Each November, the Kent State University College hosts I AM FIRST Week to celebrate not only the students who will soon be the first in their families to earn a bachelor’s degree, but also alumni, faculty, staff and advocates for their accomplishments and support of the first-generation student journey. Awards span from the Undergraduate Student Award to the Advocate Award for Staff.
Approximately one-third of all students currently enrolled at Kent State will be the first in their family to earn a degree from a four-year institution. Kent State has put concerted efforts behind supporting first-generation students, earning a designation as a First-gen Forward Institution by the Center for First-generation Student Success in 2021.
Last year, a new award was added and presented at the First-gen Awards ceremony. Former Verder Hall Resident Assistant, field hockey and fencing student-athlete, and educator, Randi McKenzie, ’72, was invited back to Kent State to attend. Unbeknownst to her, she would be presented with an award. Even more surprising, it had been renamed in her honor–the Randi McKenzie First-gen Award. The ceremony included a video presentation featuring her first college mentor Margaret (Musick) Scott, ’69, and current Kent State students she mentors.
“The First-gen Award was unbelievable,” said McKenzie. “It really caused me to reflect on the past 50+ years and look at what I have been able to accomplish as a first- generation student.”
“The First-gen Award was unbelievable,” said McKenzie. “It really caused me to reflect on the past 50+ years and look at what I have been able to accomplish as a first- generation student.”
McKenzie has enjoyed a long, successful career in higher education, spanning nearly four decades. Her meritorious teaching and service to San Diego State University led to the opportunity to direct the College of Professional Studies and Fine Arts faculty/student mentoring program (FSMP), which paired upper classmen with entering freshmen and transfer students from low-income and first-generation backgrounds. Understanding the value of mentoring and wanting to support students like herself, McKenzie seized the opportunity. Within three years, she was asked to direct the entire university program, which supported eight faculty members, about 100 student mentors and assisted more than 500 proteges. In 2001, the program gained national recognition and became a recipient of the Noel Levitz Retention Excellence Award.
In 2006, McKenzie applied for and was appointed as the Assistant Dean for Student Affairs in the College of Professional Studies and Fine Arts and was responsible for all student affairs issues in a college of more than 8,000 students. She created many innovative programs that were adopted by the university and was a staunch ally to all students.
McKenzie’s accomplishments today are a far cry from the high schooler who thought she wasn’t good enough. Her high school was economically diverse, and while playing team sports like basketball and volleyball, she competed with students who had the financial ability to attend sports camps over the summer - opportunities that other students, including McKenzie, could not afford.
“I never felt like I fit in in high school,” said McKenzie. “I was that low-income, first-generation student going to school where students got their first car at 16 and never wore the same clothes twice in a year.”
McKenzie recalled mostly riding the bench in high school. In field hockey, however, no one wanted to play goalie. She saw an opportunity and took it, which would bode well for her future at Kent State.
“In high school, I was told I was not good enough," said McKenzie. “At Kent, one could do anything if they put their mind to it or just decided to say “Yes”."
“In high school, I was told I was not good enough," said McKenzie. “At Kent, one could do anything if they put their mind to it or just decided to say “Yes”."
McKenzie’s goal in attending college was to obtain a degree and teaching credential to become a high school physical education teacher. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in December, but teaching jobs were unavailable even for a student who graduated with honors. She became a part-time substitute teacher and worked as a cashier at K-Mart. With no job opportunities and wanting desperately to teach, she attended graduate school at Bowling Green State University on a teaching assistantship. She was invited to apply for a teaching/coaching position at Kent State in 1974 and landed that position when she was 24 years old.
“It was a challenge teaching college at that age and having students in my class I went to school with. However, I was a great coach and advisor, as I had taken all the classes the students I was advising needed to take,” McKenzie said.
The Physical Education Department was excellent, and the content knowledge was incredibly rigorous and included requirements beyond the traditional classroom. This outside engagement was very helpful in determining whether to pursue the degree and also taught the value of professional growth activities.
During her time as a Kent State student-athlete, women’s sports were more like intramurals rather than the almost full-time job of today’s student-athlete. McKenzie and her field hockey teammates competed in maybe six games a season with no weight training or other pre-season preparation, no athletic trainers or scholarships. They even laundered their own uniforms.
It was at Kent State that McKenzie began her competitive fencing career. Through her fencing coach and academic advisor, Joan Kowaleski, McKenzie learned many important life lessons. McKenzie remembers Mrs. “K” as being enthusiastic, patient, dedicated and a great role model who taught her “so much about life” and even drove her to tournaments where they competed together.
McKenzie’s first job as a graduate student at Bowling Green and then a faculty member at Kent State and subsequent community colleges and universities, enabled her to teach and coach numerous physical activities. McKenzie’s experience and her desire to be a professional educator kept her in fencing and provided her with a successful 26-year competitive hobby which culminated in placing second in the nation in women’s saber fencing as well as first in the master’s division in foil fencing. She was inducted into the Kent State Hall of Fame in 2021 as an Outstanding Athletic Alumni.
Though McKenzie retired in 2016, she continues to volunteer in the Office of Educational Opportunity and Ethnic Affairs at San Diego State University, mentoring students and staff members. She co-advises the university chapter of Mortar Board, a senior honor society, and teaches sword fighting in the School of Theatre, Television, and New Media, while also volunteering for the American Red Cross.
That passion for helping students, just as she was helped, drives her continued commitment to others and serves as a way for her to give back to the university community.
McKenzie’s connection to Kent State remains and can be heard in a statement she expressed. “Kent was so much more than athletics. It was life lessons. Learning tact. Changing majors and changing majors again,” McKenzie said. “It was being at Kent between '68 and ’72 and experiencing the turmoil and changes on campus and in the world.”
She and her husband, noted scholar and researcher, Thomas McKenzie, PhD., have set up an endowed scholarship for Kent State resident assistants, provides emergency financial support to students participating in the Center for Undergraduate Excellence, and currently provides support to the Kent State Women’s Field Hockey Team.
“Kent provided me with the opportunity to totally remake myself into a person I could begin to be proud of. I will always have a warm place in my heart for the Golden Flashes, and it will take a lifetime to pay back the university for what I received. Go Flashes!”