VOL. 3
ISSUE 5
BACK TO
THE LU
FALL ‘26 SPORTS PREVIEW A M O N T H LY P UB L I CAT I ON P ROD U C E D BY THE LANGSTO N U NIV ER S ITY O FFICE O F PU B LIC RELATIONS
• EDUCATION FOR ALL
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• SUMMER IN THE SKIES
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• GREEN HOUSE EDUCATION
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• SUMMER IN THE LAB
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• LU FALL SPORTS PREVIEW
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Education for All:
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Nine inmates graduate from Langston University Second Chance Pell Program by Ellie Melero
Prentice Ponds II fought back tears as he shook hands with Dr. Alonzo Peterson. An inmate at Dick Conner Correctional Center (DCCC) in Hominy, Oklahoma, Ponds never thought he would have the opportunity to attend college. It was one of the many doors he assumed had been closed to him for good when he received a life sentence for a robbery conviction in 2017. But thanks to Langston University’s Second Chance Pell Program, Ponds graduated with his Bachelor of Business Administration degree on Aug. 14. “It was just an experience that I thought I would never have,” Ponds said. “And I had the opportunity and a chance to take it. So I did, and I love it. You know, and I advocate for (this program) all the time.” Ponds was one of nine inmates who graduated from Langston University and participated in a small graduation ceremony at the medium security chapel at the DCCC. Many of the inmates had friends and family who attended, along with several LU faculty and staff. The celebration included remarks from Dr. Ruben Herron, a professor in LU’s Department of Rehabilitation and Disability
Studies, as the guest speaker; an honors student recognition for those on the Dean’s and President’s Honor Rolls; induction into the Delta Mu Delta Honor Society for qualifying students; and the formal conferral of degrees. The ceremony also included a recognition and diploma conferral for inmates who graduated from the Oklahoma Department of Corrections’ Lakeside High School. Seven men graduated with their Bachelor of Business Administration, and two men graduated with their Bachelor of Science in Rehabilitation Services. “It was truly a special day,” said Dr. Peterson, LU’s Vice President for Academic Affairs. “You could see what the moment meant not only to the graduates, but also to their families and loved ones, as well as our faculty and staff who have worked with these students along the way.” The Second Chance Pell Program operates under LU’s Tulsa Campus. It was established in 2017 under the U.S. Department of Education’s Second Chance Pell Initiative, which restored Pell Grant eligibility for incarcerated individuals in 2015. Beginning with the 2026-27 school year, the Second Chance Pell Program will transition to a Prison Education Program.
3 Students in the program are able to choose between degrees in Business Administration or Rehabilitation Services. These degree programs were chosen because they are best suited to serve the graduates when they complete their sentences and re-enter the workforce. Sylvester Stanley, a Rehabilitation Services graduate, said he loved the program because it helped him learn more about himself and has motivated him to keep pursuing education. “It helped me to kind of grow and change in here to where I know I’m locked up, but I’m not locked up,” Stanley said. “Because it’s a mindset thing. So, I take my mind and use it as a tool to help me better myself and the people around me. I’ve got this support system in the world, and I want to let them know that I’m not allowing prison to be the deciding factor of how I act or dictate my mood or my feelings.” To qualify for graduation, the inmates must meet all the same degree requirements as regular LU students. For many, this takes longer than the standard four years because they may have to take a semester off to work or see to responsibilities within the court system. Ponds and Stanley remained dedicated to their studies, and they both earned honors for their work. Ponds was even able to graduate with a perfect 4.0 GPA.
Stanley said it was important to him to devote his time to his All: studies because he has goals for his Education life after DCCC.for When he’s released, he wants to work with at risk youth in Tulsa to help prevent them from making the same mistakes he did. He hopes to have an opportunity to begin working on his master’s while still in jail so that he will be one step closer to becoming a licensed professional counselor when he leaves. For Dr. Peterson, this is the true goal of the program. He doesn’t see it as simply a way for the inmates to earn degrees; it’s a way for them to take control of their futures. “I am proud that Langston University is able to provide this opportunity,” Dr. Peterson said. “These men made a decision to use education to change the direction of their lives, and they worked hard to earn their degrees. When they return to their communities, they will do so as college graduates with an education they can use to create new opportunities for themselves and their families. And just as importantly, they are now proud alumni of Langston University. “For me, this is what our work is really about: changing lives, creating opportunities and giving people hope for what comes next.”
