Category Archives: Education

You Can Learn Another Language

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The United States has always been considered a melting pot of cultures, customs, and ideas. One large part of a culture’s identity is language. While English is the language primarily used in the U.S., it is not classified as the official language. When visiting larger cities, it is not uncommon to see businesses with their names written in a foreign language. Even in Texarkana, it is likely that you will hear people speak a foreign language during a trip to the grocery store or on a Saturday at the mall. Perhaps you have been curious about what they were talking about or what language they were speaking.

There are many benefits to being multilingual in the United States. Being multilingual provides opportunities in education and business. Many businesses and companies are looking for people who are multilingual to handle their overseas accounts or communicate with members of their target demographic. Among the largest occupational fields in the United States are retail, food preparation, and registered nurses. Workers in these fields are very likely to encounter people who are not comfortable speaking English and would be relieved to find someone they can really communicate with. In a survey of 581 alumni of The American Graduate School of International Management in Glendale, Arizona, most respondents said they had gained a competitive advantage from their knowledge of foreign languages and other cultures. They said that not only was language study often a critical factor in hiring decisions and in enhancing their career paths, it also provided personal fulfillment, mental discipline, and cultural enlightenment.

Learning a foreign language does not have to be as difficult as some may think. There are many resources available now online and in print that make learning easier. Apps are available like Babbel and Duolingo that prepare lessons for beginners and more advanced learners that make learning simple and less expensive than taking a formal class. Learning can also be made easy by simply watching movies in foreign languages. It is proven that adults learn language more naturally when they replicate the process of first language acquisition. As babies, we learn language by mimicking our parents and others around us. They can inflect the meaning of words by changing their tone of voice or exaggerating the emotion it represents. We don’t begin expanding our vocabulary and learning grammar rules until elementary school after we have basic knowledge of the language. In the school setting, language is taught with vocabulary and grammar first. This process makes learning more difficult for adults who are already used to speaking one language.

Second language acquisition is more natural when you familiarize yourself with the sounds and pick up words and phrases from hearing the language more often. Being multilingual can open you up for opportunities in a variety of career paths and give you an edge when you apply for jobs. The process of learning other languages does not have to be difficult, time-consuming, or expensive and you can set your own pace based on your other responsibilities.

Stressed

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Stress is a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or demanding circumstances. Basically, we have all been under stress at one point or another. Do you know what happens to your body when it is stressed? “Stress tends to be a physical response, so when stressed, the body thinks it’s under attack and switches to fight or flight mode. In doing so, it releases a complex group of chemicals and hormones such as adrenaline, cortisol, and norepinephrine to prepare the body for action.”[1] Stress causes physical actions with “blood being diverted to muscles, and pausing unnecessary bodily function such as digestion.”¹ Essentially, stress messes with your tummy which explains why some people get so stressed they can’t eat, they overeat, or overall feel sick to their stomach.

However, not all stress is bad, occasionally when you are faced with a situation where you need to fight or run stress comes in handy as it decreases blood in the brain to put it into your muscles. This allows one to think quickly without over thinking and if one needs to run that is a split-second decision. By chance, if, one needs to fight that is also a split-second decision.  Stress in these situations is how we survive. Stress also allows us to meet deadlines and teaches us to perform under pressure. Stress in itself is a motivator in these cases.

What happens “when our body goes into stress in inappropriate situations?”¹ With blood flow going away from the brain at this point it leads to being unable to think straight. Which, as some of you know it only causes ones stress to become worse. By staying in a state of stress for extended periods of times it ends up being bad for our health by increasing blood pressure and sugar levels. By staying constantly stressed it can lead to depression, anxiety, sleep problems, getting sick easily, skin conditions, weight problems, and even problems with memory.

Some signs and symptoms of stress overload can cause many wide-ranging symptoms like; being more pessimistic than usual, moodiness, irritability, feeling overwhelmed, loneliness. Some physical symptoms are headaches, getting sick frequently, aches-and-pains, nausea, and upset stomach. Stress can even cause one’s behavior to change, where you are unable to relax, nervous habits like biting your nails and pacing become worse. You smoke and or drink more than normal. You end up eating too much or not enough and the same goes for one’s sleep. You either sleep too much or not enough.

Okay, so you are stressed. Now what can you do to relieve some stress? You can become more active. By being active, it helps drop one’s stress level.  Talk it out, don’t be afraid to talk to someone. By communicating with another person, it releases a hormone that relieves stress.  Engage your senses, listen to music, watch TV, take up a hobby like painting, anything that keeps the senses busy is a fast way to reduce one’s stress. Try getting a better night’s sleep because that can do wonders to one’s stress. But ultimately know your body and know how it works. Try to become aware of when it is stressed and then learn how to relax. You know your body better than anyone else, so it’s up to you to take care of it and learn how you handle stress.

