Oklahoma Christian University classes will be cancelled Monday, April 8, for the university’s first Celebration of Excellence. The conference-style event will serve to celebrate the diverse academic achievements of students across campus with different presentation formats.
“The purpose is really to showcase all the excellent work that our students do,” Oklahoma Christian Registrar and Associate Dean for Academics Stephanie Baird said. “That includes undergraduate research. It includes wonderful internship experiences that our students are having. It includes study abroad experiences that students have. It’s including projects, and it includes our great work in the arts.”
According to Baird, the hope of the event is to bring the diverse work of the students into the public eye. She said students are accomplishing amazing things, which are not always easy to see.
“When you think about all the different academic areas where students can excel, we want to pause that day and showcase it, highlight it and let everyone see what everyone else is doing,” Baird said.
According to Baird, the event will help students who do not get to experience the diversity of disciplines on campus due to the same groups of people taking most of their upper-level classes.
“This has been a vision or a dream of Dr. Scott LaMascus to have an event like this for a long time, because he has heard over the years that faculty, students or people who are on our Board of Trustees might not know that people are doing this or that,” Baird said.
According to Baird, other events like the Celebration of Excellence are held by sister schools of Oklahoma Christian and other schools in the region. Baird said she believes Celebration of Excellence will allow people to recognize Oklahoma Christian is accomplishing many of the same things as other institutions but it may have gone unnoticed.
“We have speakers from each of the five colleges who are alums coming back to speak to their college,” Baird said. “Our keynote speaker is Dr. Charlie Branch, who is a neurosurgeon at Wake Forest Baptist Health.”
In addition to alumni speakers who are coming back to speak to their colleges, Baird said the event will include sessions throughout the day where students will present panels, poster presentations or oral presentations talking about their work.
“I am really excited for the day to get going,” Baird said. “Right now, I am in the weeds with all the planning, working through the nitty-gritty and logistics, and that is important because if we plan those pieces well then the day will go smoothly. So I am excited for the first session of the day at 8 a.m.”
Baird said the SGA is sponsoring a breakfast and coffee bar to get students out in the morning. She said the excitement for the 8 a.m. session and a few others through the day is because it is an interdisciplinary presentation, which will allow people to see many different kinds of work in one place.
“In the next day or two, I will be sending something through student announcements that gives instructions on downloading an app for this event,” Baird said. “Students will have that schedule right there on their phone, and they can put together their own schedule.”
The administration is hoping for this to become an annual event, depending on success, according to Baird. She said they are planning as best they can but will have to wait and see how the event will be received.
“It is really easy to think that we are just a small little church school, or maybe we are a church camp that has academics,” Baird said. “Well, we are doing work that is just as impressive as [sister school students] are doing. Again, I think people just don’t know we are. So this is an opportunity to show people.”
Baird said there will be prizes for participants as well as attendants.
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