The University of Oklahoma has a program called Adopt-A-Prof, which was developed in 1999 by President David Boren. This program was designed for student organizations and faculty members to get to know each other on more personal levels outside of the classroom setting.
Assistant Student Life Director and Adopt-A-Prof coordinator, Koby Harrington says “The relationship is totally up to the student and faculty member. They may go out and have pizza one night or they may invite a faculty member to a formal dinner inside their chapter house.” The program is very personal and allows students and faculty members to get to know each other and build lasting relationships that will continue all through their OU careers and possibly after.
In order to be involved with this program, your organization must sign up by the deadline specified. The chapter and the faculty member are paired based upon their common interests or they can request each other. Both the chapter and the faculty member are given 100 dollars to spend on gifts for one another or to take the other out for a fun activity or even just for a nice dinner.
One professor in particular personally loves this generation of students and happens to be my sorority’s adopted professor. His name is General Jerry Holmes and he is teaches in the College of Engineering. He is retired from the United States Air Force and now focuses on passing his knowledge on to this generation of students because he believes that we are the future. General Holmes says that this generation has the potential to make big changes and that it is definitely possible if we just put our minds to it. He says “When someone wants help, I help them.” He is a great candidate for this program because he wants to share his knowledge with his students and he exemplifies a true mentor. A former student of his, Sheriee Parnell, says that he cares more for others than himself and he is always willing to lend a hand when you need him.
The University of Iowa and San Diego State University have similar programs but they are more focused on academics as opposed to gaining personal relationships. What makes this program unique is that it is not common among many universities and it allows students to network and build actual relationships with professors.
[VIDEO, WEATHERS RUNTIME: 2:00]
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Holiday Crafts in the Union
On Friday night in the Oklahoma Memorial Union, the Union Programming Board hosted the Holiday Craft Factory.
OU students were invited out to go make crafts and decorations for their friends and family at the union. Participants were provided all of the supplies and even snacks including hot chocolate, cookies, fruit and lemonade. They had different stations set up with different supplies at each one and volunteers to assist. The volunteers were dressed up in elf and Santa hats to get people in the holiday spirit along with music in the background.
Freshman volunteer Mikay Elliot said "We are always really happy with our turnouts." I asked her what kind of turnout she expected for their event and she said it would probably be really good. She said they also have other events for the holidays such as the Zombie 5k which was campus wide. They try to have these events during holidays for those who can't go home or are the only ones left when everyone else has gone home.
OU sophomore Ana Loza attended the event and said "This is a really convenient and fun thing to do when you are low on money and want to put your own personal touch on a gift." Another OU student, Stephanie Pryor says "I really like that they are getting everyone into the Christmas spirit."
Their next holiday craft event will take place on Valentine's day. They generally try to do these events for those holidays that people tend to feel lonely on. It gives people something to do and have fun at the same time.
OU students were invited out to go make crafts and decorations for their friends and family at the union. Participants were provided all of the supplies and even snacks including hot chocolate, cookies, fruit and lemonade. They had different stations set up with different supplies at each one and volunteers to assist. The volunteers were dressed up in elf and Santa hats to get people in the holiday spirit along with music in the background.
Freshman volunteer Mikay Elliot said "We are always really happy with our turnouts." I asked her what kind of turnout she expected for their event and she said it would probably be really good. She said they also have other events for the holidays such as the Zombie 5k which was campus wide. They try to have these events during holidays for those who can't go home or are the only ones left when everyone else has gone home.
OU sophomore Ana Loza attended the event and said "This is a really convenient and fun thing to do when you are low on money and want to put your own personal touch on a gift." Another OU student, Stephanie Pryor says "I really like that they are getting everyone into the Christmas spirit."
Their next holiday craft event will take place on Valentine's day. They generally try to do these events for those holidays that people tend to feel lonely on. It gives people something to do and have fun at the same time.
