SFA University
Stephen F. Austin State University’s SFA Gardens will host Dr. Tina Marie (Waliczek) Cade, professor of horticulture at Texas State University, as guest speaker for the July Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series speaker.
July 10, 2024 - Stephen F. Austin State University’s SFA Gardens will host the monthly Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series at 7 p.m. July 11 in the Brundrett Conservation Education Building at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center, located at 2900 Raguet St.
Dr. Tina Marie (Waliczek) Cade, professor of horticulture in the Department of Agriculture at Texas State University, will present “Plants and People — Gardens and Gardeners Making a Difference.”
Cade currently teaches 12 different courses in horticulture and advises multiple graduate students on research projects. Her research interests are diverse and focus on the area of people/plant interactions, including studies on active interactions of people with plants in community, home or school gardens, as well as passive interactions of people with plants in green spaces. Cade has been studying the benefits of these interactions for more than 20 years and has looked at variables such as crime and community gardens, self-esteem in children, overall quality of life of gardeners, and workplace job satisfaction in interior-scaped offices. She is also a registered horticultural therapist and a certified arborist.
Cade is the faculty manager of the award-winning Bobcat Blend university composting program, which processes all of the cafeteria food waste on campus. She also manages the on-campus floral shop and floral event sales program, Bobcat Bloom.
She recently finished editing the textbook, “Urban Horticulture,” which focuses on the benefits of people/plant interactions.
Cade earned a Bachelor of Science in horticultural therapy and Master of Science in horticulture from Kansas State University and her doctorate in horticulture from Texas A&M University.
The Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series is held the second Thursday of each month and includes a rare plant raffle after the program. The Lecture is free and open to the public, but donations to the lecture series fund are always appreciated.
Parking is available at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center or Raguet Elementary School, 2708 Raguet St.
For more information, email sfagardens@sfasu.edu.
Stephen F. Austin State University chief instructor pilot Jack Gainer with Josi Oujesky, a first-year aviation sciences major from Pearland. Oujesky was the first aviation sciences student to transition from the program’s previous Tecnam Sierra plane to the Tecnam P-Mentor. Not only is Oujesky the first SFA student to fly the P-Mentor, but she is the first student in the United States to train on Tecnam’s newest plane.
June 26, 2024 - Soaring into the future of aviation sciences, Stephen F. Austin State University has become the first institution in the United States to fly the Tecnam P-Mentor two-seat trainer airplane, equipping Lumberjacks with the most advanced training platform available in the country.
“Tecnam has been flying the airframe around the world for a couple of years now, and I was able to fly one out of Brazil to test it,” said Jack Gainer, chief instructor pilot for SFA’s aviation sciences program. “The P-Mentors that we received are even more advanced than that aircraft, and we are the first ones in the nation to have them. Not only are we the first to fly them in the United States, but they arrived in our SFA purple colors.”
Stephen F. Austin State University’s aviation sciences partner, HCH Aviation, became the first U.S. recipients of the state-of-the-art Tecnam P-Mentor two-seat trainer airplanes. Provided by Tecnam Aircrafts, an Italian aircraft manufacturer and the oldest in the world, the new airplanes will give SFA aviation students unique expertise in the most modern technology available.
Acquiring the Tecnam P-Mentors puts SFA’s flight program at the top of industry standards preparing graduates for what they will utilize out in the field.
“SFA graduates will have high-tech experience, and we’ll be the first ones to have it,” Gainer said. “Our students will be very notable when they begin searching for a career. They can say, ‘I was a Flying Jack,’ and the industry will know they are hiring graduates with experienced training.”
Offered through the James I. Perkins College of Education’s School of Human Sciences, SFA’s aviation sciences program exists through a partnership with HCH Aviation, a specialized aviation training school.
Tecnam Aircraft is an Italian aircraft manufacturer and the oldest manufacturer in the world. The Tecnam P-Mentor is a state-of-the-art training plane created for flight schools that is affordable to maintain and uses less fuel than other training airplanes.
“The delivery of the P-Mentor caps off our conversion of our fleet to an all-inclusive Tecnam Flight Program,” Kristen Conklin, HCH Aviation president and a 2009 SFA graduate, said in a Tecnam media release. “The innovation, low operational cost and aerodynamics of this platform are perfect for our students and our operations. This combined with the reliability of Tecnam Aircraft’s products made it a very easy decision to choose the P-Mentor.”
