Issac Bivins is a proud new Lion on the hill at Langston University, where he now severs as the Coordinator for Student Engagement and Leadership. As Coordinator, Bivins is focused on helping students visualize their life after college. He also hopes to elevate their experience and to guide students to reach their highest potential. “Student Engagement is changing and so student engagement means to me, not only engaging our students with programming but engaging them in aspects of outside the classroom,” Bivins said.
Bivins likes talking to students to help understand their “why,” and connects with the students through their diverse backgrounds and getting on their levels to connect personally. Bivins thinks the challenge is getting them out their dormitory residential halls and helping them adapt to the new ways of programming.
“Student engagement is essential … it helps you with networking, putting yourself out there and publicizing events, and building a community,” Bivins said.
Bivins is a Dallas Texas native and a preacher’s kid. He is a firm faith believer in Christ and his faith plays a huge part of his job. Bivins is currently pursuing his PhD from St. Edwards university. “I came to Langston University because of the culture and the rich history,” Bivins said.
Bivins has a purpose and a mission to build spaces where people feel empowered and can become the best version of themselves. He works to understand what it means to navigate through challenges and still show up for others and himself. “My work isn’t just my job; it’s connected to my life experiences,” Bivins said. Bivins is committed to seeing students, especially HBCU students, succeed.
Christian Macklin is a rising sophomore broadcast Journalism major from Memphis Tennessee with a minor in psychology. Chrisitan is a first-generation college student; Christian will be the first in his family to graduate college from Langston University. Christian chose to write for the Gazette to be a voice of reason and to hear students’ stories, because nobody tells their story better than themselves. Christian believes that working for the Gazette will help him grow the necessary people skills and writing skills to be a journalist. The work Christian does for the Gazette is his passion to help grow the journalism industry. Hobbies Christian enjoys doing outside of journalism include reading, traveling, shopping, eating, watching movies, helping the community and spending time with family. Christian is the author of a book titled “I was broken but now I am healed,” published in 2026. Christian can be reached at his Instagram langston_man28 or his student email: chmackl@okstate.edu
