15 Years Later, Two NOC Digital Media Graduates Are Back on the Same Team

Former classmates Adam Meeks and Spencer Tetik reunite professionally as the program that launched their careers sees declining enrollment in the age of AI

PONCA CITY, Okla. In 2009, Adam Meeks walked into Northern Oklahoma College’s Digital Media Institute knowing almost nothing about digital media.

Spencer Tetik did.

Tetik was already friends with students in the senior class and seemed to understand an industry that was completely new to Meeks. So Meeks made a calculated decision. He chose the seat next to him.

“Spencer had no idea why I sat there,” Meeks said. “I thought he was the best person in the class. I figured if I wanted to succeed, I should sit next to somebody I could learn from.”

Fifteen years later, Meeks is doing it again.

The two members of DMI’s 2009-2010 class have reunited professionally, with Tetik joining Meeks as a creative associate and becoming a partner in new companies and projects the pair are developing.

A Different Direction

For Meeks, arriving at NOC followed a moment that changed the direction of his life.

He was selling motorcycles on the West Coast when a young customer crashed shortly after purchasing a motorcycle. Meeks had told the young man’s parents that he would help him ride home safely.

The experience affected him enough that he quit.

“I told my sales manager I was going to go do something more meaningful with my life,” Meeks said.

He returned to Oklahoma without knowing exactly what that would be. Northern Oklahoma College helped him find a major that caught his attention: digital media.

“I’ve never looked back.”

At DMI, Meeks and Tetik studied under instructor Brad Matson, whom Meeks remembers as demanding, caring and unwilling to let students settle for mediocre work.

“Brad was mean, but caring,” Meeks said with a laugh. “He taught me to outwork my competition.”

That lesson followed both students well beyond the classroom.

Meeks went on to work in sports animation for Oklahoma City’s professional basketball arena. His career later took him into work involving the United States Military Academy at West Point and other government organizations.

Eventually, he returned to entrepreneurship in northern Oklahoma and founded Ponca City-based M.E.A.N. Advertising. His work expanded beyond traditional advertising into websites, content production, software and business systems designed to help companies generate revenue and operate more efficiently.

Tetik developed a career specializing in motion graphics, including extensive work in Adobe After Effects, along with graphic design, photography, videography and advertising. He has also contributed his skills to cities, the Chamber of Commerce and community projects around Perry, Oklahoma.

Meeks still describes him much the same way he did as a student.

“One of the most talented people I’ve ever met.”

Back on the Same Team

After years of following separate career paths, the former classmates found each other again through Facebook.

The timing proved significant.

Meeks had recently experienced a medical emergency that temporarily left him unable to drive. After spending most of his career operating as what he calls a “lone wolf,” he suddenly needed someone he could trust.

He called Tetik.

Tetik said yes.

What started as one former classmate helping another quickly became something larger.

Today, Tetik is working alongside Meeks in videography, photography, custom motion graphics, production and application development while the pair develop new projects and companies together.

Their talents, and personalities, complement each other.

“Spencer is better at custom motion graphics, photography, videography, app development and being nice,” Meeks said. “He’s the good one. I’m the M.E.A.N. one.”

Meeks’ specialty is using advertising, content, websites and business systems to generate revenue and make businesses operate more effectively.

But both say their ambitions extend beyond making businesses more money.

“We want to change lives,” Meeks said. “We want to give people peace of mind and empower people to follow their dreams.”

For Meeks, building that future in northern Oklahoma has special significance.

He was born in Ponca City, but his family moved frequently during his childhood. After spending years moving from place to place, he wants something different for his own children.

“I want my kids to have the foundation I always wished I had.”

The Program That Started It All

Their reunion comes at an important time for the program where their careers began.

According to DMI Director Brad Matson, only four students signed up for the program this year.

Northern Oklahoma College currently describes DMI as a two-year Digital Media Animation and Design program at its Tonkawa campus. The program covers disciplines including motion graphics, visual effects, filmmaking, animation, 3D design and web technologies.

Meeks believes declining interest in traditional digital media education may partly reflect a world in which artificial intelligence can generate images, video, websites and other creative work in seconds.

But as someone who now uses those technologies professionally, he believes that makes education in the fundamentals more important, not less.

“AI can make things faster, but somebody still has to know what good work looks like,” Meeks said. “AI didn’t teach me design, storytelling, composition or how to outwork my competition. DMI gave me that foundation. Without it, I wouldn’t be able to use the technology the way I do today.”

To Meeks, DMI’s value was never simply learning how to operate a particular piece of software.

The software changed. The industry changed. The careers changed.

The foundation remained.

“Spencer and I couldn’t possibly have known what this industry would look like 15 years later,” Meeks said. “But what we learned gave us the ability to keep adapting.”

That is why the pair hopes their story might reach another young person who enjoys art, computers, filmmaking, animation, photography or technology but hasn’t yet figured out how those interests could become a career.

“If you’re creative, interested in technology, or you’re the kid sitting at a computer making things and you don’t know what you’re supposed to do with that yet, go look at DMI,” Meeks said. “That classroom changed the direction of my life.”

Fifteen years ago, Meeks chose the seat next to the person he thought he could learn the most from.

Today, he’s betting on Spencer Tetik again.

And both men are betting that the next Adam or Spencer may be somewhere in northern Oklahoma right now, not yet realizing that a classroom in Tonkawa could change the course of their life.