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| PHOTO: Siobhan Weathers |
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| PHOTO: Siobhan Weathers |
Sunday, November 20, 2011
A student athlete's daily life
The University of Oklahoma is notorious for athletics according to US News: Education Colleges, and is heavily populated with student athletes. Most of the athletes at OU are on a full ride scholarship, but in order to maintain these scholarships, they must devote their lives to their sport.
A social problems student, Chelsea Luster, explained how the athletes at OU are often handed things and how they are pretty much being paid to play whichever sport they were recruited to play and receive way too many free things. In a class discussion about student athletes, much of the non-athletes seemed angry because the athletes in the class spent the majority of the discussion talking about how "hard" their lives are.
Kayla Nowak is a gymnast at OU and I spoke with her to see what a day in the life of an athlete is really like and how she felt about the stereotypes of student athletes.
Her day starts at 5:45 am with morning workouts and then she goes to class. After class, she heads to practice for about 3 hours and then has a little bit of a break. She then has tutoring from 7 pm to 8 pm. This leaves her with about 2 hours to study and do homework if she wants a sufficient amount of sleep before her day starts all over again. In a sense, the academic life of a student athlete is just as difficult as that of a regular student. Regular students get to spend their entire nights studying or get to go home and take naps during the day. Athletes are constantly going and don't get to have their nap times or pull all nighters for a test.
In regards to the stereotypes of student athletes Kayla says "I wouldn't say we just get handed free stuff... yeah we all complain about how tired we are... but it's a lot of hard work and it's very time consuming. It does get overwhelming sometimes." She says there's no way she would have time for a job because essentially, gymnastics is her job.
Nowak loves what she does and she says she wouldn't trade in her student athlete life even when times get to be stressful. She explained how she and the rest of the gymnastics team still have their summer breaks even though they're still training, they get to hang out like normal students.
She's excited for the season to come and says how this is probably the hardest part and it only gets easier from here on out in regards to the upcoming season.
[WEATHERS VIDEO, RUNTIME 1:06]
A social problems student, Chelsea Luster, explained how the athletes at OU are often handed things and how they are pretty much being paid to play whichever sport they were recruited to play and receive way too many free things. In a class discussion about student athletes, much of the non-athletes seemed angry because the athletes in the class spent the majority of the discussion talking about how "hard" their lives are.
Kayla Nowak is a gymnast at OU and I spoke with her to see what a day in the life of an athlete is really like and how she felt about the stereotypes of student athletes.
Her day starts at 5:45 am with morning workouts and then she goes to class. After class, she heads to practice for about 3 hours and then has a little bit of a break. She then has tutoring from 7 pm to 8 pm. This leaves her with about 2 hours to study and do homework if she wants a sufficient amount of sleep before her day starts all over again. In a sense, the academic life of a student athlete is just as difficult as that of a regular student. Regular students get to spend their entire nights studying or get to go home and take naps during the day. Athletes are constantly going and don't get to have their nap times or pull all nighters for a test.
In regards to the stereotypes of student athletes Kayla says "I wouldn't say we just get handed free stuff... yeah we all complain about how tired we are... but it's a lot of hard work and it's very time consuming. It does get overwhelming sometimes." She says there's no way she would have time for a job because essentially, gymnastics is her job.
Nowak loves what she does and she says she wouldn't trade in her student athlete life even when times get to be stressful. She explained how she and the rest of the gymnastics team still have their summer breaks even though they're still training, they get to hang out like normal students.
She's excited for the season to come and says how this is probably the hardest part and it only gets easier from here on out in regards to the upcoming season.
[WEATHERS VIDEO, RUNTIME 1:06]
Sunday, November 13, 2011
TV News: the controversy behind the scenes
Cherokee Ballard, an Oklahoma native and University of Oklahoma graduate came back to her Alma Mater this past week to speak to the future journalists in the Gaylord College.
Cherokee Ballard is a former reporter in Oklahoma City and also worked as a spokesperson for the medical examiner’s office. Britten Follet is another former Oklahoma City reporter who spoke at OU along with Ballard.
