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2019 Earn Your Wings Directors ready to soar

Preparing to incorporate their ideas and enthusiasm into this year’s Earn Your Wings (EYW) experience, Stephen Allen and Tyler Klassen were recently named the 2019 EYW directors at Oklahoma Christian University. As directors, Allen and Klassen interview and hire the Earn Your Wings staff, as well as plan all major events throughout the week.

Allen, a junior psychology major, said he appreciates Earn Your Wings for the role it played in his own freshman experience.

“I loved Earn Your Wings as a freshman,” Allen said. “It made me feel like OC is where I belonged, and so I really wanted to create a similar experience for the new freshmen coming in. I am most excited to see the incoming class bond with one another. To see students transition from not knowing a lot of people and being anxious about college to having a party, connecting with others and ready to take on the school year.”

According to Allen, EYW plays a huge role in a freshman’s overall experience when they first arrive to the Oklahoma Christian campus.

“It’s where a lot of people meet friends that they will have for a lifetime and create memories that you can’t get anywhere else,” Allen said. “They get to know OC’s campus and faculty before school begins, and it’s something almost everyone at OC goes through that they can talk about and share experiences with each other.”

Tyler Klaassen, a junior marketing management major, will share the workload for this year’s EYW with Allen. According to Klaassen, his years at Oklahoma Christian have helped him realize the importance of EYW and helped to motivate him to want to be a part of it.

“As a freshman, and in the years since, I have learned how incredibly impactful and amazing Earn Your Wings is,” Klaassen said. “It’s a really unique and helpful time for freshmen and transfers to connect with the campus and its students, have fun and feel at home here at OC. That’s a really special thing, and I want to be a part of every second of it. If they’d just let me sweep the floors at Earn Your Wings, I’d do it. Anything for a glimpse of the best week of the year. I’m really excited for what’s to come.”

Like Allen, Klaassen said he is thrilled to be able to play a role in the unique class bonding experience, which takes place during Earn Your Wings.

“As the week of Earn Your Wings progresses, I can’t wait to watch new students have more and more comfort, fun and assurance that they are at home here at OC,” Klaassen said. “That’s what it’s all about.”

Current Oklahoma Christian students who are interested in participating on the EYW staff can apply via student announcements.

“Earn Your Wings has a cool way of giving freshmen and transfers a lot of necessary tools before they start their time at OC,” Klaassen said. “Things like friends and a community of great people, confidence on campus, joy and assurance that the best is yet to come and a lot of fun to kick off the school year. These things play a huge role in, not only the students’ perspective of OC, but also their approach to the coming months and years here.”

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One Comment

  1. Jim O'Neal Jim O'Neal January 18, 2019

    Getting started in a new place is scary and daunting. This is good way to start. Great “read” about an important topic.

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