Honors around Campus

Nitin is a psychology pre-med student graduating this Spring, While juggling his academic responsibilities Rangu is also the of the OU Food Pantry. A student-led organization founded in 2017 that has become an essential resource for OU students, faculty, and staff. They regularly serve 375+ households every week and are run entirely by a student volunteer team. 

As food pantry director Nitin is responsible for managing a 60-person student team and organizing all operations. He also coordinates with other pantries in the Big 12 and liaises with other university departments, while managing the operational budget for the organization. While Mr. Rangu is constantly busy serving as director, he wouldn't change his responsibilities because he finds the job equally as rewarding. He says, "My favorite part is getting to interact with our clients and volunteers. I love hearing people's stories and building relationships. It's important that we're not just filling orders to fill them. He adds, "We're serving people with unique needs and experiences." Mr. Rangu encourages every student to get involved in the OU Food Pantry because it is one of the things you can do on campus where you can make a direct, tangible impact every time you volunteer. Not to mention the fact that you get to form connections with other volunteers and clients while fighting food insecurity on campus. Nitin recalls one story in particular, "I had a client come up to me and thank us at the pantry for helping him while he was in a tough financial situation. He said he was experiencing temporary homelessness and was struggling to make ends meet." He adds, "However, with the help of the pantry, he was able to sustain himself until he could get up on his feet and, now he has registered as a volunteer in order to help others." 

While Nitin is kept busy with the food pantry, he has managed to complete his Honors responsibilities and is a member of the Honors Studen Association, he is set to graduate summa cum laude. Given his enormous workload, Ntin has to keep his extracurricular activities to a minimum and devote his time only to those he truly finds special. This allows him to truly take comfort in the work he does even with an increased workload. Mr. Rangu is also a Withrow Leadership Scholar and plans to attend medical school after graduation. 

Anusha has wasted no time in making a name for herself on campus. The freshman is double majoring in journalism and English and is a senior newspaper reporter for the OU Daily. The OU Daily is the University's only independent, student-produced newspaper with a circulation of 6,000 people. Ms. Faithepure has brought her experience as editor-in-chief for her high school newsletter and a student correspondent for a local newspaper. At the Daily, her responsibilities include writing long-form feature-length stories alongside smaller day reporting stories. She covers student life and leadership n OU, and Anusha really strives to highlight areas on campus that can be overlooked. She says, "Diverse representation is very important to me and one of the things I love about journalism is how it allows you to explore the uniqueness of people and their interests, and I feel like I get to do that with the Daily.

When balancing her schoolwork and OU Daily responsibilities, she is also part of the Scholars program as well as being an honors student. This means that she has had to manage her time and responsibilities very well. She says, since I am pursuing two degrees on top of my work with the OU Daily, it's important I keep myself on track and keep a very detailed schedule, so I don't fall behind or miss any assignments. 

When asked if she would recommend getting involved at the OU Daily she gushed about how welcoming the people and environment are and says that there are several different ways of getting involved such as writing, copy editing, photography and even advertising. About getting involved with the OU Daily and journalism in general "I truly, from the bottom of my heart, believe the OU Daily represents the voice of the OU community. We aim for accuracy, transparency, and diversity in our reporting, In recent years there has been a lot of talk about journalism dying, but personally, I believe as long as there are good journalists, journalism will never die. When I look at the passion every member of the OU Daily has, I have immense faith in the future of journalism. 

Michael Stoyak is an honors sophomore double majoring in Economics and International Studies. While involved in many organizations inside and outside of the honors college, he dedicates most of his free time to the Student Government Association on campus. SGA serves and advocates for the student body to continue improving the student experience. One of their biggest accomplishments in recent years has been establishing the OU Food Pantry in 2017. Stoyak serves as the Director of the Interior where he oversees campaign ideas and projects of the administration. Some of his current work includes streamlining important student resources such as food pantry resources, sexual misconduct resources, and mental health resources. He is also focused on reaching out to registered student organizations while unifying the branches of our student government. Even though every student is a member of the student government by code Michael believes that everyone should take an active role within the student government association because in order to enact positive and progressive change on campus representation from every corner of campus is needed.

Mr. Stoyak is also a part of Oklahoma Votes, a nonpartisan, nonprofit, student-led organization that aims to boost civic engagement on campus. He is also a member of The Crimson Club, a member of the President’s Leadership Class, and a Capitol Scholar, this allows him to intern for State Representative Forrest Bennett and Melissa Provenzano at the State Capitol. Michael also interns at the Oklahoma Indigent Defense Systems, which provides public defense to people with death row sentences and their appeals.

