More than 118 K-State students receive Wabash CannonBall Kansas City Scholarships
The K-State Alumni Association has awarded 118 scholarships to Kansas State University students for the 2026-27 school year through the Wabash CannonBall Kansas City program.
The Wabash CannonBall gala is an annual black-tie event which includes an evening of dining and dancing to raise scholarship money for students from the Kansas City-area to attend K-State. The gala was started in 2007 and, to date, this event has awarded more than 1,300 scholarships for Kansas City-area students totaling more than $3.2 million. The Wabash CannonBall Kansas City also has funded a scholarship endowment fund totaling nearly $5 million that will create student opportunities for years to come.
“So many K-State students have benefitted from the generosity and support of their fellow Wildcats in the Kansas City-area over the past 19 years,” said Andrea Bryant Gladin, vice president of alumni engagement for the Alumni Association. “It is truly amazing to see how much this event has done for the K-State community as a whole. We want to thank everyone who has helped grow this event from where we started in 2007 to where we are today.”
The students receiving scholarships in the amount of $2,500 for the upcoming academic year were selected from a wide pool of applicants. To be eligible for the scholarship, students must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.5 on a weighted or unweighted scale and reside in the greater Kansas City-area, which includes Johnson, Miami and Wyandotte counties in Kansas, and Jackson, Cass, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri.
The scholarship recipients include 55 incoming freshmen. The incoming freshmen who received the scholarship, listed by hometown, are:
Norah Kelly, De Soto, Kansas; Jude Meili, Gardner, Kansas; Rayana Petty-Calhoun, Independence, Missouri; Brenlie Reese, Kansas City, Kansas; Mary Aguilera, Katie Anderson, Katelyn Brown, Madelynn Hunter, Sydney Rickels, McKenna Steffen and Chamberlain Webster, Kansas City, Missouri; Jillian Ware, Kearney, Missouri; Ella Heitmann, Leawood, Kansas; Marjorie Hotop and Molly McNamara, Lee’s Summit, Missouri; Clara Becker, Ella Bingham, Lydia Cross, Reese Halvorsen, Logan Lackey and Sophie Vielhauer, Lenexa, Kansas; Lucy Oshel and Austin Syler, Liberty, Missouri; Elias Der, Dylainee Pemberton, Kailey Howell, Sarayah McClure, Alex Rippel, Jayden Robinson, Lindsay Ruder, Declan Schoff, Ethan Smith and Sam Vanderweide, Olathe, Kansas; Joseph Beecher, Jenna Clouse, Sarah Clouse, Matthew Davis, Gavin Griffiths, Ava Grosdidier, Jackson Hamm, Drew Havens, Olivia Lierz, Gabi Poeschl, Annie Tumberger, Myla Wiebe and Ellie Wittwer, Overland Park, Kansas; Grace Kimbrel, Parkville, Missouri; Morgan Snyder, Platte City, Missouri; Cali Warner, Prairie Village, Kansas; Brenna Simpson, Raymore, Missouri; Mallory O'Neal, Izzy Simms and Ian Weatherman, Shawnee, Kansas; Chloe Easton, Smithville, Missouri; and Hailey Stapleton, Spring Hill, Kansas
Additionally, 63 returning K-State students had their scholarship renewed. They are listed by hometown:
Adryan Foltz, Bucyrus, Kansas; Allyson Rietcheck, Gardner, Kansas; Naomi Fuller, Ally Heintz and Alyssa Sukup, Kansas City, Missouri; Alexander Scheier and McKinley Robb, Lee’s Summit, Missouri; Breanna Cole, Isabelle Connealy, Pat Donnelly, Sarah Ezer, Renae Kohles, Katelyn Kuckelman, Brendan Rickert, Cerilene Washam and Carson Wolf, Lenexa, Kansas; Camden Findlay, Liberty, Missouri; Lola Edwards, Louisburg, Kansas; Blake Boydston, Abby Burton, Brenna Chism, Abigail Dresbach, Taylor Foxworthy, Addison Henige, Kaylee Howell, Riley Legleiter, Addison Lowe, Delana Ortiz, Trenton Rogers, Sophia Struck, Ashley Taylor, Bria Taylor, Laura Umscheid and Emma Wolfe, Olathe, Kansas; Kenlie Carter, Jordan Culton, Alexis Forgy, Andrew Gafrick, Adelyn Garst, Macie Gorman, Ryan Horsch, Ally Kapple, Annie Kapple, Kallie Keiter, Robert Paulbeck, Millie Reitz, Alexa Stephens, Clara Straub and Reece Walrod, Overland Park, Kansas; Alana Bollinger, Paola, Kansas; Charles Davis, Ava Guastello and Isabella Schmidt, Parkville, Missouri; Amelia Scrogham, Pleasant Hill, Missouri; Natalee Sandstrom, Prairie Village, Kansas; Charlotte Caldwell, Logan Miller, Lucy Roy, Brynn Shideler, Isaac Stanley, Sofia Steinmetz and Alyson Van Nieuwenhuyse, Shawnee, Kansas; Riley Merritt, Stilwell, Kansas