OU Engineering

Noelle Vargas - May 2018 By Noelle Vargas “People change people: that is the secret of life.” – Mark Blutman Who are we? What impact do we want to leave on our world? The definition of “our world”- what does that encompass? As an OU student, our eyes stretch from the residential towers down the South Oval to the engineering quad. However, there is more to our world than the twenty minute hike across campus. It is easy to claim that as a student “our world” is focused on improving ourselves academically and climbing organizational hierarchies. However, there is more to our world and there is more to what we can offer. Our brain for nine months in a calendar year, is focused on increasing knowledge to pursue a career in our desired field. But what world do we desire to impact through our career? Our world is bigger than OU’s campus - bigger than Norman - bigger than Oklahoma - and even bigger than the United States. This seems statistically obvious: a world is bigger than a cou

It all started with an email forward from Regennia Johnson, director of the AT&T Summer Bridge Program and staff member in the OU Engineering Diversity & Inclusion Program. Colen James, a sophomore computer engineering student from Pearland, Texas, followed through on that email about the scholarship opportunity. He’s glad he did, as he received notification in July that he is one out of 10 students awarded the $75,000 Rainbow PUSH/Excel Jesse Jackson Fellowship-Toyota North America Scholarship and CO-OP/Internship. James will be attending a celebration dinner and awards presentation ceremony this August in Chicago. James is very thankful for this honor, as demonstrated by his thank you email to the following: Regennia Johnson – Director of AT&T Summer Bridge Program, OU Gallogly College of Engineering Ms. Regennia, first and foremost, thank you for sending me the scholarship opportunity information and encouraging me to apply. Jabar Shumate – Vice Pres