Lynde Gleason, Work Ready Shawnee program manager, speaks to students Sept. 23 in the Jeff Johnston Auditorium during a Seminole State College Career Center presentation focused on résumés, cover letters, job interviews and career preparation. Gleason has worked for Oklahoma City nonprofit The Education and Employment Ministry (TEEM) for eight years and has served as Work Ready Shawnee program manager for three years. The event was coordinated by SSC Coordinator of Library Services Laura Suthers.
Seminole State College will welcome area businesses and organizations to campus for its Area Service Fair from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 30, in Tanner Hall. The event will connect SSC students and employees with local services, resources and employment opportunities.
Seminole State College will host an Area Service Fair from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 30, in Tanner Hall, giving students and employees an opportunity to learn more about businesses, organizations and services available throughout the area.
Local businesses and organizations are invited to participate, and there is still time to reserve a space for the event. There is no charge to participate, and each registered business will be provided with a table and two chairs.
Participating organizations are encouraged to share information about their services, products, student discounts and part-time employment opportunities. Businesses may also bring product samples, coupons or promotional giveaways.
Campus clubs and organizations will also participate in the fair, providing attendees with an opportunity to learn more about resources and activities available both on campus and throughout the surrounding community.
Vendor setup will begin at 8:30 a.m., with the fair open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Businesses interested in participating should contact SSC Director of Residential Life and Student Activities Melinda Sims at m.sims@sscok.edu or 405-382-9604.
When Hailey Mack arrived at Varnum High School as a freshman, she had two goals: go to college and play basketball.
She accomplished both at Seminole State College. Along the way, she visited universities across the country, explored London and Paris and prepared to continue her education more than 700 miles from home at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado.
Three individuals who committed their careers to higher education will be honored at the annual luncheon ceremony of the Oklahoma Association of Community Colleges (OACC). The event will begin at 11:45 a.m. on Friday, October 2, at the Tulsa Community College Northeast Campus. OACC Executive Director, Dr. Cheryl Evans shared that members of the 2026 OACC Hall of Fame Class include Mary Cantrell, Becky Henthorn, and Dr. Ron Ramming.
Across a 50-year career in education, Johns guided Seminole schools through an oil-boom transformation, wartime uncertainty and the beginning of desegregation while helping preserve the community’s junior college.
Alivia Wapskineh was nearing the end of her reign as Miss Seminole Nation. Mia Reich had only recently been crowned Miss Choctaw Nation.
Sitting together at Seminole State College in mid-September, the two students were looking at opposite ends of an experience few classmates could share: representing their nations while managing coursework and campus commitments.
Wapskineh was preparing for the Sept. 17 Seminole Nation princess pageant that would select her successor. Reich was beginning her year of service after earning her title at the Choctaw Nation Labor Day Festival.
Their earlier titles had overlapped, too. Wapskineh was Junior Miss Seminole Nation while Reich served as Junior Miss Indian Oklahoma.
“We get to reign again,” Wapskineh said.
This time, they also share a college campus. Both are President’s Leadership Class scholarship recipients at SSC, where Wapskineh is a sophomore studying elementary education and Reich is a freshman studying biology and playing basketball for the Belles.
Seven-time Olympic medalist, cancer survivor and health advocate Shannon Miller speaks to students, employees and community members at Seminole State College’s Jeff Johnston Fine Arts Auditorium. The Sept. 10 presentation, sponsored by SSC’s Native American-Serving Nontribal Institutions program, focused on wellbeing, resilience and overcoming adversity.
Shannon Miller visits with SSC NASNTI Program Director Kay Wallace prior to Miller’s Sept. 10 presentation. The event marked the final sponsored program of SSC’s current five-year NASNTI grant, which provided $2.25 million to strengthen student support, accessibility, computer science instruction and campus programming. The grant concludes Sept. 30 without federal renewal.
Shannon Miller is joined by current and former Seminole State College Regents and community leaders prior to her presentation at SSC. Pictured from left are former SSC Regents Marci Donaho and Kim Hyden; SSC Regent Robyn Ready; Miller; SSC Regent Haley Coates; Avedis Foundation President and CEO Dr. Kathy Laster; and SSC Regent Teresa Burnett.
In 1942, Seminole school Superintendent John G. Mitchell asked local families to consider what their junior college meant to the community. Near the end of his appeal, he posed a direct question.
Seminole State College students explored educational and career opportunities during a recent college and career fair hosted by the Citizen Potawatomi Nation at the Grand Casino Event Center in Shawnee.
Several of SSC’s federally funded TRIO programs partnered for the event, bringing together high school students served by Upward Bound and current SSC students participating in Student Support Services.
The trip was sponsored by Student Support Services, STEM Student Support Services, Upward Bound I and II, and Upward Bound Math and Science I and II. Following the fair, students had lunch at Santa Fe Cattle Co.
Shannon Miller put it plainly: “The trouble is, you cannot outwork cancer.”
For most of her life, Miller could measure progress in repetitions: one more push-up, one more routine, one more landing. The girl who grew up in Edmond turned those ordinary days of work into an extraordinary career, winning seven Olympic medals and two world all-around championships before her 20th birthday.
Then a rare form of ovarian cancer forced Miller to reconsider the self-reliance that had carried her so far. Determination still mattered. Discipline still mattered. But neither could replace the help of a team.
Miller said, “My cancer diagnosis and treatment was a curveball I never saw coming. I was always a workhorse in the gym. I was not the most talented, the strongest, or the most flexible, but I would outwork anyone.”
Miller will share lessons from her athletic career, cancer diagnosis and life beyond gymnastics at 11 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 10, in the Jeff Johnston Fine Arts Auditorium at Seminole State College. The event is free and open to the public. Her presentation is part of the 2026 “Wellbeing and Resilience” theme of SSC’s Native American-Serving Nontribal Institutions program and will serve as a culminating event for the final year of the College’s current five-year NASNTI grant.
