Category Archives: Events

Riding the Athletics Bus to OK

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Does a two day trip to Oklahoma with over forty of Texas A&M Texarkana’s soccer players sound like a good time? There’s WiFi on the chartered bus. There are plug outlets every other row of seats. There’s even a bathroom in the back, a nice little closet with a toilet that does not flush located right behind the men’s team! If you’ve never been on one of these away-game-trips, buckle up. You’re on one now. 

Walters carries the ball up the field against SCU. Photo by: Suzanna Summerlin

Madison Walters began her journey at TAMUT in August of 2016 at her first preseason training camp for the Women’s Soccer team. Since then, she’s grown as a student athlete and been named team captain. We’ll be following Walters on her last preseason away trip of her career to play against Southwestern Christian University and Oklahoma City University.  

Rise and shine! It’s 5:30 A.M. and it’s time to get moving. Walters is on the chartered bus surrounded by her teammates by 6 A.M. Everyone quickly dozes off to sleep after the team prayer and the 6 hour drive began. “My whole body hurts,” Walters commented during the pit stop the bus took at the halfway point of the journey as she stretched her legs. The bus made a brief stop for lunch before heading to the field so the women’s team could begin to warm up. 

After a 3-1 win against SCU, Walters was exhausted, playing the full 90 minutes. She changed into clean, dry, clothes and sat with her team to watch the TAMUT men’s team win 2-1 in overtime. The bus smelled of sweaty trash as both stinky teams piled onboard to head to the hotel. Walters was dead asleep by 10 P.M. after the teams ate a feast at Golden Corral.

The next morning the hotel lobby was packed with soccer players as they ate breakfast before loading the bus at 10:30 A.M. The teams were eager to play as they arrived to the OCU field around noon. Walters was frustrated after the women lost 2-1 in overtime. She led the team towards the locker rooms to shower off before watching the men’s team battle it out on the field. 

Photo by: Suzanna Summerlin

After two frustrating loses against OCU, the bus loaded up with freshly showered athletes and began the 6 hour trek home. A hectic pit stop at Chick-fil-a was made for dinner– restaurants usually struggle to handle the soccer program and their large appetites. “I want to be home already,” Walters said as she opened up her laptop to begin a Kinesiology test; putting in earphones to drown out the noisey men’s team. The bus arrived safely to campus around 1 A.M. and the bus unloaded quietly as everyone headed their separate ways. 

Just like that, Walters’ last preseason away trip was over. “Next week is going to be brutal,” Walters sighed as she looked over the soccer schedule. The women’s team has a week off from games before conference play starts and they’ll put in work until it’s time to load the bus again.

NSLS Connects Campus to Houston

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The National Society of Leadership & Success is coming back to campus bigger and stronger than ever before on campus. It is still the largest organization on campus and the chapter still plans to outgrow themselves each semester. The NSLS is the nation’s largest leadership honor society. Students are selected by their college for membership based on either academic standing or leadership potential. Candidacy is a nationally recognized achievement of honorable distinction.

In addition to honorable distinction, the NSLS provides a step-by-step program for members to build their leadership skills through participation at their campus or online. Upon completion of the program, members receive their leadership certificate and take their place among the top student leaders at their campus and across the country. Members are able to list their affiliation on all statements of personal accomplishment, including their resume.  

Membership is for life and provides access to benefits including scholarships and awards, exclusive on-campus events, employer recruitment through an online job bank, and discounts on computers, textbooks, grad school prep courses, insurance and much more. Once you have paid your registration fee, you are considered a member (also known as pre-inducted member) with access to certain benefits. In order to become an inducted member, one must complete the following steps: 

  1. Orientation: the first meeting that occurs each semester and will give you access to all the information you need about the program in order to successfully complete the steps for induction as a member.
  2. Leadership Training Day: an interactive video training session with a workbook designed to help you identify and overcome any obstacles that may interfere with obtaining your goals. This introspective seminar helps you to recognize your strengths and weaknesses, and lastly to shift your focus toward your real passions. 
  3. Three speaker broadcast events: you will watch some of the world’s most successful motivational speakers discussing topics related to leadership, identifying goals, facing challenges, personal growth, and successfully transitioning from college to career.
  4. Three Success Networking Team meetings: bring together groups of students that work together and provide peer coaching on achieving goals. You can discuss goals, desires and expectations, set timelines and hold each other accountable for achieving what you want. The Success Networking Team provides members with a support network of like-minded goal-oriented students on campus.

After completing these steps, applicants will be invited to an induction ceremony to receive a membership kit.

The NSLS Chapter at Texas A&M University-Texarkana currently has 324 members. However, the chapter expects a significant jump in that number over the next month. The chapter sent out 618 invitations on Friday, September 6th and received 11 joins in  3 days. Members who received an invitation have until October 3rd, 2019 to accept the invitations.

