Miss Kansas is coming to Newman!
Each year, the Student Life Department at Newman University hosts a LEAD series, which is a series of lecturing events that revolve around an annual theme. These events are designed to help students “Learn, Engage, Achieve, and Develop” goals which come together and create the associated acronym, LEAD. The theme for the 2016-17 series is ‘Women in Leadership’ and has so far consisted of an impressive lineup of women who hold leadership roles around the community.
The final installment in the series, which was originally scheduled for Thursday, March 9, has been re-scheduled for Thursday, March 16. Miss Kansas, Kendall Schoenekase, will speak at 6:30 p.m. in the Dugan-Gorges Conference Center. The event is free and open to the public.
The LEAD series kicked off in September when Executive Directer of Catholic Charities Wendy Glick came to campus and spoke about the different types of service work associated with her job. In October, the university hosted a panel of the Wichita Business Journal’s 40 under 40 which consisted of three female awardees who spoke about bridging the gap between college and the professional world. Newman University alumna Diana Crook, M.D. spoke to the university in January about the balancing act of being a student-athlete who was also trying to get into medical school. She also spoke about being a woman in medical school who was trying to balance the challenges of being both a wife and a mother.
In this year’s LEAD series final event, Newman will host Schoenekase, who will speak about what it has taken for her to achieve the successes she maintains today.
At 22, Schoenekase has already achieved extremely high levels of success. Not only has she been crowned the 75th Miss Kansas and is now actively involved in promoting her platform, “Stay Alive: Don’t Text and Drive,” but she has also earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Arkansas. In addition, her hopes for academic success do not stop there, as she plans to continue her education in seeking her doctorate of nursing practice.
Director of Student Activities Lauren Fontarum hopes that showcasing the achievements of Schoenekase to Newman students will help ignite inspiration and a sense of grit and determination.
“Miss Kansas has a lot of insight as to what it takes to achieve things at the age our students are at,” Fontarum said. “It’s easy to look at somebody with this title and only see the rhinestones but not the grit that it takes to reach this type of achievement.”
For more information, contact Fontarum at 316-942-4291, ext. 2453 or by e-mail at [email protected].
