Shockers everywhere, at events long ago to happenings just the other day, always have something interesting to say. Take this sampling as a Shock Talk example:
“The national ranking makes a real statement. It’s like being in the Sweet 16.”
— David Butler, former director of WSU’s Ulrich Museum of Art now with the Knoxville Museum of Art in Tennessee, about Public Art Review’s ranking of Wichita State’s Martin H. Bush Outdoor Sculpture Collection as among the 10 best campus art collections in America.
“It’s amazing the surprising places where you will meet a Shocker. My internship supervisor, Carmen Covey (’76), and project lead, Michael Bollinger (’97), with the Missile Defense Agency’s CFO Compliance and Systems department, both happen to be former Shockers.”
— Lily Wu, WSU senior, majoring in international business and integrated marketing communication and one of 86 college students selected as a Norm Mineta Internship Immersion program recipient. Wu is serving an all-expense paid summer internship with the Department of Defense in Washington, D.C.
“Thank you for your generosity. It is through scholarships that I have been able to be involved on campus and benefit from every moment of my college experience, and it is through the alumni association that great college experiences are remembered for a lifetime.”
— James Blakemore, WSU chemistry and Spanish major, in a letter to the alumni association after receiving one of seven WSU license plate scholarships awarded for the 2006-07 academic year.
Shockers converged on Washington, D.C., March 24-26, 2006 following the first Wichita State basketball team to scrap its way to an NCAA Sweet Sixteen since 1981. And the WSU Alumni Association was there.
Working with the Greater Wichita Area Sports Commission, the association hosted a charter jet dubbed “Shocker One” that carried some 130 fans to the games. In D.C., Shocker One passengers met up with hundreds of other alumni and friends who turned a sizeable section of Georgetown University’s Verizon Center black and yellow.
Two of the first Shocker fans to arrive for the March 24 Wichita State vs. George Mason game were Wichita native Ryan Gates of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Kate Vansteenhuyse, above.
The two weren’t stranded alone in the stands for long, as more and more Shockers — including basketball greats Antoine Carr fs ’83 and Xavier McDaniel ’87/96; alumni Gladys ’72 and Buck Alley, Aaron Cunningham ’01, Martin Geeding ’80, Joan ’55 and Tom ’59/67 Gilley, Joy ’00 and Brian ’96 Heinrichs and Sherry Renollet ’99; youngsters Marco Carazo, Eddie Fahnestock, Miguel Paschal and Lia and Scott Sutherman — took their seats to cheer on their team in a tough loss to the Patriots, 55-63.
