Special to The Hays Daily News

MANHATTAN -- The K-State Proud Campaign is back in its fourth year of students helping students.

The campaign is the first-ever all-university student campaign at Kansas State University and is guided by the leadership of Student Foundation, in addition to three co-chairs, an advisory board of K-State students and an honorary co-chairman.

K-State Proud is designed for students to take part in their own philanthropic efforts in order to help their fellow students and allows students to show their pride through philanthropy. All student campaign donations establish K-State Proud Student Opportunity Awards for fellow K-State students, and this year's goal is $115,000.

K-State Proud Advisory Board members include Kelsey Moran, Hays, and Nick Moeder, La Crosse.

The honorary co-chairman for this year's campaign is Michael Wesch, K-State assistant professor of cultural anthropology. He has been described as an explainer and an explorer, and can now add philanthropist.

"I thought K-State Proud was just a great T-shirt," Wesch said. "When I started to hear more, I was deeply moved by the stories of students stepping forward to help their fellow students in their time of greatest need. The more I looked into it, the more I realized that some of my best students were actually only sitting in my classes because K-State Proud had stepped in to help them at a critical moment.

"Think about what that means for a second, because it isn't really K-State Proud that stepped in, it was the entire student body. K-State Proud is a vehicle through which the whole student body can step in and help one of their fellow students when they need it most," he said.

Wesch graduated summa cum laude from KSU's anthropology program in 1997 and returned as a faculty member in 2004 after receiving his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Virginia. He won the Carnegie/CASE national professor of the year for research/doctoral universities and is one of the National Geographic Society's "Emerging Explorers" for 2009. Wesch's specialty is the impact of social media and digital technology on society and culture, and his expertise is being utilized for the campaign.

For more information about the campaign, check out the Web site at http://www.k-state proud.org

The Kansas State University Student Foundation focuses on raising awareness among current and future alumni about the importance of giving back to K-State, and cultivating philanthropy across the university.