Summer IN the Skies: LU student spends summer conducting drone research, helping Oklahoma farmers by Ellie Melero
After spending two months on Langston University’s calm and quiet campus over the summer, Braylon Hood Colbert was looking forward to the start of the new semester. He looked forward to seeing his friends, and he was excited for the campus to buzz back to life as students returned to Langston and brought the LU energy with them. But as he walked to class in the early August heat, Colbert couldn’t help thinking the summer had flown by. A senior agricultural science major from Mustang, Oklahoma, Colbert decided to stay on the Langston Campus and dedicate his summer to conducting research. His work took him around the state with LU’s Cooperative Extension and Outreach Programs as he learned how to apply his research to real life, which made this summer one he’ll never forget. “It’s definitely been worth it,” Colbert said. “I wouldn’t have had the hands-on experience and the connections I made over the summer if it wasn’t for me coming out here and getting involved. So, it’s definitely been worth it.” Colbert is no stranger to student research. After changing his major from agribusiness his junior year so that he could learn more about the science behind growing, Colbert earned a spot on Dr. Devi Kandel’s research team studying tomatoes and ginger. He helped tend the plants and input data, and he had the opportunity to share his work at the 2026 Association of 1890 Research Directors Symposium in the spring. He enjoyed working with Dr. Kandel, but this summer, his research interests took him in a different direction. Colbert joined the Sky Wranglers, LU’s drone precision agriculture program, in the spring after taking a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) class with Marcello White. The class was his first introduction to drones and their many uses in agriculture, and it inspired him to learn more. He joined the group, and after only a short time with the Sky Wranglers,
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Colbert realized there was a lot to learn. “I understood that I’ve got to spend a lot of time understanding the new systems and how the drones operate and how the programming and GIS systems work,” Colbert said. “So, I just wanted to learn more and be more educated on what I was doing, so that’s why I decided to spend my time here over the summer.” He spent the first half of the summer studying for his Part 107 exam to earn his commercial drone license. He passed the exam in June, and then he was able to spend more time out in the field doing hands-on research. He joined Dr. Amlan Kumar’s research team. As part of the team, Colbert flies drones over fields and takes photos of the crops and landscape. When he processes the photos, the research team’s advanced GIS systems can calculate things like soil health and chlorophyll content to help the researchers make decisions about how to care for the plants. “We’re using drones to pretty much develop a system to where we can detect stresses in plants before they show up,” Colbert said. “And we can also predict and increase the yield for tomato plants.” In addition to his research with Dr. Kumar, Colbert had the opportunity to use the drones to help real Oklahoma farmers. He joined extension specialists with LU’s Cooperative
Extension and Outreach Programs to visit four farms around Oklahoma. They brought the drones and demonstrated them for the farmers and allowed the farmers to ask questions. Colbert helped explain how the drone program works and what opportunities it can provide. The farm visits were one of his favorite parts of the summer. “It’s connecting and networking with small farmers in Oklahoma,” Colbert said. “It’s been pretty fun.” As Colbert gets back into the rhythm of classes, he plans to continue working with Dr. Kumar throughout the school year. He hopes he can take his research into a master’s program after graduation. In the future, he wants to start his own business with drones and agriculture to make precision agriculture more accessible to small farmers.
Summer IN the Skies
GREEN HOUSE EDUCATION
2026 LU grad helps establish greenhouse classroom in Spencer by Ellie Melero
Nela Peoples never saw herself as a teacher. She didn’t have anything against the idea; it just never crossed her mind. But when an opportunity to help establish an educational greenhouse at an Oklahoma City area high school presented itself, she decided to take it. “I’m definitely excited, but it’s a little nerve-wracking,” Peoples said. “I really want to make my classroom comfortable and make it a safe place. You know, plants are really good for your mental health and things like that, so I'm hoping that my class could kind of be a nice break for students from all their harder classes.” Peoples graduated from Langston University in Spring 2026 with her bachelor’s degree in Agriculture Plant Systems and Resource Sustainability. Shortly after, she accepted a position as an Agriculture Teacher at Star Spencer High School in Spencer, Oklahoma. The offer came as the result of the school district’s desire to establish a Horticulture and Agriculture College & Career Pathway Center in Spencer, Peoples’ experience and expertise in agriculture, and the Bigger Than Food Foundation. The Bigger Than Food Foundation is an Oklahoma City-based nonprofit committed to helping both urban and rural communities in Oklahoma through economic development and cultural enterprises. The Foundation established the Growing For Good Farm in Spencer in June 2025 as an expansion of its Health & Wellness Initiative to increase food sovereignty for low access communities in Oklahoma.
