If you dropped in to the Facebook group WSU Performance Update Jan. 20, you might have read the good news about Wichita State University student Jacob January.

The status report – that January had received a prestigious award for acting after competing at the regional Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival -- was posted by WSU theater instructor Danette Baker.

“*Drumroll* Jacob January is the winner of Region V Irene Ryans!!! Up next, the nationals in DC! . . .”

When WSU professor Marie Allyn King saw the news, she clicked on both “like” and “comment” (“so proud!,” she wrote).

As director of opera for Wichita State, King is a big fan of WSU Performance Update, as are all of the WSU School of Performing Arts faculty and staff.

“For me it’s a great way to keep in touch with my former students,” she said. “They are all over the world.”

But King sees it as far more than a fun social networking site. For former and current WSU students, she said, it’s a chance to celebrate each other’s successes, share work opportunities and connect professionally.

Linda Starkey, chair of the School of Performing Arts and program director for musical theater, likes the way WSU Performance Update validates the students’ education at Wichita State.

“People are out there making their living with skills learned here,” said Starkey, noting how many WSU alums reflect the gratitude of singer, dancer, actor Julius Thomas III, who talks about his WSU experience on this 2011 video ad.

Just on campus alone, Wichita State’s performing arts majors gain solid knowledge, techniques, collaborative skills and broad stage experience, Starkey said, through classroom study and production/performance experiences.

Plus, Wichita has an amazing number of other great performance opportunities and stages. For those who work with Music Theatre of Wichita, resumes are even more enriched and, through MTW director Wayne Bryan, professional networks expanded.

The status about January was liked and/or commented on by 15 others, mostly WSU alumni who are now working professionals.

Kudos came from such WSU graduates as L.A.-based actor Casey Ross (“Dude! That’s amazing! Way to go, Jacob!”); New York-based touring actress/singer Jen Bechter (“that is so awesome. Congratulations you guys!”) and Chicago actor Cody Proctor (“Congratulations everybody!”).

Those three alums are among many in the Facebook group who, when not cheering others, post their own good news to friendly acclaim.

Ross (Jan. 23) posted “Just finished another short action film (my 3rd production with Unrendered Media). Footage coming soon!”

Proctor (Feb. 16) announced his hiring as an “understudy for two roles in The Goodman Theatre's production of The Iceman Cometh, starring Nathan Lane and Brian Dennehy.”

Bechter (Feb. 23) wrote “just got an amazing review on broadway world for our performance in Seattle” about the touring Disney stage musical of “Beauty and the Beast,” in which Bechter plays Madame de la Grande Bouche.

Even those with celebrity status, such as opera alums Alan Held and Grammy winner Joyce DiDonato, get in on the interaction.

On Feb. 26, Held announced “Opening night of "Rusalka" tomorrow night at The Royal Opera House in London . . .” to eight “likes.” The Feb. 12 news about DiDonato’s Grammy award picked up 28 “likes.”

Both King and Starkey are pleased, but not surprised, to note the natural connections being made through Facebook. And King finds it interesting that some students have become involved on their own with alumni as role models or mentors.

They work well with each other, King said, to find job opportunities, living arrangements and agents. As Starkey pointed out, that’s part of their training.

“They have to be good collaborators in productions,” said Starkey. “The collaborative skills and creativity our students learn in arts carry over to other aspects of their lives.”

Evidence of that collaborative spirit runs rampant through WSU Performance Update, especially with job updates: “It’s a really positive business tool,” said King.