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Taking on the World

By Rachel Wegner 07

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Click Photo to Enlarge Graduating senior Brittany Oelze is a girl on a mission. This summer, she will spend two months in Mozambique, Africa, and then go on to graduate school at Wichita State University.

Click Photo to Enlarge Oelze and her parents, Mark and Zerrin, pose for a photo after she received the award for the Oklahoma Undergraduate Social Work Student of the Year from the National Association of Social Workers.

ORU continues to raise up students who are intellectually alert and academically excellent. Here is just one story that proves the point.

Brittany Oelze, who will complete her bachelor's degree in social work in May, has been richly rewarded for her achievements as a student.

At the beginning of the spring 2008 semester, she was named ORU's "Social Work Student of the Year" and her senior paper was deemed the "Outstanding Senior Paper" among those submitted by the university's senior social work students. In late March, she was given the "Undergraduate Social Work Student of the Year" award for the state of Oklahoma by the National Association of Social Workers. Although Oelze was taken aback by the awards, she said that she felt very honored to receive them.

During her senior year, Oelze participated in a social work practicum where she worked with the Margaret Hudson Program, an alternative school in Tulsa for pregnant and parenting teen girls. Oelze said working with the girls in the program yielded both excitement and apprehension for her.

"It was definitely a new experience for me, but I found myself really falling in love with the girls there," she said. "I feel like God showed me His heart toward them."

Oelze has a special place in her heart for the impoverished and the less fortunate. As her time at ORU draws to a close, she is more certain than ever that she wants to spend her life reaching out to others.

"I want to love people the way Jesus [loves] people," Oelze said. "I want to build relationships with people, share Jesus with them, love them and be the hands and feet of Christ."

This summer, Oelze plans to embark upon a two-month missions trip to Mozambique, Africa. After that, she will pursue her master's degree in social work from Wichita State University. With so much ahead of her, Oelze also gratefully looks back on her time at ORU.

"It's been a really good experience for me being at ORU," she said. "I feel like it's been a stepping stone for me in my life. Being able to do practicums has gotten me out into the world and opened my eyes to what's out there. It gives us a chance to build and put into practice what we're learning."

With a firm foundation laid and many fond experiences behind her, Oelze feels ready for what's next in her life.