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The Growing For Good Farm’s strategic goal is to produce 100,000 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables by 2030 by training future gardeners and broadening the network of producers throughout Oklahoma. Of the food harvested, one third is sold to local restaurants to sustain the Farm’s operations, one third is sold at the Growing For Good Market in Spencer, and one third is donated to the community to address challenges to healthy food access.
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In Fall 2025, Peoples became Growing For Good’s first intern. “It was definitely interesting,” Peoples said. “I was really looking for some hands-on, some building experience and machine experience and really some leadership experience. I had the chance to help other people learn what I was learning outside on the farm, and it was definitely a great experience being there.” Peoples worked with Growing For Good as a farm team lead intern throughout her senior year at LU. She was introduced to the organization by her research advisor, Dr. Tracey Payton. Dr. Payton is an assistant professor of Horticulture and Entomology in the Sherman Lewis School of Agriculture and Applied Sciences (SL-SAAS), and Peoples joined her lab as a horticulture research assistant in 2024. As she prepared to enter her last year of school, Peoples mentioned to Dr. Payton that many of the agriculture-related job postings she had seen required more field experience than what she’d been able to garner as a student researcher. So, Dr. Payton decided to help. “(Dr. Payton) took the time to find another internship
opportunity for me,” Peoples said. “She told me that Apollo (Woods) was starting up a farm and would need some help, and he was already looking to partner with the university. And he was interested in having some student interns to give them the opportunity to come and learn.” Woods is the founder and executive director of the Bigger Than Food Foundation, and he had been working with SL-SAAS Dean Wesley Whittaker and LU Vice President for Academic Affairs Alonzo Peterson to establish a formal partnership between Langston University and the Growing For Good Farm. The partnership, which was finalized in June 2025, includes LU student internships, technical assistance and community programming opportunities on the 13-acre farm. When Woods first met Peoples, he was surprised. She wasn’t the type of person he’d been expecting, and he wasn’t sure how well she would take to all the manual labor required of the Farm. But she quickly proved herself to be a valuable member of the team. Peoples worked around her class schedule to be at Growing For Good every Monday, Wednesday and Friday that fall, and in the spring, she worked on Saturdays, too. Her day-to-day duties varied based on the needs of the Farm, but
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GREEN HOUSE education
she spent most of her time planting, harvesting, and seeing to the general care and maintenance of the crops. She helped direct volunteer groups when needed, led events like a plant pop-up sale, and made suggestions on Farm operations based on what she learned in school. When questions arose, Peoples would go back to LU and do the research to find an answer. Woods called her “a wealth of a resource.” “First off, Nela is what, 5-foot tall and about 100 pounds?” Woods said. “She's not the person that you would ever suspect that would want to be out on the Farm and doing farm work. But she’s an observer. She pays attention. She takes notes. And that first day, she just went out and started picking up stuff. That type of initiative was really impressive about Nela.” Peoples continued to impress Woods throughout her internship. From the beginning, Woods told Peoples to think of the Farm as a playground where she could come and try out different things and get the experiences she wanted to prepare for life after college. She earned a lot of independence on the Farm thanks to her work ethic and initiative. She helped them improve their horticulture knowledge, which then directly helped the community.
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Woods wanted Growing For Good to help Peoples, too.
working in a greenhouse under Dr. Payton.
Part of Woods’ goal when creating the internship program with LU was to add a workforce development aspect to the Farm. When Peoples mentioned to him that she was having trouble finding a job ahead of graduation, Woods began to think there might be a way to expand workforce development into workforce placement.
Peoples interviewed for the position and impressed the administrators. They offered her the role, and she accepted. After a summer spent completing teacher training and certifications, Peoples began the new school year as the Agriculture Teacher at Star Spencer High School on Aug. 11.
The Bigger Than Food Foundation works with many institutions and organizations throughout Oklahoma, including with Oklahoma City Public Schools. Woods decided to pitch the idea of an agriculture specialist position at Star Spencer High School that would provide hands-on learning experiences at the Farm, and the district was on board. Then, he advocated on behalf of Peoples for them to consider her for the role. “When we were doing our proposal to the district, we recommended her,” Woods said. “And we were not embellishing but just telling the truth about how she's worth dividends to us and would be a good fit for that.” The role is an agriculture specialist who could establish and maintain a greenhouse classroom and teach students about plants and agriculture. When first told about the position, Peoples knew it was right up her alley thanks to all her time
“I never really thought about teaching kids about agriculture, but I realized I wouldn't mind going that route for a career,” Peoples said. “I’m definitely excited.”
SUMMER IN SUMMER IN
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THE LAB
Langston University students complete internships with OMRF
post-traumatic stress disorder. She worked under physician-scientist Dr. Hal Scofield, and she said the experience helped prepare her for her post-graduate plans of attending medical school.