Michael’s involvement on campus extends into the Honors College where he has taken classes, participated in the Informal Reading Groups, been a mentee in the Honors Mentorship Program, and is now planning to study abroad through the Honors at Oxford program this semester.

Staying on top of his busy schedule takes a lot of meticulous organization and time management. His secret is simple, writing everything down in planners, three to be exact, one for chores and events, one strictly for schoolwork, and the other for his internships and job. This allows him to spend his time wisely and being present and proactive in everything he does.

Ms. Bloomfield has her hands full as an Acting and Computer Science double major with a double minor in Psychology and Math. Though her academic plate is full she still makes time to be a very active member of the OU School of Drama, where she has acted and crewed in many productions. Among those are Fefu and Her Friends, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Life Sucks, and the latest production, Burn This. The now senior didn’t get involved with the Drama department until her sophomore year when a change of heart had her switching from a chemical bioscience and ballet major to a Computer Science major and an audition to the university’s acting program. Since being accepted into the program she has become an integral part of the Helmerich School of Drama.

Aside from her school of drama duties, Lydia is also a part of the Jerry Holmes Leadership Program for engineers and OU’s Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning club. As far as participation in the Honors College she has taken quite a few Honors courses, including Dr. Julia Ehrhardt’s Food and Culture class that impacted her greatly and continues to be one of her favorite classes at OU to date. When asked about the importance of involvement around campus, she says “student organizations are the easiest way to meet people with similar interests and make friends. Being on a large campus sometimes makes it difficult to connect with others, but getting involved is a surefire way to start building community.

One of the biggest problems that college students have to face is being able to balance a well-rounded life that includes a social life, extracurriculars, academic responsibilities, work life while preparing for post-graduate life. Ms. Bloomfield says that time management skills are essential, doing assignments as soon as you can, and really loving everything you commit to are keys to accomplishing the correct life balance.

Simon Lowry is a senior graduating this May with a bachelor's in Astrophysics and Mathematics. Simon is very active around campus from being co-president of the Society of Physics Students, and former president of the Model United Nations which is an international program that aims to build leadership and public speaking skills while teaching students about the importance of the United Nations. Lowry also served as a program coordinator in the Semester at Sea Vicarious Voyagers Program where he worked with three school districts in St. Louis, MO offering study abroad scholarships to children. When asked about the importance of campus involvement he said, “getting involved helps with personal development, social integration, and professional networking, and OU provides students with so many resources and opportunities to get involved.”

Mr. Lowry is an international student from South Africa and while he has enjoyed his last four years in Oklahoma it hasn’t come without its fair share of culture shock. The experience has broadened his horizons and helped him appreciate his own culture back home.

As a part of the Honors College Mr. Lowry has been a member of HSA and attended several of their student events. He also participated in the Honors Research Assistant Program which served as his introduction to research, he calls the experience “professionally formative.”

Lowry’s post-graduation plans include a return to South Africa for a summer internship at the South African National Radio Astronomy Observatory, which he considers his dream job. Afterward, he will return to the U.S. and work in a related field before applying to graduate school in the future

Communication and pre-Law junior Flora Ellis is not only an honors student but is also an active member of the OU Mock Trial team. Mock Trial is an event where competitors participate in a mock trial or pseudo-trial. Each year there is a fictional case alternating between civil and criminal. The team’s job is to represent the parties involved like real lawyers or act as witnesses in the case. Mock Trial involves reading, research, problem-solving, and acting. She shares that Mock Trial is a great opportunity to meet new people while also developing communication and critical thinking skills, she recommends it to all students and especially those that plan on attending law school.

Apart from Mock Trial Flora is active in the honors college by attending honors organization social events and taking Honors courses. Her involvement, however, isn’t limited to the OU community because she also frequently attends local city council meetings and participates in protests about issues she feels strongly about.

For many college can be a pretty stressful and busy time and as someone with a chronic illness, Ms. Ellis can attest to this perhaps more than anyone. When asked about handling college-related stress she emphasized the importance of listening to taking care of yourself and setting boundaries for example getting enough sleep, eating right, and taking care of your mental health. She is also careful not to overload her class schedule each semester, therefore ensuring she can dedicate the right amount of focus to each class.