One SFA student, Josi Oujesky, a first-year aviation sciences major from Pearland, was the first student to transition from the program’s previous Tecnam Sierra plane to the P-Mentor.
“It just kind of hit me like, ‘Wow, you’re the first student in the United States to fly this plane,’” Gainer said, describing Oujesky’s experience with the plane. “Not just the first student at SFA, but the first in the United States to actually train in the P-Mentor.”
Gainer said Oujesky had a great experience with the P-Mentor and could immediately tell a difference from their previous planes.
“She said the P-Mentor felt very different and that the plane is more stable,” Gainer said. “It’s designed that way, with much more control and incredible aerodynamic technicalities. It’s just a really enjoyable airplane for students.”
The first four P-Mentors arrived at the beginning of June and an additional three will arrive before the fall semester. Two more planes are expected to arrive the following spring.
“One of the things that we’re really interested in, both SFA and HCH Aviation, is to keep a modern fleet,” Gainer said. “We want a new, clean fleet that is well maintained. In comparison to some of the other flight training universities that are still flying 1960s, ’70s or ’80s aircrafts, we will have quite a fleet.”
Additionally, all planes are available for aviation sciences students to practice in regardless of classification. SFA’s aviation sciences program starts students flying as soon as possible, and many Lumberjacks will be able to fly the P-Mentors as early as their first week in the program.
“Having students fly as soon as we can has always been one of our personal goals, because a lot of universities don’t have students fly at all for their first year,” Gainer said. “We vow to our students to have them airborne within their first two weeks, if not the first week.”
To learn more about SFA’s aviation sciences program and how to be on the cutting edge of the aviation industry, visit gosfa.com/3VuQ03C.
SFA’s First Friday Film Series will screen “Forrest Gump” at 7 p.m. Friday, July 5, 2024 at The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House. Admission is free.
June 25, 2024 - The Stephen F. Austin State University School of Art and the Friends of the Visual Arts will present a free, one-night screening of the Oscar-winning motion picture “Forrest Gump” at 7 p.m. Friday, July 5, 2024 at The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House.
Celebrating the endearing film’s 30th anniversary, the Friday Films committee plans to have film-related trivia questions and themed prizes before and after the showing.
Based on the novel by Winston Groom and starring Tom Hanks in the title role, “Forrest Gump” tells the history of the United States during the 1950s to the '70s from the perspective of an Alabama man with an IQ of 75, who yearns to be reunited with his childhood sweetheart. Gump, a gentle soul born in a small southern town, happens into one memorable experience after another.
Directed by Robert Zemeckis, the film also stars Sally Field, Robin Wright Penn and Gary Sinise. “Forrest Gump” received six Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Film Editing and Best Visual Effects. The film is rated PG-13 for drug content, some sensuality and war violence.
The School of Art’s First Friday Film Series is sponsored in part by retired filmmaking Professor William Arscott. The Cole Art Center, SFA’s historic downtown gallery, is located at 329 E. Main St. For more information, call (936) 468-1131.
Texas Artists Take Spotlight in Prestigious 29th Annual Show!
June 24, 2024 - Art lovers still have an opportunity to visit The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House in downtown Nacogdoches through June 30, 2024 to view winning entries in the 29th Texas National Competition and Exhibition, an annual show of the School of Art at Stephen F. Austin State University.
Dave Clark was the first place winner in this year’s Texas National juried show for his piece “S.S. Kerouac.”
Dave Clark
Tomball artist Dave Clark was the first place winner in SFA’s 2024 juried show for “S.S. Kerouac,” a work of wood, resin, plastic, ceramic, gravel, twine and paint. A high school sculpture teacher in the Houston area, Clark is a graduate student in the School of Art at SFA earning a Master of Fine Arts with a major in sculpture and minor in painting. His recent exhibition “Unconventional Contraptions and Other Oddities” showed this past spring semester in the Teresa Jill Adams Art Gallery on the SFA campus.
Sara Kollig earned second place in the 2024 Texas National show for her oil on canvas work titled “REDFINGER.”
Sara Kollig
Second place went to Sara Kollig of Taos, New Mexico, for an oil on canvas piece titled “REDFINGER.”
