By Skylar Fondren
Staff Writer
Students might be wondering who is behind the many texts they have been receiving asking them if they plan to attend some of the various school events taking place this semester. Not to worry, the communication is coming from none other than Kaymon Farmer, Northeast Texas Community College’s new director of Student Development and Inclusion.
The new director joined the NTCC staff this past summer taking over the role formerly held by longtime director Rico Willis. One of the most notable changes introduced by Farmer so far is the NTCC InclusiveEagle app, which allows students to create profiles and earn points by attending campus events, inviting friends to activities and joining organizations. As the adviser of the Student Government Association, Farmer strives to instill the right mindset among its members, stating that it is not about them, it is about serving others.
“We’re gonna have fun, but the main thing is having a service mentality,” he said.
Farmer graduated from Pittsburg High School in 2012 and Southeastern Oklahoma State University in 2015, having completed his college education a year early. An athlete at heart, Farmer was a football Division 2 player in college and he has also been a part of the Allstate Goodworks Team, a group of 24 promising young men who exhibit a service mentality geared toward providing for their local communities. Looking back on that time in his life, Kaymon said that he desires to have an impact like that of other Allstate Goodworks Team members, such as Tim Tebow and Deshaun Watson.
“I truly believe that my impact is going to be with the digital influence,” Farmer said.
As a Pittsburg native, Farmer said he was excited to explore some of the opportunities available when he and his wife, Edith, moved back to his hometown. Mrs. Farmer has her own dream to start a taco catering business in the local area. Though he went to college primarily for football, Farmer said he is a numbers guy at heart. He is fascinated by the influence of numbers in business and said he wanted to find a job that provided the perfect opportunity to bring some of his ideas to fruition. After looking into Pittsburg and the surrounding area, Farmer found NTCC to be the perfect place to implement his ideas.
“The only place I would want to work is the college because I feel like this place has the most upward mobility in East Texas,” Farmer said.
He said one of his goals is to “increase the bottom line of students wanting to stay in school and graduate, which creates a buzz for other students to attend NTCC.”
Farmer is especially interested in the other legends that have come from Northeast Texas over the years including Bo Pilgrim, Carrol Shelby, James Cavender, Homer Jones and Kendall Wright, the latter two being pro-football players from Pittsburg. With these people in mind, Farmer said he hopes to one day leave his own legacy at NTCC by “developing students, [and] creating more young leaders that think of impact before wealth.”