Jody Lykes reached for the orange on his desk and rhythmically tossed it in his hand as he enthusiastically bubbled about his work as coordinator of marketing publicity and outreach inHonors w88 online sports bettingof the w88 live casino, Reno.
All of Lykes’ energy had to go somewhere, after all, and the orange was handy.
The Honors College continues to grow rapidly — from 557 students in 2021 to 1,115 today — and Lykes brings high energy to the recruitment of top students from w88 live casino, northern California and elsewhere. His team focuses on advanced-placement students, high schoolers who are taking college-level courses for dual credit and associates-degree graduates with a track record of academic success, inviting them to enroll.
Detailed recruitment goals are taped to the wall above his desk, directly in his line of vision and never far out of his mind.
“I measure our performance against those goals all day, every single day,” Lykes said. “Every day, I’m talking about them with my team and with my dean, Matt Means. It’s fun to be part of this.”
But the growth of The Honors College is only part of the contribution that Lykes makes to the University and the Northern w88 live casino community.
He’s the hip-hop scholar, a description inspired by his doctoral dissertation and his work as an adjunct faculty member who developed the Hip Hop Studies course in theBachelor's w88 online casino betting in human. He’s also taught courses in Educational Leadership and Gender, Race and Identity.
Lykes serves as coordinator of student development and advising at The Multicultural Center. Every Student. Every Story.
He also plays an important, if informal, campus role as one of the guiding spirits of#w88 sports betting app. The faculty affinity group, which came into its own during the COVID years, provides support for Black faculty as they navigate the demands of professional and community life. Today, about 60 faculty members participate.
In the community outside the University campus, Lykes is a similar high-energy figure. He served on the board of directors ofKWNK-LP, a non-profit, low-power community radio station that provides a home for the programming of student-run Wolf Pack Radio. He’s a community organizer in the battle for equity. He’s been active in NAACP, w88 live casino Immigration Coalition and the Northern w88 live casino Black Cultural Awareness Society. He’s an engaged member of Alpha Phi Alpha. For a while, he wrote a regular column in the Spanish-language newspaper Ahora.
He was a Scoutmaster for five years. And, many mornings, he’s at the gym at 4:30 a.m. because that’s about the only time he’s sure to get in a workout.
The motive force behind all this energy? Lykes points to a newspaper clipping on his office wall, a remembrance of his grandmother. A worker with the Salvation Army, she was known as “The Saint of Cleveland.”
“When she passed, she hadn’t the opportunities that I have had,” Lykes said. “She was my inspiration. She’s present in my life. Very present.”
After Lykes spent his childhood in Santa Maria, Calif., and Sunnyside, Wash., he was eager to taste the wider world. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science at Brigham Young University. His minor in Spanish later proved useful when he wrote the newspaper column for Ahora.
He took a stab at law school, thinking that he wanted to become a judge. (As a kid, he loved the legal-oriented TV series “Hardcastle and McCormick,” not least because of the customized McLaren sports car driven by one of the show’s protagonists.) But law school, Lykes discovered, wasn’t for him.
With his wife, who has deep family roots in Northern w88 live casino, Lykes moved to Reno and became a recruiter and student services specialist with Truckee Meadows Community College. In 2010, he joined the University as a coordinator at The Center. He took his current responsibilities in The Honors College in early 2022.
Along the way, he earned a master’s degree in Educational Leadership at the University and a doctorate in Education, Diversity and Equity. His dissertation: “Black Scholars in White Spaces: Perspectives on Hip Hop Pedagogy in Higher Education.”
As Lykes has traveled, both as a recruiter and as lover of the outdoors from Lake Tahoe to the wide-open spaces of central w88 live casino, he has developed a profound appreciation of his adopted state.
“This is a great place. w88 live casino really is home to me,” Lykes said.
He expressed similar profound appreciation for the faculty, staff and students at The Honors College.
“The Honors College is filled with amazing energy,” he said. “This is truly a powerful place to be.”