Emily Legg earned third place in this year’s Texas National for the 3D print titled “Cortesia Glomerata.”
Emily Legg
Emily Legg, artist from College Station, earned third place for a 3D print TPU titled “Cortesia Glomerata.”
Honorable mentions went to San Antonio artist Nancy Wood for “Japanese Tea Garden Blue,” which is a computer-enhanced photo on aluminum panel; to Wichita Falls artist Steve Hilton for “Tea for 43,” a ceramic piece; and to West Des Moines, Iowa, artist Patrick Luber for “Punctum,” a piece created with wood, aluminum beverage cans, brass nails and blood test lances.
The School of Art’s annual juried competition and exhibition attracts entrants from across the United States, providing artists an opportunity to have their work juried by highly acclaimed curators, artists and critics.
This year’s juror was Peter S. Briggs, noted art historian, researcher and curator, who has curated more than 140 art exhibitions and published more than 95 articles, books and exhibition catalogs primarily on 20th and 21st century American art. He currently lives in Tucson, Arizona, and is writing a book about Terry Allen's graphic art. Briggs has received more than 30 research and program grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities; has been an Organization of American States (OAS) research fellow at the Museo del Hombre Panameño and the Museo Nacional of Costa Rica; and received fellowships and grants from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, American Alliance of Museums, Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, Institute of Museum and Library Services, Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Fund for Folk Culture and Tinker Foundation, among others.
Exhibitions and receptions at The Cole Art Center are free and open to the public. Sponsors are SFA Friends of the Visual Arts and William Arscott.
The Cole Art Center is located at 329 E. Main St. Hours of operation are noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. For more information, call (936) 468-5500.
Zach Moore
May 31, 2024 - Stephen F. Austin State University music alumnus Zach Moore continues to earn accolades as a musician and composer, having recently had his work “Always Keep This Close” selected as an All-State Choir piece for the 2025 Texas Music Educators Association All-State Choir process. It’s just one of a series of Moore’s compositional accomplishments influenced by chance and choice, followed by an eventual decision to chase a dream.
Third place winner of both the Marvin Hamlisch Film Scoring Contest and The American Prize, Moore is a composer, conductor and speaker whose works have gained notable attention receiving performances at prestigious locations including Carnegie Hall, the Taipei National Concert Hall and at the Franklin D. Roosevelt 75th Anniversary Concert.
Moore graduated from SFA with a master’s degree in music composition in spring 2023, having studied two years with Dr. Stephen Lias. Prior, he had earned an undergraduate degree in music education from the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire, and then taught high school choir for a number of years before “taking a leap of faith” and pursuing a degree in composition. He recently took his dream a step further, taking a job as an editor with Hal Leonard, the world’s largest sheet music publisher, where he oversees the editing, engraving, creation of demo recordings, copyright, printing, and online marketing for new works of music.
Moore describes the most intriguing part of "Always Keep This Close" and its success has been watching its journey over the last 10 years and thinking about where it began and the places it has been.
“I wrote this piece while completing my undergraduate degree at UW - Eau Claire, and like most undergraduate experiences, I lived in old student housing,” he said. “Life wasn't glamorous, and I completed most of my composing while sitting on our living room couch, which was well past its life expectancy. I now find it amazing that a piece that has been performed by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Turtle Creel Chorale, and will soon be performed by a TMEA All-State Choir, was once created while sitting on an old hand-me-down couch, in my PJs.
“The journey is what makes this performance so special to me,” he added. “It validates what I have always believed to be true – that greatness is anywhere someone is trying to find it. It doesn't matter if a piece was written in a state-of-the-art studio or an old rental house, if you are good at what you do, the world will make room for you. I am honored to have uncovered a piece such as this in my lifetime, and I have my friends, family, mentors and God to thank for that.”
Although Moore enjoyed teaching, he knew deep-down it was an excuse keeping him from pursuing his dream of composing. Constantly involved with extracurricular activities that go along with teaching music, composing began to “take a backseat” in his life.
“I began to wonder what opportunities I was missing as a result of putting off my composition business,” he said. “I also wondered if I would be able to live with that choice at the end of my life.”
