THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, APRIL 14, 2014
PAGE 3
ACADEMICS
Truman Scholarship applicants anticipate decision
TERRI HARVEY news@kansan.com
From left to right: Emma Halling, Micah Melia, Leigh Loving and Ginny Helgeson.
On Wednesday, the University of Kansas may have a new Truman Scholarship winner. For months, four University candidates have been working on their applications and preparing for an interview that took place last Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.
Halling serves as the student body vice president and has worked all of her undergraduate career with the Commission on the Status of Women.
They all mentioned that keeping a tight schedule is important, along with balancing priorities.
The Harry S. Truman scholarship is a prestigious opportunity for students who plan to attend graduate school and commit themselves to public service. All four of the candidates plan to assist their community either through working in law and public policy, medicine or social welfare.
Candidates Emma Halling, Leigh Loving, Ginny Helgeson and Micah Melia are all heavily involved on campus. As most students know, it is a struggle to maintain outstanding grades and participate in extracurriculars, but these four students have worked to make it possible.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
"I live and die by my Google Calendar, and being a boxer means that I have to take care of myself, eat well and get enough sleep, which helps me to always be performing my best academically and in extra-curriculars," Halling said.
"I create a daily schedule for myself each morning. It helps
me keep track of what I need to be doing throughout the day." Loved saying.
The other two candidates are just as well known on campus. Helgeson is the president of the Sexuality Education Committee through the Ecumenical Campus Ministries and works with the Willow Domestic Violence Center and the Center for Community Outreach. Melia is a teacher's aide at the Hilltop Child Development Center, assists with Alternative Breaks and is also a member of the Center for Community Outreach.
These scholars do not volunteer their time just for the accolades; they all have different reasons for their continued participation on campus.
"Student organizations and volunteering are important because they benefit you holistically," Helgeson said. "They inspire friendships, they give real world experience and they help you keep your perspective. Whenever I feel stressed, my extracurricular activities both challenge me and refresh me."
Like Loving, many volunteers work to hone their skills in their future careers while working with those who could become their colleagues.
"Last year, I founded Jayhawk Health Initiative, a prehealth program that focuses on giving participants experiential learning opportunities," Loving said. "The goal of JHI is twofold. First, JHI strives to
produce educated and engaged students who will become the next generation of healthcare providers in the state of Kansas. Second, JHI aims to ensure that all citizens have equal access to healthcare by providing aid to under-served populations, both locally and internationally"
"Receiveing the Truman would help me to pay for graduate degrees in public policy and law, so that I will have less student debt upon graduation and be able to more readily enter public service," Halling said.
However, the honor of the Truman scholarship is worth more than just the money.
If chosen to receive this prestigious award, all of the candidates would put the money towards furthering their education.
"While the scholarship is certainly a huge benefit for paying for graduate school, I think the more significant gift is the community of other Truman scholars you get to know," Helgeson said. She describes being in a room with
the thirteen Kansas City finalists on Monday, all waiting to be interviewed. "It was a lot of fun to become friends with these interesting, kind, and social justice-oriented students during just that brief time. If I am chosen as a Truman scholar, I would most appreciate the friendships I made. I would use those connections in my future career to address social and political problems with the knowledge and experiences of many different people," Helgeson said.
These four students have worked all of their academic lives to be the best they can be. Halling, Loving, Helgeson and Melia remember working hard since their earliest days in elementary school.
"I have been academically involved and engaged for as long as I can remember. My family always placed a large emphasis on academic performance," Halling said. "I have always been the type of person to get engaged in being a part of the solution if I identify a problem I want to solve."
thanks their family for influencing their involvement and academia. Melia said that her family has always supported and encouraged her decisions in and outside of the classroom. Loving credits her mother and father individually for their attributions to her education.
Each one of the candidates
"I credit my mom for reading to me every night before bed and passing along a love of literature," Loving said. "My dad has guided me through the various situations that come with a leadership role."
Helgeson credits the University for her success as well.
"None of this would have been possible without the University Honors Program. The Honors Program cares deeply about their students," said Helgeson. "I felt very well prepared throughout the entire application and interview process. It is wonderful to have been given a chance to represent the University that has offered me so many academic and extracurricular opportunities."
— Edited by Krista Montgomery
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Joel Embiid and Andrew Wiggins become the 4th and 5th KU freshmen to declare for the NBA draft. They join two sophomores and nine juniors, all but three of whom
were players in the Bill Self era.