She was heavily involved in the Kelsey Smith Briggs homicide and was responsible for a lot of media swirl around it. No one was ever convicted of the murder of 2 year old Kelsey Smith Briggs, however, Ballard believes she knows who was responsible for her death and used every resource to let the public know without actually disclosing names.
Britten Follet was also involved in uncovering the truth behind Kelsey’s murder. Ballard and Follet worked together knocking on doors and interviewing everyone they could to get answers. Both reporters stirred up a lot of controversy because of their persistence in the case. Much of the information they obtained, they were not allowed to speak about publicly so they decided to write a book.
Another controversy Ballard was involved in was the bribery case in the ME’s office this past month. She announced she was leaving to pursue another job offered to her in the midst of the case and was called to testify. When asked if the case had anything to do with her leaving, she said no. She said it was a stressful job and she was ready to leave long before the scandal had surfaced.
Ballard said “I always tell the truth.” This is something that has helped and hurt her throughout her years as a reporter and her short time as a spokesperson at the ME’s office. She said she was sued while working at the ME’s office for simply being a person. The truth can bring out the worst in people and Follet said “That’s why we’re no longer in TV news.”
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| Cherokee Ballard and Britten Follet Taken By Siobhan Weathers |
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| Cherokee Ballard Taken By Siobhan Weathers |
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Women's gymnastics on the rise
Gymnastics season doesn’t start until January but when you take out the holiday breaks, it’s not too far off and the gymnasts have high hopes that they will win a national championship this year.
Kayla Nowak is a third year gymnast at the University of Oklahoma. She says that the fan base for women’s gymnastics is great. She says her first year, they broke a record for over 3,000 fans in attendance and for most meets, they get up to 2,500 fans. At home, they perform at Lloyd Noble and close half of the arena so the fans take up about a third of the seats. She says even though they have a lot of very supportive fans, they lack student fans which is something they are trying to change by my marketing more around campus. “We lack actual students and are focusing on that aspect of it.”
OU student Britney Atkins says in all of her 4 years at the university she has never been to a gymnastics meet. “I never know when they have them, I didn’t even know they were at Lloyd Noble. I’ve heard they are good though.”
Nowak says that many SEC schools are big on gymnastics and get up to 15,000 people at their competitions, especially at the University of Utah where they have won national titles. Other gymnastics powerhouses include The University of Georgia and Alabama. Nowak also explained how women’s gymnastics is more popular than men’s gymnastics because women’s is easier to understand and they also compete in the field house. It also helps that the women are a part of the Big 12 conference. She says that women’s gymnastics is very popular but of all the women’s sports at OU, basketball is probably the most popular.
Their first meet will take place on January 1, 2012 in Lexington, Kentucky. Nowak says she really thinks they will win a national title this year.
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| LLoyd Noble Center, Taken By: Siobhan Weathers |
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| Sam Viersen Gymnastics Center, Taken By: Siobhan Weathers |
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Women's basketball players and stilettos
The University of Oklahoma's Panhellenic council met last week and they had a guest appearance by the women's head basketball coach Sherri Coale.
Coale spoke at the meeting to inform the female members of panhellenic greek organizations about the importance of networking and building connections to make sure you have a job once you graduate college. The program she presented is called Sooner Stilettos.
This program is designed to help female students at OU gain access to job opportunities and mentors through shadowing other females who have the career they would like to pursue. Coale, herself, was a member of Sooner Stilettos, as well as some of her previous and current players. Coale says this is a "classy program for classy women." She explained female basketball players are just like regular girls and they are no different from anyone else.
Coale talked about her experience with Sooner Stilettos and how she was able to develop a very close relationship with her mentor, who before meeting Sherri, knew nothing about women's basketball. Coale said that before her mentor passed away, she attended every single home basketball game. Coale also talked about how many of the women who were members of Sooner Stilettos have gone on to open their own businesses and some have even become millionaires.
