Thurmond named school’s top senior
By Dollie Elliott
Tiffany Thurmond, a recent marketing and business management graduate at Oklahoma State University, received the prestigious 2017 Raymond D. Thomas Award, given to the top senior in the Spears School of Business. Each year, a faculty committee in the business school votes who will receive the award and the lifetime membership to the OSU Alumni Association.
The honor allowed Thurmond to carry the Spears Business flag as part of the opening ceremony to the OSU spring commencement May 13, making her the first business student to receive her diploma.
Thurmond is the daughter of Gayla Thurmond and the late Eric Thurmond of Edmond, Okla.
“Tiffany is a remarkable young woman who is indeed worthy of being named an OSU Outstanding Senior,” says Jason Kirksey, vice president and chief diversity officer at OSU. “In addition to her exceptional academic achievements at OSU, Tiffany leaves a lasting legacy of leadership that will continue to transform the institution. Her pursuit of excellence and perseverance epitomizes the OSU spirit. We are proud and honored to have watched her develop over the past four years, and eagerly anticipate the extraordinary things she is certain to achieve in the future.”
“When I look at this award, it brings tears to my eyes,” Thurmond says. “Words could not express how thankful and honored I am to receive this award. For me, academic success and campus leadership are not the most important factors that this award signifies. The greatest factor that this award recognizes, a factor that is so precious to me, is the fact that it represents that I was blessed to have the opportunities to change people’s lives while attending OSU.
“As those who are close to me know, I started this journey determined to overcome the various challenges of today’s society and break barriers while fearlessly chasing my dreams. I knew that I wanted to leave a legacy at OSU, in hopes of empowering other individuals to do the same. The Raymond D. Thomas Award helped me bring those goals to reality. Receiving this honor brings me so much joy because I know that those who come after me — especially within my community — will have a testimony to look up to that embodies the fact that no one can tell you what you can and cannot achieve.”
Thurmond was also named a 2017 Outstanding Senior by the OSU Alumni Association, a Department of Marketing Orange Book Outstanding Senior, a Top 5 Senior in the Marketing Department and an Outstanding Senior by the Spears School.
On campus, Thurmond was the president of the African-American Student Association and vice president of the Theta Mu Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. She was also a member of Beta Gamma Sigma, Phi Kappa Phi, the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, the Marketing Club and the African-American Business Student Association.
After graduation, Thurmond joined the sales development team of Qualtrics, a private research software company, at its headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah.
She shares how the Spears School and OSU helped her prepare for her future.
“From my very first class within the Spears School of Business to today, I have always received the best education that I could possibly obtain. I am so thankful for all of my faculty, staff and organizations that are within the Spears School of Business, as they each have played an integral part into the development of my current and future success. One of my favorite parts of the Spears School of Business is the priceless relationships that I have fostered over the past years. Whether it is with my adviser or with one of my professors, each goes above and beyond to make sure that I develop professionally and personally,” Thurmond says.