Next month, Emily Page, Bethany Melton, Darrylynn Dean, and Philip Derouen (the writer of this article) plan to attend a conference in Houston, Texas to bring back more ideas from chapters nationwide right back to Texas A&M University-Texarkana. Emily Page and Bethany Melton were two of the first inducted members on campus since the chapter started in 2018 and they both moved up to serve on its Executive Board. Fall 2019 is Emily’s first semester to serve on the Executive Board and she says she could not be more excited. “I’m so happy I said yes and I don’t regret the decision at all. I’m beyond happy and thankful to work alongside both of y’all,” Emily said.

Wal-Mart Supercenter Has a New Look

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Exciting changes occurred earlier this year at the Wal-Mart Supercenter. The Wal-Mart Corporation specified that every store is to be remodeled every five to seven years, so the store on New Boston Road in Texarkana, TX began remodeling during the last week of May. The store underwent changes in the design and placement of several departments. The remodeling lasted fourteen weeks with a grand reopening on August 30th. The changes made were for the convenience of the customers.

An announcement was made at the beginning of May to hire extra employees to help during the remodeling process. An estimated fifty-five personnel were hired for various jobs, from building and restocking shelves, moving departments, and helping customers find things. Assistant store manager Jeff Epps said, “We hired local people from our community. Some people quit after the first week due to the demand for the work required. Those that stayed until the end were given a job at the store.” He estimated twenty-five people stayed.

There were a lot of changes made. Some departments were expanded, while some were combined with others, making them smaller. Some departments were moved while others stayed in the same place. The biggest change occurred in Sporting Goods, Hardware, and the Tire and Lube Center. The departments were combined with a shared counter in the middle. Housewares and Domestics have combined as well. Another big change occurred in the Pet Department. The live fish tanks have been removed and replaced with tack and feed for livestock. The Pet Department has also been combined with the Chemicals Department. The Electronic Department has expanded with a wider counter. 

Other changes have occurred in the store. New floors have been laid, new lights in the Produce Department have been installed. The Money Order Center has moved to the middle of the registers. The area where the Money Order Center was is now up for rent for businesses to come to the store. The most noticeable change is the huge tower located on the grocery side. This tower is for customers to pick up their online general merchandise orders conveniently using their phones.

Mr. Epps explained how the changes and remodeling affected the department managers the most. Departments being moved and aisles being relocated frustrated the department managers, as they felt lost while trying to help their customers. The overall morale was good among the department managers as they focused on customer service above all else. This helped to ease the frustration among the customers shopping in the newly rearranged departments.

The overall changes appear to be satisfying to both the customers and the employees. The floors and bright lights are especially the favorites among the changes. Less frustration and complaints occurred as customers started to find their way around the newly designed store with help from the employees. Customers will be happy to know a new change in the online grocery pickup is in the future. Customers will be able to extend their orders instead of being limited to how much goods they are allowed to purchase. 

As with any business, there are other future plans in the works for the Texarkana Wal-Mart Supercenter. Customers can be assured their needs will be top priority whatever changes occur in the future.

Bright Lights, Two Cities

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Sparkling lights, thrilling rides, and deep fried Oreos. Texarkana’s annual Four States Fair and Rodeo is back in town September 13-22. Once a year our small city hosts a fair and rodeo for Texarkana and the surrounding areas. 

The fair has a lot of events to offer, like the Demolition Derby, a rodeo, and a place for Future Farmers of America students to show their animals. The rodeo also encourages people from surrounding areas to be involved. For example, Allison Gill is from Fouke, AR and goes to school in Magnolia at Southern Arkansas University. In recent years she has participated in the Miss Four States Fair and Rodeo. Allison enjoys being a part of this for the opportunities it presents to her to get to serve and know Texarkana better.

Many local businesses and restaurants come together to serve and share, giving everyone an opportunity to get to know their town better.

You do not necessarily have to go just to ride a ride, but maybe go to support our community by coming together simply to indulge in tasty treats and stop by the booths put on by local organizations. 

Growing up, my family’s routine was to avoid the fair all week until the very end due to the costs. We would buy tickets for the rodeo and we would gain free entry into the fair once the rodeo was over. If we were really lucky, I could convince a friend to take us during the week.

As for costs, the fair offers multiple chances for cheaper alternatives, such as a weekly pass and family fun day. All details on prices and dates can be found right here.

 

Open Your Ears: Poet Joy Ladin visits Tamut

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** IN CASE OF INCLEMENT WEATHER, REFER TO THE A&M TEXARKANA WEBSITE OR CONTACT CORRINE HINTON AT CHINTON@TAMUT.EDU ** Image result for joy ladin

A&M-Texarkana will be hosing a worship for poets, aspiring authors, and lovers of literature! Both the workshop and reading will take place on Thursday, May 9th. The workshop will be at 5:30-7 p.m. in University Center room 230, followed by a reading from 7:30-9 p.m. in UC 217.

