Luke T. Murray
Luke Murray isn鈥檛 a traditional undergraduate student at 幺力视频鈥攖he 29-year-old from Jackson is pursuing a second college degree.
He entered the workforce in 2014, but cycled through unsatisfying jobs.
鈥淚 sat and did the same thing every day,鈥 he said. 鈥淔ive years in, I realized something had to change.鈥
Fond memories of his grandfather drew Murray to pursue architecture.
Part of a close-knit family, he visited his grandparents in Oklahoma often.
鈥淚 remember going upstairs聽with my cousins,聽and聽my grandfather would聽pull out聽his聽old聽hand-drafted blueprints. We thought it was so cool but had no idea what we were looking at.鈥
Though he didn鈥檛 know it at the time, Murray has recently learned his grandfather was a prominent architect working on large projects in Tulsa.
鈥淗e was a pretty big deal, and we had no idea,鈥 Murray said. 鈥淚 never really spoke directly with him about it. How many questions I would have for him now!鈥
Murray, now a senior in MSU鈥檚 School of Architecture, said he learned some valuable lessons from his first time in college.
鈥淚鈥檝e learned to take advantage of the opportunities presented to me, though聽they聽may not seem obvious in the moment,鈥 he said. 鈥淲orking hard and making better grades has opened opportunities I may not have had if I had gone聽through architecture school聽when I was younger.聽I鈥檓 wiser and seeing the bigger picture doing聽it聽as an older student,鈥 he said.
And, he鈥檚 taking full advantage of his opportunities.
For the past year, he has worked for MSU Building Construction Science Instructor Briar Jones, principal architect at Thomas Shelton Jones & Associates PLLC in Starkville, and he plans to co-op this upcoming academic year with Ike Kligerman Barkley in New York.
This year, he also was part of MSU鈥檚 new Solar Decathlon team that was a finalist in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon Design Challenge.
鈥淚t was a lot of work,鈥 he said. 鈥淏ut through the process,聽I learned a lot聽that聽I聽may not have been聽exposed聽to through traditional studio.鈥
His advice to other students?
鈥淭ake time to think about your future career path when choosing a major. College is not all fun and games; there are real implications on what you鈥檒l do for the rest of your life. Do something you are passionate about. Get up and get excited about what you are doing every day. Or, rethink the path you are going down.鈥