Jackson Young sees the honor cords as a bonus.

The Oklahoma State University senior appreciates his elaborate graduation garb, which includes cords for The Honors College, OSU Alumni Association Senior of Significance and multiple honor societies.

However, he says the connections matter more.

It’s obvious as he walks between the Business Building and Library Lawn on a Monday morning. Young, a finance major from Austin, Texas, stops to chat with classmates, coworkers and professors — all of whom have shaped his journey.

With academic achievements and a passion for investing in people, Young was named the top Spears School of Business senior for the spring 2026 semester. As the orange gown graduate, he will lead his class into the May 9 commencement ceremony and receive his diploma first. Young, who is also earning an accounting minor, will join BOK Financial in Tulsa after graduation.

This career path started with a greeting at a Spears Business scholarship banquet, where Young was a recipient. After Steve Wyett, Chief Investment Strategist at BOK Financial, made a joke on stage about LinkedIn, Young knew how to introduce himself.

“I said the corniest line,” Young said. “I said, ‘You just met your newest LinkedIn follower,’ and he started laughing.”

One BOK connection led to another, and Young secured the summer internship that paved the way for his next opportunity. From his campus tour to graduation, Young understands the value of networking.

5 questions with Jackson Young

Q: What led you to OSU? 

Young: Both of my grandparents were OSU alumni. My granddad was in Spears, and he was actually the Raymond D. Thomas Award winner a long time ago. So, he was talking to me about Spears since I came out of the womb. I’m from Austin originally, and both of my parents went to Baylor, so I kind of grew up a Baylor fan, kind of grew up an OSU fan. Stillwater gave me a good opportunity to flap my wings a little bit and get out of the box, but also have family decently close to me.

I came up here, got to meet with some guys who were plugged in with Greek Life, and then got to do an official visit here at Spears with Eric Sisneros (assistant head of OSU’s Department of Finance), who has become one of my absolute favorite people in Stillwater. He’s been a huge catalyst for my finance degree and has really supported me academically. He gave me my official tour and showed me the Watson Trading Floor, and I was like, “I want to be in class there.”

Q: What out-of-class experiences have shaped your OSU journey?

Young: I’ve had a lot of organizational involvement in Greek Life. I’m a member of Sigma Nu fraternity right across Library Lawn. I was the vice president of Sigma Nu and really got to make an impact there. And, I’ve worked at the Colvin Recreation Center. That’s been excellent. We’ve created a forever friend group.

Q: What will your role be with BOK Financial upon graduation? 

Young: I will be an ACT – accelerated career track – wealth management associate. So, I’m going to begin by doing a couple months of credit training, where we get to learn about how to issue credit to corporations and families. After that, I will start with a rotational program where I will basically get assigned, based on my interests and where the bank sees me best fit, to certain teams within wealth management, either in private wealth management or institutional wealth management. I’ll be doing projects with them to go around and see where I best fit.

Then, whenever a position opens that the bank or the ACT team sees fit for me, then they will hopefully extend an offer to be a full-time employee, or to be “placed,” is what they call it. So, I’m getting paid to learn for the first couple of months, with room to get placed somewhere on a team that does real-time projects and manages real-time clients.

Q: What’s a fun fact about you that people wouldn’t find on your LinkedIn profile?

Young: My uncle is in Maroon 5, the band. He’s such a cool guy, and that actually inspired my music. I have a music Instagram account where I play Red Dirt, country and folk-style music. I actually played my first gig on April 25 at Coney Island, which is pretty cool. It was just a little seven-song gig with one of my coworkers at the Colvin. I love playing acoustic guitar.

Also, I guess you would find this on my LinkedIn, but I’ve worked for ESPN and Amazon Prime for Oklahoma City Thunder games. Being able to say that I’ve been a part of a walk-and-talk interview with LeBron James and Steve Nash is really cool.

Q: Imagine 20 years from now, you come back to an alumni event. What do you think you’ll remember most about your time at OSU?

Young: There’s so many answers, but I would say the quality of connections and impact of faculty, staff, students and peers. The color orange is extremely bright for a reason, and that doesn’t ever dim here at this school. That’s because of the memories and the quality, The Power of Personal, the impact, the emotional intelligence, the well-roundedness of all the people on this campus, the depth and the professionalism. People celebrate success here. They advocate for others. I think the Eastin Center for Career Readiness is incredible. They’re trying to get people jobs left and right, and that’s been huge.

An excellent thing about this school is that they throw you the layup. It’s your choice to take it and slam dunk it. That’s OSU. That’s Spears.