Training Tomorrow’s ADs
The next Joe Castiglione could come from an innovative Price College of Business and OU Athletics executive program to train aspiring NCAA Division 1 athletics leaders. The immersive Future Athletics Director program focuses on strategic leadership development and best practices within marketing and branding while preparing participants to solve problems and lead in a rapidly changing collegiate sports landscape—all while connecting students to peers and other athletics professionals.
Learning to Fuel Right
The OU College of Allied Health’s CHAMP Camp gives kids ages 10 to 12 unique opportunities to learn lifelong skills from OU graduate dietetics students. The five-day camp explores nutrition, cooking skills and physical activity while offering OU dietetics students hands-on experience. By reading recipes, chopping veggies and even serving a buffet-style meal, young chefs learn that healthy choices can be fun, doable and delicious.
Transforming the Future
OU’s groundbreaking Transformative Tutoring Initiative is expanding to some of the state’s largest school districts—including Oklahoma City—thanks to financial support from the Oklahoma State Legislature. Trained OU students will provide high-dosage math tutoring to struggling ninth graders in public-school classrooms. Students who previously participated in TTI gained two years of academic growth in just one school year. Scan to learn more from Sooner Magazine’s spring 2024 story.
Tiny OU Dinosaur Hits Hollywood
There’s a new breakout dinosaur star, and her inspiration comes from OU’s Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. "Jurassic World: Rebirth" prominently features Dolores, a small but feisty Aquilops americanus. The species—a Triceratops relative weighing as little as three pounds—was discovered by a team of paleontologists led by former curator Richard L. Cifelli during a 1997 expedition in Montana.
Sooner Goes Undercover
There was a time when Sooner Magazine disappeared and reappeared as a broadsheet alumni newsletter. During a stretch of OU budget crunches from the early 1970s until 1981, The Sooner intermittently rolled off presses. In this August 1975 issue, alumna and writer Judith Murphy—29 years old and a mother of two—donned the role of an incoming student to compare the freshman orientation experience with her own in 1963. Murphy capped off her undercover reporting with a heel-click for the university photographer waiting outside Oklahoma Memorial Union. She would go on to become the university’s presidential speechwriter and write OU stories for decades to come, including for Sooner Magazine.
Partnership Power
OU and Oak Ridge National Laboratory are launching a joint center in Norman advancing metal additive manufacturing for aerospace and defense. Combining ORNL’s manufacturing expertise with OU’s academic and research capabilities, the collaboration supports mission readiness at Tinker Air Force Base and trains a skilled workforce in hybrid manufacturing, machining and data analytics.