Pride of Oklahoma
Music, discipline, and shared standards
For all four years of my undergraduate experience, I played baritone with the Pride of Oklahoma,
performing at home games, away games across the Big 12 and SEC, and appearances for alumni,
fans, and supporters throughout the state.
Many of my best college memories were in a Pride uniform: our first day in the SEC,
the first home playoff game hosted on campus, meeting bands from across the country,
and my first run-on in front of eighty thousand Sooner faithful.
I credit much of my growth in leadership, time management, attention to detail,
and teamwork to my time with the Pride. In an ensemble this large, standards are built
one person at a time, and everyone has to show up prepared for the group to succeed.
The lessons I learned while balancing this level of commitment alongside engineering
coursework are ones I continue to carry into research, leadership, and professional work.
Kappa Kappa Psi
Service, mentorship, and leadership
Through Kappa Kappa Psi, I learned how much leadership depends on communication, organization, and
consistency. As Southwest District Vice President for Programs, I supported more than 300 student members
and 70+ chapters across Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and New Mexico.
I worked with chapter officers across the district to coordinate programming, communicate national
initiatives, and help chapters stay on track with deadlines and reporting requirements. I also redesigned
our district publication, The New ALTO, into a monthly newsletter that centralized resources,
deadlines, and announcements in a more useful format for members.
During my term, the Southwest District achieved the second-highest on-time reporting rate nationally and the
highest district convention attendance in recent years, including several first-time attendee chapters.
Alongside my district role, I also served on the National Student Advisory Council, National Strategic
Planning Committee, and National Membership & Chapter Support Committee.
Outside of administration, I stayed involved in service and outreach efforts supporting music education,
including elementary school outreach events, OSSAA music contests, School of Music operations, and
mentorship within the Pride of Oklahoma. Our chapter's work earned national recognition from the fraternity,
and I was chosen to receive this award on behalf of our chapter.
Kappa Kappa Psi strengthened my ability to manage large-scale communication, coordinate across multiple
teams, and build systems people could rely on, translating directly into how I approach
cybersecurity and technical leadership today.
Visual Media
Designing for real audiences
I joined the Pride of Oklahoma Media Team during its early development, helping grow it
from one of three original student members into a coordinated team of more than 12 students.
My work focused on graphics, branding, gameday communication, and social media content that
helped represent the band to students, alumni, recruits, and the broader OU community.
Alongside creating weekly gameday graphics and promotional content, I helped establish more
consistent branding standards across both the marching band and basketball band accounts.
During my time on the team, our social media presence grew by more than 8,000 followers, and
we regularly collaborated with media teams from other SEC band programs to share outreach and
engagement strategies.
The OU Bands Media Team provided a new perspective for how I think about communication in technical spaces.
Whether the medium is a graphic, interface, presentation, or research project, the goal is the same: present
the right information clearly, quickly, and in a way people will actually engage with.