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New Education Option Emerges for LBM Industry

The program is offered online and students can enroll from virtually anywhere. Aside from a CDL certification course and materials estimating course, everything can be completed online, Clinefelter said. The CDL requirement can be substituted or completed at a nearby location.

“We try to make it accessible to students so that they can get where they need to go,” he said. “We’ve had great success with the online program. We can deal with the non-traditional student who has a full-time life and a full-time job. We’re geared toward people who already have something else on their plate.”

Of the four students in the program’s second year, three are from OLA member businesses, and another is a transfer from a construction program. Three of the students are not from the OKC metro area, and have enrolled in the program because they weren’t able to commute to classes. Of the four enrolled in the program, three have indicated that if it wasn’t offered from a distance, then they wouldn’t be able to attend.

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Clinefelter said he anticipates upcoming students from Kansas, Arkansas and Texas. He compared it to OSU-OKC’s surveying program, which has more than 80 students enrolled online, some from as far away as Alaska.

“I see this course having the same track,” he said. “The needs of the industry are nationwide.”

One student who knows the industry’s needs firsthand is Brian Wilson. He’ll be among the program’s first graduates.

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Employed by Mid-Am Building Supply, Wilson lives in Bixby, Oklahoma and has an office in Spring Hills, Kansas, south of Kansas City. He sells building materials to lumberyards and dealers in Oklahoma.

Wilson first heard about the OSU-OKC program when he joined OLA as a networking opportunity through his job. As a member of OLA’s education committee, he was quickly brought up to speed on the program and felt like it was developed specifically with non-traditional students like him in mind.

“Right away I knew I wanted to get involved in it,” he said. “I always wanted to finish my education and I felt like this worked best with my schedule because it’s all online. I can be in a motel in Oklahoma or on the beach in New Jersey and still be taking classes.”

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With four kids between the ages of four and 15, Wilson said he appreciates the flexibility of the online coursework, and has turned it into some good-natured competition at home. “It shows them what hard work does. They know dad’s working hard on his studies, so they need to too. There’s a little competition under the roof.” He adds that he couldn’t pull off work and classes without the support of his wife, Amber Wilson.

Wilson is currently finishing his second year of courses. “I’ve been in the building material business for 23 years, and I never thought that I’d enroll in college to learn more,” he said. But learn more he has. From blueprint reading to marketing, Wilson has experienced more aspects of the LBM industry through the OSU-OKC program than he has in his more than two decades of work experience.

While Wilson’s focus isn’t necessarily finding a new job, as much as it is learning how to do his current job better, he said that he can appreciate how the program will offer others a first-hand look at the building materials industry. Others in the program are taking part in internships that they hope will lead to construction management opportunities or roles as materials estimators.

Ultimately, Wilson plans to roll his OSU-OKC experience into a Bachelor’s degree, and then move into business management. “I’d love to run a business,” he said, “whether that’s a distribution center or a lumberyard or somewhere in management. After a certain number of years in sales, I’d like to start motivating others to do what I have done.”

Wilson views the program as “a tremendous opportunity for a lot of people,” he said. “At one time in my life I started at the bottom at a lumberyard. It took me 20 years to get built up in the business, whereas a program like this could take a lot less for someone.”

Wilson said he feels blessed to have received some of the scholarship money that OLA has invested in the program. To see a group like OLA investing in the industry’s future has motivated him throughout the program.

“I think my GPA right now is a 3.6,” he said. “I’m just so eager to learn things I can apply to my trade. I might not be looking forward to algebra class, but I look forward to applying what I learn to what I do.”

To learn more about OSU-OKC’s Building Materials Merchandising degree program visit osuokc.edu/ola. To donate to OLA’s scholarship program contact Karen Baker at karen@oklumber.org.

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