Wichita State names first class of Koch Scholars

Ten Kansas high school students were awarded $30,000 scholarships to attend Wichita State University as the university’s inaugural class of Koch Scholars, the school announced Friday.

Koch Industries and the Fred C. and Mary R. Koch Foundation gave $11.25 million to WSU last year to support several education endeavors.

Of that, $1.54 million was given to create annual scholarships for high-achieving Kansas high school students to become Koch Scholars; many of them over the course of time will be students seeking majors within the College of Engineering or the W. Frank Barton School of Business, WSU said in a statement.

The 10 students will receive $30,000 each over the course of four years, in addition to whatever other general merit scholarships they have earned, WSU said.

Charles Koch, who heads Koch Industries, has said his company prefers to hire new employees from WSU, other Kansas schools and other schools in the Great Plains because it has found that graduates from those schools are not only well trained but have a strong work ethic.

Koch Scholars and others at WSU will study not only in traditional class configurations but will also take part in new programs where students from different disciplines collaborate on business and other projects, WSU leaders have said.

Royce Bowden, the engineering college dean, and Kimberly Engber, dean of WSU’s honors college, have said they are working on plans for how students from differing disciplines – engineering and computer science and liberal arts, for example – could be teamed up to do projects.

The idea, they have said, would be that all these students will get a more intensive and broader base of education while learning from one another and learning the nuances of business collaboration.

Koch Scholars will live on campus their first year, remain active in the Honors College and pursue a major in business or engineering, WSU said. Selection was based on high school GPAs and test scores; work, volunteer and leadership experiences; and an essay.

The scholars WSU named on Friday: R. Chase Crenshaw, Andover High School, computer science; Kiehn Foraker, Rose Hill High School, computer science; Courtney Grosch, Newton High School, economics; Morgan Jarrett, Mulvane High School, computer engineering; Kyle Kopecky, Blue Valley North High School, finance and marketing; Thomas Schmidt, Wichita Northwest, economics and finance; Daniel Martin, Flinthills High School, economics; Nicholas Perkins, Andover High School, computer engineering; Jessica Wehkamp, Cimarron High School, accounting; and Taylor Williams, Wichita East, mechanical engineering.

Reach Roy Wenzl at 316-268-6219 or rwenzl@wichitaeagle.com. Follow him on Twitter: @roywenzl.

This story was originally published March 20, 2015 at 2:56 PM with the headline "Wichita State names first class of Koch Scholars."