continues next page Gary Lawson “It’s work, yet it never seems to feel like that,” Milliken says. “It’s always the type of work I look forward to doing.” The college’s diverse disciplines made for an exciting mix of peers and colleagues and gave her experience in dealing with people from other cultures. She believes her crowning achievement was organizing a conference on Islam that featured speakers from across the nation, including Sarwat Hussein with the Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. About 600 people attended the council, which featured discussions of issues dealing with popular misconceptions of the religion. Through OSU study abroad programs, she studied the European Union in Dijon, France, in 2005; 17th century news books in Cambridge, England, in 2006; and humanities in Spain and Morocco in March 2007. In June, Milliken visited China, where she taught English classes in the city of Xuzhou and made recordings for languageinstruction tapes. The twomonth trip resulted from her work in an OSU English class. Although she does not speak Chinese, she taught three classes of fourth-, fifth- and seventhgraders who had studied English throughout their schooling. She taught with the aid of an overhead projector, the internet and videos. The language barrier was surmountable, she says. She still receives occasional emails from the kids. “They tell me how their school year is going,” she says. “They’re cute emails. They are excited to share their lives and hear back about mine.” Milliken says her host family in China helped guide her through the customs and cuisine. As a blond she also was the butt of numerous Paris Hilton jokes, she says. She also visited the Great Wall and learned that Chinese clothing sizes are much smaller than sizes in the United States. “You learn a lot about yourself, too, and how you react to completely foreign situations,” she says. These days, she is on the cusp of plunging into life after college. Milliken plans to continue her teaching experience overseas. She has received a Fulbright grant and will spend next year in Indonesia as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant. “No matter what path I choose, student council has provided me with invaluable leadership experience,” she says. Matt Elliott From Council to the World Christy Milliken believes becoming involved in student council exposed her to different worlds while also fueling her interest in OSU, its faculty, staff and students. Milliken, a senior English and economics major from Edmond, Okla., is a junior fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, a member of the OSU Student Honors Council and the 2007 student council historian. She helmed the arts and sciences student council in 2007, guiding it through a service project, a volleyball tournament with other college councils and a college banquet. For her council’s service project, she and her fellow students created Christmas cards for area nursing home residents. Oklahoma State University 9
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