OSU staff member gets opportunity of a lifetime
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Fara Williams of the OSU OKAMP program was recently aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower
in Jacksonville, Fla., where she landed in a C-2 plane.
(February 27, 2009 Stillwater, OK) - One OSU staff member has been given amazing opportunities in order to better serve OSU students.
Fara Williams was recently given the chance to tour a U.S. Navy submarine and aircraft carrier as part of her involvement in the Oklahoma Louis Stokes Alliance Minority Participation program (OKAMP).
The OKAMP program provides support for minority students majoring in science, technology, engineering or math by helping them find faculty mentors as well as internship and scholarship opportunities.
Williams is the data coordinator for the OKAMP program where she helps students find research and presentation opportunities, organizes program activities, and documents scholar participation at each of the 11 participating OKAMP universities.
She was given this opportunity as a recruiting tool for the Navy, who hope that her experiences may encourage students to come work for them.
“I learned about what life is like on these boats,” Williams said. “I will share that information with students who are thinking about going into the Navy.”
Williams spent Dec. 17 touring a destroyer and a submarine in San Diego as part of a recruiting exercise for the Navy’s NUPOC program, a training program designed to produce nuclear trained officers. Students enlist in the Navy (as E6 officers) while still pursuing their bachelor’s degrees.
“The NUPOC program has two options,” Williams said, ”The ship option allows trainees to start on a small ship such as a destroyer, complete their nuclear training, and then move to an air craft carrier. The sub option sends the trainee straight to nuclear training before deployment on a submarine.”
After her trip to San Diego, Williams was invited to Florida for another tour, this time on an aircraft carrier. “I flew out of Florida on a C2 and completed an arrested landing on the flight deck of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower,” Williams said.
She was amazed at how much training goes into being carrier certified and how much responsibility is given to young sailors. “When I toured the bridge, the sailor driving the carrier was just 19 years old,” Williams said. “He had been on the ship for only two months.”
Williams left the carrier with a catapult-assisted takeoff, which means the plane goes from zero to 128 mph in just two seconds and its occupants experience 3G force.
“It was an amazing trip, most sailors do not even get to do a take off and landing,” Williams said. “It is an elite group and I am glad I got to be a part of it.”
For more information about OKAMP or the Navy’s NUPOC program please contact Williams at fara@okstate.edu or her office in 114 Thatcher.