Long before Ryan Augustine was a Homecoming hopeful awaiting results from the University of Mississippi student body’s vote for Mr. Ole Miss last Tuesday, he was a high school senior sitting in a Panera Bread with an admissions counselor.
Augustine’s older brother attended UM several years before, and this year’s Mr. Ole Miss was initially poised to further his education elsewhere in, and opted to build his own legacy after the conversation with the counselor.
“She had a group of people from the Madison-Jackson area sit down and ask any questions, and (she would) answer. Every concern I had, she was able to answer,” Augustine, a Madison, Miss., native, said. “And I was like, ‘Oh wait, this is definitely more feasible than I think it is.’”
The senior allied health studies major, who has completed just over a month of his fourth year at the university, never intended to stay this long.
“I actually came to Ole Miss intending to graduate in three years because I’m pre-nursing, and you can get your undergraduate degree and then come back and get your nursing (degree),” Augustine said.
But once Augustine experienced the community of the UM campus, he knew he had to stay the full four years.
“As soon as I got involved and met the people here, I was like, ‘There’s no way I want to cut short my experience,’” Augustine said.
The Ole Miss community also inspired Augustine to run for Mr. Ole Miss.
The community Augustine admires extends to staff, as well. Augustine partnered with the UM Staff Council to raise $2,000 for an emergency staff fund. The fund will provide assistance to UM staff members in need after any emergencies — such as house fires, immediate tragedies, natural disasters or medical emergencies, for instance — take place.
“Part of the reason I chose ‘All In’ was to represent everybody in the Ole Miss community, whether that was students or faculty or staff,” Augustine said. “And some people on campus (that) I feel like get overlooked are the staff, so making this emergency fund and partnering with the staff council was something I wanted to emphasize because I wanted to spotlight what our staff does on campus.”
Though Augustine’s slogan, “All In,” was inspired by the Bible verse Colossians 1:16, community was the match that ignited the campaign.
“‘All In’ means a lot of different things,” Augustine said. “‘All In’ means investing in what we have here, and whether it’s going to a football game and our sports and going to every sport, or investing in our community.”
Augustine says the community at Ole Miss is inimitable.
“That’s something really special I’ve found here, is that you can’t replicate this anywhere else,” Augustine said. “Ole Miss and the community here with the culture with the Southern hospitality, I mean, there’s just nothing better than having community you can trust now and then after graduating.”
Augustine looks forward to crossing the field at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Saturday alongside his friends on the Homecoming Court. He is excited for the opportunity he has to connect with them, but he also looks forward to representing the university in a new role — Mr. Ole Miss.
In addition to being the executive director for the Student Activities Association, Augustine has served on Ole Miss Ambassadors, Ole Miss Orientation, Ole Miss Cru and the Columns Society.
Throughout Augustine’s involvement on campus, he has collected a team of people that volunteered to help support the “All In” campaign.
“My support system was prayer,” Augustine said. “Every person I saw, I asked them to pray for me. My core team … also supported me through everything. They stayed up late (and) were texting people, helping with ideas. If I named every single person that supported me, I’d be here for like 30 minutes trying to explain what they did, but a lot of my community showed up for me.”
In the same way that Augustine went “All In” on his Ole Miss community, students returned the favor by going “All In” on him and electing him this year’s Mr. Ole Miss.
“I’m just in disbelief. I just remember sitting there and listening to my name being called, and the only words I could say were, ‘Oh my god,’” Augustine said. “It was just unbelievable. We put in all this time and work, and you hope and pray, you text as many people as you can. And you truly don’t know what happens until you’re at election results; and hearing my name called, I was just like, ‘Wow, there are people who actually showed up for me.’”
