Welcome to the Class of 2015 blog! My name is Kevyn Gero, and as class president I’ll kick us off! The class this year consists of 13 wonderful individuals, each with a story. I am eager to share this blog with you and I hope it will serve not only as a way to get to know a few things about the current students, but way to connect with alumni. I encourage you to comment, ask questions and share your experiences!
Summer is winding down and fall classes will start on the last Monday in August. When preparing for classes, I remember reading recruitment materials about the summer classes for Intern-Option students. They said the students affectionately refer to summer classes as “bootcamp.” Although I certainly would echo those sentiments, the class structure was also incredibly rewarding. The intensive format can be challenging, but our class has been able to get to know one another on both an academic and personal level. Two of our classmates participated in a 10-week summer internship called CORO in Kansas City. They were unable to take summer classes, but we met them at John Nalbandian’s summer cook-out. We also had a wonderful time meeting our practitioner in Residence, Overland Park City Manager Bill Ebel.
In the fall, we look forward to more outings as a class. Several of us are big sports fans and are anxious for football and basketball season to begin. We’ve organized volunteer opportunities with Habitat For Humanity and are working on other fun ways to give back to the Lawrence community during our year here. Furthermore, we are excited about the ICMA conference that is approaching.
As class president, one of my main jobs is to help organize travel arrangements to the conference. Initially, I suggested to the class we consider taking a bus. Ray told us that some of the Alumni have some fond memories on their road trip adventure to ICMA. Not surprisingly, a twenty-one hour trip to Boston did not seem appealing to some folks – or really anyone for that matter… Instead, we will stick with a flight to Boston, but I have no doubt we will still have a few stories to pass on.
The KUCIMAT website is under construction, so for the time being we’ll post a document of our bios. Remember to follow our blog and stay tuned for more updates from the Class of 2015!
Rock Chalk,
Kevyn Gero
Keeping up with the kucimats 