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Small town natives band together

Students form Kansas Connections to ease big-town transition

When KU sophomore Alisha Ann Ridgley tells other KU students she is from Waldo, she knows exactly what they will say.

"They know the cartoon and ask 'Where's Waldo?' " says Ridgley, whose hometown is in north-central Russell County, between Paradise and Luray.

Laughter turns to amazement when Ridgley says Waldo's population is 54. "It's quite a shock. Most kids at KU think of a small town as maybe 5,000 to 6,000 people. Most people don't even think there's towns that small."

This fall, Ridgley is one of nearly 50 KU students from small rural communities who have formed Kansas Connections - Helping Small Town Students Succeed. During Hawk Week about half the members participated in signing up as mentors for new KU students from similar communities.

Less than a year old, the campus organization was formed by two KU alumnae with western Kansas roots who now work at KU: Erin Michaelis, 2003 graduate in Spanish and psychology from Hays; and Wendy Rohleder-Sook, originally from Plainville, who earned a bachelor's in 1998 and a law degree in 2001, both from KU.

Michaelis is assistant director for the Student Involvement and Leadership Center, and Rohleder-Sook is assistant director/pre-law coordinator in the Freshman Sophomore Advising Center.

When the two met at a KU conference and realized they were from western Kansas communities, they exchanged stories about their early experiences as KU students. One story led to another, and both women saw a need for an organization that would allow small-town students to help one another find their way on a campus teeming with more than 25,000 students.

They contacted students they knew from rural communities in February, and by April a group had formed and elected officers. Nathan Ladd, a junior in business administration and international studies from rural Effingham (pop. 588) in northeast Kansas, is president.

Michaelis remembers: "I came to KU and people were talking about brands of clothes, schools and activities that I had never heard of. It was difficult to relate to people who grew up in a society focused on shopping at Nordstrom's when The Buckle was upscale in my high school.

"Aside from the focus on material items that I was not accustomed to, I felt behind in many senses. From music to vernacular, I did not relate to my peers from urban areas."

Although Michaelis said she forged friendships with students from urban areas, "I would have loved to have had a group of students to assure me that my different experiences were something to be proud of ... and for me, that is why I am interested in Kansas Connections."

Ridgley agrees a small community has its benefits. Her senior class at Lucas-Luray High School in Lucas had about 15 students. The small size "almost forced you to be involved in everything," she said. Ridgley was in band and sports clubs and an editor for the school paper and yearbook.

"I guess we're more well-rounded in that aspect," she says, comparing her small school to some of the urban schools her new KU friends attended.

Ridgley and Ladd recommend that students from small towns focus on that well-rounded asset, not on the size of the KU population or classes.

Ladd, one of KU's Summerfield Scholars, says, "Getting involved is the key. Find an organization. I got involved with Student Senate, which is great way to find out what's going on campus."

In addition to being elected to represent the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in the Student Senate, Ladd is a proctor in Grace Pearson Scholarship Hall and will be working in the Center for East Asian Studies. He spent three weeks in China this summer as a KU Kansas Asia Scholar.

Copyright 2005, an official employee publication from the Office of University Relations.