The first three segments of a new WSUAA-produced video series called Shocker High Points debuted Saturday, Oct. 1 to an enthusiastic Rockin’ the Roundhouse audience. Segment stars Courtney M. Marshall, WSUAA president and CEO, and WSUAA scholarship recipients Minh-Chau Johnson and Taran Langston were all on hand for the first showing of the videos.
Created for the purpose of highlighting a wide range of high points in the lives, careers and educational experiences of Wichita State personalities, the series’ introductory video features Marshall at her campus home, the Woodman Alumni Center, where she talks about the scope of WSUAA programming and shares one of her high points of working in alumni affairs: being involved with the alumni association’s two scholarship programs, the WSU Drive Your Pride License Plate Scholarship and the WSU Legacy Scholarship.
“I’m proud to tell you,” Marshall says, “that the license plate program alonehas generated more than half a million dollars for deserving students since its first scholarships were awarded in 2000. This year, we awarded 15 scholarships. We have six Legacy and nine License Plate recipients.”
The second video segment showcases Johnson, a WSU License Plate Scholar who is studying for a bachelor’s degreein biomedical engineering. Filmed in WSU’s Musculoskeletal Biomechanics and Design Lab in Wallace Hall, Johnson shows viewers around the lab and describes some of the research being conducted there.
Langston, who is a Legacy Scholar, a criminal justice major and a member of the WSU Dance Team, was filmed in a dance practice room at the HeskettCenter. The daughter of two WSU graduates – Traci Langston ’89, anelementary education graduate, and Mike Langston ’89, whose bachelor’s degree is in aviation management – says the high point of being a dance team member is “getting to do the Fight Song at all the basketball games.”
The focus of additional video segments shifts to alumni. The first alumnus to be featured is Dean Hargrove ’60, a film and television producer, writer anddirector who is especially noted for creating TV mystery series. Future alumni subjects will be Junetta Everett ’79, dental hygienist and the first African American to graduate from Wichita State’s dental hygiene program who now serves as vice president of professional relations at Delta Dental of Kansas, and Bill Gardner ’81/83, the owner and president of Wichita’s Gardner Design firm who in his younger years showed talent of a different ilk – as a magician.
The first four Shocker High Points segments, featuring Marshall, Johnson, Langston and Hargrove, as well as future videos in the series, may be viewed on YouTube, on TheShockerCrew channel.
