UCM to Celebrate the ‘Stomping Ground’ With Homecoming Hub, Parade, Distinguished Alumni Awards

The University of Central Missouri (UCM) will welcome alumni back to their “stomping ground” during Homecoming festivities Oct. 21-26.

 

UCM will celebrate 2024 Homecoming, themed “This is Our Stomping Ground,” with a weeklong celebration. The public is invited to several events on Friday, Oct. 25, and Saturday, Oct. 26.

 

On Friday, the UCM Alumni Foundation will host the Homecoming Hub from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Elliott Student Union Auditorium. This one-stop shop for all things Homecoming will feature refreshments, UCM trivia, giveaways, photo opportunities and a chance to browse through Rhetor yearbooks. Visitors can also sign up for classroom experiences and campus tours, leaving hourly from the auditorium from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. People are asked to register in advance at ucmfoundation.org/homecoming24.

 

On Saturday morning, stop by Selmo Park to pick up coffee or breakfast from several food trucks as part of Party in the Park from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. A community favorite, the Homecoming parade begins at 9 a.m. at Holden and Clark streets. The parade will continue north on Holden Street, moving through campus toward downtown Warrensburg. The route turns east onto Gay Street, continues until College Street and heads south to South Street.

 

The fun at Selmo Park continues after the parade with live music by Kansas City party band KC FLO, a beer garden, bounce houses, line dancing and plenty of options for lunch and snacks. The public is invited to bring their own food and drinks, as Selmo Park is a designated open-container area.

 

Mules Football will take on the Washburn Ichabods at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Audrey J. Walton Stadium. Tickets are available at the box office on game day or at ucmathletics.com.

 

The weekend schedule also includes the Distinguished Alumni Dinner at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 25, in the Sandra Temple Elliott Ballrooms of the Elliott Student Union. Reservations are required and can be made at ucmfoundation.org/awards/da.

 

Since 1978, the UCM Alumni Foundation has presented the Distinguished Alumni Awards annually to recognize outstanding UCM graduates who are esteemed by their peers as “the brightest and most distinguished” in their field.

 

The 2024 honorees are Stephen R. Jenne, a graduate of the class of 1969 and recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award; LaTonia Collins Smith, ’95, recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award for Service; and Joel F. Swift, ’14, recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award for Early Achievement.

 

As a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Kansas, Joel Swift is exploring links between plant genetics, root anatomy and the microbiome to understand how plants tolerate flooding.  Swift was a first-generation student from Marshall, Missouri, who started his higher education journey at State Fair Community College in Sedalia. After earning his associate degree, he enrolled in UCM’s Biology program.

 

During his time at UCM, Swift was a member of the Horticulture Club and took all the courses he could about the inner workings of plants. He was selected for a summer internship studying a federally endangered plant at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis and was hired there as a research technician after graduation.

 

In 2017, Swift was awarded a prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and entered a Ph.D. program in Biology at Saint Louis University. His research examined the impact of grafting — the horticultural process of connecting individual plants — on microorganisms associated with wine grapes. Funded in part by the Missouri Grape and Wine Institute, this research took Swift from the humid farmland of southern Missouri to the hot, dry Central Valley of California.

 

Swift is currently conducting research in the University of Kansas Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

 

LaTonia Collins Smith is the first woman to serve as president of Harris-Stowe State University (HSSU), a Historically Black College/University in her native St. Louis. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Social Work from UCM and a dual master’s in Social Work and Public Health from Saint Louis University.

 

While employed as a social worker, Smith worked part time in the counseling services department at HSSU and earned her doctorate in Higher Education Leadership from Maryville University of St. Louis. She landed leadership positions in HSSU’s Center for Career Engagement before becoming provost and vice president of Academic Affairs. Smith was appointed interim president of HSSU in 2021 and inaugurated as the 21st president the following year. She has overseen significant capital projects and renovations, including the new Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the creation of a College of STEM.

 

Smith finds “purpose and passion” in community service as chair of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Statewide Celebration Commission of Missouri, co-chair of the Concordance First Chance Campaign and a member of several nonprofit boards. She was a member of the UCM Alumni Foundation Board of Directors and a founder of the UCM Black Alumni Association.

 

In spring 2024, Smith was honored with UCM’s prestigious James C. Kirkpatrick Excellence in Governance Award.

 

Stephen Jenne has been featured on “The Tonight Show” with both Johnny Carson and Jimmy Fallon and “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.”

 

The story that brought him his moments of fame began in September 1960, when then-Vice President Richard Nixon visited his hometown of Sullivan, Illinois, on the campaign trail. Jenne recognized a golden opportunity when Nixon left his half-eaten sandwich on a paper plate. Jenne took it home to his mother, who put it in a jar and froze it for safekeeping. Sixty years later, the sandwich was largely unchanged when Jenne wrote his autobiography, “The Sandwich That Changed My Life.”

 

While earning his bachelor’s degree in Mass Media at UCM, Jenne spent summers in Illinois working with archaeology crews at Lake Shelbyville, Dickson Mounds and Cahokia Mounds. In 1965, he worked with Don Johanson, the paleoanthropologist who later discovered prehistoric hominin “Lucy.”  A member of Tau Kappa Epsilon, Jenne stays connected to his alma mater by attending reunions with his fraternity brothers, golfing at Mules National Golf Club and giving annually to support UCM Golf. He hasn’t missed a UCM Homecoming since he graduated in 1969, and that was because he was drafted to serve in Vietnam.

 

After serving in the military, Jenne began a 31-year career in public relations with Hanson Engineering. Since retiring in 2002, he has undertaken several entrepreneurial endeavors and served on the UCM Alumni Association Board of Directors.

 

For more information about Homecoming activities, visit ucmfoundation.org/homecoming or ucmo.edu/homecoming.