Mary Alice Cole never doubted she wanted to attend Southern Arkansas University, and now, after becoming state president of Arkansas 4-H, the incoming freshman has achieved that goal.
“Ever since I was little, I always said I was going to SAU,” Cole said. “When I first came to tour, I got this feeling of home. It’s big enough for me to meet someone new every day, but small enough I can walk to class and see someone who knows me. I love it.”
Cole, who is majoring in Agriculture Animal Science and minoring in digital photography and film, comes to Magnolia from Melbourne, Ark., where she grew up riding horses and participating in rodeos and the Izard County Fair. “I started with poultry projects, and that turned into showing a goat and that turned into showing a sheep,” she said. “My grandfather put me on my first horse when I was six months old. I started at a young age and have done everything from running barrels to goat-tying and anything in between. When I go home on the weekend, I’m in rodeo.”
She joined 4-H when she was 12 years old and has progressed from showing livestock to photography. “I’ve done everything from robotics to sewing my own outfits,” she said. “I grew up in a very small town. My grandfather has a small cattle farm and I grew up riding. My mom showed hogs and I went to the county fair and rodeos. The rodeo amazed me. I participated in sports but Mom told me I would have to choose either sports or 4-H. I chose 4-H.”
Her involvement with 4-H, in fact, began with her mom and some chickens.
“We really wanted chickens and were told to check with our extension agent,” Cole said. “We raised 25 chickens, and that August we took them to the fair. That’s where I saw 4-H members helping each other. I told Mom that was what I wanted to do – join 4-H and be very active in it.”
“At the beginning, I didn’t know anything about the state level, just the county,” she said. “At Team Leader Conference (TLC), I saw all these green jackets, and I was told they belonged to the state officers. Once I learned the different things officers did, I knew I wanted to be one.” Today, of course, Cole sports the green jacket.
Reaching her post required her to go through the normal interview and application processes. It also required Cole to overcome her inexperience with – and fear of – public speaking. “Today I am completely different than when I went into 4-H,” she said. “I couldn’t speak in front of a crowd. I couldn’t talk to anyone who wasn’t my friend. Now I am not so soft-spoken and I can talk to anyone. That will help me on this campus. I can make friends. I feel like I can talk to my professors about anything.”
She was elected state 4-H president at State-O-Rama in Fayetteville this past August and looks forward to representing Arkansas at the Southern Regional TLC in Tennessee. She will also attend a healthy living conference at the National 4-H Center in Washington, D.C., later this year. “That’s my favorite city and it’ll be my fourth time getting to go,” Cole said. She will also participate in statewide 4-H events and represent the club at football games and meetings across Arkansas.
She’s still open to career plans. “If I could choose one dream career, it would be photographer,” Cole said. “A very close second would be to work at the UA Extension Center in Batesville. They work with animals and I’d like to live close to home.”
Cole said she enjoyed interning this past summer with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture Communications Department. “I wrote a number of articles, took pictures and ran the social media for Arkansas 4-H. That gave me good insight into what it is like to work in a communications department. I moved to Little Rock right after I graduated Melbourne in May, and it was very eye-opening, living there. I started (the internship) the first week in June and ended the first of August.”
She’s putting her photography skills to use this semester for SAU’s Bray student newspaper (www.thebray.com). “I’m very excited about photographing what’s going on around campus,” she said.
Cole has big expectations for her first year at SAU. “I hope to excel in my classes and in extracurricular activities,” she said. “I hope to rush next semester and generally get more involved on campus. I want to get started on those lifetime friendships. I know this school will give me the education and the opportunities I need to succeed in my career and throughout life. 4-H has played a big role in that already. I know I’ll be able to accomplish my hopes and dreams.”
