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And the winner is...

Congratulations to Cindy Dalton, MBA ’82, Gaithersburg, MD, the winner of the random-generated drawing from correct submissions to the Squirrel Search contest. She will be receiving a box of squirrel-themed swag from McKay Bricker Framing & Black Squirrel Gifts in downtown Kent.

The black squirrels can be found in the fall/winter 2020-21 PDF on pages 11 (near the fire hydrant in the top right-hand corner of the DI Hub photo), 15 (to the right of quarterback Dustin Crum’s foot in the bottom right photo) and 48 (on the desk above the coffee mug in the #2 photo from virtual Homecoming 2020 celebrations). Thanks to all who entered!

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Thanks for the Memories

I spent four years as a speech major and student staffer at—and “on”—WKSU during those “wired wireless” days (’51–’55). Before starting the squirrel hunt, I read the nice WKSU article and checked out the historical photos. The 1954 program director (standing, with tie) in front of our wall signage is yours truly. [See photo at right.]

I really enjoyed the WKSU history. Although I spent lots of time with Walt [Clarke], the other instructor overseeing the station was my advisor, John Weiser. The day I left campus to go to my next stop as a graduate assistant in the speech department at OSU, John said, among other things: “Always ask, why?” That advice has always guided me in life.
Mel Grossman, BS ’55
Bellbrook, Ohio

Very nice edition. Loved the WKSU story, as I was one of many students who spent all of our spare time working at the campus radio station. Great experience and great friendships to this very day.
Pamela Carson, BS ’69  
Bay Village, Ohio

Missing KSU in Bangkok

I always feel grateful for American tax-payers’ support through the USAID scholarship program providing me the opportunity to study in the United States. Two-week orientation at Aloha Hawaii University, two days in LA, two weeks in Washington, DC—destination KSU. As a foreign student at Small Group Housing Complex Musselman Hall, three meals a day at next door Humphrey Hall, I embraced the friendly-cum-academic atmosphere enthusiastically. Is that exceptional memorial NORMAL? I miss KSU and think of the university and the peaceful city of Kent with love and tenderness.

I personally visited KSU once with excitement and pride in 1990 after a UNDP [United Nations Development Programme] meeting in New York and USAID short-term training in Washington, DC. Sad passing the area of the burnt ROTC Building. The magazine would heal my KSU homesickness a great deal.
Thongchai Choochuang, MPA ’70 
Bangkok, Thailand

An Uphill Climb

I’m deeply appreciative for all the support you’ve shown a small-town kid. [See “Change Maker,” fall/winter 2018-19.] I was the first of my Greek-American family to go to college. �鶹��Ƶ Stark had just opened for classes in fall 1967. The campus then was a singular building on a hill. Somehow without knowing why, as I climbed that hill, I had a sense this would be life changing. I was 17 years old as the term began. At 71, I’ve come to totally appreciate that the climb up the hill at �鶹��Ƶ was a metaphor for the many hills I would climb.
Michael Chanak Jr., BS ’71
Cincinnati, Ohio

Editor’s Note:
Thank you for sharing your experience at �鶹��Ƶ Stark as a first-generation college student! (And for keeping in touch with us by submitting class notes about your journey—the most recent one being in this issue.) I think you’ll be especially interested in two of the stories in this issue: “First to Go,” about �鶹��Ƶ being designated as a First-gen Forward Institution (page 10) and the Flashback titled “Climbing the Hill at Kent” (page 56). 

As you can see from the 1915 photo that we’re running as the Flashback, �鶹��Ƶ Normal School also started as a few buildings on a hill. And that climbing metaphor was not lost on its first woman faculty member, May Prentice (see page 18), who penned a poem with the refrain, “Climbing the hill at Kent,” which appeared in the 1930 Chestnut Burr. It was set to music and sung for decades by students at �鶹��Ƶ. The last stanza ends: “And glad are the eyes and the heart of you / That you climbed the hill at Kent.”

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