Kent State Today followed a group of Golden Flashes for the 2023-24 academic year chronicling their efforts and successes during the fall and spring semesters. The group included students, faculty and administrators who are in different places on their Kent State journeys.It was Fall Semester 2023 and sophomore Ivory Kendrick talked about his plans for leadership roles on the Kent Campus. Kendrick said he wanted to be a senator in University Student Government (USG). He was involved in student government in high school and since his freshman year at Kent State University he has held vario...

Kent State University Police Chief and Director of Public Safety Dean Tondiglia wasn’t legally old enough to be a police officer when he was hired by the Kent State Police Department.Tondiglia, just 20 at the time, was attending Kent State studying criminal justice and working part-time as the dog catcher for the Kent City Police Department when he heard that Kent State was hiring new officers. He applied and began training at the university’s Police Academy, even though he wasn’t legally an adult.  “I turned 21 while I was in the academy,” he said.It was July 1981.  On Friday, May 3...

When he was 15, VCD junior Thomas Gruber signed up for Hudson High School's photography class because he thought it sounded fun. Little did he know at the time that this was one door opening that would change his whole life."There was one class project where I thought, 'Oh, I could be kind of good at this,' and it just went from there," Thomas recalled. "The teacher, Tim Naujoks, was a really big part of my life, inspiring me to take a serious look at photography."Halfway through his sophomore year, though, Thomas' family moved to Columbus, but the seed had been planted. "I saved up my money a...

The 46th Annual Leadership Awards Ceremony was combined with the Student Organization Transition Ceremony for the first time.The Pepsi Leadership Center organizes the Student Leadership Awards, which formally recognize leadership experiences happening on campus. The Center for Student Involvement (CSI) organizes the Transition Ceremony, which celebrates the transition of student organization officers from outgoing to incoming. This year, Jessica Roshak, assistant director of student leadership development in CSI, and Joe Robinson, assistant director for campus connection and tra...