SAB Today summer 2017

Summer 2017

TODAY

SAB

K-State Student Alumni Board alumni newsletter

For Sophomores Only: a successful event

By Kevin Kellerman, FSO Chair ypically, a few questions rest on the minds of sophomores in high school.

How do I survive today? How do I not embarrass myself? Whose friend’s house am I going to hang out at this weekend?

However, none of these questions were even mentioned the weekend of April 1, at Student Alumni Board’s annual event — For Sophomores Only. Instead, about 150 high school sophomores came to spend a Friday night and Saturday morning asking SAB different types of questions.

What is a credit hour? How will my ACT score effect scholarship dollars to K-State?

What types of AP courses should I take in high school to help me in college?

All of these questions were answered

by Student Alumni Board, through a series of activities that forced many of the

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sophomores to step out of their comfort zone.

Friday night began with an entertaining skit featuring “K-State celebrities,” where members of SAB impersonated wellknown leaders on K-State’s campus. The sophomores were then transitioned into an activity called “K-State 101” where SAB simulated a 16 week course at K-State.

K-State 101 taught the sophomores about several different facets of K-State from student philanthropy to collaboration in group projects. Friday night concluded with a dance party including both SAB and the sophomores.

The sophomores arrived bright and early Saturday morning to hear from Dr. Bosco and Dr. Tracz on the importance of being engaged as young people.

After the conclusion of Dr. Tracz’s

presentation, the sophomores were led by SAB in a college simulation. The college simulation was meant to show the sophomores what an average college day can look like, to show the stark contrast between high school and college schedules. During this time, the sophomores were able to ask SAB all types of questions and answer many of their early fears regarding leaving home.

At the conclusion of this event, the sophomores were dismissed with their parents to explore all of Kansas State at open house. Student Alumni Board’s program For Sophomores Only truly gave a unique, hands-on experience to a group of sophomores to learn more about what college has to offer!

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For Sophomores Only: photos

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PRESIDENT’S CORNER [ FROM THE PRESIDENT ]

By Taylor Fry ’17, president

I sit here writing this and wonder how SAB has already come to a close this year. It seems like just yesterday that we were in Atlanta for the CASE ASAP conference and celebrating the start of the year at our Fall Retreat. Then I look back on my time in SAB and I still remember walking into the second round interview hoping and praying that I could somehow make it into this incredible organization. Four years have now come and gone in the blink of an eye; it doesn’t seem possible.

This organization is a hard one to describe, especially since it has meant so much to me and so many others in SAB. Sure, we do a lot of programming and make an impact on campus, but the best part of this organization is the people. It’s the moments where you can sit next to anyone at a meeting and have a great conversation, laugh at silly YouTube videos on the way to JFJs, congratulate one another on big things through SAB Growls, go on road trips to away football games, explore new cities

and learn from other schools at CASE ASAP, network with amazing Alumni, Wabash the night away at the Wabash Cannonball, and the list goes on and on.

I have made amazing lifetime friends and memories from this organization and I am excited for the current and future SAB members to come that will get to begin their SAB journey.

We have celebrated a great year of success and new things ranging from new advisers, 20 new members, a new writing workshop, and even a potential new program to begin working on throughout the upcoming years. We exceeded expectations as we held recruitment events with large numbers of attendees, broke the record of new member applications, brought back Jorge Mendoza ’10 and Dalton Henry ’10, who provided incredible Distinguished Young Alumni presentations, and much more.

Our successes wouldn’t have been possible this year without the help of EVERY SINGLE SAB member, an amazing exec team, the help and support of the advisers, and the guidance of President and CEO of the K-State Alumni Association, Amy Button Renz ’76 ’86. To this year’s exec team, thank you so much for everything that

you have done. I have learned so much from each of you and hope you know the impact that each of you had on this organization. To the advisers: thank you for helping us through this whirlwind of a year and always striving to make us better as young professionals. Thank you to Amy Button Renz for being such a phenomenal role model and friendly face of encouragement. Lastly, thank you to all the current and new members of SAB – you are so inspiring and you constantly pushed me to do more and try harder. I am so lucky to have gotten to know each of you. I can’t wait to see all the things you will do to propel SAB forward in the years to come.

Here’s to the end of an experience that I will never forget. I am excited to pass on the torch to the next executive team – Matt Grosdidier (president), Cooper McGuire (vice president of membership), Drew Young (vice president of development), Molly Bassette (vice president of campus programming) and Carolina Mach (secretary). This organization is in great hands with each of you and best of luck as you take on this next year. Have fun and enjoy the experience. It is one that will be monumental in your K-State story.

New member looking forward to growth

By Carrie Mulder, SAB new member y freshmen year at K-State I applied to be a member of Student Alumni Board and was very sad that I did not make it. Throughout my first year at K-State I was able to witness some of the incredible events that SAB put on and observe what incredible people were involved in SAB. Heading into my sophomore year, I decided that SAB was something I simply could not miss out on, so I decided to re-apply. Boy, oh boy, am I happy I did!

