How an adult learner went from addiction, incarceration and homelessness to graduation
BY AINSLEY SMYTH news@thesunflower.com
Robin Monroe walked into the Online and Adult Learning office at Wichita State “almost by mistake.”
“I went to the advising office in Grace Wilkie (Hall) and on the way there, I went in the wrong door,” Monroe, 57, said.
Monroe had been through a long journey to get to that office. A former nurse, she had gone through an addiction, the loss of her job and separation from her kids — all accumulating in a prison stay and being homeless.
After getting through those challenges, she wanted to make another change.
A NEW START
Monroe said she is proof that addiction and homelessness “can happen to anyone,” but that it is also possible to come back from those challenges.
“We all have our preconceived notions about what that means, what that looks like, and I am not at all probably what comes to most peoples’ mind,” she said. “It is just proof that one bad decision or one unhealthy trauma can cause a whole host of problems that takes the rest of your life to rebuild. I think being incarcerated, losing my children, having literally (just) the clothes on my back — it gives you an opportunity. There’s nowhere to go but up.”
Monroe took that opportunity.
“I was sitting in my living room one day, and I said, ‘I’m going back to school,’” Monroe said. “The semester had already started. I grabbed my keys, I drove across town, I walked in the Marcus Welcome Center, and then I said, ‘I don’t know what to do, but I want to come back (to school).’”
After talking with staff at the welcome center, she was sent to the advising department at Grace Wilkie Hall, but accidentally ended up in the OAL office, somewhere she’s since frequented
during her time at WSU.
“I had a student assistant sitting up front. I heard him talking to someone, and I came up front because anytime I hear a student, I want to introduce myself and see what I can do,”
Pamela O’Neal, OAL’s associate director, said. “Robin was … almost like the quintessential adult learner because she really didn’t even know what to ask.”
FINDING SUPPORT
Monroe said that after taking the first step and enrolling at WSU, she still faced many challenges navigating higher education years after she was last in school. On top of the learning curve, Monroe was busy working and raising her two grandchildren.
“As an adult learner, you feel overwhelmed because you’ve got life happening at the same speed, bills are still coming in, kids are still getting sick, you know, whatever happens,” Monroe said.
“So if you have a place that can take some of the just nuts and bolts and help you with those, you can do the work much easier.”
Monroe will finish her bachelor’s in social work in May and will complete her master’s next year. While at WSU, she continued to turn to the adult learning office for help with the “nuts and bolts” of being a student.
O’Neal, who was an adult learner herself before assuming her role, said she loves her job “because of students like Robin.”
“She’s actually someone I look up to,” O’Neal said. “Because I know what she’s been through and even on bad days, because we all have them, she finds the good. I think she finds the good in everybody.”
ACHIEVING GOALS
Monroe said she feels drawn to social work because she wants to help others who are in the same place she was years ago.
“It took a lot of building back
from nothing,” she said. “Literally nothing — homelessness, and, you know, trying to find space in the housing market and the job market. My intention now as a social worker is to sort of make those paths back to society much easier.”
Monroe said coming toward the achievement of all her hard work — getting her first degree on the path to becoming a social worker — feels “unreal.” But, she said, she managed it in part due to the people who helped her along the way and the resources that were offered to her.
“Coming from where I’ve come, that just seems unattainable,” she said. “But, it has been attainable, because of the support around here.”
For Monroe, knowing that she’s close to achieving her goal of becoming a social worker, and that the first milestone, her bachelor’s, is even closer, feels “surreal.”
“I mean, when you go from just being absolutely hopeless, and then all of a sudden you’re not only working towards a goal, which in itself, is just a remarkable feeling, but when you are this close to achieving that goal, it’s a great feeling. It’s a great feeling,” she said. “It’s a feeling anyone can have.”
COLLEGE GRADS!
Archaeology rekindled his passion for learning after 50 years and brain cancer didn’t stop
BY TALIYAH WINN podcast@thesunflower.com
When Arland Wallace first came to Wichita State in the 1970s, he left after his first semester, realizing he wasn’t ready for college. After he retired, Wallace decided to return.
“I was sitting in my living room, looking outside my sliding glass doors, and I just thought, you know, ‘You never got that undergrad degree,’” Wallace said.
In 2019, he returned to WSU at 68 and discovered his love for archeology. Then, in his senior year, came a terminal brain cancer diagnosis.
When Wallace returned to college, he wasn’t sure of his path.
The first person he talked to was Angela Scott, his new adviser.
As Scott went through classes, one caught Wallace’s attention.
“She got to an introduction of archaeology and I said, ‘Stop … go back and tell me about that one,’” he said. “And she said, ‘There’s a brand new professor here on campus who’s teaching that class.’”
