Dear Thorobred Family,
At moments of change, it is important not to lose sight of the momentum that continues to build at Kentucky State University.
That momentum did not appear overnight. It has been earned through years of research, teaching, outreach, service, and partnership. It has also been built by students who prepare for lives of leadership and service, faculty who pursue competitive grants, staff who support complex projects, and partners who recognize the value Kentucky State brings to communities across the Commonwealth.
This week provides two more examples of that progress.
A $2 million Appalachian Regional Commission POWER grant will allow Kentucky State to expand its work in Eastern Kentucky through a new Center of Excellence focused on land restoration, workforce training, and community outreach. The project will prepare residents, landowners, and local partners for work connected to restored landscapes, land management, ecological recovery, and economic revitalization in Central Appalachia.
The direct impact is significant. Plans call for 13 training programs expected to reach approximately 1,000 local stakeholders. Participants will gain practical skills in restoration planning, land management, measuring restoration outcomes, and market-based approaches to returning former surface-mined lands to productive use. The work will also create hands-on training opportunities in Martin County through Renew Appalachia, connecting classroom learning with field application and local benefit.
Kentucky State also received a $1 million award to expand its long-running youth mentoring work into Lexington-Fayette County through BMW Academy at First Baptist Bracktown Church. Administered through the University’s Promising Youth Center for Excellence, the project builds on more than two decades of mentoring, academic support, and youth development.
Each year, approximately 120 young people ages 11-17 are expected to participate in one-on-one mentoring, group activities, academic enrichment, STEM experiences, leadership development, wellness education, life skills training, and family engagement. Kentucky State students, peer leaders, volunteers, and professional staff will help deliver the program while gaining meaningful experience connected to education, child development, social work, psychology, and community service.
These awards matter on their own, but they also point to a larger truth. Kentucky State’s growing research and grant profile is the result of sustained work across many years and many areas of expertise. The University has built capacity in agriculture, aquaculture, environmental science, youth development, workforce training, health, technology, and community-based research.
That broader foundation helps explain why Kentucky State is now included in the Carnegie Research Colleges and Universities category. It also helps explain why National Science Foundation HERD survey data show Kentucky State has the third-largest university research portfolio in Kentucky, behind only the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville.
And that recognition should give us confidence, but it should not surprise us. This is what momentum looks like at a land-grant university: a student gaining experience through a mentoring program, a landowner learning how to restore and manage property, a community partner finding new capacity, and a faculty member turning research into practical service.
Important work remains ahead, and we must continue approaching it with focus and discipline. At the same time, we should recognize what is being built around us. Kentucky State University is earning attention because so many people across this University are doing meaningful work.
Thank you to the students, faculty, staff, alumni, and partners who continue advancing this mission. Let us keep building on this momentum with confidence, purpose, and pride.
Onward and Upward,
Koffi C. Akakpo, Ph.D.
President
Kentucky State University