Sam Cannon is from Paris, Texas and attended high school at Paris High. He moved to Texarkana, Texas after his dad took a job to be the head preacher at Walnut church of Christ. When his first school year in Texarkana began he enrolled at University of Arkansas Texarkana where he studied for two years. The next year he enrolled at Texas A&M Texarkana. His major is Business Administration with a concentration in management and he aspires to go into the field of Farm and Ranch Real Estate following his graduation in May of 2022. His long-term goal is to own his own business buying and selling farms and ranches in order to help people find the piece of land that is just right for their wants and needs for their families. Two interesting things about Sam are his love for deer hunting and sports. 

    Right after the interview started the conversation quickly came upon deer hunting. He explained how he grew up in a family full of hunters. Ever since then he’s fallen in love with the sport and looks forward to opening day of deer season each and every year. He mentioned that he has been hunting since he was three years old. He hopes to one day buy a large ranch in South Texas to raise his future family on. He also would love to eventually reach a point where he can become an outfitter and sell hunts to help people harvest the Whitetail Buck of their dreams. He mentioned that the person he looks up to most as a hunter is his grandfather. His grandfather has inspired him in many ways, whether it be as a hunter, as a Christian, or simply as a man. 

    Sam is also very passionate about sports. In high school he played baseball, basketball, and football.  He explained how his favorite teams were the Texas Rangers, the Dallas Cowboys, and the Oklahoma Sooners. He then began to go into deep detail about the players on his teams and how he expected their seasons to go. Sam often goes to games when he is not busy with school work on the weekends. He enjoys attending baseball games, but his favorite sport to watch in person is football.

    Sam’s ultimate goals tell me that he is a driven person that never gives up on a dream. I learned that he is a man of faith that pursues everything in life through the lens of a Christian. He is a God-fearing man that works hard to be a better person every day. I also learned that he is very passionate about four things in life: Faith, Family, Sports, and the Great Outdoors.

 “It is like a puzzle piece,” Deanna Harding says when describing her day job as Catalog and Curriculum Coordinator at Texas A&M University – Texarkana.  She and her team within the Registrar’s office take care of logistics of room placement, class size, and time of classes. At her second job as a franchise owner of Rhea Lana, Deanna hosts a semi-annual children’s consignment sale with around 35,000 items in October and April locally. Balancing both jobs requires a lot of work, but creates a great sense of satisfaction of helping others achieve their goals of a better life.

Scheduling Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer classes entails a lot of work considering there are over 26 classrooms at the Texarkana campus excluding labs, testing center, and nursing classrooms. Deanna must not only consider how many students enrolled in each class, but also what days and times each room is being used, degree plans, and what courses a student needs to complete to graduate. The classroom and curriculum schedule must be updated each semester and what is available for students to enroll in various classes. Deanna has worked in three different capacities at A&M since she was a high school student. The first time working was in high school in the Registrar’s office, where her mother was the Registrar. She remembers students lining up in the hallway at 5:30 in the morning. Each student held a handwritten note card to register and checking on a huge whiteboard to see if class was still open, closed, or cancelled. “Technology has come so far,” she said, describing how different registration compares to the present.

Deanna is passionate about solving puzzles to help make life better for others, which in a way led to her becoming a franchise owner of Texarkana Rhea Lana’s. Rhea Lana’s is a great way for families to sell gently used clothing items, toys, shoes, baby equipment, and the list continues. She went to her first Rhea Lana’s event in Fayetteville when her daughter was six months old. After that first sale, she was hooked, becoming a consistent consignor, and then was able to participate in Rhea Lana’s leadership team. In 2015, she was able to purchase the franchise, growing sale items from 14,000 to 35,000 items each sale.  Storing clothing racks, electronics, and various equipment takes quite a bit of storage room. “I never knew that I would own an eighteen-wheeler, it was a proud moment when I purchased the eighteen-wheeler!’ Deanna chuckled as she talked about how much storage is required for equipment during non-sale times.

Working a full-time job at Texas A&M University – Texarkana, owning and operating Rhea Lana’s, having family time can keep Deanna very busy and at times running tired. She says it is when customers at sale events tell her how much they are thankful for being able to buy nice clothes for picture day or a Halloween outfit that is not so expensive that makes it worth all the time and energy expended. “You hear those kinds of stories and that is when you’re like ok, this is worth it.’ Rhea Lana’s also encourages foster families to come on the last day and choose from donated clothes, toys, etc. for children that are in placement at no charge.” Deanna feels that helping students and helping families go hand in hand as she sees improving life choices that help so many people. A priority for Deanna is building relationships with students and faculty at college or seeing Rhea Lana’s impact on the community. Deanna is successfully accomplishing her goal of helping students and families by putting a lot of pieces of life together.

