This Earth, This Realm, This Sooner

By Thomas Hanks, OU Club of Houston scholarship recipient, 2005

I was born in the small town of Nailsworth which is located in the Cotswolds, a range of hills in the southwestern part of England. My family and I moved to Houston when I was six years old—my dad was in the oil and gas business—and I grew up in the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District, graduating from Langham Creek High School in the spring of 2005.

At first, I had no idea where I wanted to go to college. My father went to a technical school in England, while my mother attended The College of William & Mary, the second oldest university in the U.S. Eventually, I started leaning toward LSU, but until I was accepted, my mother insisted I also apply to other schools, just in case. I was determined to go out of state, and, interestingly, one of my criteria was that I wanted to go some place where t it snowed. That’s how OU entered the mix.

After applying to OU, I visited Norman on a Sooner Saturday, a campus event for prospective students. I absolutely fell in love with the place! Even after receiving my acceptance letter from LSU, I was determined to go to Oklahoma. Since OU did not offer in-state tuition for Houston students (as LSU did at the time), I started looking for scholarships which would help defray the cost of my education. And that’s how I discovered The OU Club of Houston. After going through the club’s application and interview process, I got the best news a high school senior could receive: I was awarded an OU Club of Houston scholarship!
And officially became a Sooner!

Before my freshman year, I attended Camp Crimson in Norman and had a blast. The opportunity to meet new people and familiarize myself with the campus was invaluable. Since I was the only person from my high school to attend OU, the beginning of my freshman year was a little tough. I pledged a fraternity, Pi Kappa Alpha (PIKE), and maybe started to have too much of a good time away from home. Sadly, I lost my OU Club scholarship after my first year, but the message that came with that unfortunate episode prompted me to get serious about the academic aspect of school.

During my junior year, I was invited to the Price College of Business Integrated Business Core program. This is an elite practicum in which business students develop, manufacture, finance, market and sell an OU-related product. My group created note cards. We had a great design concept, a good website and a fair price. Those cards sold like hotcakes. Ultimately, my group raised close to $5,000 for charity.

I graduated from the University of Oklahoma in December of 2009 with a BBA in Marketing and a minor degree in History. During my undergraduate stay at OU, I was a member of the College Republicans and the ConnXions marketing club. As a PIKE, I volunteered for a bully prevention program in the Norman elementary schools and played on the OU club tennis team.

I’m proud of my Sooner heritage and happy to be back in Houston. After receiving an MBA in International Business from the University of St. Thomas, I went to work for Technip, a French company specializing in engineering, project management, and construction for the energy industry.

So, as you can see, I definitely was NOT “Sooner born,” but thanks to The OU Club of Houston, I’m indeed “Sooner bred.” And there’s no question that when I die I will be a “Sooner dead!” Until then, I intend to pay back a debt of gratitude as a member of The OU Club of Houston.

After all, and to paraphrase another Brit—one William Shakespeare—I found my own “other Eden, demi-paradise and blessed plot” at the University of Oklahoma.