Kansas high school bands to march at K-State festival

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Oct 15, 1999 by Capital-Journal

KSU News Services

MANHATTAN --- A Kansas State University student recently was awarded the $1,000 Ruben Salazar Scholarship from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. The award also includes a year's membership to the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

Evan Semon, freshman in pre-journalism, of Ellinwood, is the first K-State student in 10 years to receive this national scholarship. To apply for the scholarship, Semon wrote an essay about affirmative action and submitted three photographs. More than 200 students applied, and Semon was one of two scholarship winners from the photography category, based on the quality of his essay and photographs.

"I found out about the scholarship while I was visiting K-State in high school," said Semon. "I saw a poster about it, and I knew my Hispanic heritage made me eligible. I was really surprised when I found out I won a few months later."

"It is really exciting when a national association can help a student with so much potential," said Ron Johnson, director of student publications. "Our newsrooms need to reflect the demographics of our readers. National scholarships, like Evan's, help pave the way to diversify our staff."

Semon said he planned to apply for the award again and will continue his membership with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. He is a photographer for the K-State Collegian student newspaper and Royal Purple yearbook. He is the son of Mark and Lalita Semon.

KSU News Services

MANHATTAN --- High school marching bands from across Kansas will be the featured attraction at Kansas State University's stadium on Oct. 23 for the 1999 Central States Marching Festival.

The festival is an opportunity for the bands to perform and be evaluated and rated by a panel of judges. Bands also get the chance to view a video of their performance and hear helpful comments from one of the judges.

The first band will perform at 11:20 a.m. Capping the day of band action will be a performance by the K-State Marching Band at 6 p.m., followed by the awards presentation at 6:20 p.m. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for junior or senior high school students. Children 10 and younger will be admitted free.

Adjudicators will be David Becker, of Lewis and Clark College; Craig Fuchs, of Pittsburg State University; Tom Groth, of Youngstown, Ohio; Larry Blocher, of Wichita State University; Kurt Gartner, assistant band director at K-State; and Jeanne Lynch, color guard coordinator at K-State.

Participating high school bands and the time of their performances are:

Blue Valley North, 3:20 p.m.; Blue Valley North combined, 5:20 p.m.; Derby, 3:40 p.m.; Dodge City, 4 p.m.; Emporia, 12:20 p.m.; Great Bend, 1 p.m.; Great Bend freshmen, 11:20 a.m.; Highland Park, 11:40 a.m.; Hutchinson, noon; Junction City, 2 p.m.; Lansing, 4:40 p.m.; Lawrence, 5 p.m.; Lawrence Free State, 5:40 p.m.; Leavenworth, 4:20 p.m.; Liberal, 3 p.m.; Maize, 2:20 p.m.; Manhattan, 1:40 p.m.; Marysville, 1:20 p.m.; McPherson, 12:40 p.m.; and Salina South, 2:40 p.m.