[1] What is Stress? (2017, January 04). Retrieved September 06, 2017, from

What is Stress?

STEM: A Blossoming Section of the University

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Garrett Griffin

The STEM section of Texas A&M Texarkana is housed in the building on the left.

The STEM section of Texas A&M Texarkana resides in the building on the left.

The largest growing sector in industry and jobs continues to be in the areas of science and engineering. As a result of foresight and good planning, the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics -STEM- College has been an integral part of Texas A&M University at Texarkana since .

Developing connections with external organizations and industries, the university has developed partnerships that could result in grants and research opportunities at the university in the future.

One of the newest additions to the university has been Dr. Donald Peterson, the Dean of the STEM College at Texas A&M University at Texarkana. Since Dr. Peterson has had many different experiences and connections with industries developed over his many years as a distinguished professor and researcher, Dr. Peterson has become a great asset to the university. Such connections have spawned partnerships such as the university’s relationship with NASA.

Dr. Donald Peterson - The Dean of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics College at Texas A&M University - Texarkana.

Dr. Donald Peterson – The Dean of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics College at Texas A&M University – Texarkana. Image Courtesy of Texas A&M University – Texarkana

Dr. Peterson’s connections with NASA include his work on the Mach 5 spacesuit that was in development for future missions to Mars. His work made use of his background in biomedical engineering to develop better mobility in the arm joint-connections on the space suit, which until then had remained one of the most restricting aspects of a spacesuit.

Although the plans for a mission to Mars that required the research into the suit were dumped due to a reassignment of funding and cuts to government monies, the experience Dr. Peterson received have been valuable to the university and its interests in growing connections with external entities.

In addition to that, he also helped develop tools used in space by researching and engineering them with a focus on improving the ergonomics of the implements.

The University has started a partnership with NASA. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

The University has started a partnership with NASA. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

Dr. Peterson has had many years experience in the field of biomedical engineering, a field of engineering not too familiar to students attending college in the local area.  This is something that he hopes to change in the future. When asked about why he, Dr. Peterson, came to this university after many years of work in the Northeast, he had one thing to say: “Potential.”

The way Dr. Peterson sees it, the area of northeast Texas is prime for the development of medical research facilities and other biomedical and medical-related industries. This is due in part to its proximity to other hotspots of similar activity and a lack of other competing industries. It also helps that the potential exists for numerous interstates being developed in the area.

Looking to the future, and at the bigger picture, Dr. Peterson sees the potential for the university if it were to expand its areas of studies in the medical and biomedical fields. He expresses the hope for this expansion but has not set it as a goal because of the size of the prospect.

In his own experience, Dr. Peterson has seen the potential that a person who has knowledge in both engineering and medical science offers to the workplace since many industries put great importance on people with that  specific skill set. Dr. Peterson sees the future being in multi-disciplinary students who have superior abilities to innovate and solve problems across science, not just in one specific area. He said it himself, “it’s the wave of the future.”

Inside the STEM Innovations Lab at Texas A&M University - Texarkana. Image Courtesy of the Texarkana Gazette.

Inside the STEM Innovations Lab at Texas A&M University – Texarkana.
Image Courtesy of the Texarkana Gazette.

One way by which Dr. Peterson has aided in this evolutionary process of curricula is by adding the STEM Innovations Lab. This cross-disciplinary establishment fosters innovation. The lab is open to anyone, from people who want to enrich their studies and college experience to those who just want to have fun building and creating things.

The lab recently acquired two plastic 3-D printers through a grant that are able to print parts on demand from online databases or from files designed and engineered by students or professors.

There are also prototyping facilities for electrical engineers including bread-boards and computer-based sensing technologies. The computer interfaces for the electrical prototyping also leads into opportunities for computer science majors and their code-writing skills.

Another section of the lab is devoted to biomedical engineering research into the ergonomics of surgical instrumentation and tools. By utilizing a Microsoft Xbox Kinect, along with special software, the shape of a surgeon’s hands can be converted into a three-dimensional file which is analyzed to produce adapters for tools to provide a better fit for their hand.

The many aspects of the STEM College and its contributions the university are an under-appreciated section of the university. By increasing the program’s visibility, Dr. Peterson hopes to make the University, and STEM sections in particular, more appealing to both the public and prospective students. By focusing on STEM, the university is making an investment in not just the University, but the area of greater Texarkana. What the future holds for the Texarkana area and its locations of higher learning, who knows?

