STAIRS OF OUR PEERS

AS PART OF THE NEW LIBERAL ARTS SOUTH WING, THE STUDY STAIRS, AS THEY’RE CALLED, HAVE BECOME A CENTRAL HUB FOR STUDENTS TO GATHER, STUDY AND CONNECT WITH ONE ANOTHER. OLD NORTH CAUGHT UP WITH A FEW STUDENTS ON THE STAIRS BETWEEN CLASSES.

v “I STILL HAVE another two years; I have three minors – French; women, gender and sexuality studies; and, pre-law. Psychology has always interested me. I was originally going to be a pre-med student here. And I was like, you know what? I don’t want to go to medical school. That’s another twelve years; I’m good.

Today, I’m tabling for the Women’s Research Center and BGLTQ+ Student Center [The Center]. The Center is a resource on campus for students. We do all of the sexual health programming on campus, and we put on a ton of events. I’m in the LGBT community. It was really important to me that we have something like this on campus that’s for not just LGBTQ students but also other students who are interested in activism and things like that. We live in a really conservative state, where there aren’t as many protections for people. So having a place to go and make a family and have a place where you can go and have support is really important. It’s been proven that if you just have one support system, the suicide rate for the LGBTQ community drastically decreases by over half.”

- Katie Sargeant Psychology major

w “I’M FROM SULPHUR. I’m a freshman and moved here in the fall semester. My freshman year is going good; I kind of like it here. It’s coming from a small town to a big city. It’s a good environment. I graduated with 90 people. In my town, the only thing to do was back-road driving and Walmart. There’s just a lot more stuff to do around here. Sulphur is a very small-knit community. Everyone knew each other. But, I like it here. You get to meet new people and make new friends.

My parents graduated high school and never went to college. My mom always wanted to be a nurse. I always looked up to them, so that’s why I’m doing it.” r “I’M FROM OKLAHOMA. I was born in Florida, but I’ve been through the education system in Edmond. I’m a string performance major. I’m also a double major in humanities, and I’m heavily involved with the UCO Medieval Society, which is one of my favorite things about this campus.

I got my hat in Colorado. I was actually up north of Boulder. I was looking for a nice hat, and I was going around to all of these tourist shops. They had nice sport socks and nice little boutiques, but I wanted a nice durable hat. Finally, I found this hole-in-the-wall place, with this old couple running it. They helped me pick one out and size it. I wear it every day. It’s been all around the world with me.” s “I GREW UP IN EDMOND, but I’m from Deer Creek High School. My dad was a criminal justice major, but he never really pursued it, and so, it really interested me. I wanted to pursue it and actually follow through with the major. UCO is close to home and I’m familiar with it. I knew they had a really good criminal justice program. Every time I talked to someone about my major, they told me UCO is the best place for that major. That’s when I was really like that’s where I’m going for college.”

- Sydnie Hamit Criminal Justice major

r “MY FAMILY HAS JUST ALWAYS STRUGGLED with substance abuse and addiction. I’m a transfer from Rose State, and when I transferred here, I just really liked the program. I grew up in Jones, Oklahoma – it’s a small town. For me, I was scared to come to a D-II school or a fouryear college, so that’s why I went to Rose State. And then, I realized that I wanted to go out and have the whole college experience.”

Stem Center Garners National Attention

WRITTEN BY SARAH NEESE, PHOTOS BY KT KING

Just one year after opening its doors, the Donald Betz STEM Research and Learning Center garnered national recognition for its innovative design.

Interior Design magazine, an industry-leading design publication, named Central’s STEM building an honoree for its Best of Year Awards in the category of Higher Education. The Best of the Year design awards program highlights interior design from finalists across 137 design categories. This year, there were 609 finalists among all of the categories, chosen from a list of 2,638 buildings.

Oklahoma City-based Rand Elliott Architects, responsible for the building’s design, were honored for their work on the project. The design concept for the building unites the various science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines that work within the building together, including biology, chemistry, engineering, forensic science and nursing. Featuring moveable furniture and high-definition displays, The building was designed with collaboration and innovation in mind, allowing many of the building’s spaces to become flexible to each discipline’s needs.