With membership into this program, you get opportunities to attend exclusive
events with the Sooner women's basketball team. You also get the chance to network with people you might not otherwise have even known. This program gave girls another perspective into the women's basketball team and especially Sherri Coale.
Coale spoke at the meeting to inform the female members of panhellenic greek organizations about the importance of networking and building connections to make sure you have a job once you graduate college. The program she presented is called Sooner Stilettos.
This program is designed to help female students at OU gain access to job opportunities and mentors through shadowing other females who have the career they would like to pursue. Coale, herself, was a member of Sooner Stilettos, as well as some of her previous and current players. Coale says this is a "classy program for classy women." She explained female basketball players are just like regular girls and they are no different from anyone else.
Coale talked about her experience with Sooner Stilettos and how she was able to develop a very close relationship with her mentor, who before meeting Sherri, knew nothing about women's basketball. Coale said that before her mentor passed away, she attended every single home basketball game. Coale also talked about how many of the women who were members of Sooner Stilettos have gone on to open their own businesses and some have even become millionaires.
With membership into this program, you get opportunities to attend exclusive
events with the Sooner women's basketball team. You also get the chance to network with people you might not otherwise have even known. This program gave girls another perspective into the women's basketball team and especially Sherri Coale.
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| Taken By: Siobhan Weathers |
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| Taken By: Siobhan Weathers |
Monday, October 17, 2011
Ballet Instructor turns injuries in a career
Clara Stanley is an associate ballet professor at the University of Oklahoma who has danced all over the world and has had a total of 3 careers.
Everything she has done has been in the field of dance, she has just had to do something less strenuous on her body. She started her career in the Harkness Ballet in New York in the 60s. She toured all over the world and spent quite a bit of time in South America. During this time, she obtained severe injuries to her knees. Back then, there were no extensive treatment methods like the ones today. Stanley continued dancing, and the physical strain continued to wear on her knees.
Stanley reached a point where her knees pretty much became unusable. This lead her into career number 2. A friend invited her to head a ballet academy in Houston. Being a ballet instructor allows less strain on the body because it is more speaking than demonstrating. She was the principal there for 28 years.
She then decided to take some time for herself and eventually applied for the job at OU, career number 3. Her years of dancing and touring the world allowed her to meet many people and network. With the help of her connections, specifically Mary Margaret Holt, she received the job at OU as an associate professor of ballet. Holt is the head of the dance school at OU and also one of Stanley's dear friends from her dance years.
One of her students, Rose Reida, said how much she respects Stanley and how she is incredibly supportive and everything she says is for the good of the students. Stanley has trained dancers who are now professionals and she continues to do so at OU. She teaches the highest level of technique classes and prepares her students for the professional world of dance.
Everything she has done has been in the field of dance, she has just had to do something less strenuous on her body. She started her career in the Harkness Ballet in New York in the 60s. She toured all over the world and spent quite a bit of time in South America. During this time, she obtained severe injuries to her knees. Back then, there were no extensive treatment methods like the ones today. Stanley continued dancing, and the physical strain continued to wear on her knees.
Stanley reached a point where her knees pretty much became unusable. This lead her into career number 2. A friend invited her to head a ballet academy in Houston. Being a ballet instructor allows less strain on the body because it is more speaking than demonstrating. She was the principal there for 28 years.
She then decided to take some time for herself and eventually applied for the job at OU, career number 3. Her years of dancing and touring the world allowed her to meet many people and network. With the help of her connections, specifically Mary Margaret Holt, she received the job at OU as an associate professor of ballet. Holt is the head of the dance school at OU and also one of Stanley's dear friends from her dance years.
One of her students, Rose Reida, said how much she respects Stanley and how she is incredibly supportive and everything she says is for the good of the students. Stanley has trained dancers who are now professionals and she continues to do so at OU. She teaches the highest level of technique classes and prepares her students for the professional world of dance.
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