That professor was Crystal Dozier, who worked closely with Wallace throughout the program.
“He was a little apprehensive about returning to school, but he was super excited,” Dozier said.
One morning last October, he went to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
But the next day, Wallace woke up with symptoms more extreme than usual for COVID shots. He said he experienced a loss of reality and sudden, temporary losses of consciousness due to reduced blood flow to the brain.
“Eventually, the doctor told me I needed to go to the emergency room and, through a series of scans, they found a brain mass in my brain,” he said. “They went and took that out about five days later, and it turned out to be cancerous and terminal.”
When he got home, Wallace sat down and thought things through.
“I thought, ‘Well, I’m halfway through this semester, so I don’t want to stop now. And then as soon as this semester is over with, I only have one more to go,’” Wallace said. “So I got back into the saddle and started taking classes, and I ended
up getting all A’s in that semester.” Because of the nuance of his diagnosis and treatment, Wallace faced different challenges than other students on top of the natural progression of intensity college brings.
“Each semester … the challenges get a little bit deeper,” he said. “... And then you put brain surgery on top of it, and then I was also in the middle of radiation therapy, then I was also in the middle of chemotherapy … Dealing with all that and then trying to stay up with all my classes was a challenge.”
Though cancer is still a part of Wallace’s life, he doesn’t want it to define him.
“I’d like to beat the cancer so it doesn’t beat me. But that’s yet to be seen,” Wallace said.
As of May, Wallace has one more round of chemotherapy.
Pamela O’Neal, the associate director of student engagement in the Online and Adult Learning office, has worked closely with Wallace.
“I don’t know how you have that kind of positivity when you’re given that diagnosis,” O’Neal said. “Of everything, brain cancer, what does Arland do? He learns. Where is learning located? In the brain.”
Wallace will walk the stage during the commencement in May, but has a few credits to take over the summer. Then, he plans on coming back for his master’s.
“Right now, I’d just like to graduate and just have that accomplishment,” he said. “Hopefully, I can stick around long enough to graduate from grad school. Then start teaching.”
Robin Monroe, a social work student, poses for a photo outside Ablah Library. | Photo by Ainsley Smyth / The Sunflower
Photo courtesy of Emily Phung
Another year together: Twins with interconnected journeys at WSU prepare to split paths — but only somewhat
BY MIA HENNEN managing@thesunflower.com
When you speak to Adriana and Victoria Owens, you might notice the twins say “we” and “us” a lot. And those first-person plural pronouns often fit the pair, whose lives blend and weave together.
From academic to extracurricular interests, the two are practically inseparable. Adriana is a psychology and criminal justice major; Victoria is a sociology and political science major. The two share minors in women’s studies and variants of an organizational leadership minor. On top of that, they both take on involved roles in WSU’s Student Government Association and Model United Nations.
“We always knew we were obviously similar,” Adriana said. “I mean, our mom dressed us in the same outfits but different colors.
“Whenever we were … babies, our mom said that we had our own language, that we would babble at each other and no one else would understand it, but we would be expecting everyone else to understand our babbles because we got it. Why can’t you? And so we had our own little world.”
Adriana and Victoria began studying at Wichita State
University four years ago. While Adriana graduates this spring and plans to pursue a master’s at WSU next fall, Victoria is taking another year to finish her bachelor’s. With the end of their parallel bachelor’s paths nearing, the fraternal twins are preparing for changes, but not too many.
Victoria and Adriana, though being close early in life and now, haven’t always considered each other friends. Having similar passions and “sharing a face” — as Adriana says — contributed to this.
“Whenever you are next to a person that is innately intertwined with yourself, people assume that one person’s behavior is the other’s because they see you as the same person, especially true for twins who are women,” Victoria said.
“We are entangled as the same being, more than people like to consider or not. If one person is in trouble, the other person is also in trouble.”
This drove the two to opposite ends of the same spaces in high school, which is also when they started dying their hair so people could differentiate them.
“We ended up kind of being in the same hobbies and interests; we did theater, choir, forensics, debate together, but we wanted so badly to be different people,
Our paths did diverge, but … they kind of re-emerged into a situation where I think we have been closer than we have ever been our entire lives.”
OWENS
Senior studying sociology and political science “
instead of just ‘the twins,’ that we felt as if we kind of parted ways,” Adriana said.
In their first year or so at Wichita State, the twins continued their parallel but separate tracks. But an argument and subsequent reunion made the pair realize what they had missed by carving out unique but similar spaces.
“We decided to sit down, and we just talked for hours,” Adriana said. “... Though we’ve had almost identical experiences, the way that they shaped us are completely different.”
