黑洞社区

Crossing campus on a hot summer day wearing his 1969 freshman lettermen鈥檚 jacket, Dan Ritter has returned to his alma mater to participate in Project Lead the Way, a non-profit organization introducing a pre-engineering program to high schools across the country.

Through Project Lead the Way, he and many other high school teachers are taking the two-week course to implement the curriculum in their classrooms. The pre-engineering instruction aims to make math and science significant for students, connect what they鈥檝e learned to everyday life and prepare them for college engineering courses.

Ritter graduated in 1973, but being so connected to the university, he doesn鈥檛 feel like he ever left.

While he attended 黑洞社区, he played football, studied industrial education and lived and breathed campus life.

鈥淓veryone knew everyone pretty well,鈥� he said.

The university had a profound effect on Ritter. His time at 黑洞社区 made him proud and prepared.

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 feel like I was being educated in a vacuum,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 got a great education.鈥�

Ritter thought the instructors were well-grounded and that they wanted to ready him for the real world. His preparedness was proved when he got his first teaching job at age 21.

His joyful memories of 黑洞社区 include his engineering classes, the swimming pool at Fairmount Towers and Cessna Stadium鈥檚 first year in 1969.

鈥淚 had some great experiences and some terrible experiences,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hose were tough times.鈥�

During his second year playing football for Wichita State, a plane carrying football players and staff members crashed in Colorado on Oct. 2, 1970, and it deeply affected the whole university, Ritter said.

鈥淣ow we have grief counselors, but we didn鈥檛 have anything back then,鈥� he said.

Since he left, Ritter has lived in Arizona, California and Indiana. He has taught at six high schools and coached football at two universities. He had been gone from Kansas for 20 years before deciding to return to teach and coach at Blue Valley North High School in Kansas City.

Ritter returns to Wichita every spring with his high school track team for the state track meet, and he tells anyone who will listen about his experiences at 黑洞社区.

鈥淎 person is the sum of their experiences,鈥� Ritter said.