Jonathan Parks, CAS ’05 and ’09, and Jamar Lockhart, CAS ’05, met in high school, attended the same college and faced similar academic challenges. With help from each other and those they met through OU, they were able to overcome their struggles and are now giving back to those in similar situations.

STARTING POINT

Lockhart’s transition to high school was a difficult one. He was off to a brand new school district, not knowing anyone in his class.

“My first year of high school I was actually a sophomore,” says Lockhart. “Being in a new school, not coming in with any friends that you know, it was tough. And then September, my parents passed.” He took the next couple months off, but returned to Detroit’s Communication and Media Arts High School (CMA) full time in January, where he met Parks for the first time.

“Jonathan was a jokester,” Lockhart says laughing. “He would call me over to where he and some guys were sitting and he would play a prank on me and I’d fall for it every time, but he was always welcoming.”

From there, the friendship grew. The next step was college and both quickly fell in love with Oakland University. It was the only university Parks visited his senior year, drawn in by the fact that Oakland was small enough for him to feel heard but big enough for him to feel like it was part of a bigger universe.

“My senior year our class took a field trip to OU,” says Lockhart. “It was my first time on a college campus. The atmosphere, the campus itself was gorgeous and from there I only had my sights on OU.”

Although the two friends were both accepted into OU, Park’s path to the university had an extra step.

ROCKY START

In the summer of 2000, Parks was placed in Oakland University’s Student Success Services, a federally funded outreach program where students get acclimated to college life and courses and even earn college credits before the start of their first semester. After earning eight credits, he was officially a freshman at Oakland University, reuniting with Lockhart and setting off on a similar path.

“Initially my major was business administration,” says Lockhart, “but I fell in love with communications classes and the professors early on. From there I made it a point to focus on communications.”

“I wanted to go into business, I wanted to be a doctor and I wanted to teach,” Parks says with a chuckle. “It wasn’t until a meeting with an adviser who told me, ‘Well it sounds like you like talking — you should consider going into communications,’ that I shifted focus.” Figuring out the right area of study wasn’t the only challenge these two faced their freshman year. Both recorded below a 2.0 GPA, landing themselves on academic probation. They had one semester to turn things around.

“Students have two semesters of being on academic probation; if they don’t get their GPA above 2.0, they are academically dismissed from the university,” explains Krista Malley, Ph.D., the director of student success for OU’s Office of Student Success. “Once a student is dismissed, they can either appeal and have a chance for reinstatement or apply for reinstatement consideration after two semesters pass.”

Lockhart and Parks, along with a friend from high school, Shay Bailey, started a study group with fellow students Michael Williams and Stefen Welch and began holding each other accountable.

“We had study sessions,” explains Parks. “Our study group started taking the same, or similar, classes and having competitions to see who could get the best grades, pushing each other and holding ourselves to a higher standard.”

“I took all art courses the next semester and that was done by design because art was something I was interested in,” says Lockhart. “I needed something I was interested in and good at to help springboard myself and my GPA.”

Having a strong nucleus of friends, faculty and administration was the push that both Lockhart and Parks needed. The two continued to lean on one another and got themselves back on track.

JONATHAN’S JOURNEY

During his final years at Oakland University, Parks got involved in student congress and was named student body president in both his junior and senior years. He graduated with a liberal arts degree, but the post-graduation job hunt wasn’t as successful as he hoped. However, a run-in with an OU professor helped change his future.

Dale Nesbary, Ph.D., now the president of Muskegon Community College, was an associate professor and director of the Master of Public Administration program during Parks’ time at Oakland. Dr. Nesbary had recognized Parks from his work with student congress, and the two chatted in depth about his future plans.

“He asked me if I’ve thought about grad school,” recalls Parks. “I hadn’t, but he sat me down and talked to me about the public administration program. I ended up applying and was enrolled into the master’s program shortly after.”

Dr. Nesbary worked with Parks to help find him funding for the program through grants, scholarships and the King-Chavez-Parks Future Faculty Fellowship (FFF). Because of these efforts, Parks was able to earn his Master in Public Administration in 2009 with zero debt. Shortly after graduating, Parks received a job as a coordinator for MI GEAR UP at OU.

“Before that call, I was in and out of jobs,” says Parks, “but since then, it’s been nothing but an upward trajectory.”