His original plan was to continue to teach while he completed an online degree. SFA was one of the only schools to offer an online master’s in composition that wasn't specific to film scoring or commercial music. In addition, after listening to Lias’ compositions, he felt inspired and excited by the prospect of studying with the SFA composition professor. Also, issues associated with teaching during a pandemic caused him to question his career direction.
“That being said, I chose to leave my job in 2021 and move across the country with my wife to pursue my Masters in Music Composition at SFA,” Moore said. “My wife was supportive of this choice, and I was awarded an assistantship as part of my studies. Looking back, had things not panned out the way they did from the pandemic, I don't know if I would have ever truly taken a dive into my dream of composing. Had I stayed to teach and completed an online degree, perhaps I would have never truly left teaching. In many ways, it feels like God was forcing me in the direction I was always meant to go.”
Moore looked forward to his SFA experience with high expectations, but he said he never would have guessed that it would be as rich as it was.
“I had the chance to attend the NAMM convention in California, create a documentary, perform at TMEA, write a number of film scores, work in a recording studio, teach undergraduate courses, perform with the SFA A Cappella Choir, attend contemporary music concerts, and much more,” he said. “I am so grateful for the friends I made and the mentorship I received from Dr. Stephen Lias, James Adams and Dr. Michael Murphy.”
“We were delighted that Zach chose to come to SFA for his graduate work, and he was certainly an excellent fit for our program,” Lias said. “It was clear right away that Zach’s personal drive, unique artistic vision and entrepreneurial spirit would lead him to great things, and we are so proud to see his career continuing to expand in these impressive ways.”
In his new job, Moore is constantly communicating, creating and networking with a variety of musicians in the choral industry.
“Another thing I appreciate about my new position is that they encourage and celebrate my personal compositional career,” he said. “I have been an avid composer of choral music for the last 15, years and it feels good to be at a place that recognizes my compositional passion and encourages me to attend industry events to represent both Hal Leonard and myself. They see me as an asset to their company, but they also want to help catapult my compositional career.”
Moore is happy with where he is in life, and he encourages anyone who has a passion to pursue whatever it is that they love, “even if it feels impossible.”
“If you work at what you love, and are good at what you do, the world will make room for you. I feel fortunate to have found a spot that feels as if it was carved out just for me.”
May 29, 2024 — Stephen F. Austin State University’s Department of Athletics has accepted an invitation to join the Southland Conference as a full-time member effective July 1.
“We are in a dynamic, new era of college athletics,” said Michael McBroom, SFA’s director of athletics. “We need stability but also bold and strategic thinking to ensure a bright future for SFA. The SLC is a conference on the rise, with visionary leadership and a strategic plan that aligns with our own goals for our athletics program and the university. This affiliation puts us in an incredibly competitive and historic athletic community, aligns us with regional peers in Texas and Louisiana and allows us a greater opportunity to engage with our alumni, fans and prospective students across the entire region. This was an easy decision for us in that the SLC offered us an opportunity to boldly move forward with confidence and excitement.”
The acceptance into the SLC is a homecoming of sorts, reuniting SFA with the conference where they spent 34 seasons and amassed 111 conference championships. Women’s basketball and volleyball led the way with 18 conference titles, followed by soccer with 14, and women’s indoor and outdoor track with 10 titles each. Women’s cross-country has won eight titles; men’s basketball and men’s cross-country have won five; football, softball and men’s indoor track each have four; and men’s and women’s golf each have three conference titles.
Overall, SFA has earned 285 individual conference titles between men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s cross-country, and men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track and field.
"We are thrilled to announce SFA’s membership in the Southland Conference, which marks a significant step forward for our athletics program and our university as a whole,” said Dr. Neal Weaver, SFA president. “Joining the SLC not only provides our student-athletes with an enhanced collegiate experience and exposure but also aligns with our commitment to excellence in all areas. We look forward to fostering new and old rivalries, strengthening our community engagement, and showcasing the incredible talent and spirit of our student body.”
SFA's tenure in the SLC began in 1984 and saw the Jacks become one of the top athletic programs in the conference. SFA aims to continue its high standard for athletic competition and academic performance.
The Lumberjacks will compete in the SLC in football, baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross-country, men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track and field, men’s and women’s golf, volleyball, soccer, softball, beach volleyball and tennis.
Bowling will continue to compete in Conference USA.
