Kayleigh Jones
SENIOR SPOTLIGHT
Kayleigh Jones, Class of 2023
Hometown: Claremore, Oklahoma
Degree: Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science – Pre Allied Health
What a day it will be when someone down the road casually asks Kayleigh Jones to share her senior memories of OBU. They will be expecting softball stories. She’ll get to that, but something else is likely to come up first.
Having an EF-2 tornado strike your campus during your senior year is a very good lesson in exercising trust in God. It’s one she won’t soon forget.
“I think going through the tornado has just made me realize to not take anything for granted,” Kayleigh said on the day students returned to in-person learning, May 1. “I think it is a great reminder that anything can be taken from you at any time. I think it makes graduation more special because it makes me thankful that I had the opportunity to get an education at a wonderful school like OBU.”
Physical repetition often develops muscle memory which is crucial in sports.
However, hearing the same message daily can also build great habits, according to Jones, an Exercise Science – Pre Allied Health major.
“Coach (Sam) Maples has been an amazing coach and mentor during my time here,” Kayleigh said of her OBU softball coach. “When I think of overcoming battles I always think about when I first got to OBU, and Coach Maples would tell me every day to ‘trust the process.’ She would often remind me how softball is so much more than the sport itself. Softball has taught me to overcome adversity, how to be mentally strong, how to be a leader and good teammate, and many more mental aspects that will help me in life.”
And “life” is something she has put a lot of thought into.
Kayleigh has earned Wilson/National Fastpitch Coaches Association Pitcher of the Week honors each of the last two seasons (2022-23) and multiple Great American Conference Pitcher of the Week honors in each of the last three seasons (2021-23) as an OBU softball pitcher.
But that’s a part of, and certainly not the entirety of Kayleigh’s experience on Bison Hill.
Although Kayleigh will graduate in May, she will then come back for her fifth year for softball and pursue a second degree in nursing which she plans to complete in Spring 2026.
“Getting an education at OBU is something to be proud of,” she said. “This is a first class education on a great campus. My career goals are to be a family nurse practitioner. I plan to finish my nursing degree here at OBU and then pursue a
Master of Science in nursing.”
She remembers watching a video with teammates of a coach who said, “Hard doesn’t get easier, you just learn to handle hard better.” The coach went on to say, that in, “…any meaningful pursuit in life, if you want to be successful, it goes to the people that handle hard well.”
Kayleigh said, “I think it is important to trust God in every situation and always remember that He has a plan for everything.”
That includes not only tornadoes, but coming to OBU to start with.
Kayleigh wanted her college experience to be personal.
“I loved that OBU felt like a small community,” she said. “When I came on my visit as a senior in high school it just felt like home. I liked the feeling of the professor knowing your name and knowing you personally versus being at a big university where you can’t always get that. I went to a small high school, so I always knew wanted to go to a smaller college.”
What she has found is that the experience on Bison Hill isn’t based on years of academic study or seasons; it extends much longer than that.
“Since being at OBU I have grown in so many different aspects of life,” she said.
“I have made so many lifelong friends.”