Three Langston University students returned to campus this fall after a summer in the lab, resulting in greater confidence and a deeper understanding of biomedical research.
“Through this experience, I learned a lot of different lab skills like pipetting and working with human cells,” Blythe said. “Those types of skills will definitely give me a little leverage in medical school because I’ll already have the knowledge on how to do those certain types of things.”
Shania Blythe, Jasiah Heck and Nojua Malone completed eight-week internships at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (OMRF) as part of the OMRF Langston Biomedical Research Scholars program. The program, often referred to as “Langston Scholars,” is a collaboration between OMRF and the university. OMRF scientist Dr. Valerie Lewis, who is also an instructor at LU, helped create the program in 2021. Blythe is a rising senior majoring in chemistry from Chandler, Arizona. During her second summer as a Langston Scholar, she worked toward developing a new method of analyzing immune cell populations in people with and without
Heck is a senior from Jenks majoring in health, physical education and recreation. He worked in the lab of Dr. Benjamin Miller. Under Miller’s guidance, he analyzed whether a certain compound increased the rate at which DNA is created in muscle cells. One of the biggest lessons he learned was that “each step you perform in the lab is equally important.” He said the first step in the process is just as important as the last, so he made sure to give his best effort throughout the entire process.
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SUMMER IN THE LAB Shania Blythe joined the Lion Talk podcast to talk about her internship experience and the OMRF Langston Scholars Program. Scan to listen! While Heck plans to study physical therapy when he graduates, he said this internship experience was invaluable because it helped him realize he has options. “This experience has broadened my horizons to the different paths available in the scientific world,” Heck said. A sophomore nursing major from Frisco, Texas, Malone was the youngest of this summer’s Langston Scholars. Before her arrival, she said she was considering a professor’s suggestion to switch majors from nursing to biology. She viewed the internship as a chance to see how a biology degree might translate into a career. In the lab of Dr. Chris Sansam, Malone studied a newly discovered relationship between two genes linked to cancer. “My experience gave me a glimpse of a scientist’s life,” Malone said. “The hard days when the experiments don’t work and the triumphant days when you finally see some results.” Dr. Ashley Cheyney, said OMRF’s director of scientific training and outreach, providing students with invaluable hands-on experiences like this is part of OMRF’s mission. “Training future scientists is one of OMRF’s six core values, which highlights the importance we place on our internship programs,” Dr. Cheyney said. “At the end of the summer, our Langston Scholars often tell us how their experience provided direction on their future career path. We are excited to see where that path leads for these students.” The Langston Scholars program is open to rising sophomores through rising seniors who attend Langston University, preferably pursuing degrees in biology, chemistry, mathematics or related fields. Following their internship, Langston Scholars often continue to work in OMRF’s labs during the school year.
omrf.org/Langston
The application for the 2027 OMRF Langston Scholars Program opens Oct. 1. Visit omrf.org/Langston for more information.
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LANGSTON UNIVERSITY LIONS
PREVIEW
EYES
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ON THE
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Lady Lions Volleyball prepares to roar to victory The Langston University Lady Lions were ranked No. 10 in the Sooner Athletic Conference pre-season rankings, but Head Coach Jazmine Washington isn’t letting that sway her team’s determination to win it all this year. In 2025, the Lady Lions tripled their wins from the previous season for the second year in a row under Coach Washington. She spent the offseason working to build on that success, and she’s confident the Lady Lions will shake up the conference in 2026. “I’m excited to see my senior starters thrive for their final season of college volleyball and eager to see the competition in the conference this year,” Coach Washington said. “Our returners and new editions will have the conference looking different this season. Eyes are on that conference title!”
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Coach Washington said Lady Lions fans should expect to feel the energy in the gym as soon as they enter The Den. Her players will deliver loud, smart tandem plays, and both the team’s new editions and returners will deliver big kills. They plan to have big plays, bigger defense and faster tempo matches this season. Additionally, fans can participate in game themes with prizes for best dressed. More information can be found on the Lady Lions’ Facebook and Instagram pages (@langston_vb). “Come out to support your upcoming Lions!” Coach Washington said. “We’re looking to pack The Den with nothing but that Lion energy and love!” The Lady Lions Volleyball season will run through early November, and the conference tournament will run Nov. 10-14.
READY. SET. ROAR. Lions Football prepares to take on the season under new Head Coach LANGSTON UNIVERSITY LIONS
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Scan to get to know Coach Miller on this special episode of Lion Talk!
Meet The staff
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