In the 1980s, Donna Spiva-Doggett said she wasn’t cut out for college. She had no job skills and no real plans for her future. Flash ahead about 36 years, and that undecided graduate from Perkins-Tryon High School is now senior manager of fiscal operations for the Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University.
The path was a bit unconventional, but it got her there. The high school junior thought she might like an office job, so she enrolled in the office procedures program at what was then known as Indian Meridian Vo-Tech (now called Meridian Technology Center). She also joined FBLA, the CareerTech student organization affiliated with business marketing and information technology education. (That organization is now called BPA.)
At Meridian Tech, Spiva-Doggett became proficient in typing and other basic office skills that were considered necessary.
“These skills changed the trajectory of my life,” she said.
She graduated from Meridian Tech in 1988 and got the office job she wanted. She worked at OSU as a senior clerk typist for $800 a month, and although that wasn’t enough money to change her trajectory, it was about more than just the salary.
“By working with and among such educated, accomplished people,” she said, “I began to want some of that success for myself.”
After working at OSU for 10 years, she decided to try college from a student’s perspective. In 2004, Spiva-Doggett received her Bachelor of Science in finance.
“If I hadn’t gotten my foot in the door with that clerk typist job in 1989,” she said, “I don’t know where I would be now. What began as a job is now a very gratifying career with both financial and personal rewards.”
In 2022, Spiva-Doggett set up The Don Spiva Scholarship Fund in honor of her father, who died in 2000 at the age of 55. The scholarship is designed for Meridian Tech students who need assistance with uniforms, books, required supplies, tools, equipment or certification fees. Selection is based on financial need as well as ability to successfully complete the program and enter the workforce.