Joy Ladin is an American poet and the David and Ruth Gottesman Chair in English at Stern College for Women at Yeshiva University. She is the first openly transgender professor at an Orthodox Jewish institution. Joy Ladin is an American poet and the David and Ruth Gottesman Chair in English at Stern College for Women at Yeshiva University. She is the first openly transgender professor at an Orthodox Jewish institution.

In 2013, Ladin published a series of poems formed entirely from words and phrases found in popular women’s magazines. These poems, such as “Ready To Know,” link both trans women and cis women’s experiences of gender to the “commodity capitalist engine of the production of femininity.” This work emerged when Ladin gave herself a “writing assignment” to creatively engage with the “how-to” rhetoric of mainstream femininity.

“I am a teacher, widely published essayist and poet, literary scholar, and nationally known speaker on transgender issues” Ladin says. Ladin has given invited talks and readings at many universities and colleges such as Harvard and Smith College. After this Thursday, A&M University of Texarkana can be added to the list.

Twenty Two and Stuck in Texarkana

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For twenty two years I have daily heard the phrase, “There is nothing to do in Texarkana.” This statement could not be further from the truth. Let me tell you why.

I have recently made it my mission to find something to do in Texarkana, and what I have found is golden. Last week my brother and I decided to take a stroll through downtown Texarkana. We saw three new murals done by Texarkana residents, walked through an art gallery, and had the opportunity to tour the Landmark building with the owner himself, another Texarkana native. I realized in this moment the only reason people believe there is nothing to do in Texarkana is because they do not do anything.

Within just this past week I was involved in a dodgeball tournament that raised donations for local charities, I have taken a hike through Bringle Lake, I have played shuffleboard at Hopkins, and I plan on attending the wine festival for a second time this Saturday. This just happens to be one week of Texarkana events, but imagine there is a whole year of events going on. With groups like GoTXK, Greater Texarkana Young Professionals, and so many more, there is an endless amount of things to do in Texarkana. It only takes you going out and doing them.

I had the privilege of living on both sides of the line and I can truly say that Texarkana is actually twice as nice.

Photos by Libby Hernandez

 

A Dyslexia Visionary

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Section 504, the American Disabilities Act of 1973, has affected the method by which school districts serve students with disabilities.  Wendy Gandy, District Coordinator of the Section 504 and Dyslexia Program for general education at Granbury ISD in Hood County, Texas, has been credited with re-creating the dyslexia initiative for the district over two different programs.

“Section 504 is like an umbrella which basically includes any condition which impacts a major life activity of a person.  This includes dyslexia, learning disabilities, asthma, celiac disease, cystic fibrosis, high-functioning autism, as well as hearing and vision impairment, for example,” said Gandy.  She further explained these students are “typically classified as general education.  The more severe, such as lower-functioning autism and more mentally challenged students are categorized as special education.  One of the most difficult parts of the job is scheduling services on the campuses.  Every campus schedule is different, so trying to find a time for students to miss other instruction can be challenging. Every aspect of learning is important, and the school day is already packed.”

Gandy applied her master’s degree in education and her previous experience as a diagnostician to work the puzzle of creating a successful, user-friendly program. “When I arrived here five years ago, the section 504 program was already in place, we just tweaked it, but we completely revamped the dyslexia program.  We implemented the changes in my first year and have continued to expand. In the first year, the specific research-based dyslexia program was chosen, 8 certified teachers were hired and received extensive training and approximately 100 students received dyslexia specific services. It has now grown to 15 teachers and approximately 300 students.” she said.

Gandy oversees the quality assurance of the program, ensuring it runs smoothly, maintains its integrity while ensuring Section 504 laws are upheld, as well as supervising, supporting and training the teachers.  In addition, she evaluates and performs diagnostics for students with dyslexia. Asked about her job satisfaction on a scale of one to ten, Gandy said, “Most days, I would give it a nine.”

Mrs. Gandy says she loves the problem-solving aspect of her job and enjoys going to different campuses to train teachers and students.  She said most of her fulfillment comes from observing students overcome limitations as she watches her program continue to blossom.

TAMUT’s Annual Mud Volleyball Tournament

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Campus Rec hosts a variety of intramural sports a year; dodgeball, ultimate frisbee, basketball, and more. While the diverse selection of sports keeps students engaged year-round there is one event that only occurs once a school year: mud volleyball. At the beginning of May, right before finals hit students, Campus Rec hosts two loss elimination mud volleyball tournaments with female, male, and coed leagues. Everyone is fighting for the championship– a championship t-shirt to be specific.