CNNMoney Journalist Visits TAMU-T

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Jamie Williamson

Tami Luhby 

http://money.cnn.com/author/tami-luhby/

Income inequality can seem like a daunting and overwhelming topic, but it is something that is affecting America today. CNNMoney senior writer Tami Luhby traveled all the way from New York to Texarkana to give a talk about income inequality on Tuesday November 3, 2015.

Mrs. Luhby was kind enough to stop by my Advanced News Writing Class to talk with us about what it’s like to be a journalist. She talked to our class about what it takes to write for CNNMoney. She also gave us an understanding of how CNNMoney runs their website and how they track what stories are doing well. I gained a lot of insight about the dedication it takes to be a full-time journalist. I really enjoyed everything she had to say to our class and learned some valuable information that could come in handy in the future if I decide to pursue journalism as a career.

Next up for Mrs. Luhby was a lunch where anyone could come eat and talk with her and ask different questions. The lunch proved to be a success, with many professors getting the chance to talk with Mrs. Luhby. Students were encouraged to stop by and meet the guest speaker before the big lecture event held later that night.

The main event that Tami Luhby participated in was her lecture on income inequality. PLACE, the Program for Learning and Community Engagement, put on the event. PLACE is a program at Texas A&M University-Texarkana that helps promote learning in the community. This year’s theme is economic opportunity. Tami Luhby’s talk about income inequality fit nicely into this year’s theme. It gave the community a look at how income inequality is impacting America.

I found her speech on income inequality very eye-opening. I didn’t know that the United States was one of the leaders in income inequality between the top 1% and the other 99%. The information Mrs. Luhby presented provided an in-depth look at how income inequality is affecting the poverty line and the standard of living. I also found her lecture to be very interesting when she was talking about the housing market crash and how it led into the recession of 2005. This talk was very informative and conducted in such a way that was easy to understand and relate to.

Campus Safety

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Jamie Williamson

On a bright sunny day no one expects the day to turn into a devastating fight for survival, but that’s exactly what happened in yet another fatal campus shooting. In today’s society campus shootings are happening more and more. It has become such an issue many schools are beginning to train students on the best way to handle a shooting.

President Cutrer sent out an email on Friday October 2 detailing a new “campus carry” law going into effect August 1, 2016. The email goes into detail about how A&M-Texarkana and the A&M system will be developing a plan of action when the law is implemented. A&M-Texarkana is taking this new law very seriously and will keep updating students on its plan of action progress.

Students should be aware of the safety precautions A&M University-Texarkana already has in place in case of an emergency. People do not want to think that something this terrible could happen to them but it is always a possibility. Students should think about the best scenario to escape in a dangerous situation. It is best to keep calm and get as far away from the danger as possible.

Thinking about campus shootings is never pleasant. Students should not have to feel fear when learning. Sadly we do not live in a perfect world, and bad things do happen. Here is a link on campus safety for A&M University-Texarkana. https://www.tamut.edu/About/Administration/University-Police/Campus%20Safety%20Reports.html 

The Joy of Teaching

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Percy K. Davis

“One of the most rewarding aspects for teaching at Texas A&M Texarkana was the quality of the students,” Associate Professor of English at Texarkana College Pamela Hesser said.

Pamela Hesser taught at A&M for one semester helping out with the journalism program. Her main focus was to help the students be better writers and help them get the online newspaper off the ground.

Before teaching at A&M, Hesser taught journalism at three other schools, Whitehouse High School, Hooks High School, and Texarkana College. She also was an assistant editor at the Texarkana Gazette where she wrote a bundle of feature stories.

When teaching at the high schools and Texarkana College she dealt with a majority of younger students who weren’t for sure what they wanted to do in life and were not as focused on journalism as she was.

“Here at Texarkana College I was teaching freshman and sophomores, some of whom are still exploring what kind of career direction they want to take.”

When you are a freshman you are just what the name says, “fresh”, so you don’t really know what you want to do in life just yet. You just graduated from high school and are making decisions without your parents telling you what decisions to make. You are out of your parents’ home and have free will to do pretty much whatever you want. So you can easily see how a freshman or even a sophomore’s focus could easily be distracted from the classroom.

“Whereas at A&M teaching juniors and seniors, they have already had time to make a pretty firm decision on what they wanted to do. So they are focused and they know what they want to learn and they take advantage of the learning opportunities,” Hesser concluded with a smile.