Let me set the scene: the year is 2010 and I am 9 years old when my teacher congratulates me on my 9th-grade reading level. I’m in 3rd grade and don’t know what academic validation is, but I know that my teacher thinks I’m intelligent and I love that feeling. While academic excellence is not something we should necessarily crave or change our behaviors to obtain, sometimes it’s fun to be celebrated for our hard work. Ball State’s Top 100 program is for just that: celebrating the work students already do in their academics, leadership, and campus involvement.
For the Top 100 application, I didn’t feel that I had to work any harder to be celebrated or acknowledged. I filled out an application based on my achievements. Ball State’s Top 100 program is an amazing tool in helping students to feel validated for going above and beyond in their everyday lives, without having to overachieve for the sole purpose of applying. If you’re reading this, and taking the time out of your day to read something beyond mandatory class readings, I think Top 100 may be for you.
So what is Ball State’s Top 100 Student Award? The Ball State University Foundation puts on the Top 100, which is a program that selects 100 undergraduate students from the applicants based on their achievements in three categories: academic excellence, campus leadership, and community impact. These categories measure the holistic involvement and achievement of students, ensuring that they demonstrate dedication both in and out of the classroom. The purpose of Top 100, as the Foundation states on its website, “is to recognize and educate students, our future young alumni on the importance of staying connected to Ball State, while continuing to grow the culture of Beneficence.” The great thing about the Top 100 program, from a student’s perspective, is that it’s a very personalized application.
Under the FAQ tab on its website, the Foundation even stresses that applicants should “focus on quality over quantity,” and, “do not need to have something in every category.” The goal of the application is for students to highlight their academic excellence, leadership experience, and extracurricular involvement in a way that shows how an individual student is making a difference on Ball State’s campus. Students also have the chance to be highlighted as a Top 50, 25, 10, or even Top 2 student in the Top 100 list. Students who are full-time at the university and have completed 60 or more credit hours applicable to their degree, including transfer credits, can apply! This usually means that students who are juniors or seniors and in good standing with the university are eligible, but sometimes those with a lot of dual or transfer credits are also eligible. The application for Top 100 closes October 27th at 5:00 p.m. EST, so if you’re interested, apply now!!
But what are the benefits of being a Top 100 student? Obviously, academic validation is the most immediate of the benefits from the moment the lineup is announced. There are even more satisfying benefits, however, as Top 100 students can opt-in to a mentorship program that pairs students up with an expert Ball State alum mentor in the same field. Personally, I was paired with Betsy Ross, CEO and Founder of Game Day Communications, a public relations and marketing agency in Cincinnati, Ohio. Betsy and I are the perfect mentor/mentee match: I’m a lifelong Cincinnati Bengals fan and Game Day handles a lot of their communications, I’m from Ohio(right outside of Cincinnati where Betsy works), and I’m a big Swiftie and Betsy assisted in the media coverage for Taylor Swift’s Cincinnati leg of her Eras Tour. With so many other similarities, especially our shared dedication to advocating for women in media and sports media, I am so grateful that the Top 100 Mentorship Program helped guide me to such an amazing source of wisdom in such a wonderful person.
The Top 100 Program also hosts events year-round, including a Top 50 brunch for families, a Homecoming Celebration, a celebratory event for One Ball State Day, and so much more! Getting to meet so many other successful students is also such a wonderfully inspiring experience – we’re studying many different majors at Ball State, but united by our dedication and loyalty to the values of Beneficence.
While being told I read at such an advanced reading level is a great joke about my childhood self and the dedication I put into my elementary school classes, I am sincerely proud of being a Top 100 Ball State Student and incredibly grateful to also have been recognized as a Top 10 student. Ball State University presents its students with so many ways to succeed, and so many ways to celebrate those successes. You deserve to be recognized and awarded for your dedication, so why not apply? Apply today and celebrate your hard work- you deserve it!