This past Border War football game, 16-year-old Ra’el Ireland Trosper of Ethete, Wyoming was recognized as an honorary cowboy via ASUW’s Honorary Cowboy program. In order to be eligible to be considered for the Honorary Cowboy program, one must be a K-12 student in the state and exude traits of optimism while having endured hardships.
“To be eligible for this honor, the recipient must be a K-12 student in the state of Wyoming,” according to the press release. “Recipients must have faced or continue to face a formidable life condition or circumstance that requires a “Cowboy Up” spirit that leads to an ultimate triumph.”
As part of the program, Trosper attended the game, had breakfast with ASUW staff and received a tour of the campus.
According to a press release from ASUW, the Honorary Cowboy Act started in 2012 and honors at least one student per spring semester.
“The Honorary Cowboy Act began in 2012 to honor a young cowboy combating neuroblastoma,” the release says. “This program is awarded to at least one student each spring for recognition at a football game of their choice during the following fall semester.”
ASUW Chief of Staff Courtney Thomson-Lichty and Director of Programs and Events Bailee Harris said that the program is an ASUW-funded opportunity to honor someone within the state community.
“It is just, like, ASUW providing funding for a cool trip to a football game,” Thomson-Lichty said. “It’s pretty low-cost, compared to other programs.”
The selection process starts shortly after winter break and the individual to receive the Honorary Cowboy recognition is chosen later in the spring semester.
“We open applications sometime after we get back for school and distribute it among superintendents, principals and counselors in the state that are working with K-12 students,” Thomson-Lichty said. “Then we go through a committee process where we put together a committee very similar to the ASUW scholarship committee…then they make the decision on who to select based on recommendation letters.”
Being the only four-year university in the state, the Honorary Cowboy program helps maintain and embolden a sense of community statewide.
“The University of Wyoming is the four-year university in the state and I think there is a sense of community in Wyoming that doesn’t necessarily exist elsewhere, where a lot of kids and parents that live here where the parents are UW alums or they know a lot of UW alums, so there’s a sense of community,” Thomson-Lichty said. “It’s a good interaction for students in middle or high school with higher education and I think it’s a really cool experience for younger kids as well.”
The program enriches the campus community in bringing awareness to an individual’s struggle and honors them.
“It’s always a feel-good thing that we get to bring someone who has struggled to campus and honor them for a day,” Harris said. “But also, I think it benefits the campus, especially with our cowboy this year, she is about that age of coming to campus but she might not have come to campus on her own, so I think it’s a good access point for kids who might not have always came, and then they just build to the community of campus.”
Including the athletics department increases the feeling of community on campus.
“We also work closely with athletics, I think it’s great for athletics to be involved with this too,” Thomson-Lichty said. “Involving athletics is good for morale.”
The Honorary Cowboy program is unique in that it is more so community-focused.
“I’d say that this is unique since it is one program that reaches outside of direct constituents, something that we pull from the whole state,” Harris said. “It’s the only time that we can outreach this directly across the state and do something so tangent.”