While the idea of a hometown is relatively straightforward for most, Danielle Hamblett has a more complex sense of it. Growing up, her family relocated several times and crossed continents. Thankfully, having a close relationship with her siblings and an encouraging stepmother provided some emotional continuity when geography got in the way. Her rolling stone gathers no moss childhood formed Mrs. Hamblett into the determined instructor and businesswoman she is today. 

Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, Danielle would not be a permanent resident. Her father worked for a company called AAFES, an organization that helps run facilities on military bases. The job required the family to move several times, including Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and even Japan!  Moving to a country unknown to them came with a culture shock.“ The Japanese were ahead of us in technology. This was new to me at the time, but they had a vending machine with ice cream. It was cutting edge. Here in the states, it was just soda machines and old school vending machines that gave Cheez-Its,” Hamblett says.  During her stay in Japan, she took up Karate with two of her brothers and ended up outlasting them.“ I remember my stepmom saying you know what? They couldn’t hack it, but you’re still in there and you’re a girl,” she says. All her life, her stepmother always encouraged her that she could do whatever boys could do. “ There was a lot of gender talk growing up. I didn’t think that was unique. I thought everybody was raised to think I can do whatever I want. I can do whatever boys could do.” This mindset propelled her to the accomplishments that she has achieved today. 

After leaving Japan, the family settled in Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana. Her family moved off again, but Danielle stayed in Louisiana to attend college at LSU-Shreveport. Upon meeting her husband, she transferred to the University of Texas A&M- Texarkana (TAMUT) to finish her bachelor’s. She majored in Mass Communications and finished her master’s degree in 2015.  She is currently an adjunct instructor at TAMUT teaching PR/Advertising.  Reflecting upon her reason for teaching she said, “ I like being a part of the university community. I like staying in the know about what’s happening and hopefully helping touch students’ lives.” 

 Not only is she a TAMUT instructor, but also a businesswoman. Danielle is Co-Founder of a Texarkana, Texas digital marketing agency, For All BrandKind. Her business partner is Co-Founder Traci Pitman. The business started slowly over 5-6 years with freelance work. In 2015, Danielle and Traci taught a class at Texarkana College about getting businesses to use social media to help promote their companies A student approached them asking for help to run their social media. It was the catalyst that launched their business forward. Currently, they have a storefront where they can accept clients and create branding while guiding them through the use of social media. Reflecting on what she is most proud of she said, “Just starting a business. I didn’t have a plan. I am proud of myself for stepping out there. It takes guts and I’m proud of that.” 

Kevin Ells is a seasoned professor here at Texas A&M University of Texarkana. He has worked in many distinct fields of Mass Communication over the last decade. Professor Ells is passionate about his craft but focuses more so on helping others. During the interview, Professor Ells discusses how he found himself on this career path, the many diverse jobs you can get in Mass Communication, and some positive reinforcements on why you should pursue a Mass Communication major. 

Kevin Ells is an immigrant from Canada who made his way over to the United Stated in the 90’s to pursue his relationship saying, “I fell in love with an American.” When he finished graduate school, he got a job at the Toronto School Board.  His girlfriend, on the other hand, graduated and received a job at a university. Shortly after, he married his college sweetheart. Ells had a business degree but was always interested in writing. 

He talked about working in a small business management in university before taking a teaching training course for teaching English as a second language. This has turned into his line of work. By the time he moved to the United States, he was an experienced teacher teaching many schools and colleges in the United States. Later he chose to go back to a university to get his PHD where he transferred to Texas A&M University of Texarkana. 

Ells believes Mass Communication offers a wide range of potential with regard to career choices for majors. “If you have the basic skill set then one can adapt to any number of fields such a PR, advertising, graphic designs, broadcasting, journalism and event management,” he says.   He assures the readers that the median income chances are good in Mass Communication. “Some jobs have low job security and low pay. Other jobs have high pay, or a blend of both where you have an excellent job with great pay that could be meaningful.” Professor Ells gave positive reinforcement saying, “PR, strategic communication, event management, and corporate communications can be quite lucrative. Broadcasting and graphic communication also fit under the Mass Communication umbrella which is more creative and meaningful.” His biggest tip is to get your feet wet in a range of skills like audio, video, writing, and graphic design so you can get a taste of everything and get as many skills sets as you can because there are so many different forms of communication you can join. His final tip he shares is to focus more on what you love doing and not money. 

