Ekanem Ekpenyong
Staff Writer
The Cameron University School of Business hosted the Oklahoma Business Ethics Consortium Luncheon virtually at 11:30 a.m. on April 3 at the MCC Buddy Green Room.
The event began with student volunteers selling tickets for the luncheon and giving participants nametags.
Attendees of the event included Cameron students, faculty and staff and business owners around Lawton.
The event kicked off first with Dr. John Carney welcoming the attendees to the event and quickly briefing them on Mike Hingson, the guest speaker.
“Mike Hingson’s ‘Trust, Teamwork and Thunder Dog’s Triumph,’ is a pretty interesting book where he shares his experiences of growing up blind, his experience of learning how to work with a guide dog, and he weaves in his experience being on the 78th floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center,” Carney said.
Carney also described Hingson as a very talented, smart man of faith. He said Hingson’s speech should be interesting, and all participants would learn something from Hingson’s experiences.
After welcoming attendees, Carney invited them to get their food from the banquet, get comfortable and network with each other until the speaker was introduced.
Dr. Loran Gresham, President of Southern Nazarene University, introduced Hingson as the speaker.
“Hingson is an amazing person,” Gresham said, “If you read anything about him in the publicity that is going out, you perhaps know something about him. Hingson was born blind, but he overcame all the discouragements that came from some teachers and peers, went through a normal school calendar, specialized in Mathematics and became an active and successful businesses man.”
Hingson thanked the Oklahoma Business Ethics Consortium for having him and said he was excited to be a part of the event.
“It is an honor to be here,” he said, “I always believe I get to learn as much from speaking and from the people who arrange speaking events for me. I hope that audiences get to hear from me.”
The author and speaker also gave the audience a quick tip for having a blind instructor.
“When a blind lecturer asks you a question, an important thing to know, don’t raise your hand,” Hingson said.
Hingson spoke about the trials he went through while growing up as a blind child.
“When I was a freshman in high school, I was removed from riding the school bus because I used a guide dog,” he said, “the school superintendent in our district said, ‘Blind people can ride the bus, no problem, but you got a guide dog. We have a rule that says no live animals are allowed on the school bus,’ notwithstanding the fact that there was a penal code state of law that said that I could take my dog on any public property. Nevertheless, the board voted 3-2 to support the superintendent.”
Hingson also gave vivid details on how he experienced the 9/11 bombing from the 78th floor of the north tower and how the experience changed his life forever. He talked about how his dog, Roselle, remained calm throughout the horrific event and eventually helped him, motivating many onlookers to get to safety through the staircase during the incident.
“People were watching us go down the stairs,” he said. “They were observing us. They were seeing that we went down the stairs successfully, and as some of them told us later, we saw you going, and we thought if you could go down the stairs, so could we.”
Carney said the event helps to give Cameron students the opportunity to see and hear speakers they would not have access to. He also said events like the Oklahoma Business Ethics Consortium helps students see what
they are taught in the classroom in action. “It promotes an attitude of ethics and stresses that is
not just something that we talk about in the classroom, but that it’s important in the business community and the professional community,” he said.
Amy Smith, a junior Business Management major and event coordinator, said the event was beneficial not only to students but also to business professionals in Lawton.
“You can really get access to nationally known speakers through Oklahoma Ethics, so I think it’s a great event,” she said.
At the end of the luncheon, participants were given certificates of attendance.
The next luncheon is scheduled to take place on Aug. 20 with Cynthia Cooper as the keynote speaker.