I have felt so incredibly welcomed and loved even though I have only been a

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member for a little while. There are so many things I am looking forward to about being a member of Student Alumni Board.

I am looking forward to the growth that will take place in my life over these next two years. I currently work for New Student Services and anytime I get to interact with a prospective student I always walk away feeling an energy that is indescribable. I am so excited to work with prospective students as a member of SAB through events like For Sophomores Only and Just for Juniors.

FSO was the first event that I got to be a part of as a member of SAB, and I

had the time of my life. Seeing how just spending a couple hours with sophomores in high school can get them so excited to become a Wildcat is exhilarating to me. I walked away from that event with an even greater love for K-State and I am excited to see how my love continues to grow throughout my time on SAB. I am also extremely excited to get to know our wonderful advisers on a deeper level. Hearing their stories and seeing how passionate they are about K-State is inspiring, and I am so blessed to be surrounded by people who will continually push me to be the best person I can be.

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SAB brings home two awards from CASE

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AB was recognized with two awards at the Council for Advancement and Support of Education – Affiliated Student Advancement Programs’ District VI conference in March.

Jessica Elmore ’06, ’15, an SAB adviser and associate director of diversity programs for the Alumni Association, was awarded the Outstanding Adviser Award, and Taylor Fry ’17, SAB president, was awarded the Outstanding Student Leader Award. Both Elmore and Fry are in the running to receive the national awards in these categories. The winners will be announced this summer.

“Our entire Student Alumni Board works incredibly hard throughout the year to showcase K-State,” said Andrea Bryant Gladin ’02, director of alumni programs for the Alumni Association. “The recognition our SAB leaders earned this year shows their commitment to the organization and its programs.”

Officers’ year-in-review Recruitment

Ashley Ebeck - SAB membership vice president his past year, our recruitment efforts for Student Alumni Board went exceptionally well. As the membership vice president, myself and the rest of the membership committee made our recruitment efforts a major priority.

Therefore, as a membership committee, we set several goals for ourselves including increasing the diversity present within our organization structure, as well as increasing the overall number of applicants we received.

In order to do this, we began our recruitment process as early as September. We first came up with the idea to make an ad hoc committee in order to create and maintain relationships with various diverse groups on campus; however, we soon decided that the plan would be better suited for only the membership committee.

To begin, we came up with a list of about 15 campus groups we would target. Then, we assigned several members to act as a liaison to each group. In order to do so, the membership committee would begin to attend meetings and events of their assigned organizations. They did not need to necessarily talk to the group about Student Alumni Board; instead, we wanted those members to begin to meet people in those organizations that could serve as potential nominees.

From there, we began to develop

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a list of potential applicants. I also gathered a list of about 300 campus faculty and staff that I emailed asking for nominations. Taylor and myself also met with several campus leaders, advisers, professors and staff to ask for even more nominations.

Once December approached, we began to send emails to potential applicants from the nomination list we had gathered about our application deadline in January, as well as inviting them to our information session in midJanuary. From there, we continued to gather nominations as well as asking members of Student Alumni Board to speak to other organizations they were involved with. Finally, we spoke at the fraternity and sorority chapter houses in January about our information session and application deadline.

Overall, we had an amazing turnout.

We were not only able to beat the previous year’s application number of 110, but we also had our highest number of applicants ever with 147 people that applied.

Our diversity makeup has also increased. We were able to add several members from different ethnicities, cultures, states, countries, majors and backgrounds.

We are very excited to have our new member class, and we cannot wait to see the impact they make on Student Alumni Board and the rest of K-State.

Program updates

Drew Bormann - SAB secretary / Marcus Kidd - adviser AB is excited to be in the process of developing a program that focuses on the great traditions of K-State! A goal that SAB has had for a while has included introducing a program to keep current students engaged with the Alumni Association. One of the steps that has helped us do this is the Link for Life App that was launched by the Alumni Association in fall of 2016. This app has allowed the Alumni Association to be able to interact with its users in a new way, in which this has already crossed over to being a useful tool for promoting Wildcats Forever! Another tool that SAB plans to utilize to manage this program is K-State 360, a new software program that is purposed with tracking students’ activities and achievements that occur outside of the classroom. K-State 360 is scheduled to launch at K-State this fall, and SAB is excited to explore its functionality and how we can successfully integrate it into the Traditions Program!

SAB is also excited to begin working on changes to the Just for Juniors program! This program has been with the Alumni Association for a long time and has continued to serve as an excellent partnership between the Office of Admissions and the Alumni Association.

A task-force of current SAB members have been assembled and this summer will be used to explore different ways to enhance the program!

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