BACK AGAIN
The last few years have brought the twins back to their close dynamic from childhood.
“Our paths did diverge, but … they kind of re-emerged into a situation where I think we have
been closer than we have ever been our entire lives,” Victoria said. And while sharing similar academic and extracurricular interests, each approaches them differently.
These differing interests have pushed the two into different areas of Student Government as well.
Over the last four years, they have gone from being fellow senators to Victoria being Adriana’s boss.
Adriana said that, despite this, they know how to balance between being colleagues and sisters.
“We oftentimes have a code word for when to switch off from professional to personal,” Adriana said. “So we’re like, ‘Okay, I need you to be my boss’ or ‘I need you to be my sister.’”
Through SGA, Adriana and Victoria have worked together on several projects. During her time as accessibility subcommittee chairperson last spring, Adriana wrote the Sabbatical Creation Act, which allows SGA members to leave their posts temporarily and then come back.
“Victoria helped support me there as a sister and not as a colleague,” Adriana said.
Four years of Student Government together have presented challenges, though. Victoria and Adriana said it can be
difficult to navigate an environment where they’re often mistaken for each other.
“Everyone assumes that if they (your twin) have an opinion, you also have the same opinion. And I would say that’s not true,” Adriana said. “Because oftentimes, even now … I’ll be like, ‘Yeah, I don’t agree with her.’ And people will be almost shocked that I could possibly have other opinions.”
SEPARATING BUT NOT REALLY
Adriana will wrap up her bachelor’s degree this month, but she doesn’t plan to go too far. She’ll pursue her master’s degree in criminal justice at WSU this fall. Victoria still has a year left on her dual bachelor’s degree, meaning the twins have another year guaranteed together.
And while the pair is sure to be confused for each other a few more times, they said it’s not all bad.
“Innately, we are entangled at our cores to be forever mistaken for each other,” Victoria said. “But I will say this forever — and I always say it when people get our names wrong — is ‘That’s such a compliment to be considered Adriana because she’s my favorite person.’ So why would that be upsetting to me?”
Adriana and Victoria Owens in New York City at the National Model United Nations conference in April. The two are fraternal twins. | Courtesy of Tyler Dorsch
Victoria and Adriana Owens as children. | Photo Courtesy of Adriana and Victoria Owens
VICTORIA
Despite lack of playing time, Logan Kreske makes an impact
BY JACOB UNRUH sports@thesunflower.com
Logan Kreske hasn’t received much playing time in his two seasons at Wichita State. Still, every chance he has, he picks the brains of his coaches and tries to contribute to the baseball team in any way possible.
“My opportunity is kind of been here, there, and so just trying to support my teammates,” Kreske said. “And, I mean, all of that stuff is out of my control. What I can control is my attitude and how I support everybody else. And I think that’s more important.”
Despite his lack of appearances, Kreske, a senior catcher, has shown improvement in Wichita and has been a model member of WSU’s team. In what will likely be his final season of NCAA baseball, Kreske’s work ethic hasn’t gone unnoticed.
“Obviously, he’s a great kid, great human being,” WSU catching coach Clay Overcash said. “But just … became very astute to what we were doing, and wanted to work and get after it.”
EXTRA WORK
Kreske’s spent his freshman year riding the bench as a medical redshirt at McLennan Community College in Texas.
The next year, Kreske, desiring more playing time, left to play at Coastal Alabama Community College for two seasons.
After that second year, Kreske received a phone call from an unlikely source: Anthony Miller, the new hitting coach at WSU who had coached Kreske at McLennan. Despite his lack of playing time in his freshman year, Kreske had made enough of an impression on Miller that the coach offered him a roster spot for the Shockers.
“I came here, and I loved it, and it was the best offer I had by far and an opportunity to work with some really good coaches,” Kreske said.
Once he arrived at WSU, Kreske chose to take the initiative to improve as much as he could from coaches like Miller and Overcash.
Overcash said when Kreske arrived at Wichita State, he was a little raw as a player. However, the extra practice Kreske puts in has made a difference.
“He continues, you know, daily, no matter how the seasons go on or how much he’s played,” Overcash said. “He’s still wanting to get work in, which I respect that a lot, you know, as a coach.” Kreske also stands out for his desire to know “why” and not just “what.” Overcash described Kreske as “precise” and a “student of the game.”
“He’s very inquisitive about the game,” Overcash said. “He even likes to know why I potentially like one catcher for another team better than another, you know, and that’s just who he is.”
While his appearances are still limited, Kreske’s work ethic has translated into on-field results.
After going 0-4 at the plate last year in just three games played, Kreske has started five games this year and earned five hits on a .313
batting average.
