One look inside admissions director Bobby Gandu’s office and it is apparent that he is a Shocker through and through. Between pictures of his family is a collection of Wichita State memorabilia, with everything from foam fingers to small pins of Wushock himself. 

Once a business student, Gandu now works to recruit students from every walk of life to attend Wichita State. After graduating in 2002, Gandu was unsure of what to pursue next. 

“I really just thought at some point I would graduate and then I would pivot to the real world and work at a corporation, and that would just be my job,” he said. “I didn’t know what job that would be.”

Gandu decided to continue his education towards a master’s degree due to the declining job market in Wichita at the time. 

“As I got further into my career, and also my education, I spent more and more time enjoying what I was doing,” he said. “I could bring together a couple of passions: passion for Wichita State, and also passion to market and tell the good stories of Wichita State. I’ve just been so fortunate to bring those all together for my career.”

Gandu now resides in the Marcus Welcome Center, which is, coincidentally, the same building in which he married his wife, Trish, who he met through Wichita State and became engaged to in Koch Arena. 

“Now we both still work here and we have really enjoyed our time and our careers here,” Gandu said. “We actually have two young children that are going through the child development center here on campus. They really enjoy that experience.”

Gandu appreciates the conversations he gets to have with graduates about their professional lives and how Wichita State has helped them achieve their educational dreams. 

“It’s really the relationships with our students … that have meant so much to me,” Gandu said. “What’s so incredibly fulfilling for me in this role is [that] I get to know students while we’re recruiting them to attend Wichita State, I get to see them excel and do well here on our campus, and then, maybe, my favorite part is seeing what they’re doing after Wichita State.”

In the role of admissions director, Gandu is granted plenty of experiences to develop WSU’s profile. By utilizing Wichita State’s noteworthy athletics teams, he works to appeal to potential students across the nation.

“We’ve got some brilliant conversation starters due to the success of athletics,” Gandu said. “We really work hard to try to celebrate students who are choosing to attend Wichita State.”