SWOSU Juniors and Seniors participated in the OKC Bus tour in early September, hosted by the Oklahoma City Innovation District and the Northeast Oklahoma City Renaissance. The students explored OKC and the unique job opportunities the city has to offer.
The purpose of this trip is to allow students to explore Oklahoma City in the workplace and the community. The goal is for students to be interested in eventually pursuing a career there. Communications major Kyra Huckabay left this experience with many new connections and networking opportunities.
“I made many connections during the tour, with business leaders and other students, and I think that will benefit me greatly when searching for career opportunities,” Huckabay said. “Each student was given the opportunity to speak to the leaders who presented to us. We were able to give out business cards, resumes and add them on LinkedIn. They all showed an interest in keeping in touch with us and assured us to reach out for any further questions.”
Companies including Tinker Air Force, Prairie Surf Studios, and a few non-profit organizations spoke to students about what their brand offers.
“One of the businesses that stuck out to me was Tinker Air Force Base because they have opportunities to include all kinds of career paths,” Huckabay said. I also enjoyed visiting with filmmakers at Prairie Surf Studios because they showed us how Oklahoma has evolved in the film aspect and how many opportunities are available in Oklahoma. They have worked with films such as Twisters, Tulsa King and Killers of the Flower Moon.”
Oklahoma is growing in the film industry and Prairie Surf Studios is one of the only major film studios in the state. The studio’s opened film major Elijah Vaughan’s perspective on the film industry of the city.
“It was pretty eye-opening to how big it was,” Vaughan said. “e kinda just got to learn about the film industry in Oklahoma. It’s hard to get into the film business here. I was kind of afraid that if I stayed here then I’d be digging myself a hole, but after going [Prairie Surf Studios] and seeing the different opportunities there are in film— Oklahoma is now at the top of my list,” Vaughan said.
The bus tour emphasized how much the city is expanding. All students agreed that this trip allowed them to get to know Oklahoma City more and raised an interest in moving there in the future. Vaughan mentions the growth of the area and how he hopes to be a part of the expanding city.
“Every speaker that we heard from [mentioned that] the city is, a couple of moves away and a couple of really big pieces away from exploding and being an Austin or something like that. That was promising to hear. Hopefully, I can be a pioneer of that,” Vaughan said.
The tour also sparked film major Boone Hardaway’s interest in the city. Hardaway was born and raised in a small town two hours away from Oklahoma City. Living out in the country, he never had much interest in the big and fast-paced lifestyle until now.
“There’s so much opportunity and beauty. There are parts of OKC that we drove past and I was like, this is so cool. How have I never been to this part of the city? I’ve driven down the street next to this a 100 times, but I’ve never been here,” Hardaway said. “Spending time there, I realized this is a cool place, with so much really cool stuff being done all the time. I wasn’t paying attention to it because it was 2 hours away and it’s the big city, so I didn’t care, but there’s so much there. I absolutely want to spend more time in OKC now.”
Overall the bus tour did an excellent job of showing a side of Oklahoma City that students may have never seen. The tour gave students an idea of what life may look like living in the city and networking opportunities to hopefully build relationships with the many companies of Oklahoma City.
