Where are you from?

I am originally from Owasso then moved to Stillwater for school. My family had a farm in Bixby with a storefront in Tulsa. Upon graduation from OSU Stillwater we moved to Glenpool to be closer to the farm. A few years after I graduated, we decided to close our storefront down. That is when I applied for the job here at OSUIT and have been here ever since.

What do you do here at OSUIT? 

I am the Talent Acquisition Specialist. I started out in recruitment and have moved to this position over the course of the last few months. I am now working directly with businesses to train them on how to recruit students in their home towns, talk about sponsorships, and create relationships and partnerships with new companies while maintaining relationships with the companies we currently work with.

Tell me a little about your experience with the university so far?

After graduating from OSU Stillwater, I couldn’t believe how much I missed the atmosphere of the campus and the students. When I started working at OSUIT, I immediately felt at home again. The employees here on this campus actually care about the students and I love seeing that. One of the negatives of a huge college campus is I was lucky if the professors even knew my name. Here, the professors not only know their students’ names, they know their friends and family, and they know about their students’ lives because they choose to invest in them. And not only do they care about their students well-being now, they care about their well-being years down the road as well. It is not uncommon for the employees at OSUIT to call up students who graduated years ago to see how they are doing, which is something you don’t see or hear about at other college campuses. 

What’s been the best thing about working here?

Am I allowed to say the food? Between the cafeteria, the State Room and the C-Store, you can never go wrong. And I mean, I have the privilege of having Nate Todd and Dr. Ina Agnew as bosses so we always seem to have food in our department. In all seriousness, I really do love the people on this campus. All the employees are here for the students and that’s so easy to see. I will never forget when I had the opportunity to meet a student at a high school who didn’t think he was meant for college. Being able to open his eyes up to OSUIT, watching him come for a tour, hearing about him getting enrolled in classes, and now graduating from here and being extremely successful in his career is an amazing thing to get to experience. 

What do you wish more people knew about OSUIT and the role you play here?

I wish more people knew about the job placement rate here at OSUIT. Going to OSU Stillwater, I always just assumed that everyone had a job when they graduated but that wasn’t the case. In fact, the majority of the students I graduated with didn’t have any clue on where they were going to work. Here at OSUIT, it is not that way. Our technical degree seeking students get to go on an internship— and have the opportunity to get paid while doing it too— get college credit for it, and know where they will be working upon the time of graduation. That says a lot about OSUIT and I wish more prospective students, and businesses alike knew that.

What’s your favorite spot on campus?

My favorite spot on campus would have to be the Student Union. Getting to talk to all the different employees from the bookstore, copy center, cafeteria and post office, is one of my favorite things. I love getting to talk to Judy in the post office, and Allison in the bookstore always lets me know when they get new apparel. 

What would you tell someone who was thinking about attending or working at OSUIT?

Do it! If you want to work somewhere that is a part of something bigger and actually cares about their work family, work here. If you are a potential student looking at different colleges and you want a different experience— one that focuses on hands-on learning instead of lecture-based learning, one where you are able to form relationships with your professors, and one that is going to produce a job for you after graduation— choose OSUIT. We might not have any sports teams, but the benefits of attending this campus far outweigh the one negative. When I graduated from Owasso High School, I wish I would have known about OSUIT or I would owe a lot less school debt than I currently do.