Some partnerships support the work. Others help shape it.
For more than a decade, Montana State University has been a key partner in helping Greater Gallatin United Way expand opportunities for children, strengthen support for working families, and build the next generation of educators in our community.
This partnership shows up in real ways every day. Many kidsLINK staff are MSU students working toward their teaching degrees, gaining hands-on experience while building meaningful relationships with kids. MSU’s MSIM graduate students have also played a critical role in helping connect families to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, ensuring more children receive books each month and start building a love of reading early.
MSU continues to invest in this work through its annual workplace campaign, helping support GGUW and more than 25 Community Impact nonprofit partners across our region. It’s a partnership rooted not just in shared values, but in action.
That work traces back to a vision from Jayne Downey, then head of MSU’s Education Department, who launched the Afterschool Initiative to strengthen afterschool programming for working families while creating real-world experience for future teachers. What started in 2012 as a small pilot at three school sites, built with early leadership from Kimberly Karsted and Megan Brenna, has grown into a model that now reaches thousands of children across our community.
Over time, the partnership has expanded in both scale and impact, growing to dozens of sites, increasing access in rural communities, and evolving to meet changing needs. During COVID, MSU students helped launch virtual book and tech clubs to stay connected with kids. Today, that work has grown into more integrated, STEM-focused programming that continues to spark curiosity and learning beyond the school day.
At its core, this partnership is about more than programs. It’s about creating a pipeline—future teachers gaining real experience, children building confidence and connection, and families having the support they need to thrive.
That spirit was on full display at this year’s kidsLINK Bobcat Bash.
Now in its second year, the event continues to grow, and it keeps getting better. Kids look forward to it, and you can feel the energy in the room as they connect with MSU student-athletes and simply get to be kids.
A special thank you to Caitlyn Jordan, Athletic Academic Coordinator for Student-Athlete Affairs, and the entire MSU team for helping make this event possible. Moments like these don’t happen without strong partnerships behind them.
This is what it looks like when a university and a community come together with a shared purpose.
