Marian Barrett: Dedicated to loving campus through the lens of God

BY BROOKLYN MCKINNEY

Feature Editor

Marian Barrett from New Braunfels, Texas, walked into Tarleton State University orientation with Texas A&M on her mind. She had only intended to enroll at Tarleton for a year, keeping her GPA high enough for her to transfer to A&M with her sister.

But once she set foot on campus, she knew that she was here to stay.

“The only school I was interested in at all was Tarleton, because of the school spirit and everyone’s happy to be there. Being proud of your school is really important to me,” Barrett said. “I felt like none of the schools in the [A&M] system really had that like Tarleton does. I went to orientation, and I dropped the PSA program on the way back in the car, because I was like, ‘I’m going to Tarleton.’”

Barrett even stumbled across her first on-campus job that day at an involvement fair, working for Momma T with Campus Life and Family Engagement.

“They said, ‘What’s your major?’ I was like, ‘digital media,’ and they’re like, ‘Do you want a job?’ And I’m like, ‘Sure,’” she said.

Although she hadn’t taken a single art class in high school, Barrett had always been creative. 

She enjoyed making collages and posters for school, dedicated an entire summer to learning calligraphy and eventually took some photography classes that would spark her interest.

“I picked digital media because although I want to do marketing, I also want to create the art, and I want to create the designs and not have to hire people to do that for me,” Barrett said.

Not only does she love designing the graphics for T-shirts and posters across campus, but also meeting new people. As a part of her job with Campus Life and Family Engagement, she has had opportunities to talk to many of the musicians who come for Founders Week and homecoming, and even former U.S. astronaut Charlie Duke, the youngest man to walk on the moon.

“I love meeting people. I love hearing their stories, I love making people laugh, that’s my thing. That’s what I live for,” Barrett said.

But her first job wasn’t enough to keep her on her toes. She is always in pursuit of a new way to pour into people and the community around her.

Early on, she found her church community in Stephenville.

“The BSM [Baptist Student Ministries] had a prayer walk, and I was like, ‘Well, I’m here. I might as well just go,’. And they didn’t expect the freshmen to show up. It was kind of awkward because they said, ‘Oh, we’re praying for you. Why are you here?’ And I was like, ‘Because I love Jesus,’” Barrett said. 

Unknowingly, she would meet one of her closest friends that day. At the last BSM worship night of the year, everything came full circle for Marian and her support system while she got up on stage for a student interview.

“Freshmen don’t usually come to this because they don’t even know BSM’s a thing yet, really,” Marissa Wolfe said. “So, she just showed up and started walking around with us, and she thought my shirt was cool. So, I was like, ‘Oh, she’s cool, she likes my shirt.’ And from there, we kind of just slowly developed that friendship.”

With tears in her eyes, Barrett reflected on asking God for a Christlike community of friends to do life with in college, and how He had overdelivered.

“I can remember one time we were hanging out together, and our other friend, Megan, just making a ton of mac and cheese for a church potluck, and she was grating the cheese and grated her fingernails into the cheese,” Wolfe said. “She was so funny and crazy about it, and it was such a good time. So anytime I’m feeling down, I know that if I hang out with Marian, she’ll help me. She’ll lift me up.”

Barrett met her fiancée, Caleb Olmstead, while leading a freshman Bible study together. She said that he loves her the way that Christ loves the church. They make a great team and said they can’t wait to stand by each other’s side for the rest of their lives.

“She sees people who don’t often get seen. She sees the person in the room that might feel like they don’t belong, and she goes and makes them feel welcome and loved,” Olmstead said. “She’s a great example of what it looks like to lead with humility and kindness, and she’s a fantastic listener. She always listens to me, to strangers who just want to talk to her. She’s just a super kind, beautiful-hearted person.”

As a freshman at Tarleton State University who once fell away from faith and had stopped attending Sunday services with my family, I was that person. After I had met her at BSM with a friend, she would always greet me with a warm smile and make time to drive me to Valley Grove Baptist Church when I didn’t want to go alone.

I will always remember her kindness, and I’m sure she has touched the lives of countless others.

As well as welcoming people with open arms into BSM as a member of their lead team, she also does marketing and runs the social media page for Tarleton’s American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, @tsuaiaa. Barrett is even a Senior Residential Leader for Honors Hall, a student ambassador and still carves out time to attend services at Valley Grove Church on Sundays.

“Being able to do that, it definitely adds something else on my plate, but it gives me purpose with all that I do to glorify God and make Him known,” Barrett said. “And so, it makes me really passionate about meeting new people and doing things on campus and representing the University well, because it’s not about me and it’s not always about Tarleton, but it’s about the Lord.”

Not only had she signed up to be a TTM at Duck camp, but she has also interned as a communications intern at Texas Baptists, one of the largest and most influential state religious conventions in the United States.

Rarely is there ever a time that she isn’t busy.

“I feel like whenever you’re busy, you realize how much time you have, because it’s just full of stuff. It’s like, ‘Wow, I didn’t know my day could be this crammed. I didn’t know I had enough time to run around campus so many times,’” Barrett said.

Getting to know people and taking on opportunities that will challenge her is very important to Barrett. In fact, one of her favorite classes at Tarleton was narrative illustration with Yanina Blanco.

“She’s just really encouraging and well structured, and she has high expectations, and that’s what I’ve always wanted,” Barrett said. “I want someone to push me to be my best and critique my work and tell me what I did wrong and what I can do better.”

As much as she loves meeting new people and perfecting her craft in graphic design, she also loves a good snow day. One of Barrett’s favorite memories at Tarleton was going sledding and having snowball fights with her friends during her freshman year.

“We had a blooper reel, every time we crashed or whatever, I was recording. And so, we put it in, it’s just like everyone falling. It was really a good bonding day for a lot of my friendships and a lot of my really close friends,” Barrett said.

If she’s not working, you can probably find her at Stephenville’s mini golf course or taking pictures at the Historical Stephenville Museum.

“It’s my favorite place to take pictures on campus. It’s just beautiful, and it’s so serene,” Barrett said.

She also loves shooting photos of cars on her Canon Rebel T7. Her photography and graphic design portfolio can be found in her Instagram bio @marian_rose814.

Barrett knows how to capture a moment and is always up for a challenge. She is driven and passionate about bringing the warmth of God’s presence with her in everything she does across campus, holding Tarleton and the Stephenville community close to her heart.

“She’s the hardest worker I’ve ever met, she works almost too much,” Olmstead said. “She really cares about jobs being done well, and doing all that she does 100%,. She doesn’t do anything halfway.”