As she sits and waits, she keeps her nerves down. She ponders the questions that will be asked.

The man sitting seems nervous and timid; he says he doesn’t know what to ask because she is a woman. She tells him “You ask me the same questions that you would ask every man that walks through that door.”

That was the situation that Dr. Sandra Jennings, professor of management, faced at an interview during the 1970s.

The interview was one of many that she had and all of them turned her down because she was a woman.

During that time, women were nothing more than a figure in the kitchen. Jennings had received a bachelor of science in art, but this degree was being ignored by employers.

“So I went shopping,” she said.

She went to the University of Oklahoma to earn another degree. She received her master’s degree in public administration and marketing, which she finished in one year. But this still wasn’t enough for her.

During her time in school, Jennings raised a child and was trying to fix her marriage. She was balancing school and family life.

“This lifestyle was not real conducive for family life,” she said.

She has compassion and empathy for her students that work and go to school.

“It’s hard, but you have to figure out a way to make it work,” Jennings said.

She made it work. Jennings finished school with a Ph.D. in business administration from OU. She said the money that she was bringing home more than quadrupled after she received her degree.

Jennings found herself back at Southern to be closer to her family. She wanted to live closer to her father and step-mother. She says she will still stay here because she is so close to her family.

Though times have changed and women are more respected, she still has the need to encourage not only women, but all students to strive for more no matter what the circumstances.

Every year she gives her students the same advice, and tells them the same story of how she struggled and made it.

“Education is something you earn, and no one can take it away from you,” she tells them.