For over 130 years, students at the University of Oklahoma have found rich opportunities for personal growth while pursuing their varied academic careers.
The Henderson Scholars Program at OU provides its members with numerous tools and guidance to help them along their academic paths. One of the learning goals of the program is to have “awareness of methods for engaging with a community or social issues.” With societal challenges ever-present, the Henderson Scholars’ aim is to prepare its students with the tools necessary to tackle them head-on.
While engaging with the external community is important, engagement within this community of scholars is what sets the stage for the scholars.
Maya Wilson, a 21-year-old marketing and sports business student from Houston, initially selected her college based on several factors, including a desire to travel out of state, pursue a particular degree, and to be involved with a strong athletics tradition. As many know, OU easily checks all three of those boxes.
“I knew I wanted to pursue a business degree,” Wilson said. “It was really between Oklahoma or Louisiana [State University], and I wanted to pick something that also had good athletics. I just like the culture and tradition at OU. Once I toured the campus, I practically fell in love with it. It was just a bit more to my liking."
Good business school, good athletics, good school choice.
Many students enter OU following a similar path. One of the common challenges facing these prospective and new Sooners is simply not having a number of contacts – people who can help them meet their goals.
Wilson’s entrance into the program began with a phone call from the program’s director, Angie Wright, and George Henderson himself. Wilson came to OU with prior experience in leadership and community service as a student at Lamar High School, an experience she hoped to expand upon as she attended OU. Following the phone interview, Wilson signed up to be a Henderson Scholar.
“To be a Henderson Scholar is an honor,” Wilson said. “To be a Henderson Scholar is to embody the characteristics that Dr. Henderson wants us to as a community, and to understand the community [at large].”
It can be challenging to step into a new situation with fresh faces and voices. Wilson welcomed the new lifestyle and, with support from her Henderson Scholars peers and mentors, was able to quickly immerse herself into her newfound community as well as the wider community.
“Community” is one of the key concepts of the Henderson Scholars program. Henderson Scholars are encouraged to be fully engaged and present both in and outside the classroom. Some of the ways this is accomplished is through a welcoming environment within the program and through practice in which current students help newcomers and underclassmen are encouraged to share their thoughts with their more experienced peers.
“Being able to talk to someone who had either gone through this, like the upperclassmen I met as a freshman, is so helpful,” Wilson said. “It was a bit scary to like, talk to them on campus. But here in Henderson, who cares if you were a junior or senior? They'll talk to the first-year students.”
This emphasis on community helped Wilson achieve a higher-level of experience at OU and taught her necessary skills, from how to apply for graduate school to how to meet the standards of her different professors.
“I looked up a lot to the older people in Henderson,” Wilson said. “Now I am an older person in this, and I’m trying to give that back to the freshmen in the program and make sure that they feel like they can come to us as a resource.”
Like many before her, Maya needed guidance to achieve her goals. The Henderson Scholars Program provided that help. Now her OU experience has come full circle. Her time at OU will conclude in May 2022 when she graduates and pursues a career with Plano, Texas, mortgage firm Fannie May in their single-family acquisitions and operations department.
Wilson embraces her newfound wisdom of mentorship and hopes to help those just beginning their paths as Henderson Scholars.
“[I want to] make the most out of their OU experience.”