Growing up with her mother and a non-existent father figure in her life, Ayla Baldwin made the big move to Texarkana with her husband seven years ago and has since welcomed two beautiful sons. Ayla Baldwin’s story is sure to entail the major changes that have shaped her into who she is today and what she hopes for in the future. She details the dynamics within her family back in her hometown as well as her own personal and professional life.

Having grown up in San Antonio, TX by her mother and stepfather, Ayla Baldwin always wanted to do something with her life. Although she was unsure of what it was, she knew she wanted her mother’s work ethic. Ayla’s mother was a radiation therapist, and her stepfather was an engineer.  “My mom influenced me by showing how important it is to work for what you have,” said Baldwin. She never considered her stepfather as a “father figure” in her life because “he never acted like a father,” as Baldwin stated. It’s not an uncommon phenomenon for women to grow up in a household with both parents, but feel as if they were raised by just one. Eventually, Ayla set out to do better for herself. That plan was set in motion when she met a great guy named John during her senior year of college and they made the decision to move to Texarkana to start their lives together. 

She attended school at the Texas A&M University-Commerce campus and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Agriculture and Business. Ayla had a passion to work with animals, “I wanted to go to vet school, but at the time I didn’t think it would be a good fit,” she said. Her passion for animals can be seen throughout her office, which is adorned with pictures of cows and chickens. When asked why cows and chickens were her favorite animals, she replied, “I don’t know, I woke up one morning and realized that I loved to be around cows and chickens all day.” She has no plans at the moment to go back and give vet school a chance, but never say never. 

Baldwin is employed by Texas A&M University-Texarkana as a benefits coordinator. “I deal with faculty, and staff advising them about what benefits we provide,” she said. Since August 2014, Ayla has worked as a benefits coordinator for TAMUT after moving to Texarkana with her soon-to-be husband, John, a state trooper and father of their two boys Joel and Robert. “John and I had third-pick when it came to him graduating from The Academy, and he chose Texarkana to be his work-station,” said Mrs. Baldwin.  Having settled down and married in 2014, the couple had two sons, Joel born in 2016, and Robert born in 2017. 

Not a lot of people think ahead to what they want their next five years to look like, and Miss Baldwin is one of those. When questioned about what she wants her future to look like in five years, she said “I’m hoping that I’ve been promoted. I love my job, but it gets lonely. I’m hoping I’m a better mom to my sons, and an even better wife. All in all, I’m just hoping for more happiness.” 

Brittany Stanley is a woman of many words and its smart to listen to what she says. She has the potential to be a very influential person on the Campus of Texas A&M Texarkana. She is not only full of words but also information. She currently is taking a break from school only because she gave birth and needed to tend to her newborn. She is working on her Masters in Instructional Technology to focus on the technology part of her degree. Brittany actually works for the college in enrollment services, and she was able to give a lot of insight information that helped me and I’m sure can help plenty of other students. She was very knowledgeable about the campus and all the school programs. I got the chance to sit and conversation with Brittany and she seemed really down to earth and was very open about any question I had asked. I asked her personal life and how school life is at Texas A&M. I even got some background information on her before she started at A&M.

Brittany let me know originally from DeKalb TX. She told me about her husband, which she met on a dating website which was very intriguing to me because most times you don’t find love on the internet. I got to learn how they met and got to know each other. It actually inspired me to look for love in other places also. There encounter went to well that it has resulted a marriage in a newborn child. She is also a first-time mother at 27 years old. I had so much fun asking her about her personal life because she was just so honest and actually quite a delight just to talk to that I almost forgot the reason for the interview, which was to ask about her about Texas A&M Texarkana.

