The value of competition and collaboration

I have constantly drastically appreciated the inventive arts and am particularly proud of the operate our artwork and structure office college students make. I am also a big admirer of all Fort Hays Point out sports. I’d like to share with you a story about an FHSU university student who excels in two incredibly different pursuits-volleyball and graphic design and style. When volleyball and graphic style have really very little in common, both are pursuits in which intense opposition and open collaboration can be the keys to success.  

Riley is a senior graphic layout significant from Basehor. At a reasonably early age, Riley learned the significance of holding life’s ups and downs in standpoint. She’s learned the worth of finding a balance concerning all the calls for on her time and interest. 

Riley has always loved competing. She ran keep track of and performed basketball, softball, volleyball, and swam. While softball was her first like, she at some point gravitated to volleyball, signing up for a club team in 4th grade.

“I adore the adrenaline rushes that are so a lot a portion of volleyball. There are a good deal of ups and downs, but I like that it is fully a crew recreation,” Riley claimed.

As the many years progressed, Riley started to settle on volleyball as her sports enthusiasm. Although she cherished artwork, math was her educational spot of best curiosity, that is, until eventually her senior yr of high faculty when she did a job shadow at a marketing company called World wide Prairie. Till stepping into their workplaces, Riley believed that a profession in artwork would equate to a vow of poverty. After she observed the possibilities of what a graphic designer could do in an agency, she understood that was what she preferred to analyze in faculty.

While Riley knew she needed to examine graphic design at Fort Hays Condition, she wasn’t prepared to give up on the dream of playing higher education volleyball. She reached out to FHSU volleyball mentor Jessica Wooden-Atkins but was instructed there wasn’t a place on the roster for her. Then, late in the recruitment cycle, one of coach Wood-Atkins’ seniors decided to forgo her final season of eligibility and left the workforce. Fortune unexpectantly smiled on Riley as she got her shot as a wander-on with the Tigers.

A steady passer, an intense server, and a wise and disciplined hitter, Riley swiftly observed her way to the setting up lineup in her sophomore period. Final period, Riley led the squad in the two kills and company aces. She has been regarded quite a few periods for her overall performance on and off the court docket, earning the All Mid-The united states Intercollegiate Athletics Affiliation (MIAA) honorable mention honors in 2021 and 2022 and the MIAA Scholar-Athlete Award and selection to the University Sports activities Communicators Academic All-District crew in 2022. 

Riley pours her heart and soul into Tiger Volleyball the two throughout the tumble NCAA year and in the spring, where by the opposition plan is minimal, but the teaching, pounds-lifting, and conditioning regimes can be exhaustive. 

“This is all I’ve ever accomplished. I in all probability consider things way too major and also personally. I’m finding out not to make it my identity when I do well or not,” Riley said.

When she’s not having, sleeping, or satisfying her volleyball responsibilities, Riley can usually be discovered in a studio with her classmates at the Schmidt Foundation Center for Art Style and design. When deciding to go after graphic structure, Riley was involved that she wouldn’t fit in. Fortunately, she was incorrect. With each other, in the studio for a great number of several hours, Riley and her fellow graphic layout learners rapidly formed a solid bond. 

“Sometimes, normally at about 2 am, when we’re all kind of exhausted and delusional, are the occasions when we make the most effective recollections,” Riley said.  

Each individual spring, junior and senior pupils in the graphic design and style application have the option to take part in the Pencil Project portfolio competition. The competitiveness is sponsored by Leo Burnett Worldwide, a Chicago-primarily based advertising and marketing company. The brainchild of previous FHSU graphic design and style majors who located success working for the company, the Pencil Undertaking was established more than 25 a long time ago as a way for Leo Burnett to partner with FHSU to help form long run company professionals. More than just a very simple portfolio task, the Pencil Venture is really about assisting FHSU graphic style and design pupils acquire the personalized brand name they will present to probable employers and the globe. Riley phone calls it a exam of every thing she’s figured out in the system. 

As a junior last spring, Riley won the competitors. She details to this experience as just one that trulyhammered dwelling the importance of each scholar designer’s part in maintaining the properly-gained name of the graphic style and design plan at FHSU. 

“All of us knew that we were following in line to have the torch for the legacy of our plan,” Riley claimed, “maintaining that legacy was a shared duty,” and one that brought her and her colleagues closer. Even though the Pencil Project was an specific and not a team competition, Riley thinks the greatest aspect was their shared dedication to collaboration. They definitely saw the biggest outcome was to see everybody do well. 

This summer season, Riley designs to intern with many corporations in the Kansas Metropolis spot. She wishes to study as a lot as possible from these activities so she can meticulously opt for the setting to launch her profession. Riley will graduate in December of 2023, correct just after her ultimate period with the Tiger Volleyball team comes to a shut. In December of this yr, she will graduate from FHSU with the ability to compete fiercely at the greatest amounts, but well balanced by a personalized determination to becoming a compassionate and selfless friend and colleague.