JORDAN SMICKLAS, OKLAHOMA CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL FOUNDATION, RECEIVES 2021 HOSPITAL ADVISOR AWARD
Jordan was nominated by two students, read below for their nominations.
OCU: Brooke Bloomfield
“Anyone who has met Jordan Smicklas knows she would do anything for the children impacted by Children’s Hospital Foundation and our local dance marathons. From serving as the chair of her own dance marathon to now serving as the Dance Marathon Manager for CHF, Jordan has fought to change kid’s health for over seven years. Jordan exemplifies the heart of dance marathon, always present to remind students of the why behind everything we do. As our advisor, she is always available for any question and constantly encourages students to push harder and dream bigger. However, what makes her stand out as an advisor is the passion she has for stewarding dance marathon advocates and fostering an environment for growth and empowerment. She can be counted on as someone to always push you, but also remind you of the value of caring for yourself and others. Jordan is often found ensuring all of the loose ends are taken care of, working countless hours to ensure BronchoThon is the best it can be, and over the past year she balanced the pandemic and managing all of the dance marathons in the state while her co-worker was on maternity leave. Not to mention the added stressors when our campus advisor had surgery and was out for eight weeks leading up to the finale. 
Within the past year, Jordan has helped immensely in creating a few essential aspects of BronchoThon. By working closely with our Business Development team, Jordan was instrumental in creating a sponsorship packet that is clear and represents the BronchoThon brand, enabling us to secure numerous local sponsorships. Additionally, Jordan’s dance marathon expertise has led our team to restructure the use of our Big Committee to engage these members outside of push days and finale events. Jordan has also been a driving force in helping our team discover new approaches to team captains, social media, and how we choose to connect our campus to the cause. As the initial advocate for the Adopt-A-Family program, Jordan has significantly impacted the building of the program from the ground up and providing our campus the opportunity to engage with our miracle families in the most meaningful way.
Although the impact she makes on our fundraising totals and programming is incredible, the true essence of her leadership can be found in the relationships she builds with students. By being vulnerable and sharing the love she has for this organization and her own why through the story of Mattie Hurley, Jordan makes a connection with students that cannot be beaten. By showing her fierce devotion to this cause, she inspires others to keep pushing and works countless hours to ensure each year that BronchoThon is proud of what they have accomplished. Despite her years of experience, she never insists that operations be done her way, and instead encourages students to think outside the box and grow their own leadership. Above all, Jordan’s love for the cause is contagious and has left a legacy that will never be forgotten.”
OUDM – Callie Koch
“Jordan Smicklas was our Hospital Advisor this past year, and this was her third year as our program’s hospital advisor. This was her eighth OUDM, four years were within her time spent at OU where she served as Executive Chair, one as an alumnus, and now the past three as our advisor.
Ever since Jordan stepped into her role as our advisor, our program will forever be better because of her love and life-long dedication to this cause. Serving this upcoming year with Jordan on our side, we know we will always have the best support system through her as we have been able to see in previous years. She challenges us and our ideas, she motivates us every day, she listens to our ideas before sharing her own, and she gives us grace when we need it the most. Jordan is there morning and night, outside of her office hours, to answer calls, text messages, and give us guidance when we need it the most. Since Jordan has experienced both sides of dance marathon, we know her advice and opinions are always coming with our program’s best interest at heart, and never hesitate to go to her for advice.
Jordan’s leadership and guidance are not only a resource to the executive team but even more so to our ten vice-chairs. She never fails to miss an important 9pm vice-chair meeting, sometimes lasting until 2am, and spends countless amounts of hours checking in with each and every one of them to ensure they are at their best. Something we admire most about Jordan is that she aims to make herself available even when she isn’t. As a young advisor, she could be doing anything, however, she chooses to never miss our meetings and always provides her contact information to anyone who may need her.
Jordan’s role as an advisor goes beyond our program as she also advises every other Oklahoma dance marathon. Her love for each of them is abundantly apparent in everything she does and not only does she do all that is mentioned for us, but for five other dance marathons. Her role from organization to organization stays the same as she gives her all to all six of us. With this, she never fails to build a firm foundation for us to build relationships with the other Oklahoma dance marathons. In fact, she planned an entire weekend retreat for all of the Oklahoma marathons to meet for DMLC and attend virtually together.
Last year, not only did our program face a pandemic but we also had to work through a rebrand, a negative campus climate, and two of our biggest push days being virtual. Jordan faced these along with her partner going on maternity leave, leaving Jordan to juggle all six programs on her own. We truly owe our success this year to Jordan Smicklas. Without her constant guidance and support, I can confidently say we would not have had a successful year this past year.”