She tells about her life living on campus during her time their trying to finish her bachelor. She was very active in school activities and has had her fingers all over many programs in the school. She was one of the original students before the campus even had all the building they got now. When she was at the school Texas A&M only had 3 buildings. Because of all of her experience with the campus she was able to give me miles of information for example how to get more involved with school activities to how to join a sorority or fraternity. We even complain about how expensive school has been over the years together. She was even able to tell about how the party life was like while she attended college and it didn’t sound too fun to be honest. After that she gets a chance to explain how much harder it is to get your masters compared to getting your bachelor. She goes on to even tell me about her experience with covid 19 and how it affected her campus life. She was able to give some good insights on getting a Masters degree and how difficult it was for her/ She told me the hard obstacles she had to go through to almost get done with her Masters

Brittany just seemed like a very honest and free spirit to me. I feel like we could have really talked about a lot more things if we ever got another chance to speak to each other. We were even able to get off subject from time to time and talk about our own views on the world. She was very talkative and was not scarfed to say what was on her mind. We talked about Texarkana and the bad state that its in with not having many good paying jobs. She believes that Arkansas side of the city needs more business to flourish but we know that Texas side will be bread winner for the town. She was really a delight to talk to and believe I met a person who can be a good mentor while finishing my degree hear. I would truly recommend that anyone looking for any type of info that has to do with the Texarkana campus that you go to Brittany because she is a very informal and kind person.

RaHeem Dixon is a student at Texas A&M University of Texarkana. Who is working towards a degree here at TAMUT with a passion for helping people and changing lives. He strongly believes a counselors position fits him best for his career path. Starting off strong in his second semester here, he says, “I am overcoming past experiences of procrastination and this change in my life will open the doors for better opportunities in the future and provide a stable job during COVID or any future hurdles.”

RaHeem has felt the hardships of COVID and has been affected in many ways while attending school here. Losing revenue and the unexpected halt on his small business has been the biggest hurdle he has faced so far. Showing resilience, he pressed forward and did not quit. He attributes his strong successful school year to the online classes, and grace from his professors. He is certain that TAMUT is the very best school to attend during these hard times. saying, “If it weren’t for the help of my teachers and online learning, I wouldn’t be as far as I am now.”

He spoke on the importance of wearing a mask on campus. “Protecting yourself and others is the right thing to do”, he says. He also talks about the issues of the vaccine as it should be your choice to get the shot or not. It’s your own personal health. He mentioned the early onsets of COVID and its effects. He also mentioned how stores had no tissue, limited water, and sometimes no meat. He hopes it never gets that bad again.

Katie Cole recently spoke at a conference and quickly pronounced herself as a hoodrat, which immediately put her audience at ease. Looks can certainly be deceiving when meeting Katie, this young lady with a solemn look. Katie goes to college online at Southern New Hampshire University, her degree will be in Graphic Design for Media Arts and Web Site Development.  She volunteers at her local church in the media department, enjoys hiking, playing dominoes on a daily basis, and listening to a variety of podcasts.

A  common thread of interest that kept surfacing as Katie expounded was her ever progressing path of learning, whether graphic design or ways to plan a counter attack in dominoes. Katie goes to college online taking one class, which runs eight weeks, per semester. She learns about different aspects of design, graphics and print. Her passion for media and design clearly shine through as she spoke about all the different aspects of her work and degree. “I knew if I got my degree, I would be able to help others in making their online presence more visible.” She endeavors to help churches on a lower budget to increase their media presence on different social media platforms. 

As Katie navigates through work and college, she tries to keep a balance by taking time to hike and  play dominoes with a focus on relaxation. If hiking alone, Katie had tips on ways to be safe but also on how to let others know your location. She uses a couple of hiking apps like Alltrails for location purposes since she once got lost on a hike and the hiking app assisted her in getting back to safety. Katie playing dominoes with family and friends sounds riskier than hiking alone.  Katie talked about playing dominoes against her dad who is a third generation domino player, so it definitely is an interesting family time game. Katie remembers all her life hearing dominoes slam down or friends just talking around the table. “As a kid watching them, it was almost like breaking bread with somebody,” Katie fondly described her childhood memories of growing up around domino games.

Katie’s face lights up in excitement when podcasts are mentioned in conversations. Katie thoroughly enjoys listening to podcasts with a particular interest in crime podcasts. Katie has a list of several podcasts that focus not only on true crimes but certain types of crimes. 

 Katie is quick to give her opinion on several cases such as the Jon Benet case since her intense interest in not just podcasts but how the criminal mind thinks. “My sister Kaycee  and I argue about this case all the time, we have debated about this case for hours.”   

Katie is looking forward to working in her field of interest but also is looking for ways to combine her interest in ways to help others. As she learns more of her trade, interests and grows in her personal knowledge, the future looks bright and successful for Katie Cole.