Crossing the Finish Line
Seniors work hard and aim high
Three ambitious and hardworking seniors have taken advantage of outstanding opportunities while enrolled at Ole Miss. Campbell Cartledge and Thomas McKee landed prestigious internships last summer, and Barnabas Kirui has not only excelled in academics but also has run his way to fame and glory. All are on track to successful business-related careers.
Setting the Pace
He runs up to 100 miles a week, that’s right, 100 miles a week in preparation for his races.
Barnabas Kirui, who as a member of the Ole Miss track team took first place in the Southeastern Conference cross country championships last year, puts that kind of dedication into his studies.
“Barnabas is just plain delightful!” said Stephanie Crosbie, senior academic counselor for the School of Business Administration. “He shows a high level of performance both in the classroom and in athletics. He is pursuing degrees in banking and finance and accountancy. These are both challenging areas, and he shows high performance. Barnabas is always cheerful, respectful, well-informed and punctual with deadlines and appointments.”
Besides being the only runner in school history to be a two-time winner of the SEC cross country championships and being named 2009 SEC Male Cross Country Athlete of the Year, Kirui has received academic honors as well. In 2007, he was named the Division I Track and Field National Co-Scholar Athlete of the Year by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. In addition, he was named a first team Academic All American by ESPN The Magazine during the same season.
Career-wise, he said, “I would like to work in an accounting firm and eventually open an audit firm of my own,” and university-wise, he said he is pleased with his choice. “I think we have one of the best business schools. I like the way the professors prepare us for the future.”
Perhaps Kirui’s greatest honor comes from his brother, Martin, who followed his fast footsteps all the way from Litein, Kenya. Martin Kirui is a junior finance major who plans to switch to accountancy and also is a long-distance runner on the track team at Ole Miss.
“I joined the Ole Miss team this semester and am happy to be part of the team,” Martin said. “Since I was in high school, my goal was to be an accountant.”
The Kiruis said they share much in common besides living together off-campus and running together every day. “We both grew up and shared everything together,” Barnabas said.
Martin added, “My brother and I both like running, are God-fearing persons, play volleyball very well, like math as our favorite subject and are adaptive.”
Barnabas could think of only one difference. “I think I talk too much, yet he does not.”
Designing Her Future
A marketing major from Columbus, Ga., lucked out and landed not one, but two internships in New York City last summer.
Campbell Cartledge worked as a sales and marketing intern for jewelry designer Janis-by-Janis Savitt and clothing designer Cynthia Steffe.
“I landed the internship with Janis-by-Janis Savitt by searching on Craigslist, and I e-mailed them my resume and they asked for an interview,” Cartledge said. “When I got to New York City, I went for the interview, and they hired me on the spot. With Cynthia Steffe, my mom told me to contact every clothing designer I liked, and so I got their human resources contact information, and I sent them my resume, and they also asked for an interview. I was also hired on the spot when I had the interview.”
Cartledge said she learned about the fashion industry, as well as marketing and sales, during her Manhattan summer. For Cynthia Steffe, her responsibilities included doing all of the bookings for small boutiques, checking out the competition and running merchandise to major magazines and photo shoots.
“They also invited me back for fashion week, which I attended, and it was an amazing experience.”
At Janis-by-Janis Savitt, she took designs to the downtown jewelry makers, packed up jewelry for photo shoots and contacted companies that might be interested in carrying the line.
“After living in New York City for the summer, I not only learned what it was like to live in such a huge city, but I learned a lot about myself and what I want to do when I graduate from Ole Miss. It was an experience of a lifetime.”
A Sporting Chance
A marketing communications major, who would like to work in sports when he graduates, scored an internship with ESPN last summer.
“I had the privilege to work at one of the world’s greatest sports companies,” said Thomas McKee of Collierville, Tenn. “Going into the internship, I figured that I would just be given ‘busy’ work to do, and that was not the case at all. I got real, hands-on experience that really helped me grow and will definitely benefit me as I start my career. I also lived very far away from home (in Bristol, Conn., ESPN’s headquarters), not knowing a single person and ended up making many friends that I will keep in touch with for a long time.”
As a programming and acquisitions intern, McKee worked in ESPN’s college sports department. Among his responsibilities were preparing presentation materials for NCAA and conference meetings, monitoring the daily programming of ESPNU’s competitors, building and maintaining composite schedules of programming and communicating daily with NCAA 1-A football schools regarding future schedules. McKee said hard work was the key to setting him apart from the other applicants for the internship. Besides other internships he said he has done outside of school, he worked as a sports reporter for The Daily Mississippian for two years and interns for media relations in UM’s Athletic Department.
“It was just a matter of figuring out what I wanted to do and going after it,” he said.
