Select

<div id="treeview"></div>
<script>
$("#treeview").kendoTreeView({
  dataSource: [
    { text: "foo", items: [
      { text: "bar" }
    ] }
  ]
});

var treeview = $("#treeview").data("kendoTreeView");

var bar = treeview.findByText("bar");
treeview.select(bar);

/* The result can be observed in the DevTools(F12) console of the browser. */
console.log(treeview.text(treeview.select())); // logs "bar"

treeview.select($()); // clears selection
</script>

<div id="treeview"></div>
<script>
$("#treeview").kendoTreeView({
  dataSource: [
    { text: "foo", items: [
      { text: "bar" }
    ] }
  ]
});

var treeview = $("#treeview").data("kendoTreeView");
treeview.select($(".k-treeview-item").last());

/* The result can be observed in the DevTools(F12) console of the browser. */
console.log(treeview.text(treeview.select())); // logs "bar"

</script>

<div id="treeview"></div>
<script>
$("#treeview").kendoTreeView({
  dataSource: [
    { text: "foo", items: [
      { text: "bar" }
    ] }
  ]
});

var treeview = $("#treeview").data("kendoTreeView");
treeview.select(".k-treeview-item:last");

/* The result can be observed in the DevTools(F12) console of the browser. */
console.log(treeview.text(treeview.select())); // logs "bar"

</script>