Intramural referees smile during the gloomy first match

At 9 a.m. on Saturday, May 4th, you could find two women’s volleyball teams, three intramural refs, and a cooler of water and snacks camped out behind the Judy Kelly Morgan Soccer field. All year an old tattered volleyball net held up by cemented tires waits for The Pit to be cleaned out and watered. The weekend before a handful of Campus Rec employees spent their Saturday ridding The Pit of rocks, garden snakes, and tall weeds before allowing a hose to fill the trench with muddy water.

From 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. teams were splashing around in The Pit battling for a t-shirt. The day began gloomy with dark clouds and a constant mist, but the women’s bracket played on. By noon the men’s bracket had warmer weather as students began to gather around to watch the tournament and cheer on friends. By the time coed play began everyone was taking turns applying sunscreen and jumping into the cool brown water for relief from the sun. Referee Madison Walters commented, “I wish we could play mud volleyball more often, but it’s such a hassle to get The Pit ready…” She continued to reapply sunscreen regularly explaining that last year she got a sunburn at the tournament so bad it hurt to wear t-shirts for days.

The Pit was constantly filled with laughter as teams splashed about in front of a small audience of supportive friends. Three teams went home with a championship t-shirt, but everyone left with muddy feet. We’ll see you next spring, The Pit.

JMBLYA 2019

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The JMBLYA is back for 2019 and ready to invade the city of Dallas (May 3rd) and Austin, Texas (May 4th).

Photo Courtesy JMBLYA 2018.

JMBLYA is a recurring outdoor music festival featuring artist from all over the world.
This year’s lineup includes Travis Scott, Lil Wayne, Kevin Gates, Gunna, Sheck Wes, Youngboy Never Broke Again, Bhad bhabie, Blueface, City girls, Maxo Kream, P-Lo, WhooKilledKenny, and 10K.Caash

JMBLYA is a rain or shine event and will open festival gates open at 12PM on Friday, May 3rd (Dallas) and Saturday, May 4th (Austin).
Children 3 1/2 feet tall and shorter are admitted FREE if accompanied by a ticket-holding adult. There will be no children under the age of 14 allowed in without the supervision of an adult.

General admission ticket pricing begins at $109.00, along with four different selections (Pinky Ring, Gator Boots, Fur Coat, Drop Top) of VIP packets to choose from. JMBLYA has a strict no-pet policy, with exceptions only for service animals as specified by federal and state law.

Photo Courtesy JMBLYA 2018.

JMBLYA will offer multiple free water refilling stations. You are encouraged to bring reusable water bottles, however, just be sure to have them empty upon entry. There will also be water and other non-alcoholic beverages available for purchase at the bar.

To ensure the safety of our JMBLYA family, all vehicles, persons and property are always subject to search, failure to consent to a search will result in denial of entry or ejection from the event.

Parking will be available at both festival sites. Stay tuned for more details.

Ticketing questions can be directed to support.frontgatetickets.com
For more on ticket information click here.

For rules of JMBLYA click here.

TAMUT Took on Dodgeball

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Texas A&M University Texarkana has over forty organizations on campus to keep students engaged and active in the community. Intramural sports is an extremely active organization, hosted by Campus Recreation, which holds weekly sports, games, and activities. For a few weeks this semester, the campus was covered in advertisements encouraging students to sign up for an intramural dodgeball team. Games were held from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. in the Patterson Student Center with a variety of teams formed by students, faculty, athletes, Greek life, and other clubs.

The dodgeball games came to a close in mid February, the last night consisting of a championship tournament with ten games, back to back. Each game required two referees to monitor the ten people on the court and two ball retreivors. The gymnasium, where the games took place, was lively with laughter, music, competitive banter, and a few screams as balls were thrown across the court at opponents.

Time keeper Madison Walters commented on the games, “it’s pretty funny, boys take this so seriously while most of the girls have no idea what’s happening.” She continued to laugh about other intramural events, “you should have seen intramural basketball…that was so bad!” Walters went on to say they were surprised by the number of participants for this sport. Usually they struggle to fill out teams, but dodgeball had about ten games a night.

The center referee, Ellie Kemins, was getting visibly upset by some of the participants. This was the first year TAMUT hosted a dodgeball league in the new gymnasium and there were a few hiccups throughout the night. Kemins commented, “it’s just a game! We need to adjust a few of the rules so this goes smoother next year…a holding limit, no talking to the officials…” Intramural officials looked tired as they chased balls for the players and kept everyone accountable on the court.

While the event lasted for three hours the pace never slowed down. One game started as soon as the previous finished with students lining up for their turn to play. The dodgeball league was a success from all the looks of tired smiling faces as they enjoyed their time with friends. There is a first for everything, and although some hiccups occurred, it was a lively event.