However, Kreske said he thinks more about his process than his results.
“I think the feel of my swing and the feel of my catching is way more important,” Kreske said.
“And I think that feel outlasts results in longevity-wise. So I think that, you know, I felt good during the things that I’ve done, and so I can feel good about the results that have happened so far.”
Overcash said Kreske’s improvement has been noticeable across the board.
“I think everybody would probably agree with that from the coaching staff, that he’s made great leaps and bounds and jumps in his progress,” Overcash said. “And I think he’s done an outstanding job, but that’s a tribute to the work ethic he’s put in.”
POSITIVE IMPACT
Kreske knows his largest contributions to the team won’t come on the field, but he still tries to make a positive impact off of it. It’s a lesson he learned while redshirting at McLennan.
“I would like to say that a lot of my teammates enjoyed having me around because I was a positive presence and just enjoyed being around everybody,” Kreske said.
Overcash said Kreske is sometimes affected by the lack of playing time — as anyone would be. But he doesn’t let it impact his mindset.
“He’s a great teammate,” Overcash said. “Always does what you ask, makes adjustments that you ask him to make. And as long as he does those things, you know, he’s going to be successful.”
Kreske said he has a “firm foundation” of important things in his life outside of baseball: he’s religious, and has a good group of friends and hobbies. Those aspects of his life allow him to remain patient and positive.
“I have a very easy time taking it step by step or a day at a time,” Kreske said. “I wouldn’t say it’s easy all the time, and a lot of prayer and patience comes with that. But I think that, you know, self-belief and perseverance gets you a long ways. And I think that’s kind of been the story of my career, just continuing to believe in myself and have faith in God’s plan.”
Kreske wants his legacy at WSU to be about who he was as a person rather than just as a baseball player. Kreske remembers that during his freshman year at McLennan, his older teammates cared about him personally more than they did his performance on the field. That has stuck with him throughout his collegiate career.
“Having an impact more on the individual person versus the baseball player is so much more important, because they’re going to carry that life aspect with them so much further than they will with the baseball,” Kreske said.
Kreske probably could have received more playing time at a smaller school than Wichita State. Still, he’ll carry positive memories of his time here.
“I definitely made the right choice, and I love where I’m at,” Kreske said.
‘HE’S BATMAN AND BRUCE WAYNE’
The legacy of baseball’s Mauricio Millan
BY OWEN PROTHRO owenprothro@gmail.com
Mauricio Millan’s senior season of high school baseball and first season at El Paso Community College were cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He’d already stopped playing football to focus on the diamond. When the pandemic happened, Millan had serious thoughts of ending his athletic career entirely.
Millan wasn’t a highly touted recruit out of high school, but his lifelong dream of playing baseball at the collegiate level ultimately kept him in the game.
“I found myself, like, waking up and motivated to do something,” Millan said. “I wanted to prove so many people wrong. So I was just like, well, I owe it to myself to just kind of play through this and see what happens.”
Millan, known by teammates and fans as “Mo,” has proven to be a consistent leader for Wichita State — both in his play and demeanor.
Senior Josh Livingston said that’s what Millan, the now-senior catcher, will be remembered for the most.
“It’s the consistency on the field of being the same player all the time and you know what you’re going to get every day,” Livingston said. “And the leadership aspect of, I mean, I don’t know how many guys like this come around … I’ve played baseball for a long time and you don’t see guys like this come around every year, two years, three years.
“It just doesn’t happen. If there could be an All-American for leadership, I’d hang his banner in the end if I could.”
‘MO IS MO’
While Livingston describes Millan as “tough” as a player, he also said he’s “loving” as a person. The dichotomy of the two statements adds to what makes Millan unique.
“He’s like Batman and Bruce Wayne,” Livingston said. “He can be one person; he can be another person. But at the end of the day, Mo is Mo.”
Millan said that aspect of his personality comes from the two father figures in his life: his dad and grandpa.
“They’ve done a tremendous job of, like, setting a really good example for me,” Millan said. “Not only me, but all my siblings.”
Through some of this season’s rough patches, which included a 3-9 start in the first 12 games and the program’s third-longest losing streak of nine games in April, Millan has elevated his vocal presence and has been there to keep the locker room intact.
Most importantly, he’s filled this role without changing who he is at his core.
“You don’t want to see a guy (like Millan) change in a moment
If there could be an AllAmerican for leadership, I’d hang his banner in the end if I could.”
JOSH LIVINGSTON Wichita State senior baseball player
of weakness,” Livingston said. “That’s kind of what he’s been — he’s been the same person as he was last year … Nobody deserves to win and to turn this thing around more than he does.”
