Student Spotlight: SHSU Street Team

Student Spotlight: SHSU Street Team

Three years ago, Sam Houston State University launched its own street team, a group of student content creators who work under the university’s Department of Integrated Marketing and Communications (IMC). As student employees, these Bearkats were chosen through an application process before donning their IMC Street Team t-shirts and capturing content for the university’s print and digital media.  

While the IMC Street Team is here to stay, there are a few familiar faces who have shed their student worker titles to start their post-college journeys. Damikka Willis, Paul Wren, Joshua Anderson and Oghenetega Okperuvwe attended one final commencement at SHSU, not as photographers, but as the subjects of photos.  

Damikka “Mikka” Willis 
Bachelor of Arts in Public Relations and Advertising 
Columbus, Ohio 

Damikka Willis came to SHSU from LoneStar College as a transfer student, where the public relations and advertising student established their collegiate career as a go-getter. By the time their TRiO advisor, a Bearkat graduate, encouraged them to continue their education at SHSU, she was a member of the honors college, participated in Model United Nations and was dabbling in producing social media content for organizations.  

Once she arrived in Huntsville, Willis quickly began exploring their new surroundings with their new roommate, a foreign exchange student from Canada.  

“We met each other, got to know each other and we just slowly started hanging out with each other more and more because we were both discovering Sam Houston at the same time,” she said. “We found friends through the African Student Association, community service events, social events and general student body meetings. That’s where I kind of found my first community for sure and met some really great people.” 

It’s that passion that has driven them to be even more active on campus at SHSU. On top of their membership in the African Student Association, Willis is the vice president of the SHSU chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA), a College of Arts and Media senator in the Student Government Association (SGA), a member of SHSU’s chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the National Council of Negro Women.  

On top of their participation in these student organizations, Willis has worked on the IMC Street Team since 2024, highlighting stories around campus through video, photographic or written content.  

“Basically, we’re trying to tell a story through every student at Sam Houston, regardless of what walk of life they are from,” Willis said. “When you go to all of these different events, you meet so many people that you never really come across just going to class. It’s been super cool to experience that, meet new people, see them smile and just capture people’s natural enjoyment.” 

Their work on the IMC Street Team and their extensive campus involvement have bolstered Willis’ resume, giving them a competitive edge in the job search. With that said, their talents have already caught the eye of Love Advertising, one of Houston’s longest-running independent ad agencies that has conducted local, regional, national and international campaigns for clients across industries.  

The agency has offered Willis an internship opportunity following graduation, giving them an entryway into the ever-evolving world of advertising. With that opportunity on the horizon and nothing but opportunity lying ahead, Willis hopes to continue intermingling their passions for community and uplifting others. It’s their distant goal to eventually return to higher education to earn their master’s and eventually a doctoral degree before working their way to becoming a dean, preferably, they said, “at a historically Black college or university.” 

“A big mentor of mine, Bruce O’Neil, had a really big impact on my career as a student and I want to be in that position once I get older,” she said. “To be able to be a mentor for students who are like me and are coming from a lower-income background where both of their parents work blue-collar jobs, has been on my mind for a while and would be really cool to do.” 

Joshua “Josh, what are you listening to?” Anderson 
Bachelor of Science in Construction Management 
Livingston, Texas 

Josh Anderson has had a passion for working with his hands and making people laugh since he was a child. Growing up in Livingston, he would work with his dad on various outdoor projects, from digging post holes for fencing to learning the basics of plumbing. Over the years, he’s found the hands-on work to be what most fulfills him, as long as he’s still given time to pursue his video projects.  

Over the last two years, he has collaborated with friends on a sketch comedy YouTube channel called Highly Doubtable. Using the skills he developed since his early days of using the family camcorder to record himself doing tricks in his backyard, Anderson and his friends have grown the YouTube channel and continued to create video projects while he completed his construction management degree. 

“The biggest challenge was just staying because over the last summer, I got a real trade job in plumbing,” he said. “After I was working there, I did not want to come back and was on the verge of dropping out to just go do that. I then realized that while I can get far in construction without my degree, I can get even further with it.” 

As he entered his final year as a student, he learned that working on his degree would present unexpected opportunities.  

He returned to campus as a member of the SHSU Street Team, having stood out for the editing skills he demonstrated on his YouTube videos. From there, he worked for the university’s Integrated Marketing and Communications office as a student content creator. Since joining the team, he developed his skills in shot composition, editing and acting, as Anderson’s role had him alternating between filming his peers and being on camera himself. The highly collaborative team fostered friendships between the students, leading to him collaborating with his peers on personal projects as well.  

Although Anderson had to say goodbye to his new collaborators for now, he hopes to collaborate with them again on the Highly Doubtable YouTube channel. In the meantime, he is getting settled in Lake Charles and celebrating his graduation alongside his family, who motivated him throughout his college experience.

“My dad is the reason I went to college. He wanted me to come to college because he didn’t get the chance to, but now he had the chance to send me,” he said.  

Paul “Kade” Wren 
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography 
The Woodlands, Texas  

Paul “Kade” Wren spent his final year at SHSU as a member of the Street Team specializing in photography. Following a successful senior show alongside his coworker and classmate, Okperuvwe, at the SHSU Satellite Gallery and commencement, Wren is now launching his career in photography in Austin.  

Oghenetega “Tega” Okperuvwe 
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography 
Huntsville, Texas 

A lifelong Huntsvillian and former Buzzy the Hornet at Huntsville High School, Oghenetega "Tega" Okperuvwe worked with the university for over three years as a Street Team member specializing in photography. Since graduating, Okperuvwe has been transitioning into a new role at the university as the multimedia content creator for IMC.