Donor Establishes Endowment To Support Kennesaw State Competition Teams, Honors Students

Press release from Kennesaw State University:

Aug 2, 2021

Donor establishes endowment to support Kennesaw State competition teams, Honors students

KENNESAW, Ga.
(Aug 2, 2021) — Longtime Technical Manager Jim J. Hills has always been a firm believer that competition
breeds ingenuity.

KSU Motorsports
While studying at the former Southern Technical Institute, now Kennesaw State University,
he regularly competed in the college’s famed bathtub races, where he honed his engineering
skills building motorized tubs he then raced against his classmates. Now, he and his
wife Wanda aim to inspire the next generation of engineers through a $1 million endowment,
the largest single gift in the history of KSU’s Southern Polytechnic College of Engineering and Engineering Technology (SPCEET), providing support for KSU competition teams and scholarships for engineering
students in the University’s Keeping Sights Upward (KSU) Journey Honors College.

Bolstered by an 150 percent endowment matching program established last year by Rosemary
and John Brown and the KSU Foundation, the gift will also support the procurement of more equipment for various labs in
KSU’s Southern Polytechnic College of Engineering and Engineering Technology (SPCEET).

“I’ve always had a tremendous amount of respect for all of the legacy institutions
that comprise Kennesaw State, so the engineering college was always the natural choice
for where I felt I could make the biggest impact,” Hills said. “I strongly believe
in higher education and competition teams, and their ability to provide transformative
learning experiences that spawn highly successful careers. I also hope this will inspire
other alumni to dig deep and make substantial contributions to the university that
will benefit students and society in so many ways.”

Hills, who holds a degree in mechanical engineering technology, credits his personal success to his experience at the University. After graduating
in 1977, he would immediately enter industry by taking a job with AT&T-Bell Labs.
After gaining large corporation R&D experience he developed an entrepreneurial spirit
and joined a small Marietta-based engineering/testing firm Applied Technical Services
(ATS) co-founded by his father, Jim F. Hills, Bill Lewis and Ralph Johnson.

Today, Hills serves as president of ATS and employs more than 100 KSU alumni, co-ops
and working students.

In addition to supporting Honors students, Hills said he gravitated toward supporting
KSU’s engineering competition teams, particularly KSU Motorsports, since they represented
a foundational part of his own undergraduate journey. Though the bathtub races ended
in 1991, KSU Motorsports continues to provide an outlet for students to test their
engineering prowess against other institutions nationwide on an annual basis. “There is just so much that an aspiring engineer can learn from designing and building
in a competition setting,” he said. “I consider that a formative experience during
my collegiate years, and that spirit is certainly still alive and well at Kennesaw
State.”

Ian Ferguson, dean of SPCEET, said Hills’ experience at the institution is indicative
of the type of opportunities the college aims to create.

“We are fortunate to have alumni like Jim who see the value in education and give
back to ensure others have the same experience,” Ferguson said. “Through his generosity,
the engineering college will continue to generate transformational learning experiences
for students who, in return, will become our next leaders in engineering.”

– Travis Highfield

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A leader in innovative teaching and learning, Kennesaw State University offers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees to its more than 41,000 students. With 11 colleges on two metro Atlanta campuses, Kennesaw State is a member of the University System of Georgia and the second-largest university in the state. The university’s vibrant campus culture, diverse population, strong global ties and entrepreneurial spirit draw students from throughout the region and from 126 countries across the globe. Kennesaw State is a Carnegie-designated doctoral research institution (R2), placing it among an elite group of only 6 percent of U.S. colleges and universities with an R1 or R2 status. For more information, visit kennesaw.edu.

This press release was produced by Kennesaw State University. The views expressed here are the author’s own.