10/16/15 dgo

HAYS, Kan. -- The Fort Hays State University contingent attending the NASPA Region IV-West Conference next month in Colorado will have to make room to cart back all its awards.

FHSU won seven awards from the 10-state NASPA IV-West Region competition and will be honored at the NASPA conference Nov. 8-12 in Beaver Creek, Colo. NASPA is short for National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, whose name has been changed to Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education.

Dr. Keegan Nichols, assistant vice president for student affairs, and Brett Bruner, director of transition and student conduct, will take with them to the conference four individual award winners while also collecting an award for a project on which they collaborated. They also will accept two other awards won by FHSU in a team effort.

FHSU made it a clean sweep in the Rising Star Award competitions, claiming top honors for the state of Kansas in all three categories recognized -- new professional, graduate student and undergraduate student.

The new professional winner was Jacob Ternes, coordinator for the Center for Student Involvement and Greek Life. Edith Reza-Martinez from Great Bend was the graduate student Rising Star for Kansas. And claiming the undergrad award was Ricardo Zakora, a sophomore from Kansas City, Kan., majoring in international business.

Bruner and Nichols won the literature/research publication award for their research project titled "Assessment Colleague Team." FHSU won the innovative program award for its "First 40 Days" initiative it began in 2014 and also was the winner of the campus-based video/computer software award for its entry "ACCESS to Success -- Student Success Plan."