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SHSU Update For Week Of Jan. 9
- Students Sought For Annual Legislative Trip
- Junior Fellows Blog During First Trip Of Spring
- Prof, Illustrator To Sign Copies Of ‘Wonder’-ful Book
- Students To Get Oriented With Sam During Mini-Session
- Workshop To Inform Instructors About Campus Resources
- Calendar Information Sought For Spring
- Send Update Items Here
Students Sought For Annual Legislative Trip
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| Students who participated in the 2010 Student Legislative Trip had the opportunity to talk with Sen. Ken Armbrister, legislative director to the governor and an SHSU alumnus. |
The SHSU Student Activities Department is accepting applications for undergraduate and graduate students to be a part of their annual legislative trip to Austin.
Twelve participants will act as official representatives of the university, attending committee hearings and actual legislative and senate sessions. They also will meet their local representatives/senators, various state agency officials and executive branch representatives.
“This is the third year we’ve done this, and it’s such an amazing opportunity for students to further their communication and leadership skills, as well as become more educated on the inner workings of government," said Student Activities assistant director Brandon Cooper.
"For those 12 students who are selected it is a wonderful life experience, career builder and a chance to represent their university."
The trip will be held Feb. 22-23, departing Huntsville at about 2 p.m. and returning by 5 p.m. Letters of excuse will be written for classes, as necessary.
Applicants should provide a detailed description of trip expectations, how the experience will be utilized and implemented upon returning to SHSU, and a description of any extracurricular/community activities they are currently involved with. Students are also asked to describe how they will establish connections with other students and people during the trip.
One recommendation letter from an academic adviser, faculty member, department head or college dean is also required.
Applications are available in the Student Activities Office, in Lowman Student Center Suite 328, or online at http://www.shsu.edu/~slo_sad/v2/. The deadline is Feb. 4.
“The Student Leadership Trip to Austin was a lot of fun,” said junior political science major Mariel Kanene, who attended last year. “I was allowed the opportunity to develop lasting friendships with other student leaders on campus, as well as meeting and listening to lawmakers give us insight on issues such as the upcoming state budget cuts, that will be directly affecting students.”
For more information, contact Cooper at brandon@shsu.edu or 936.294.3861.
Junior Fellows Blog During First Trip Of Spring
The Political Science Junior Fellows have started the spring semester early this year, travelling through the Deep South to visit prospective graduate schools, explore employment opportunities, and tour sites of artistic, historic, military, musical, literary and political history.
The group is blogging about their trip, which began Friday (Jan. 7) and will end Thursday (Jan. 13), at http://politicalsciencejuniorfellows.wordpress.com/.
“Regional travel is a great way to explore the nation’s history while exploring consistencies and variation in a common culture,” said junior fellows president Dana Angello.
The students plan to visit art museums in Atlanta, Savannah and New Orleans in stops that will include the south’s oldest public art museum—the Telfair House—a large exhibit of Salvador Dali’s works and a tour of the Edgar Degas Home in New Orleans.
The artistic is likely to blend into the historic when they visit homes built by Frank Lloyd Wright in Mississippi, as well as some of the oldest homes in the South in Savannah, according to Mike Yawn, junior fellows adviser. They also plan to see the historic Mercer home, the Martin Luther King Center, the oldest ballpark in the United States, and the Girl Scouts Museum.
The first stop on the trip is the Vicksburg National Military Park, where they will undertake a 16-mile driving tour of the park’s 1,750 acres. They’ll also stop in Atlanta, where they will visit some of the sites left unburned by William Sherman during the Civil War, and one of their last planned stops is the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.
Also in New Orleans the students will learn about some of the Big Easy’s favorite sons, musicians such as Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Domino, Harry Connick, Jr., and Louis Armstrong.
Their musical educations will also carry into Savannah, where they’ll learn more about Johnny Mercer, the lyricist of more than 1,500 songs; and while passing Athens, Ga., they plan to catch some fleeting chords of the many bands originating from that southern musical hotspot: R.E.M., the B-52s, the Indigo Girls and the Georgia Satellites.
“Of course, travelers will have to do more than just listen to appreciate the lyrical prose of the writers’ homes they’ll be visiting,” Yawn said. “ The students have recently read works by Eudora Welty, Conrad Aiken and Flannery O’Connor, preparing them for tours of the authors’ homes.
“They’ll also have the opportunity to see the ‘Faulkner House’ and will see many homes described in the best-selling ‘Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,’ read by two of the students in preparation of the trip.”
Not neglecting the political, the students also will tour the Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, and state capitol buildings in Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, and Louisiana, the latter of which marks the site of Huey Long’s assassination.
Finally, the students will enjoy additional southern flavorings at intriguing eateries, including Antoine’s in New Orleans, Q and S Soul food in Birmingham, the Pirates House in Savannah, and the Calypso Café in Atlanta.