Another unique thing about Millan is his pregame routine. Athletes at all levels have them.
Lebron James tosses chalk at midcourt, New Zealand’s rugby team performs a Haka and even former Jacksonville Jaguar John Henderson was known for getting pregame slaps to the face.
The first time Millan comes across home plate during a game, he writes four different letters of five characters into the dirt: I-J-N-I-P.
“In Jesus’ Name I Play,” Millan said.
It’s an homage to the faith he’s grown up with and a reminder for him to enjoy the game he’s always known — and not feel such a great weight on his shoulders.
“When I go up to bat, too, I’ll just do a cross,” he said, gesturing to his chest. “Just to be like, ‘Okay, this game is bigger than yourself. It’s not all about you, just go out and enjoy the game.’”
He’s been doing it for as long as he can remember.
“Honestly, probably (since) middle school, Little League baseball,” Millan said. “And then it kind of carried over into high school and then at El Paso Community College … So it’s been going on for a while.”
Even though he’s been doing it for so long, some teammates at WSU haven’t noticed what he does.
Livingston said this epitomizes Millan’s consistent nature.
“It’s just become a normal thing for him and for everybody else,” Livingston said. “We kind of just acknowledge that it’s going on … That’s what he’s going to do. He’s going to do the same thing every time.”
ME’MO’RIES
When Brian Green became WSU’s head coach before the 2024 season, Millan, a junior at the time, had the opportunity to transfer away to continue his playing career elsewhere.
But for Green, there was one moment that he knew Millan would stay. When he was hired as head coach, Green had three players on the team. With a couple of months before the season started, he knew he needed to recruit — and recruit quickly.
During a phone call between the two, Green said Millan brought up a moment between them the
two will now never forget. When he was coaching New Mexico State, Green hosted Millan’s Little League baseball team from his hometown of El Paso, Texas, for a game in 2016. When the game was over, Green rounded up the entire team and gave them a tour of the stadium and locker room.
“He (Millan) goes, ‘You have no idea what that meant to a kid from El Paso, Texas,’” Green said. Millan then sent Green the photo they took that day and added, “I’m coming back to Wichita State.” A few months later, their relationship came full circle when Millan hit an RBI single to walk off the game against in-state rival University of Kansas.
“He was really the first big commitment of returning to the program in this new portal era where you’re constantly rerecruiting your players,” Green said. “And then next thing you know, you’re playing KU, our rival, and he walks (the team) off when we had scuffled against midweeks.
“That was the first full-circle moment. The guy that we really wanted back more than anything, to be able to do that was pretty special.”
The same season he walked off against KU, the Shockers made the American Athletic Conference tournament championship game. The team lost that game via a Tulane walk off, and afterward, Millan approached Livingston with tears in his eyes and embraced him with a hug.
“He’s (Millan) like, ‘Man, I appreciate what you did and how you stayed with it. Nobody deserved this more than you,’” Livingston said. “I mean, that just goes to show who he is. (That was) the worst moment of all our lives, baseball-wise, and he came up to me, like, right after the game was over.
“I’ll never forget that.”
LEGACY AND MO
As Millan’s time at WSU winds down, he will be remembered most for his leadership.
“He played hurt, played banged up and was solid in every manner of the game,” Green said. “And he gave this program everything he had. I think his legacy is that he was one of the old school, Coach Gene (Stephenson) type-Shockers and we need to get more of him.” Millan’s future is ultimately up to him.
He’s currently completing his master’s degree in sport management and has dreams of staying with baseball by either coaching or opening up his own facility. Teammates and coaches, however, could see Millan doing anything he sets his mind to.
“Just kind of depends on how the year finishes and then what kind of doors open up,” Millan said.
Photo courtesy of Nick Flynn / Wichita State Athletics
Senior Mauricio Millan writes in the turf before the game on April 12. Millan has started every game this season since missing the first 11 due to injury. | Photo by Mack Smith / The Sunflower
WSU softball player Caroline Tallent is unlike any other
BY MACK SMITH mackred22@gmail.com
Caroline Tallent forged a path to Wichita State softball that is distinct from most other players. Instead of being recruited, she reached out to WSU head coach Kristi Bredbenner as a high schooler to show interest before Bredbenner reached out to her.
“I definitely reached out to them first,” Tallent said. “Then we started talking a little bit, but really, I just reached out to them and they liked that I was an athlete and thought they give me a chance.”
Now a senior ready to graduate, Tallent is used by Bredbenner as an example of a Wichita State success story. Bredbenner remembers seeing that email from Tallent in her inbox.
