Throwback Thursday: 20 years of WKU HonorsToppers
Throwback Thursday celebrates a Western Kentucky University tradition that started with just an idea and has now spent twenty years helping future Hilltoppers find their place on the Hill. In 2026, the WKU HonorsToppers are celebrating their 20th anniversary. Their story begins in 2006, but the inspiration goes back even further.
Since 1981, WKU’s Spirit Masters have served as the university’s official student ambassadors, welcoming visitors, representing western, and sharing the traditions and hospitality of the hill. Twenty-five years later, that ambassador model helped inspire something new within what was then WKU’s Honors program: a student ambassador organization specifically for Honors.
And the first HonorsTopper was Lindsey Thurman Westerfield. We spoke to her about the experience being the “first” HonorsTopper and what it means to her now, as a career professional working for Dolly Parton Imagination Library. She knew something about representing WKU, as a Spirit Master from 2005 to 2007, and 2006 became an especially significant year. The National Collegiate Honors Council selected her as its Honors student of the year. HonorsToppers officially began in 2006, as she built a plan for creating opportunities for Honors students to serve their community while helping prospective students through recruitment, admissions, and orientation.
The students behind the new organization soon took their idea beyond Bowling Green. In 2007, Lindsey, Jeff Sorce, Ashley Belcher, and Kevin Smiley presented a program at the National Collegiate Honors Conference in Denver called: “WKU HonorsToppers: the creation of an Honors ambassador organization.”
And HonorsToppers arrived during a transformative period for Honors education at WKU. Dr. Craig Cobane became the Honors program’s first full-time director in 2005, when the program had about 350 students. In 2006, WKU also launched the Honors freshman orientation retreat known as H4 and the Honors newsletter, Arête. Then, in 2007, the program became the Honors College at WKU, the first honors college in Kentucky. As the college evolved, so did the role of its student ambassadors. For two decades, HonorsToppers have welcomed prospective students and their families, assisted with recruitment and admissions, served their community, and helped tell the story of honors through the people who know it best, the students themselves.
That tradition continues today at the Mahurin Honors College. Current HonorsToppers welcome and host prospective families, represent the college on campus and throughout the community, and even lead specialized campus visits. Instead of simply showing prospective students where buildings are located, they can tell them what it’s like to study, live and find a community at WKU. And this Friday, HonorsToppers from across the years are being invited back to the Hill to celebrate twenty years of that tradition. An idea inspired by one WKU ambassador program became another lasting tradition of its own. From Lindsey Westerfield in 2006 to a new generation in 2026, thousands of conversations, campus visits and first impressions have helped future scholars picture themselves at Western. Twenty years later, the welcome continues. Happy 20th anniversary to the WKU HonorsToppers.
