Official Newsletter of the Marshall University Foundation and Alumni Association | January 2025

A letter from the president and CEO of the Marshall University Foundation

Happy New Year, Herd Family – Staci and I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday season and were able to celebrate the beginning of 2025 with friends and loved ones. It was an auspicious start to the new year in Huntington with the snow and ice, but our students are back on campus and we are all excited about the spring semester here at Marshall!

I just returned from a trip to Northern California with President Smith where we visited with some distinguished alumni of Marshall. It was wonderful to hear stories from sons and daughters of Marshall as they reminisced about their favorite places on campus and in Huntington. I came away from the trip feeling inspired and energized about the future of Marshall. This is an incredible time to be part of the Herd.

As President Smith has shared, a new dawn is rising at Marshall University. Together, we have reversed a 13-year enrollment decline and architected a strategic game plan – Marshall For All, Marshall Forever – that is transforming Marshall University into a 21st century prosperity platform for every life we touch.

The lives we touch matter. They represent the overlooked and underserved with 57 percent of our students being the first in their families to attend college, 44 percent demonstrating exceptional financial hardship and 28 percent coming from families whose household income is below the poverty line. While these students originate from humble beginnings, they excel when access to attending college becomes possible and the appropriate support and wrap-around services are provided.

With Marshall For All, Marshall Forever, we have charted a course to place Marshall at the tip of the spear of the coming revolution in which higher education becomes lifelong education. The blueprint we’ve implemented offers an in-demand curriculum, available on-demand, with six prioritized areas where we have demonstrated an ability to be distinctive (cybersecurity, rural health, advanced manufacturing, new energy, aviation and entrepreneurship).

Marshall For All, Marshall Forever rises on three, clear, transformational goals, to be the leader in accelerating:

1. Individual Success
2. A goal of 100 percent placement rates for our graduates.
3. Students graduating with little or no student loan debt.
4. Certificate and micro-credentialing for lifelong learning options.
5. Innovative Ideas
6. With $150 million in funded research, grants and contracts.
7. Three times the current number of startups incubated.
8. Economic Impact
9. A $30 return on every dollar the state of West Virginia invests in us.
10. A $2.3 billion impact in West Virginia and Appalachia, three times what we currently have.

We are committed to this path and have demonstrated in-market evidence that our plan is working. The word is spreading as the team’s work was recently showcased by Soledad O’Brien on her award-winning show – "Matter of Fact." Marshall University is on a path to become a national model for how a forward-looking university can work together across all its communities – students, faculty, staff, alumni, philanthropic foundations, private industry and public agencies – to attract and support those who need it most and send them into the workplace career ready.

Your support makes a difference, and we are extremely grateful for all you do for Marshall and our students. If you would like more information about how you can get more involved, please don't hesitate to reach out to me. 

Go Herd!

Nico

ALUMNI NEWS

86th Alumni Awards nominations are open

You can be a part of Marshall's biggest night of the year for alumni during the 86th Alumni Awards Banquet in April 2025!

There are numerous awards including Distinguished Alumnus/Alumna, Distinguished Service to Marshall University, Outstanding Community Achievement and Distinguished Young Alumnus/Alumna.

NOMINATE AN ALUM>>>

FOUNDATION NEWS

Martha Sedinger Reese gifts $100,000 toward established scholarship

Marshall University has announced a gift of $100,000 bequeathed by Martha Sedinger Reese to support the Matthew A. Reese Jr. and Martha Sedinger Reese Scholarship. Named for her and her late husband, both were 1950 graduates of then-Marshall College. Martha Sedinger Reese died in September 2024. 

The scholarship, originally named the Matthew A. Reese Jr. Scholarship, was established in 1997. In that time, 28 students have been awarded the scholarship amounting to nearly $60,000.  

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Remote, hybrid work available to recent graduates through First Ascent

Calling all Marshall 2024 Graduates still living in West Virginia! Consider applying for First Ascent. Built on the foundation of the Brad and Alys Smith Outdoor Economic Development Collaborative’s successful Ascend WV program, First Ascent is designed to set participants on paths for successful remote and hybrid careers in the state, addressing the population loss and brain drain that stems from new graduates pursuing employment opportunities elsewhere.

Current students and alumni from Marshall can apply for First Ascent during the last year of their degree program through one year post-graduation. Those applying must be willing to live in a featured community, including Huntington, and accept a remote or hybrid full-time position for organizations based in or outside of West Virginia or have launched a business that operates and/or delivers services remotely prior to applying.

Those who qualify for First Ascent will have access to free co-working space and outdoor recreation equipment, WV Recreation Package, success coaches and professional mentorships, a remote worker certification, professional development, community engagement, outdoor and social activities, and more.

To learn more and apply, visit https://firstascentwv.com.

Class notes are a great way to stay up-to-date with news from former classmates and other alumni, faculty and staff, and other members of the Marshall family!

Karen Klein ('88, '95) has been ordained a deacon in the Episcopal Church. She is enrolled at Virginia Theological Seminary, Alexandria, Virginia, in the Master of Divinity program with an anticipated commencement of May 2026. She is also co-chair of the Washington Theological Consortium Student Board, Co-International Student Proctor at VTS, and is serving as a seminarian at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Alexandria. In January, she will travel with five other VTS students and a faculty member to San Jose, Costa Rica, for a two-week immersive cross-cultural education program.