{"id":8536,"date":"2023-05-19T08:35:56","date_gmt":"2023-05-19T15:35:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/?p=8536"},"modified":"2023-06-15T11:26:33","modified_gmt":"2023-06-15T18:26:33","slug":"creating-a-better-tomorrow-for-all-student-leader-and-hc-alum-continues-work-on-higher-education-accessibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/2023\/05\/19\/creating-a-better-tomorrow-for-all-student-leader-and-hc-alum-continues-work-on-higher-education-accessibility\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating a Better Tomorrow for All: Student Leader and HC Alum Continues Work on Higher Education Accessibility"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From the classroom to the workplace to the volleyball court, being a leader requires more than just technical knowledge and expertise. It requires a willingness for self-discovery, an eagerness to help others and a drive to make a positive impact. Honors College alum Nya Buckner, \u201922, embodied these principles during her time in the Honors College and continues to positively impact the Oregon State University community today.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Nya attended high school in Arizona before coming to Oregon State University, where she was on the women\u2019s volleyball team, serving as team captain. After four years, she earned an Honors Bachelor of Science in biology and microbiology, with minors in chemistry and psychology. After initially intending to pursue medical school, Nya\u2019s involvement with the community opened her mind to new paths and opportunities. She found that \u201cthe more hands-on experiences I got, the more I found the idea of medical school wasn\u2019t ticking the boxes for me.\u201d Nearing the end of her undergraduate studies, Nya realized that she found the most joy through giving back to the community. She actively participated on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and the Honors College Council and in this engagements discovered her love of learning about and advocating for others. She decided, \u201cLet\u2019s put medicine on hold. I can always go to med school, but I don\u2019t want to do that now and regret it later.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After graduating in 2022, Nya began a Master of Education program at Oregon State specializing in adult and higher education. Fueled by a belief in the power of higher education to change lives, Nya found this program to be a great next step in pursuing and developing her passions.<\/p>\n\n\n

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She also became the chief of staff for the Associated Students of Oregon State University executive branch. In this high-level student leadership position she works with university administrators and collaborates with other cabinet staff members to implement student policies and programming. She describes her experience as a journey of discovering more about Oregon State University and addressing the issues students face. She also sees her work as the practical extension of her graduate program, where she continues to engage in higher education diversity, equity and inclusion programming. She says, \u201cI think it is amazing how everyone\u2019s journey led them to OSU, and now we\u2019re all here together.\u201d Recently, Nya received the Oscar Humberto Montemayor Award for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for her work with ASOSU. Looking forward to the next academic year, Nya is hopeful to continue promoting these values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nya values her honors education because of how she feels it prepared her for the world outside of Oregon State. She recalls, \u201cI think the Honors College prepared me to persevere. There was a point in my undergrad when I didn\u2019t want to complete my honors degree and felt it was too much. I did not think I could do it, but with the support they gave me, I was able to find my path and tailor my curriculum to my interests.\u201d Nya still names her thesis defense as one of her favorite memories of her undergraduate years, calling it a \u201ccore memory as it proved that I could do hard things.\u201d Nya\u2019s thesis, \u201cA Comprehensive Analysis of NCAA v. Alston and its Implications for the Collegiate Sports Model,\u201d explored the historical and policy contexts of providing benefits to student-athletes.<\/p>\n\n\n

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When considering a future after her graduate program, Nya only has one thing in mind: helping others. She adds, \u201cI am not set on one particular career path or field, but I want to feel like I\u2019m actually helping people.\u201d Her advice to students is not to be afraid to try new things and expand one\u2019s comfort zone. Nya recommends, \u201cIf you\u2019re trying to find your path, often you can\u2019t find it, but that\u2019s because you may not even know it exists. It is always worthwhile to try new things and see what else is out there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jax Richards, Honors College Student Writer<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the classroom to the workplace to the volleyball court, being a leader requires more than just technical knowledge and expertise. It requires a willingness for self-discovery, an eagerness to help others and a drive to make a positive impact. Honors College alum Nya Buckner, \u201922, embodied these principles during her time in the Honors […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11332,"featured_media":8549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1205,645351,82,1049126,1048851],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","category-alumni-and-friends","category-features","category-homefeature","category-homestories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11332"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8536"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8858,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8536\/revisions\/8858"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}