“It is a privilege to welcome a proven winner both athletically and academically in SFA to the Southland Conference,” said Chris Grant, SLC commissioner. “As we continue to see a trending evolution in college athletics, we are proud to continue our upward momentum and build upon our rich geographic footprint with an institution that shares like-minded priorities that put the student-athlete first. Historically and currently in its leadership, SFA has shown a commitment to success in its athletic department that strengthens our league and enhances the competitive spirit within our conference.”
SFA’s inclusion will bring the SLC's membership to 12 institutions, including seven Texas-based institutions and five in Louisiana. SLC institutions include Houston Christian University, University of the Incarnate Word, Lamar University, McNeese State University, The University of New Orleans, Nicholls State University, Northwestern State University, Southeastern Louisiana University, Texas A&M University-Commerce, and Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley will also join the SLC July 1.
SFA’s return to the Southland Conference will dramatically decrease the amount of travel for student-athletes. This initiative also will decrease the number of class days student-athletes will miss as well decrease travel expenses that will be reinvested in the student-athlete experience and provide a greater economic impact for Nacogdoches and East Texas.
Additionally, teams will be able to play all of their conference games in the Central time zone and be closer to home, which will allow for better rest and recovery for student-athletes.
The smaller conference footprint allows more opportunities for families, alumni and future student-athletes to attend SFA games at home and on the road. Competition in this footprint will help the university enhance its brand, image and marketability as it looks to grow enrollment and alumni engagement.
The SLC was founded in 1963. Current conference full-time members have an average tenure of 25 years, providing remarkable stability.
With an office based in Frisco, the Southland Conference is the reason the NCAA Division I FCS National Championship is contested in Texas, hosting the football title game in Frisco since 2010. The Southland Conference has already secured the championship game through 2025 and has made its impact on the NFL as well, with 11 alumni on NFL rosters in 2021 and seven in 2022. Two Southland alums were most recently selected in the 2024 NFL Draft in Jalyx Hunt of HCU by the Philadelphia Eagles in the third round and Levi Drake Rodriguez of TAMU Commerce by the Minnesota Vikings in the seventh round.
SLC teams have won 18 games in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, including TAMU Corpus Christi last year. This season, the MSU entered March Madness as a 12-seed, the highest seed a SLC member has earned since 2015. The SLC has sent 16 players to the NBA, including SFA’s Kevon Harris, who currently plays for the Orlando Magic.
The SLC changed its basketball scheduling matrix this year, playing men's conference contests on Saturdays and Mondays and women's contests on Thursdays and Saturdays. Conference institutions will host men's and women's basketball doubleheaders on Saturdays.
The Monday games allow Southland Conference institutions and men's basketball student-athletes to receive increased exposure by competing on a day with fewer sporting events, leading to more games on ESPN linear networks and increased viewership on ESPN+. Additionally, with men’s and women’s teams not competing at the same time allows teams and fans to watch both games.
This increased exposure has led to SLC institutions to be featured on ESPN’s SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays 18 times this season.
For more information, contact SFA Athletics at (936) 468-3501.
About Stephen F. Austin State University
Stephen F. Austin State University, the newest member of The University of Texas System, began a century ago as a teachers’ college in Texas’ oldest town, Nacogdoches. Today, it has grown into a regional institution comprising six colleges — business, education, fine arts, forestry and agriculture, liberal and applied arts, and sciences and mathematics. Accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, SFA enrolls approximately 11,000 students while providing the academic breadth of a state university with the personalized attention of a private school. The main campus encompasses 421 acres that include 37 academic facilities, nine residence halls, and 68 acres of recreational trails that wind through its six gardens. The university offers more than 80 bachelor’s degrees, more than 40 master’s degrees and four doctoral degrees covering more than 120 areas of study. Learn more at sfasu.edu.
May 28, 2024 — Stephen F. Austin State University’s police department and its Emergency Management team will conduct Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training sessions June 3-7 at an unspecified location on the SFA campus.
Despite the enhanced police presence during the specified time, members of the university and Nacogdoches communities should be aware this is a drill and not an immediate threat.
“We believe that by fostering a safe and secure environment, we can provide the best possible setting for educational growth and development,” said Jeremy Pickett, Emergency Management director.
