Tabora Cook can vividly remember getting lost while visiting Mississippi State for a high school theatre competition. A high school student from Madison County, Cook had wandered off from McComas Hall and later realized that he could not remember how to get back to the building.
But what happened next would help Cook discover a sense of belonging in a place that would become his home as a college student and later as a recruiter in MSU’s Office of Admissions and Scholarships.
“When I was lost, I ran into a student and they were like ‘you look lost, do you need some help,’” Cook said. “The student actually walked me back to McComas. We just talked about random things, and at no point did they treat me like a lost high school kid. They just helped me out. I knew then that this was where I belonged.”
Cook went on to study broadcasting and public relations in MSU’s Department of Communication, completing his bachelor’s degree in 2014. In 2015, he began working as an MSU admissions counselor, recruiting students from the Mississippi Delta and central Mississippi. Now, he is the coordinator of recruitment activities.
“My title is fancy talk for ‘I get to travel across this country, put on events in different areas and brag about Mississippi State,’” Cook said. “MSU is so much a part of me that it’s like I’m not even working.”
While Cook enjoys traveling both for his job and for fun, he said the most impactful thing he’s done professionally came last summer on campus when MSU hosted the first S.P.A.R.K. (Students Paving a Road to Knowledge) leadership conference. The three-day event brought approximately 300 rising high school seniors who are part of underrepresented groups to campus with the goal of helping them create plans for their future.
With support from university administrators and a team of current MSU students, Cook worked to turn the idea for the conference into reality. Planning is currently underway for the 2019 S.P.A.R.K. conference this summer.
“I wanted to do things for high school students and help them figure out what they’re going to do when they leave high school,” Cook said. “Not only did the conference help those high school students, it also left an impression on the MSU students who helped out because we had current students from diverse backgrounds who had a chance to leave an impact on their campus.”
Much like when he was a student and helped plan events such as Bulldog Bash, Cook has found ways to be involved on campus. He is the campus advisor for Omega Psi Phi fraternity, which he was a member of as a student.
Two years ago, Cook received a call from a former MSU classmate who now works in athletics marketing to ask if he would be interested in getting on the microphone at MSU basketball games. For the last two basketball seasons, Cook has been the marketing emcee for fan engagement, or “hype man” at men’s and women’s basketball games.
In that role, Cook emcees various promotional activities and, more importantly, does whatever he can to get the crowd excited. He said it has been fun to be a part of big moments in Humphrey Coliseum, such as the women’s basketball team’s victory in 2018 against South Carolina in a national championship rematch, and the game against Texas A&M when the Bulldogs secured the regular season SEC championship.
“You can’t be afraid to put yourself out there,” Cook said. “There are times when you tell people to get on their feet and people are looking at you like ‘nah, not right now.’ It takes a certain amount of energy. You want your hype man to replicate the energy that you want in the building. You have to be willing to have fun in front of 11,000 people.”