Family is important to most students. Moments spent at family gatherings, birthday parties and picnics are treasured by Dominique Pittenger, but her family has a little something else that keeps them together. Sooner born and Sooner bred, university tradition runs through her veins.

Following family tradition, Pittenger and her brother graduated from OU on the same day.

Pittenger’s OU tradition began as a child and continues as she pursues her Ph.D. in general engineering with an emphasis in research. A teaching assistant for the Heavy Civil course in the College of Engineering, Pittenger is also a coach, student, research assistant, wife and mother to three.

“I coach for the Heavy Civil Estimating Team, the competition team,” Pittenger says. “We actually got to go to Nationals and they did really well there.”

At Nationals, the competitive construction science team competed against seven other teams.

Pittenger says it’s a challenge to balance everything.

“It’s always worth it,” she says. “It’s a fulfillment of a life long dream.”

Her kids keep her inspired.

“Oh, they’re my blessings,” Pittenger says. “They serve as inspiration, wanting to learn and always having questions.”

Pittenger says without her children, family support system and the support of faculty and staff, she wouldn’t have gotten far at OU.

“[My children] keep me inspired to do this kind of work because they’re always wanting to learn and they’re just fascinated by the world around them,” she says.

A word to the wise on how to juggle family, school and research? She says it’s simple.

“Take it one day at a time.”