“Sometimes I stumble on them
— I get a lot of emails — and I can’t remember what piqued my interest with her,” Bredbenner
said. “I just remember watching her film, and she hit right and lefthanded. She had a great build, and she just seemed like a good kid.”
Tallent is also a hard worker off the field. She was class valedictorian at the Alvin C. York Institute in Tennessee and has been named to the American Athletic Conference All-Academic team every year of her WSU career.
She is also the only engineering major on the WSU softball team.
Tallent chose WSU because the university has aerospace, biomedical and mechanical engineering programs.
“There’s not very many colleges that have both aerospace, biomedical and mechanical,”
Tallent said. “So that if I decided to do one over the other, I wouldn’t be stuck.”
Bredbenner said it’s been great to coach Tallent.
“From just the first initial conversations that her and I had
She will roll up her sleeves, and if you need her to invent something for you, she’ll do it.”
KRISTI BREDBENNER
Wichita State softball coach
when she was in high school. Just with her desire of wanting to come here, be an engineering major and play softball,” Bredbenner said.
In her Shocker career, Tallent has played in 95 games and started 62 of them.
“I think she is just a hard worker, blue-collar,” Bredbenner said. “I mean, she will roll up her sleeves, and if you need her to invent something for you, she’ll do it.”
Tallent said she wants to be known for her hard work.
“Just knowing that if you work hard and keep your head down and don’t boast or get too cocky,
just keep trying, hustle and give your 100% effort every day, good things will happen,” Tallent said.
However, Bredbenner thinks Tallent will leave a legacy for her selflessness.
“She’s an awesome teammate and she’s everything that anybody could have asked for in a teammate,” Bredbenner said.
“I know whenever I do school, I do school. Whenever I do softball, I do softball,” Tallent said. “And just keep working it out, and it all works out in the end.”
After she graduates, Tallent would like a job in mechanical engineering. She thinks that she does a good job of balancing being a ballplayer and an engineering major.
CONGRATULATIONS SOCIOLOGY GRADUATES!
Elisabeth Benteman, M.A.
Brenda Blasetti, M.A.
Mahir Khan, M.A.
Mia Maupin, M.A.
Kameron Koeber, B.A.
Briana McCart, B.G.S.
John Navarro, B.A.
Gage Simpson, B.A.
Emily Sasin, B.A. Field Major
Harley Vargas, B.A.
Haley Lewis, B.G.S.
Alicia Thomas, B.A. Field Major
“Each new generation is reared by its predecessor; the latter must therefore improve in order to improve its successor. The movement is circular.”
— Émile Durkheim
Senior Caroline Tallent stretches to try and make an out against Oklahoma State University on Feb. 27. | Photo by Mack Smith / The Sunflower
OPINION
Embrace history and wear white to graduation
Aubri Baker
aubribaker0721@gmail.com
Wearing white isn’t just some random trend people follow for the aesthetic, it has been a tradition followed for decades.
It’s a meaningful tradition that goes back over a century. Technically, a Shocker can wear whatever they want under the gown, but white is timeless and looks amazing in photos.
Not only is it pretty but there’s history behind it which makes it easier to appreciate. Schools like Spelman College have had the tradition of white graduation dresses since the early 1900s, and it wasn’t just for the look. It was about unity, pride and respect. Women fighting
for the right to vote during the suffragette movement wore white at marches and rallies to symbolize hope.
There’s something super powerful about walking into graduation and seeing a sea of people in white. It’s not just about looking polished, it’s about feeling connected. A whole group of people celebrating the same huge moment. It feels like you’re part of something bigger than just your own story.
You can dress it up, dress it down, go full lace, power jumpsuit or minimalist queen. It doesn’t matter what your style is, you can find a white outfit that still screams you, while sticking with a tradition that actually means something. And because it’s such a blank canvas, all your accomplishments like cords and sashes will pop out
even more.
On the practical side, spring graduations happen in the heat. When you’re baking in the sun waiting for your name to be called, you’ll be glad you wore white. White reflects sunlight and keeps you cooler, which is important when you’re sitting outside for three hours in the hot and humid Kansas heat.
Wearing white to graduation isn’t about losing individuality, it’s about celebrating where you came from and where you’re headed. It links you to past generations of graduates and dreamers. So yeah, it’s been done over and over again, but it’s a tradition that actually stands for something.
And if nothing else, you’ll look absolutely iconic when your grandma posts you on Facebook later.
White on graduation day is practically asking for a disaster to happen.
On the day of my high school graduation, I had a white gown. I hadn’t put it on at my house, for fear I would have managed to get it dirty before I even entered the school. Despite my caution, I had barely exited my car before the white gown was ruined.