According to Pickett, this training is a critical component of the University Police Department’s efforts to provide a safe and secure environment for faculty, staff, students and visitors. UPD staff members and select university personnel will take part in the drill.
The training program is designed to equip law enforcement officers with the necessary skills and knowledge to respond swiftly and effectively to emergency situations, including active shooter scenarios.
This initiative is part of UPD’s compliance with Texas House Bill 3, which mandates comprehensive school safety measures. The bill underscores the importance of proactive safety protocols in educational settings, and this training is a key step in meeting these requirements.
For more information, contact UPD at (936) 468-2608 or updemail@sfasu.edu.
About Stephen F. Austin State University
Stephen F. Austin State University, the newest member of The University of Texas System, began a century ago as a teachers’ college in Texas’ oldest town, Nacogdoches. Today, it has grown into a regional institution comprising six colleges — business, education, fine arts, forestry and agriculture, liberal and applied arts, and sciences and mathematics. Accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, SFA enrolls approximately 11,000 students while providing the academic breadth of a state university with the personalized attention of a private school. The main campus encompasses 421 acres that include 37 academic facilities, nine residence halls, and 68 acres of recreational trails that wind through its six gardens. The university offers more than 80 bachelor’s degrees, more than 40 master’s degrees and four doctoral degrees covering more than 120 areas of study. Learn more at sfasu.edu.
Students taking the “Teaching Science in EC-6” course demonstrate learning activities they learned to students in kindergarten through third grade.
May 23, 2024 — Stephen F. Austin State University’s SFA Gardens recently hosted the 26th annual Bugs, Bees, Butterflies and Blossoms event on April 5 and April 19 at the Mast Arboretum.
This collaborative event — organized by the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture, SFA Gardens, SFA Department of Education Studies, Texas Forestry Association, and Texas A&M Forest Service — offers SFA education students valuable hands-on teaching experiences with kindergarten through third-grade children in an engaging outdoor environment.
Dr. Melissa Hulings, assistant professor of education studies, arranged for 42 SFA students taking the “Teaching Science in EC-6” course to participate as activity hosts for the event.
The SFA students were provided training through Project Learning Tree and resources to conduct four activities that “engage children in learning about the environment through the lens of forests” according to Dr. Alan Sowards, SFA professor emeritus of education studies and founder of the event.
The event was attended by 554 children across 32 classes from eight public, private and home schools. The children learned about the life cycles of butterflies, honeybees and trees, including the role of decomposers in the tree cycle and the adaptations of plants and animals that help them survive.
“What I love about this event is that some teachers who brought their classes to Bugs, Bees, Butterflies and Blossoms also attended the event as a child, later graduated from SFA in education studies, and are now bringing their students to the event,” said Kay Jenkins, SFA Gardens environmental educational programs coordinator.
The Four Seasons Garden Club supported the event through a donation used to purchase a classroom set of Project Learning Tree’s K-8 activity guides and event T-shirts for the SFA students to wear. Local beekeeper David Gallager provided observation honeybee hives for one of the activities, and SFA Gardens provided live decomposers, plants and butterflies in various life cycle stages and other resources for the activities.
“Bugs, Bees, Butterflies and Blossoms is the largest and longest-running environmental education program in East Texas,” said Ted Stevens, education director with the Texas Forestry Association. “This year was another success as it gave future teachers the confidence to incorporate environmental education into their classrooms and provided a service to the community around the university by hosting an interactive and fun environmental education field investigation for local school children in SFA’s beautiful gardens.”
Ted Stevens; Laura Stevens, wildland urban interface coordinator for the Texas A&M Forest Service; Jenkins; and Elyce Rodewald, SFA Gardens program associate, hosted the trainings for SFA students.
Stephen F. Austin State University’s Jordan Coleman, a Master of Arts in public history student from Effingham, Illinois, has been named a fellow for the Jess Hay Endowment for Chancellor’s Graduate Student Research Fellowship for the 2024-25 academic year by The University of Texas System.
May 17, 2024 — Stephen F. Austin State University’s Jordan Coleman, a Master of Arts in public history student from Effingham, Illinois, has been named a Jess Hay Graduate Fellow by The University of Texas System for the 2024-25 academic year.
The fellowship is a unique graduate opportunity established by the late Jess Hay, a former UT System regent who was an advocate and visionary leader for the UT System. Hay passed away in 2015. The fellowship was designed to tie graduate education to timely and high-quality research benefiting the state of Texas.
