Texas A&M University – Texarkana’s (TAMUT) Program for Learning and Community Engagement (PLACE) strives to engage the local community. This year’s theme is “Community and Civic Engagement.” On Thursday, October 24^th, PLACE hosted an Election Symposium “Making Sense of the 2024 Election,” geared toward reaching out to the community and educating people on the upcoming election. According to Dr. Daniel Mintun, Assistant Professor of Political Science at TAMUT and co-director of PLACE, he says the goal of this symposium is to “provide accurate information and answer any questions they [the community] may have.”

Bringing in two political scientists, Dr. Amy Friesenhahn, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Texas Woman’s University and Dr. Ayal Feinberg, Director of the Center of Holocaust Studies and Human Rights at Gratz College, the symposium offered an opportunity for community members, students and faculty to pose questions about the election and the current political landscape and have them answered by experts in the field. Friesenhahn says about the election, “In many ways… This is not a normal election.” With a former president and current vice president as the candidates for the parties, this is an unprecedented election that brings rise to many questions about the possible results of the election.

Audience members came prepared to the symposium, asking hard-hitting questions of the guest speakers, like “Could we see a true third-party competitor emerge?” and “What do you think is the role of political polarization in this election?” Feinberg and Friesenhahn offered deeply thoughtful, thorough answers to each question posed, offering valuable insight into the presidential candidates, the role of political polarization and the media in this election, and how close the election has the potential to be. Discussing themes like voter participation, “common sense middle ground positions” and concerns they hold as political scientists, Friesenhahn says, “It’s also making being in civil society less pleasant and harder.”

As the event ended, it was clear that the symposium had successfully fostered a space for meaningful dialogue and community engagement. The symposium not only provided attendees with a deeper understanding of the unique dynamics surrounding the 2024 election but also emphasized the importance of informed and active participation in the democratic process. As the election draws nearer, opportunities like these that allow the community to be involved and informed, will be vital in ensuring that the public is both educated and empowered to make decisions that will shape our nation’s future. Don’t forget to get out there and vote!

Anyone who has had the opportunity to take a class with Dr. Doug Julien, Chair of the Humanities Division, knows that it is not an experience they will likely soon forget. With his unorthodox teaching methods and his penchant for sentence enhancing language, Doug has a different philosophy than some about teaching. His reason for teaching? He says, “It’s that idea that I can still learn shit from people.” 

As a professor of the humanities, Julien doesn’t deal in absolutes and hard skills. However, he places a high value on the “quantum soft skills” that the humanities can teach. Rather than hiding behind a long reading list, piles of homework and multiple-choice tests, Julien believes in giving students a path towards success by letting his students forge their own way. As he says, “Let me show you how to deal with that shit, so that you can go out and find your own shit and use these tools to deal with it.”

Julien states that the real issue with humanities is that “too often the humanities are seen as only in service of everything else.” While he believes in the importance of a well-rounded education, he also sees the humanities as foundational to the human experience. Rather than an education in humanities being in service of getting a nursing, biology or engineering degree, they provide their own value. Julien says, “Humanities help you critically think. The humanities help you communicate… Humanities help you understand human nature and all these things.”

According to Julien, the humanities aren’t just about life skills either. Without the humanities, he believes that we would be left without the little things that make life enjoyable.  He says, “There’s also just simply a fundamental joy in the act of reading.

There’s joy in listening to a song, right?” 

The important lesson that Julien wants his students to remember is that “reading is reading” Whether it is instruction manuals, trashy romance (which he would tell you is not trash at all) or crusty old philosophers, it is all the same transaction. He will tell you that there is “a lot of value in supposedly low-culture stuff” and that sometimes, as he says, you just “need to have taco bell.”

For Allison Wade, it all began in a little one-hallway elementary school in Malta, TX. Here she would find her passion for English, and in turn, her love for teaching. Even as a grade school student, Allison found herself in the position to help her fellow students who found themselves struggling with the lessons. She says, “I’m very thankful that I had that experience because one of my old classmates saw me and said, ‘You know, I couldn’t have done that class without you.’ … That helped drive me to where I am today knowing that I have a passion for teaching that started early on.” This ignited her desire to continue helping students, especially those who find school challenging.

Having always been academically driven, wrapping her self-worth up in her grades, Allison has found the experience of attending TAMUT has changed her perspective on what is important in school and life. Where insignificant test scores once drove her, Allison says, in her new university setting, “I just learned it is just like a blip in my whole life about what grade I’m making on this singular assignment. And it doesn’t define anything. So, I had to grow and change where my value was found.” So, she began finding her worth in the relationships and community she developed attending TAMUT. “Because if you surround yourself with fun, good people, you don’t really search for validation as much as you would if you didn’t feel like you belonged anywhere.”

Allison feels that her experience student teaching while at TAMUT has made her much more serious about her future role as an educator. What started with confidence, Allison has learned spending time in the classroom is far different than she ancticipated. She says, “It’s nothing compared to actually being in the moment… But it is so much more than I could have ever imagined.”

To deal with these new and exciting challenges of becoming a future educator, Allison relies on her faith to get her through the difficult times. She keeps a photo of her younger self on her mirror to remind her that we are all God’s creations and to follow the golden rule. Her faith and her church have been a large part of what motivates her to be a good teacher. Her driving force boils down to this: “What little mustard seed of faith I can put in people’s life, and it all came from the experiences I had.”