As I took the gown out, a breeze caught the fabric, blowing it into my tire and causing the hem to be stained brown from the country roads. That moment marked the beginning of my pact to never wear white on my next graduation.
White is a color seemingly always present on graduation day, whether as a gown, a collared shirt or a pretty dress, it’s almost always there.
There are many reasons for this. White is considered a neutral color; it could practically go with anything that a person could choose to wear.
It could also be for uniformity, like my high school did, by making female gowns white.
White can also be seen as a blank slate or a symbol of purity for the future, according to The California Aggie.
I really just don’t understand the appeal.
If someone is looking for a neutral color that won’t burn your retinas when glaring off the sun or cause messy mayhem, beige and black are always there, ready for someone to choose. Black is my neutral of choice, despite being seen as gloomy. It pairs nicely with just about anything.
Honestly, why are we trying to be neutral on graduation day?
This is the moment that the all-nighters, the excessive caffeine and the typing enough essays to cause arthritis have led to. This is the graduate’s chance to celebrate themselves and their accomplishments.
And the color to represent this euphoric, bittersweet feeling should not be white.
I personally wore dark blue at my graduation. It captured the somberness of the mood while also still giving my outfit a pop of color.
I also think a green would be a good choice as it reminds me of trees, which in my mind symbolize growth.
There are so many different colors to express oneself, especially through clothing. I highly urge every graduate, from here until the end of time, to reconsider reaching for that piece of white fabric.
Leave the white for a wedding and pick a color to truly showcase the person underneath the cap and gown.
In the end it’s the people who matter most
BY ALLISON CAMPBELL editor@thesunflower.com
There’s no perfect way to start a goodbye column — there’s so much I’ve said, plenty that I’ve left unsaid and lots that I still have left to say. So before I start rambling (as I’m so well-known for doing), let me rip off the band-aid and start with something somewhat upfront and unsettling.
You may not know me, but I know you — and getting to know you has been the highlight of my college career.
I’ve dedicated the last four years of my life to The Sunflower, Wichita State’s student-led news source. In that time, I’ve reported on and photographed the good, the bad, the ugly and everything in between — all to paint a picture of Wichita State University, to document its history and to showcase its people.
Journalism is often a solitary field. There’s a lot of pride, competition and certainly egos involved in the business, from who can break a story first to who has the best photo or who can write a better feature.
But if there’s one thing that I’ve learned during my time at Wichita State, it’s that you can’t go at it alone — and that doesn’t just apply to the newsroom.
I truly would be nothing — or, at the very least, not a very good storyteller — without the vulnerability, time and patience of my sources. Whether willingly or unwillingly, the people featured in my stories or my photos make the story and have made my career, and I’m eternally grateful for that.
I’ve cried with contacts, I’ve belly-laughed with eyewitnesses, and I’ve shared space with remarkable sources. Each of those interactions has brought immense value to my life, value that goes beyond a byline.
From those exchanges came connection, not just with my interviewees, but connection with humanity as a whole. You learn to see people — all people — differently once you’ve seen someone at their best, at their worst or just on a regular Tuesday afternoon.
From my time at The Sunflower, I’ve learned that relationships are
key. They are intense, intentional and integral, not only to a journalist but to any individual looking to leave behind a positive legacy. I hope, through my work in and out of The Sunflower, that I’ve done that.
It’s connections I’ve had with people in newsrooms as well that have made me into the semi-welladjusted individual I am today. From the encouragement of my
high school journalism teacher, Mrs. Ford, to the unwavering guidance from the Elliott School’s Amy DeVault, to my mother, who has become my and The Sunflower’s biggest fan, I truly would not be here today without them.
My amazing staffers, the students I’ve had the pleasure of leading for the last year, will also always hold a special place in
my heart. We’ve survived 12-hour newspaper productions, along with covering university scandals and seemingly every piece of breaking news imaginable. But we’ve also grown and learned so much together. It’s been an honor to share a newsroom with you. I’ve loved every minute and opportunity to connect with and understand you all. I’m excited knowing that there are still so many more people to meet, endless stories to tell and infinite moments to capture.
You’ve all taught me so much, and that’s a gift I can never repay. But I will, to the very best of my ability, use that gift to continue to connect with others, telling their stories authentically and accurately, while maintaining the high journalistic standard set by my predecessors before me.
If you can only take away one thing from this sentimental assortment of thoughts from an editor-in-chief come and gone, it should be this: keep making connections and keep getting to know people. You’ll make yourself, and the world, all the better for it.
