Friday, March 26, 2021
Royal change Cultural pageant winners promote diversity at OSU By Ellie Melero O’Colly Contributor
Students’ mental health struggles without spring break By Amelia Jauregui Staff Reporter
As Kassandra Gaona stood in front of the Student Union Theater audience, freshly crowned Miss Hispanic/Latina OSU 2020, she couldn’t help but be proud of how far she had come. Just a few years earlier, Gaona would have never imagined herself participating in a pageant, let alone one intended to show off her heritage and culture. The pageant had taken up a large part of her life for months, so she was understandably pleased that all her hard work had paid off. But more than that, she was proud of how far she had come as a person and young Hispanic woman. For a long time, Gaona was ashamed to be Hispanic. “For most of my life I tried to hide the fact that I was Hispanic and Mexican because I was scared people would say [something] to me,” Gaona said. “I worked really hard to get rid of my Hispanic accent that I used to have when I first learned English and to try to fit in with the ‘normal white
See Royal on pg. 4A
Desperate for a break
Reuben Gant was living clear across the country in Buffalo when he heard the disturbing accounts of what happened. He wasn’t taught during his time playing football at Oklahoma State or even in his childhood hometown of Tulsa, where the tragedy occurred. Gant learned about the brutal Tulsa race massacre when he was over 1,000 miles away and 22 years old; especially jarring considering his deep connections to the massacre. “I had ancestors who were victims of the massacre,” Gant said. “It was a revelation. It was something that certainly I took an interest in and got into it feet first.” Gant, who played NFL football for six years with the Buffalo Bills in the late ‘70s following his college career at OSU, has dedicated his post-football days to educating more people about the massacre and helping the Greenwood community prosper.
Hoping to reduce the spread of COVID-19, Oklahoma State has done without spring break for the spring 2021 semester. Spring break is a luxury that many students look forward to. Many people go home and see family, travel abroad or just take time to not think about school. And as much as it is a physical break, it is just as much a mental break from the overworked mindset that students and professors are in all semester. However, with the lack of a full break this spring, students are feeling overwhelmed and overworked. For studentathlete Brooke Givens, a semester without spring break has been challenging to say the least. “I feel like just this semester without having a spring break has been hard as heck. Especially because during spring break I normally go home with my family to just recoup, get away from school and not be doing work,” Givens said. “Not to have the week off was kind of upsetting. It’s not like I’m behind in my classes, but I really just need a mental break.” While wellness days were created with the intention of giving students that needed break throughout the semester, the response has not all been positive. “I feel like OSU could do a better job of making sure our mental health is good. Like maybe have a mental health week or something, so students don’t feel so overwhelmed with everything that’s going on in their lives, whether it be personally, athletically or academically” Givens said. “I know I’ve had a lot of my own challenges this semester, and a full break would have been nice because I feel like wellness days didn’t really help that much.” Sophomore strategic communications major, Hailey Ficklin, felt similarly to Givens in that wellness days weren’t as productive as they could have been.
See Triumph on pg. 3A
See Desperate on pg. 6A
Ellie Melero Kassandra Gaona, Miss Hispanic/Latina OSU 2020, poses in front of Dia de los Muertos decorations.
‘From Tragedy to Triumph’ Former OSU football player Reuben Gant aims to educate people about Greenwood
Ryan Novozinsky Editor-in-chief
Kelly Kerr Former OSU football player Reuben Gant’s post-football career centers around his work at the John Hope Franklin center for reconciliation.
Episode 2 premieres Friday, March 25, 2021