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OSU-OKC Concurrent Student Accepted to MIT

Oklahoma State University-Oklahoma City (OSU-OKC) concurrent student Mollie Wilkinson proudly displays her Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) enrollment tube and acceptance letter. Wilkinson will start at MIT this fall with plans of studying materials science and engineering. Photo by Michelle Talamantes.

When Mollie Wilkinson opened the mailbox, she spotted the familiar silver tube she had been hoping to receive. Hundreds of the tubes are distributed across the globe to students accepted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Wilkinson, a senior at Piedmont High School, is a concurrent high school student studying at Oklahoma State University-Oklahoma City (OSU-OKC). She believes the connections she made at OSU-OKC and the calculus courses she took have prepared her for an exciting future.

Wilkinson enrolled in Calculus I and Calculus II at OSU-OKC after schedule conflicts prevented her from enrolling in her high school’s advanced placement calculus offerings.

“At OSU-OKC I’ve been able to learn a lot more, more quickly and thoroughly than I would have anywhere else,” Wilkinson said. “The people here have been dedicated to helping me succeed.”

She describes Dr. Kenneth Lease, math department head, and Dan Biggs, her calculus professor, as instrumental to her positive experience. She calls Professor Biggs an incredible professor who encouraged her every step of the way.

“Mollie may be one of the youngest students I have ever had in any of my classes, but she is also one of the most brilliant students I have met in my eight years of teaching college,” Biggs said. “While I have no doubt she will be successful at MIT, I hope she finds an equal, and preferably larger, amount of happiness wherever life takes her.”

This fall, Wilkinson will continue her college trek at MIT as a freshman with plans to graduate with the Class of 2021. She will be studying materials science and engineering.

“OSU-OKC has prepared me well, both for MIT’s calculus requirement and MIT as a whole,” she says. “Being accepted to MIT has been the culmination of my high school career and everything I’ve put into it, but it’s more of a beginning to me than an end.”

Wilkinson is looking forward to being at the forefront of science and technology with some of the best professors and peers in the world. “To me, MIT is a stage to be set in a play I’m incredibly grateful to have a part in. I don’t know what role I have yet, but I hope to play it the best I can.”