Illustration by Savanna Nichols / The Sunflower
Allison Campbell accepts a first place award at the Kansas Collegiate Media competition. | Photo by Kristy Mace / The Sunflower
ARTS & CULTURE
Tackling new artforms with familiar concepts
BY KASS LEWIS lewkass05@gmail.com
As Abby Ausherman delves into a new medium in her art, she draws from something familiar. It’s something we all have, whether by blood or by bond — something simple in concept, but complex in nature. Abby brought her family — and the love and memories that come with it — to life in her newest exhibit.
“The hardest thing for me was actually getting into 3D art because I always consider myself a two-dimensional artist,” Abby said. “Like, I felt confident drawing, painting, printmaking, but then people were like, ‘Well, what if there was a backside?’”
Abby is an art teacher at Wichita State but is also finishing up her Master ‘s of Fine Arts degree. In her thesis exhibit at The Lux, an art gallery, Abby uses fabrics to create abstract pieces that represent various forms of feeling around family.
“I came here originally with an emphasis in printmaking — I’m still printmaking — but it’s definitely evolved a lot,” Abby said. “And the reason why I chose fiber is because it just, it really translates well to the maintenance and care and comfort that comes with relationships.”
At the beginning, she photographed her family members,
but somewhere through the process, she decided, “This is way too personal.”
She felt that using photos of her own family members would create a disconnect between the art and the viewers because her family is not their family. So she went in a more abstract direction with fabrics, focusing on pieces of family that more people would be able to connect with. Part of that is using old scraps of fabric, such as shirts and old quilts. Another piece is filling the mind with familiar sensations.
“Fibers is definitely a little bit more welcoming to (touch), partially because we are touching it every day of our lives,” Abby said. “I love it because it is any sort of wear and tear it gets from that is actually kind of part of it.”
Abby’s mother, Kayann Ausherman, is a mixed media artist who utilizes various 3D and 2D mediums spliced together.
“I enjoyed being experimental in my artmaking and trying lots of different things,” Kayann said.
When Abby wanted to explore the medium of fabrics, Kayann said there were a lot of conversations about exploring 3D art since Kayann had some experience in mixed media art. Kayann said she had a limited amount of knowledge because fabrics were “not something (she) had done before.”
The focus of the art installation is family, and Kayann, being Abby’s mother, found it interesting to see the interpretations of her in art form.
“Looking at the family dynamics and relationships and seeing her take on it, her expression of it … representing me,” Kayann said.
Going into the future, Abby wants to further explore different 3D mediums in art, but she won’t leave her roots in 2D art.
“I’d really like to explore a little bit more,” Abby said. “I only did a touch of printmaking on fabric, but I really want to try and merge the two more than I have done. So that’s my goal.”
Animation student finds his niche: ‘I just like making stuff’
BY RILEY SIPES rsipes03@icloud.com
Animation student Devon Robinson’s interest in visual art began in middle school, and quickly evolved into a passion and potential career path.
He said he initially practiced drawing because others noticed he excelled at it.
“People do art for kind of like that validation at first, from other people. Like, yeah, ‘you’re good at art,’ you know, that kind of stuff,” he said. “And then it became more of – I like making stuff.”
Throughout high school, his passion grew, but he began taking his art seriously amid quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic, while searching for something to fill the long hours of each day.
“I asked myself early on, if the world was ending, what would I do?” Robinson said. “COVID really taught me if everyone’s going to be stuck somewhere, I want to be making art and just do that for 20 hours of my day.”
Robinson took this perspective and ran with it, resulting in his desire to pursue a degree in visual art with a minor in marketing.
“The struggle with animation is that Western people – they only think animation is good for kids’ shows, but never more than that,” Robinson said. “Nothing that can express realistic emotions for adults and adult minds. That’s
why I kind of lean more toward 3-D (animation) because it’s able to be more serious and realistic.”
When Robinson joined the applied media arts department at Shocker Studios, the animation program director, Jalen Cooper, noticed his eagerness.
“He spent a lot of time scheduling meetings outside of class to talk to me about his career goals and career aspirations,” Cooper said. “With him and many other students, they come in with, definitely more of the outsider’s perspective of ‘I want to do everything in all of animation and make all of my cartoons myself.’”
For Robinson, rigging has become his specialty. Rigging is the portion of the production process that creates an animated character’s digital skeleton. Animators then use controls to make characters come to life.
“Basically, I make puppets,” Robinson said. He said that his shift from traditional art to digital art and rigging comes from his inherent curiosity and wanting to know how things work.
“I just like making stuff,” he said. “I see stuff and it’s like — ‘Oh, what if we did that? What if we changed that, added that, removed that and just combined different things?’ I like that process of taking something from nothing, making it well and having other people enjoy it.”
Abby Ausherman shows fabric for her upcoming exhibition. | Photo by Garima Thapa / The Sunflower
