More Than A Mantra

Every student who walks across the graduation platform at Oklahoma Wesleyan University has heard a unifying phrase: Be One Sent.

This phrase is both a mission statement and a commission, an encouragement for the graduates of OKWU to go forth and serve God in whatever capacity God has for them, be that ministry or business.

Ariela Nettleton (’24) has years of experience living out that slogan. She spent the first 13 years of her life on the mission field, where her parents served in the country of Bosnia. Nettleton grew up in Bosnia, speaking the language and attending Bosnian schools. When her family returned to the States, she was in middle school, just a few years from college, and her mind was already on ways she could get back to Europe.

“I wanted to go to England,” she said. “That was my dream, to go to university in England.”

Driven partially by her desire to study literature and partially by a yearning for home, Nettleton did not have OKWU on her initial list of colleges, despite the fact that her family has an extended legacy at the university.

“My mom told me that I had to apply to five schools in the US since I was applying to five in the UK,” she said. “OKWU was the tenth school I applied to.”

But a campus visit and the leading of the Lord led Nettleton to decide that OKWU was the right place for her. She became a fourth-generation OKWU student.

Attending OKWU ended up being a great decision.

Four Generations of Alumni: Ariela Nettleton comes from a long heritage of OKWU alumni.

Formative Years

Nettleton jumped into her college experience with both feet. She was part of the Honors College, volunteered with the Culture Connections club on campus, and found a surprising community with roots to her own childhood.

“I was very surprised at how many students were from Serbia and Eastern Europe,” she said. “It was so meaningful to have conversations with people because I also grew up in Eastern Europe.”

Culture Connections is a club on campus aimed at unifying the campus through the many different cultures represented in the OKWU student body. During Nettleton’s time at OKWU, the club grew from a relatively small cluster of students to a larger body that held several campus-wide events.

“When people ask me why I feel called to be a missionary, I say that’s really the only thing in my mind — it’s my part in God’s Kingdom.”

Along the way, Nettleton felt her calling being refined through the different opportunities available to her and through what she was learning in the classroom.

She’s felt the call to global missions for a long time, and she credits her time at OKWU with helping her affirm that calling. Over the summers, she participated in several different missions trips and internships, expanding her horizons and helping her grow.

Nettleton completed her studies at OKWU and graduated in May 2024, earning a degree in English and a degree from the Honors College. She spent some time on a Global Partners trip to the Balkans during the early part of the summer. Although it wasn’t exactly the place she grew up, the similarities allowed her to feel comfortable and appreciate the opportunity to bring Jesus to the people she interacted with.

“I would say that we are all called to some type of ministry,” she said.

A New Mission Field

Nettleton returned to the US after her trip and is currently working for HeartMatters in Bartlesville, a Christ-centered organization focused on serving students from kindergarten to 8th grade by providing exploitation prevention education programs to the children and their families. For now, her ministry is located within the familiar confines of Bartlesville, though that may not always be true.

Nettleton is appreciative of the things she learned as an OKWU student and for the experiences she had during her college years.

“OKWU has prepared me to be more empathetic and more adventurous,” she said. “Just because my textbooks are gone doesn’t mean those learning experiences are finished. I always want to be a student.”