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The son of a theology professor and a nurse administrator, Kelvin’s Abilene childhood was filled with all things ACU – meeting students, attending events such as Sing Song and visiting campus. When his father was studying for his doctorate degree, you could often find Kelvin in the Onstead-Packer Biblical Studies Building, sharing jelly beans with the administrative assistants.
At Abilene Christian University, the communication major found a community that invested in him from the beginning. Now as a campus Tour Guide, he’s one of the first people many prospective students meet and has a simple message to share: ACU wants to invest in them, too.
“I tell students I meet that the faculty and staff here want you to succeed,” Kelvin said, “and they’re going to help you the entire four years that you’re here, to grow and develop into who you actually are as a person.”
For someone who seems to bleed ACU Purple and White, Kelvin wasn’t always a shoo-in to officially become a Wildcat.
“My senior year of high school, though, ACU was one of the first schools to contact me about applying,” he said. “Throughout the process, I saw just how many opportunities I was going to be able to have at ACU that I could not have anywhere else.”
A deciding factor also came in the form of scholarships made possible by generous donors, including the John C. and Ruth Stevens Endowed Scholarship. Kelvin began ACU in Fall 2014 and has become a familiar face on campus as a student director during Wildcat Week, a student director on the Campus Activities Board, an RA in a men’s residence hall and a member in organizations such as Young Life and the men’s social club Gamma Sigma Phi.
Through it all, Kelvin makes engagement with current and prospective students a priority, and his passion for ACU is contagious.
“I grew up around college age students all the time with my parents,” Kelvin said, “so it feels natural to work with students now and to give back.”
Connecting with students often begins on their first day on campus as a prospective student and continues into the school year. “Getting the unique opportunity to be a Student Director and Tour Guide allows me to embody ACU to prospective and incoming students,” he said.
“It’s rewarding to see someone visit for a tour, come to ACU, and grow and develop into who they are supposed to be.”
Kelvin encourages students to engage the ACU community head-on, connecting with professors, finding community in campus ministries and social clubs, and fully participating in campus life.
“I tell students, the more you put yourself out there, the more the ACU community responds,” he said. “In that sense, you can make your ACU experience whatever you want it to be.”
Opportunities for connection reach outside the classroom to the many treasured traditions of ACU — and those traditions, Kelvin believes, set ACU apart.
“Our traditions are where you can see what ACU is really all about,” Kelvin says. “From Candlelight Devo and Wildcat Week to Sing Song, you see faculty and staff and even alumni participating alongside the students. You get to experience how ACU is really a community.”
After graduation, Kelvin hopes to pursue post-secondary degrees in higher education administration, continuing to invest in college students and make a difference in their lives and live out the commitment to student growth he experienced at ACU.
“It’s great to know,” he said, “that even after college, I’ll still be able to come back and call this place home.”