By Jamison Mejia
Fall 2023
My story of coming to OSU is a long one. Growing up, mom would leave her house in Broken Arrow at around 5:30 every morning and when I would ask her where she was going, she would say school, but I didn’t understand why it was so early. Growing older and understood that she worked as a teacher at Osu and that it took a lot of time to commute from home to Stillwater. That’s where my love for the university started my mom coming home every night in the brightest orange in the nation!
Fast forward a few years and I’m a junior in high school and I’m told that I have the ability to play football at a higher level. Unsure about how far I could go I just got to grinding, getting better every day, waiting for the opportunity to play at A Division 1 level. In the spring of junior year, offers started rolling in and I finally got opportunities to have football pay for my education. At this point and all the way through summer I had many offers to play football at multiple schools but I wanted more, I needed a Divison 1 Power 5 school.
After senior season I had 3 D1 offers; Osu, Tulane, and Virginia. They were all nice schools but Virginia and Osu had to be the last two that felt like home. After visiting both schools I decided I needed to stay close to home and go to Osu because it was a lot less strain for me and my family. After my commitment I noticed a lot of my classmates were going to Osu I thought to myself, why? I talked to a few of them and a lot had some common answers including money, proximity, affordability, and family alumni.
One thing that I didn’t hear too often was the fact that it is a land-grant university. A land-grant university is a college that has been erected by the government to give common people, at the time, access to higher education as a local and often cost-efficient alternative. This stacks with in-state tuition costs so if you live in Oklahoma you still get your instate discount as well as it is cheaper than traditional college. Land grants may create leaders who are competent enough to create and flourish in a working environment. They nurture career competence as a means of cultivating communities.
I have just fully understood what a land grant university is and what it can do for local state and around-the-world communities. I have kind of a unique situation, I got offered a full athletic scholarship to come play football at Oklahoma State University. Since education is a bit cheaper at this particular university there are more students attending, in turn, providing more money for the school. When the school receives its money a portion goes to the athletic department. Money funneled towards athletics is a priority for a school like Osu for it gets its name out and provides for another source of income for the university. The university earns money from attendants, food sold, bets, ads, and National television time. But most importantly in my case, my own scholarship.
What I’ve discovered is that I am here for many of the same reasons that other students are here for. I came into this college feeling as if I’m above the others who are here or because I’m on my own righteous journey to make it to the NFL. But I’m very similar to these other students I’m here because it’s close to home, want a good education, and feel it is the most cost-effective. With the dense student population and easy accessibility, we are a wealthy school that has great living conditions, new buildings, and constant improvements all around campus. This is all built upon the fact that this is a land grant institution but few seem to see it that way.
I think that my scholarship was more easily available due to our school having enough money to get a lot of scholarships. I hope others see the significance of getting student-athlete scholarships because the sports at our university bring in a lot of money for the school. The land grant title isn’t as significant nowadays but it is what started this institution so we must give credit where credit is due. I like the fact that it being a land grant institution we still get treated as if we were a traditional college with skilled teachers leading our education. After understanding what a land grant college is and how I got myself into one I can see how important it was for America to initiate these land grant schools.
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