“I feel incredibly honored to have received the Jess Hay fellowship knowing the amount of great research being completed throughout the UT System,” Coleman said. “It is also wonderful to see research coming out of SFA’s College of Liberal and Applied Arts recognized by not only SFA but by the UT System.”
As part of the program, four annual graduate student research fellowships of $15,000 each rotate among UT System institutions, benefiting two academic institutions and two health institutions each year.
Coleman, who served one deployment in Iraq while serving in the United States Army as an infantryman, was selected based on his research and thesis capstone project on former Congressman Charles Wilson’s congressional papers housed in SFA’s East Texas Research Center.
According to Coleman, Wilson was an internationally recognized politician whose career has continued to be historically significant since his death. The intended outcome of Coleman’s capstone thesis is to catalog and add hundreds of new historical items to the Charlie Wilson Collection and make it available for streamlined public research almost 30 years after its creation.
To enable and expand access to the collection, Coleman is creating an updated finding aid that includes these previously uncatalogued objects, folders, photographs, and audio and visual items. Adding these pieces to the Charles Wilson Congressional Papers finding aid will allow researchers global access to the ETRC’s audio and visual recordings of Charles Wilson during his time in office.
As part of the cataloguing process, Coleman will put the collection into archival-quality boxes and folders, introduce safe storage methods for objects and oversized items, and make recommendations for which media items need to be digitized as soon as possible, including 300 video and audio cassettes, reel-to-reel films, video home system tapes and broadcast films. These tactics will ensure the collection’s long-term survival and usability by the public.
Coleman said the $15,000 award will be used to purchase all the supplies needed to correctly preserve the audio and visual materials within the Charles Wilson Congressional Papers collection at the ETRC, and research Wilson further in both Austin and Washington, D.C.
Initially unfamiliar with the fellowship, Coleman was encouraged by his history professors to apply and credits the remarkable mentorship of faculty members — particularly Drs. Perky Beisel and Lydia Towns, SFA professor and lecturer of history, respectively — as the reason for his academic achievements.
“Jordan Coleman is a top-notch graduate student in every area: research, analysis and writing,” Beisel said. “He's been a consistent leader in his seminar courses and has gone above and beyond to gain additional hands-on experiences within the field of public history. As president of Phi Alpha Theta, the history honors society, Jordan has led an ambitious fundraising campaign and organized a regional conference, thus revitalizing the organization and making SFA a destination for history-minded students.”
Along with the Jess Hay Graduate Fellowship, Coleman has presented at seven conferences while in graduate school and has been awarded multiple state and international awards for his research. Additionally, Coleman wrote a National Register of Historic Places Nomination for the Concord Rosenwald School in Mount Enterprise while interning for Preservation Texas.
He also has been involved in six projects over the past two years spanning all aspects of becoming a public historian. He has worked on a Native American Graves and Repatriation Act project, assisted in the creation of a preservation and management plan for a historic cemetery, conducted and transcribed oral histories and has processed hundreds of boxes of documents and digitized thousands of photographs at the ETRC.
Coleman currently works at the ETRC as a graduate research assistant and credits his wife, Holly, and son, Axel, as his biggest supporters and motivators.
About Stephen F. Austin State University
Stephen F. Austin State University, the newest member of The University of Texas System, began a century ago as a teachers’ college in Texas’ oldest town, Nacogdoches. Today, it has grown into a regional institution comprising six colleges — business, education, fine arts, forestry and agriculture, liberal and applied arts, and sciences and mathematics. Accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, SFA enrolls approximately 11,000 students while providing the academic breadth of a state university with the personalized attention of a private school. The main campus encompasses 421 acres that include 37 academic facilities, nine residence halls, and 68 acres of recreational trails that wind through its six gardens. The university offers more than 80 bachelor’s degrees, more than 40 master’s degrees and four doctoral degrees covering more than 120 areas of study. Learn more at sfasu.edu.
