 to 2012.

 

VALLEY HOPE

NORTON–The Dane G. Hansen Foundation, Logan, announced June 16 the award of a $500,000 grant to Valley Hope to help fund the renovation of the organizations’ treatment center and corporate headquarters in Norton.

Valley Hope, headquartered in Norton, Kan., is a nationally accredited nonprofit treatment organization dedicated to providing care to those suffering from substance use disorder.

Established in 1967, Valley Hope now operates 16 treatment centers including residential and outpatient facilities in seven states. It is one of the largest private, nonprofit addiction treatment organizations in the United States. Services include medically monitored detox, residential and outpatient treatment (including medication assisted therapy), family therapy and online treatment.

During a ceremony held in Norton, Valley Hope President/CEO, Pat George said “We are grateful to receive this gift from the Hansen Foundation for facility improvements. For 49 years Valley Hope has been a part of the Norton community. We are pleased to be able to continue to provide quality services to those in need of substance use disorder treatment. Treatment is a place of hope; a place for families to mend. This gift allows families to experience that hope in comfortable surroundings.”

Also participating in the event, Kansas Secretary of Commerce Antonio Soave said, “It’s wonderful that Valley Hope has received this grant to support the great work it does across the state and the region. Valley Hope makes an incredible, positive impact on many lives, and I’m thrilled that the organization calls Kansas home.”

The corporate office, located in downtown Norton was originally the American Legion building. From this home office, the organization provides leadership and support services to its more than 650 employees and 16 treatment centers. Approximately 70 corporate employees are residents of the area.

The renovation will provide space for growth, improve current operating capacity and beautify an important structure in the community.

The Norton Valley Hope treatment center employs 36 area residents and provides treatment to an estimated 35 patients a day.

The center’s original structure served as the Townsman Motel and needs significant renovation. Plans include adding a covered entry, additional parking, sidewalks and landscaping and a new interior courtyard. Total cost of the combined renovations is estimated at $1,5 million.