Prof, Illustrator To Sign Copies Of ‘Wonder’-ful Book
SHSU associate professor of physics Renee James and illustrator Lee Jamison will discuss and sign copies of James’s book “Seven Wonders of the Universe That You Probably Took for Granted” during two events this month.
James will give a brief presentation on “the wonders of the universe” during the first event, on Friday (Jan. 14), from 6-8 p.m. at the Wynne Home for the Arts.
The second event will be at Hastings on Jan. 28, also from 6-8 p.m.
James’s first book was published in December by The John Hopkins University Press.
“It’s about ‘night,’ ‘light,’ ‘stuff,’ ‘gravity,’ ‘time,’ ‘home’ and ‘wonder,’” she said. “It’s for people who have absolutely no knowledge of science at all but think that it’s kind of interesting.
“Every chapter starts out basically with a little kid asking their parents something like why it gets dark at night,” James said. “It goes into the simple answer, then it goes into a slightly more complicated, an ‘I’ll bet you never considered this problem’ answer, and then it finally gets to why is space dark, to that level.”
The book has been described as a cross between Dave Barry and PBS “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage” narrator and co-writer Carl Sagan.
“It’s fun to read,” James said. “I actually got my parents to read it, and I got my 11-year-old son, who’s now 12, to read it and understood it.”
Paperback copies of the book will be available at both events for $25, and “we promise to personalize them with clever witticisms.”
For more information, contact James at phy_crj@shsu.edu or 936.294.4888.
Students To Get Oriented With Sam During Mini-Session
Students entering SHSU this spring can gather information from some of the university’s key departments during a “Mini-Orientation” session on Thursday (Jan. 13).
The three-hour session will begin at 1 p.m. in the Lowman Student Center Theater.
“Beginning this spring 2011 semester we’ve created a condensed version of a regular orientation for new students,” said Jesse Bernal, parent/new student programs coordinator. “The program has been tailored for both transfer students and students who have graduated from high school this past December.”
The orientation will feature presentations by the Financial Aid Office, the Public Safety Office, the Bursar’s Office, Student Activities and more.
“Students will also have the option of going on a campus tour at the conclusion of the program,” Bernal said. “Parents are also welcome to attend the orientation with their students.”
New students who would like to attend should register for the orientation on-site beginning at noon on Jan. 13, followed by the formal program at 1 p.m.
For more information, contact the Orientation Office at 936.294.1782.
Workshop To Inform Instructors About Campus Resources
Sam Houston State University faculty members are invited to attend a workshop to raise awareness of campus resources available to instructors.
“Innovative Instruction: Little Known Resources to Energize Your Teaching” will be held on Jan. 18 from noon to 1:30 p.m. in Lowman Student Center Room 320.
Sponsored by the Professional and Academic Center for Excellence and the Newton Gresham Library, the workshop will include NGL bibliographers Susan Strickland and Erin Cassidy as speakers.
“The goal of the workshop is to make instructors aware of these resources on campus that they can use to energize their lectures or classroom activities.” said Marsha Harman, PACE director. “Instructors will be able to multitask; learn about the new resources and have lunch.”
Lunch will be provided for all who attend.
For more information, or to reserve a space, contact Harman at 936.294.2688 or harman@shsu.edu.
Calendar Information Sought For Spring
The University Communications Office is currently collecting information on campus events for its spring calendar pages.
Send your departmental calendars or events to today@sam.edu or jenniferg@shsu.edu, or by fax to 294.1834. Please include the date, location and time of the event, as well as a brief description and a contact person.
Information collected for the Today@Sam calendar pages, at /calendars/, is used by various media outlets, as well as our own office for news stories and releases.
It is requested that information be sent to the office (to Julia, Jennifer or through the e-mail link on Today@Sam) a minimum of a full week in advance in order to make necessary contacts and write a story.
For more information, call 936.294.1836.
Send Update Items Here
Information for the SHSU Update can be sent to the Office of Communications electronically at Today@Sam.edu or to any of the media contacts listed below.
Please include the date, location and time of the event, as well as a brief description and a contact person.
All information for news stories should be sent to the office at least a week in advance to give the staff ample time to make necessary contacts and write the story.
For electronic access to SHSU news see the Communications Web page Today@Sam.
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SHSU Media Contacts: Bruce Erickson, Julia May, Jennifer Gauntt
Jan. 7, 2011
Please send comments, corrections, news tips to Today@Sam.edu
This page maintained by SHSU's Communications Office
Director: Bruce Erickson
Assistant Director: Julia May
Writer: Jennifer Gauntt
Located in the 115 Administration Building
Telephone: 936.294.1836; Fax: 936.294.1834
Please send comments, corrections, news tips to Today@Sam.edu.
