乔纳森•公园 中科院 05年和09年，贾马尔·洛克哈特， 中科院 2005年，我们在高中相遇，上同一所大学，面临着相似的学术挑战. With help from each other and those they met through OU, 他们能够克服自己的困难，现在正在回馈那些有类似情况的人.

起点

Lockhart’s transition to high school was a difficult one. He was off to a brand new school district, not knowing anyone in his class.

“My first year of high school I was actually a sophomore,洛哈特说. “在一所新学校，没有任何认识的朋友，这很艰难. And then September, my parents passed.“接下来的几个月，他请了假, 但在1月份回到了底特律的传播与媒体艺术高中(CMA)全职学习, where he met Parks for the first time.

“Jonathan was a jokester,” Lockhart says laughing. “他会把我叫到他和一些人坐的地方，他会和我开玩笑，每次我都上当, 但他总是很欢迎我.”

从那时起，友谊开始发展. The next step was college and both quickly fell in love with 韦德体育app官网. It was the only university Parks visited his senior year, 吸引他的是，奥克兰小到让他觉得自己被倾听，但又大到让他觉得自己是更大宇宙的一部分.

“My senior year our class took a field trip to OU,洛哈特说. “It was my first time on a college campus. 气氛，校园本身是华丽的，从那里我只看到了开放大学.”

虽然这两个朋友都被公开大学录取了，但帕克的大学之路又多了一步.

洛基开始

In the summer of 2000, Parks was placed in 韦德体育app官网’s 学生成功服务, 这是一项由联邦政府资助的拓展项目，学生可以在第一学期开始前适应大学生活和课程，甚至可以获得大学学分. 修完8个学分后, he was officially a freshman at 韦德体育app官网, reuniting with Lockhart and setting off on a similar path.

“Initially my major was business administration,洛哈特说, “but I fell in love with communications classes and the professors early on. From there I made it a point to focus on communications.”

“我想从商, I wanted to be a doctor and I wanted to teach,帕克斯笑着说. “It wasn’t until a meeting with an adviser who told me, “听起来你很喜欢说话，你应该考虑从事通讯行业。,’我转移了注意力.找到合适的学习领域并不是这两位大一新生面临的唯一挑战. 两个记录都低于2.0 GPA, landing themselves on academic probation. They had one semester to turn things around.

“Students have two semesters of being on academic probation; if they don’t get their GPA above 2.从学术上讲，他们被大学开除了，”克里斯塔·马利博士解释说.D., the director of student success for OU’s Office of Student Success. 一旦学生被开除, 他们可以提出上诉并有机会恢复原状，也可以在两个学期结束后申请考虑恢复原状.”

洛哈特和帕克斯, along with a friend from high school, 谢贝利, 与同学迈克尔·威廉姆斯和斯蒂芬·韦尔奇成立了一个学习小组，并开始互相督促.

“We had study sessions,” explains Parks. “Our study group started taking the same, 或类似的, classes and having competitions to see who could get the best grades, pushing each other and holding ourselves to a higher standard.”

“下学期我修了所有的艺术课程，这是我设计的，因为艺术是我感兴趣的东西,洛哈特说. “我需要一些我感兴趣和擅长的东西来帮助我自己和我的GPA.”

拥有强大的核心朋友, faculty and administration was the push that both 洛哈特和帕克斯 needed. The two continued to lean on one another and got themselves back on track.

乔纳森的旅程

During his final years at 韦德体育app官网, Parks got involved in 学生代表大会 and was named student body president in both his junior and senior years. He graduated with a liberal arts degree, but the post-graduation job hunt wasn’t as successful as he hoped. However, a run-in with an OU professor helped change his future.

戴尔·内斯巴里博士.D.他现在是马斯基根社区学院的校长，是一名副教授和主任 公共管理硕士 program during Parks’ time at 奥克兰. Dr. Nesbary had recognized Parks from his work with 学生代表大会, and the two chatted in depth about his future plans.

“He asked me if I’ve thought about grad school,” recalls Parks. “我没有，但他让我坐下来，跟我谈了公共管理项目. I ended up applying and was enrolled into the master’s program shortly after.”

Dr. Nesbary worked with Parks to help find him funding for the program through grants, 奖学金和 King-Chavez-Parks Future Faculty Fellowship (FFF). 由于这些努力, Parks was able to earn his Master in Public Administration in 2009 with zero debt. 毕业后不久，帕克斯得到了一份工作，在公开大学担任MI GEAR UP的协调员.

在那通电话之前, 我的工作时断时续,帕克斯说。, 但从那以后, it’s been nothing but an upward trajectory.”