Kansas Kids @ GEAR UP has recognized Randy Stout with the Building Bridges Award at WSU.

Kansas Kids @ GEAR UP, a federally funded program hosted by Wichita State University, provides college access services to foster care and low-income students throughout Kansas.

A native of Oakley, Kan., and the first in his family to attend college, Stout understood early on how special that opportunity was.

Throughout his career he has sought to improve educational opportunity and access however he could. He has assisted individuals in attaining their goals and helped communities throughout the state to improve their educational performance.

Whether serving as a grant writer for the Kansas State Department of Education or working for the Kansas Board of Regents in a variety of service roles, Stout has had statewide influence and impact on an individual level.

As the grant writer in the Office of Planning and Research at KSDE, Stout worked with the team at the state education agency and leaders from the field of education to coordinate successful applications for funding from the U.S. Department of Education and from other private philanthropic sources.

From improving early literacy through a Kansas Health Foundation grant to enhancing teaching quality throughout the state through a Title II State Grant to a welfare-to-work program or a program to enhance employment services for people with disabilities, his influence has been wide-ranging, multilayered and meaningful.

Stout has also worked to coordinate successful applications for funding from the U.S. Department of Education and from other private philanthropic sources that included the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, National Association of State Boards of Education and National Center for Education Outcomes.

For Stout these were not technical roles, they were opportunities to work with and help others in a personal way.

For nearly seven years, Stout has served on the advisory board for Kansas Kids @ GEAR UP. He has provided guidance from the beginning of the program in 2002.

He served as a major resource as the program grew throughout the state when it struggled to identify partners and key people.

Stout has been a key problem solver and troubleshooter for technology or resource issues.

He also has been an invaluable adviser and local resource for the Kansas Kids @ GEAR UP, Region 3 Office in Topeka.

He has further demonstrated his commitment to the program by annually representing Kansas Kids @ GEAR UP at the National Council for Community and Education Partnerships conference.