About the University of Texas System
The University of Texas System has enhanced the lives of Texans and individuals worldwide through its commitment to education, research and health care for 140 years. With 14 institutions collectively enrolling over 254,000 students, the UT System stands as one of the largest public university systems in the United States. UT institutions annually produce over 66,000 graduates and award more than one-third of the undergraduate degrees in Texas, as well as over 60% of the state's medical degrees. The combined efforts of UT-owned and affiliated hospitals and clinics resulted in over 10.7 million outpatient visits and more than 2 million hospital days last year. The UT System’s $3.8 billion research enterprise is one of the nation’s most innovative and ranks No. 1 in Texas and No. 2 in the nation for federal research expenditures. The UT System has an operating budget of $29.1 billion for fiscal year 2024 and employs more than 116,000 faculty, health care professionals, support staff and student workers.
SFA theatre students Mariano Aguirre, senior theatre major from Little Elm, and Kiya Green, senior theatre major from Waxahachie, earned top honors at the National Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival recently in Washington, D.C., in winning the Irene Ryan Acting Competition.
May 15, 2024 - Two theatre students from Stephen F. Austin State University brought the highest honors in collegiate acting to the university when they won the Irene Ryan Acting Competition at the National Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival recently in Washington, D.C.
The acting duo of Kiya Green, senior theatre major from Waxahachie, and Mariano Aguirre, senior theatre major from Little Elm, were rated No. 1 in the nation for their competition performances in which the students had five minutes to present two monologues and one duo scene to be judged by a variety of professionals and theatre makers, according to Cleo House-Keller, director of the SFA School of Theatre and Dance. The Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship is a prestigious award in the field of theater arts, named after the acclaimed actress Irene Ryan.
“For those who aren’t familiar with KCACTF and the Irene Ryan competition, it might be hard to convey or understand the significance of Kiya and Mariano’s win,” House-Keller explained. “It is easily equal to winning an NCAA championship. These students came out on top of all of the actors in this competition from across the entire U.S. For SFA to be recognized like this – not that long ago for our production of “Bootycandy” in 2021 and again more recently with SFA theatre student Danielle Wooden winning the national title last year for stage management – only serves to highlight that theatre training at SFA is among the best in the country.”
Each April, the Kennedy Center welcomes outstanding theater students to the KCACTF National Festival. Student awardees in design, performance, directing, playwriting, stage management, dramaturgy, arts leadership and theatre criticism are invited from all eight regions. Through master classes, presentations, conversations and staged readings, students learn from and connect with established theatre artists, as well as their peers from across the country. At this national event, students are eligible for professional training opportunities, fellowships and awards based on their projects and work presented during the festival.
In earning Irene Ryan Acting Scholarships, Green will receive a $5,000 award, and Mariano will receive a $1,000 award. She also earned a Jane Alexander Award for Acting and a $2,500 award from the College of Fellows of the American Theatre, and she won a Mark Twain Scholarship for Comic Performance and a $1,000 award.
Aguirre won a five-day actor intensive session with Encompass Collective in which he will join other ensemble awardees in participating in graduate school-level actor training, including movement, voice, scene study and self-tape. Encompass Collective is a community of Global Majority actors trained at the top graduate school programs in the U.S. and who are committed to training the next generation of artists to sustain a professional career in acting.
Both Green and Aguirre graduated in May after earning Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees. Green is exploring two “exciting options” in her career path, including working with The Ensemble Theatre in Houston or moving to Atlanta, Ga., to “kickstart my acting career.”
“Both paths offer their own challenges and rewards, and I'm eager to see how each choice shapes my artistic trajectory,” she said. “I am incredibly excited about my future in acting. While I tend to be self-critical, I know that I've been blessed with a gift from God, and I'm determined not to let it go to waste. Winning this award is a testament to countless hours of hard work and dedication. It's a reminder that my efforts have paid off, and that I'm on the right path. I can't wait to see how I can continue to grow as an actor.”
"The Kennedy Center offers such an incredible opportunity,” Aguirre said, “and I was so honored to serve as Kiya’s scene partner for the festival. Meeting so many theatre students from around the nation, and working with one another throughout the week alongside some of the nation's top theatre professionals was truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“Receiving such honors for your work is an incredible experience,” Aguirre added, “and as we graduate, the recognition also reassures us that our theatre faculty at SFA have well-prepared us to forge our own artistic pathways in the professional world."
For more information about the School of Theatre and Dance, call (936) 468-4003 or visit sfasu.edu/theatre-dance.
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