Forward Together: President's May 2023 Message

It’s graduation season, and I am so incredibly proud of all our Shocker graduates. On May 13, we will be awarding more than 2,500 degrees to about 2,200 very deserving and hardworking students.  

Just some quick data on our spring 2023 graduating class:  

• The overall GPA for this class is 3.5.  
• They hail from 29 states, 48 countries and six continents.   
• 66.4% are from Kansas, 11.2% are from states outside of Kansas, and 22.4% are from other countries.  
• 45.6% of them are first-generation students.  
• 6.1% are veterans, active-duty military or military dependents.  
• 17.7% of our undergraduate grads are returning adult learners.  

We’ve compiled a handful of stories from some of our graduates, and I invite you to visit our spring 2023 Meet a Shocker page to learn more about them.  

Each of our graduates has taken part in applied learning experiences as a requirement of their degree programs, which involves spending a significant amount of time in a professional setting. This approach ensures that, upon graduation, they are well-prepared to make meaningful and immediate contributions to their respective fields. In fact, in 2022, about 8,000 Wichita State students earned $28.5 million in applied learning opportunities with 601 employers.  

These applied learning opportunities are a vital component of what makes a Wichita State student exceptionally marketable and attractive to employers: 

• “WSU students almost always come to us with some previous practical experience. This allows them to ramp up quickly and take the lead on projects in a very short amount of time,” said Nicole Proulx, director of research for Human Interfaces, an Austin UX research firm that has a history of hiring Shockers as interns and full-time professionals.  
• “Wichita State University is doing amazing things,” said Sethuraman Panchanathan, director of the National Science Foundation, when he visited Wichita State in January. “When I look at the convergence of what industry needs and what we need to train the next generation of experts, that fusion is right here in action – live – which is phenomenal to watch.” 
• “We've been blown away by what Wichita State students can do,” said Kyrie Cameron, a partner at Patterson + Sheridan LLP in Houston, which has hired several Wichita State students to work in patent law. “Their understanding of engineering principles related to commercial uses of those principles — like actual products and actual things that happen in the world — they're not reading it from a textbook. They’re working on solving real-world problems.”  

To our graduates: As you file out of Koch Arena on May 13, I wish you … well, not luck. You don’t need luck. But I wish you success (however you might define it), curiosity, a mindset for lifelong learning, perseverance and resilience. You will forever be part of the Wichita State family and legacy, and we are so proud of the leaders, innovators, builders and Shockers you’ve become.  

Congratulations, class of 2023! Go Shockers!  

Sincerely,