Wayne’s India in Oklahoma State!

As my first boss, I still cherish all the lessons I learned from Wayne Prater!

It’s not easy to ask him questions about his recent past when he seemed to have made a brave recovery from an accident. So I didn’t.

What I did was to "awe" at Wayne go about telling stories with the same passion about every Indian student he has met over the past few decades. It’s no secret he has mastered pronouncing and memorizing every Indian name and his room mate no matter whether they worked for him or not.

Like most out of state students, international students are madly in the lookout for an assistantship. “If you get a TA just take it, but if its a RA, then come work for me instead ” even after 18 years Wayne hasn’t budged from this quote.

I learned from Wayne, how some jobs can be out of mind when you come home, while others blurr that balance.

Another lesson was regarding punctuality! After few warning slips, I quickly realized no matter how early your shift was, it was not worth taking chances! It is proof in the pudding for “caring about what you do”.