Author Archives: Susan Lindsey

Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Craig Nakashian

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Dr. Craig Nakashian credits an encounter with an educator while applying for doctoral programs that led him to where he is today.

Nakashian is the dean of the honors college and professor of history at Texas A&M University-Texarkana.

“I like to tell this story because it’s not a story of resilience. It’s a story of stubborn petulance, and sometimes that pays off,” Nakashian said.

After graduating from his masters program in Durham University in England, Nakashian applied to several schools in hopes of entering their Ph.D. program in history. He was rejected from them all, including his top pick of the University of Rochester.

Dejected, Nakashian reached out to the university to understand why. An email back from a Dr. Tim Brown, the chair of the history department, explained that they had several good applicants and limited space, but that he was certain Nakashian would be successful wherever he was accepted.

“At this point, I figured my life’s over. What do I care? I want to be a professor, I need a Ph.D. to get to be a professor. Can’t get a Ph.D., can’t be a professor … Whatever my life’s over. So I wrote this incredibly condescendingly angry email to this random chair of a department at a top research university in America,” Nakashian said.

“I remember hitting send and thinking, ‘Well, that’s that. I wonder if they’re hiring for assistant manager at the liquor store where I am.’”

It was a follow-up reply from Brown that changed Nakashian’s life.

“The only reason I’m sitting here is because he responded,” Nakashian said.

The email chastised him for his approach but explained in depth why he was not accepted.

The following year, Nakashian reapplied and was accepted into Rochester.

It was the “grace” Brown showed Nakashian in giving him a second chance that he said he has tried to emulate in his career.

“Life sometimes gets in the way of what we want to do and we may not react to it as well … But I always try to remember that to kind of ground myself. If he hasn’t shown me that grace, I’d like to think I’d be manager of … another liquor store in Western Massachusetts. I’d be the most bitter, well-read manager you had,” Nakashian said.

Student Spotlight: Mason Higginbotham

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Mason Higginbotham is turning a childhood necessity into an avenue for students to explore their creativity.

“I grew up with a very poor family where I had to sew my own toys … I built an Iron Man suit out of scraps that had a working light bulb for the arch reactor,” Mason said. 

“I’ve always wanted … to give kids opportunities because I believe there should be a third place where kids can go to learn skills. And not all of them want to be in theater, but they want to learn how to 3-D print; they want to learn how to code; they want to learn how to make things.”

Mason, a 24-year-old Master’s of Arts in Theater student, is in his third year of teaching theater arts at New Boston High School. 

Mason Higginbotham and two of his theater students traveling to Austin for a state UIL competition.

He first began his journey into theater as a high school student at Texas High. He said it was a way of following in his brother’s footsteps and meet girls.

“…I was like, ‘That sounds interesting.’ And, you know, I was a high school boy and there were girls in theater … I can do the tech stuff, I can build stuff, do all the manly stuff,” he said.

His first year, he worked in the technical and production sides of his high school theater program before trying out and winning a leading role in the high school musical. He continued to learn and grow in theater arts throughout high school and into college, where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree majoring in Theater with a minor in Film Studies from the University of Central Arkansas.

While Mason enjoys teaching at the high school level, his ultimate goal is to open a business where he can create a makers’ space for anyone interested in exploring creativity, no matter their economic status.

“I want anyone to have the opportunity to do things they can’t afford … I don’t want there to be barriers for a kid to want to be able to be creative,” he said.