As a young person growing up in a small southeastern Kansas town, Carole Jackson Moreno dreamed of “bigger things,” but didn’t always have access to the resources to make them become reality. Today, she is helping other Jayhawks’ dreams come true by creating opportunities for generations of students facing similar challenges.

Moreno, the first in her family to graduate from a four-year university, was raised in Fredonia, a town with a smaller population than KU’s current freshman class of 5,259. She loved the small-town life of her adolescence but credits KU as opening her eyes to the world. She still believes this more than 45 years after graduating from the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications (JMC School).

“I was so excited to be able to come to KU,” Moreno said. “My brother and I talked about how in our small town, nobody else went to KU, and it was a very big deal to come here. I was thrilled to become a Jayhawk and to be a Jayhawk for the rest of my life.”

Corbin Residence Hall on the Lawrence campus quickly became Moreno’s new home. She joined Gamma Phi Beta and the Spirit Squad, an experience that gave Moreno some of her fondest KU memories. She also recalls being “giddy with excitement” after giving her final campaigns class presentation during her senior year.

“My education means everything to me,” she said. “I love the fact that I graduated from college and from this university. I’m very, very proud of that.”

This understanding is one reason Moreno and her husband, Arte, have supported KU’s JMC School since 2004. This includes giving to the Eudora Times, the student-run local news outlet of Eudora, Kan., a nod to Moreno’s mother who was the social columnist at the Fredonia Daily Herald, and a recent donation that will fund renovations to the student resource center in Stauffer-Flint Hall. Named in Moreno’s honor, the center will bring student advisors together in one location and provide cameras, microphones and other digital production devices for students to check out at no cost as well as upgrading the space to be more accessible.

“We didn’t come from a family of means, and so, there were a lot of people who guided and helped me along the way,” Moreno said. “It truly means so much to me to be able to give back. I feel lucky to be able to help this group of students. I really feel I receive more than I give.”