The K-State Alumni Association’s Multicultural Leadership Awards have been renamed the Robinson Family Multicultural Leadership Awards to honor the Roy and Sylvia Robinson family of Kansas City, Kansas, who endowed the program.
Both are graduates of Kansas State University, Roy in 1970 and Sylvia in 1971. The awards are given out annually and recognize four outstanding, multicultural graduating students who are leaving a legacy of enhancing multicultural engagement at K-State through their leadership. Sylvia Robinson is a former member of the Kansas Board of Regents who has a doctorate in education.
“As first generation college students, higher education is viewed as the catalyst toward providing the equity necessary for access to and success in occupations not traditionally available to people of color,” said Sylvia Robinson, a member of the Alumni Association’s board of directors. “It was through our active involvement, as K-State students, in issues of social justice on the campus during the late ’60s and early ’70s that our leadership skills were first developed and nurtured.”
Jessica Elmore, associate director of diversity programs for the Alumni Association, said the Robinsons are a family of K-Staters who came from humble beginnings. She added that exposure to K-State has encouraged and inspired generations of their family. Elmore also said, through this program the Robinsons have committed to core values that include leadership, giving back and leaving a legacy.
“We believe that ‘From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked’ (Luke 12:48),” Robinson said. “If we are blessed with talents, wealth, knowledge, time and the like, it is expected that we use these well as a testament to our faith and toward the benefit of others. This is our way of bringing recognition and celebration to those who have continued the legacy of leadership toward the ‘common good’ while students at Kansas State University.”
The 2017 awards will be presented on April 19.