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PLANT FROM PAGE 1
are nearing the end of their life (sic). And so as we take out 50 — sometimes 70 — trees a year that we're losing to insect damage and disease, we really need to stay on top of putting those trees back up, and this effort kind of helps fill that gap."
Victor Zaharopoulos, a junior who helped begin the event three years ago, said he is pleased with the way Replant Mount Oread has developed over the years, and is happy with the amount of money raised for the event this year, as well as having currently planted over 25 trees on campus.
"It's been really great, the support from alumni and students. I think the combination
has been really strong, and that's why it's such an effective project because it is immediately visible," Zaharopoulos said. "You know, one day the trees appear and the students take notice."
Emily Cook, a junior from Olathe, said that participating in the event is a good way to give back and to reduce the campus' carbon footprint.
"It's a very long-lasting gift on campus," Cook said. "In a couple of years we'll be able to say, 'Hey, we planted that one.'"
Recycle this paper
Edited by Tara Bryant
CRIME
Shooting in Kansas City leaves three dead
OVERLAND PARK — A gunman opened fire outside of a Jewish community center on Sunday, killing a doctor and his teenage grandson before heading to a Jewish retirement community a few blocks away and killing someone else, authorities said.
Police arrested the suspected assailant in an elementary school parking lot shortly after the attacks in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park.
the need to notify their loved ones first. But the family of the first two people who were shot released a statement later Sunday identifying them as Dr. William Lewis Corporon and his 14-year-old grandson, Reat Griffin Underwood. They were both Christian, and the family thanked members of their church congregation, among other people, for their support.
"Today is a sad and very tragic day," Douglass said. "As you might imagine we are only three hours into this investigation. There's a lot of innuendo and a lot of assertions going around. There is really very little hardcore information."
At a news conference, the city's police chief, John Douglass, said the suspect is in his 70s, wasn't from Kansas and wasn't known to area law enforcement. He also said there was no indication that the suspect knew the victims.
Douglass declined to release the names of the victims, citing
Brecca Sturtevant, a spokeswoman for Overland Park Regional Medical Center, where Reat was taken and where he died, said family members said Corporon and the boy were at the community center so that the high school freshman could try out for KC SuperStar, a singing competition for students.
"We take comfort knowing they are together in Heaven," the family said. It asked for privacy to mourn.
Douglass said the suspect made several statements to police, "but it's too early to tell you what he may or may not have said." He also said it was too early in the investigation to determine whether there was an anti-Semitic motive for the attacks or if they will be investigated as hate crimes. The
Jewish festival of Passover begins Monday.
"We are investigating it as a hate crime. We're investigating it as a criminal act. We haven't ruled out anything. ... Again, we're three hours into it," he said.
Douglass said the suspect first opened fire in the parking lot behind the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City. Corporon died at the scene and his grandson later died at the hospital. The chief said the suspect then drove to the nearby retirement community, Village Shalom, where he shot and killed a woman or girl. The gunman also shot at two other people during the attacks, but missed them. Douglass said.
Douglass said a shotgun was used in the attacks, and that investigators are also trying to determine if a handgun and assault-style rifle may also have been used.
Police officers were also sent to other Jewish facilities in the area immediately after the shootings, the police chief said.
"I immediately when we learned we had an active shooter we dispatched vehicles to secure and surveil all the active Jewish facilities in the city and other religious institutions which are not Jewish," Douglass said.
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The suspect was taken to the Johnson County Detention Center. Johnson County District Attorney Stephen Howe, who attended the news conference along with Barry Grissom, U.S. Attorney for Kansas, said it was too soon to know when the suspect would appear in court. Corporon, who was a family doctor, leaves behind a wife of 49 years. His grandson, Reat, was an Eagle Scout who loved camping and hunting with his grandfather, father and brother, the family said.
President Barack Obama released a statement expressing his grief over the attack, and Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback vowed to bring those responsible to justice.
"My heart and prayers are with all those who were affected by today's events." Brownback said in a statement. "We will pursue justice aggressively for these victims and criminal charges against the perpetrator or perpetrators to the full extent of the law."
Associated Press
The University of Kansas School of Business PRESENTS
J. A. VICKERS SR. AND ROBERT F. VICKERS SR. MEMORIAL LECTURE SERIES
ERIC MADDOX Interrogator U.S. Department of Defense
KU SCHOOL OF BUSINESS The University of Kansas
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