Scholarship recipient ‘gives back’ to WSU through campus involvement
Shocker scholarship recipient Emily Streeter aims to be a “return on investment” to Wichita State University. Just starting her sophomore year, she’s already making good on that exchange.
During her college search, Streeter began to understand the immensity of the financial burden of higher education. “Like many students, my parents help where they can by providing emotional support and encouragement,” she says. “But I always knew I would be responsible for the cost of my degree.”
Her senior year of high school, she struggled to find scholarships that could meet her financial need. That is, until she visited Wichita State. After participating in the Distinguished Scholarship Invitational, she was matched with the Richard ‘Dick’ Smith Scholarship. Abating the financial pressures of college, that scholarship opened up a world of possibilities. “Knowing I had that support—that made me want to seize every opportunity I possibly could,” Streeter says.
From her already impressive resume, it’s clear she’s realizing that goal. Having just started her second year, she’s an executive on the Student Activities Council and social chair for the WSU Student Speech-Language-Hearing Association. She works in the infant room for the Child Development Center on campus, caring for the children of WSU students, faculty and staff. She serves as an ambassador for WSU Dining and the Shocker Store, and is the first twirler for the Shocker Sound Machine. These responsibilities are balanced, all the while, with a demanding course load as a double-major in psychology and communication sciences and disorders, for which she made the dean’s honor roll her freshman year.
She doesn’t deny the fact that her schedule is a demanding one, but she also believes that the rigor makes it all the more rewarding. “It is tough,” she says, “but I am committed to making the most of the many opportunities that have been afforded to me.”
Still a student, Streeter sees her involvement as a way of giving to the university. “My scholarships are proof that someone believes in me, that someone took a chance on me,” she says. “The only way I feel I can show my gratitude is by enriching our campus life and, in these small ways, making Wichita State an even better place for others.”
In recognition for her many extracurriculars and contributions to Shocker Nation, Streeter is one of the WSU Foundation and Alumni Engagement’s 2025 Core Values Scholars, awarded to students who exemplify the organization’s guiding ethics of collaboration, excellence, service and integrity. “This scholarship,” she says, “is a kind of proof that the work I’m doing is meaningful and valuable. It shows me that I really am making a difference where I’m at, right now.”
And, Streeter assures, that’s a confirmation she doesn’t take lightly.
