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.

Houston, Texas – home to over 6.9 million people, the largest city in Texas, and the debut place of a new way of gaming.  Esports is a new genre of gaming that allows sports teams to get together and have tournaments. This new gaming platform would spike interest in a young man’s heart to bring esports to a metropolitan area 290 miles north of Houston in Texarkana. 

Long before esports, the world welcomed a young man named George Sawyer into the world born and raised in Houston, Texas. Now residing in Texarkana, Sawyer is attending Texas A&M University-Texarkana on a full academic scholarship and is in his senior year. He holds a position in most organizations here on campus and plans to use what he learns to help push his career forward. “I’m hoping to go into broadcasting sports, but the overall goal is to commentate for professional esports games,” said George. He didn’t have an interest in actual sports, but it grew over time. “ I didn’t like sports, until I started playing football in middle school and then my interest peaked,” and his love for actual sports pushed his interest into computer gaming.   

He has a passionate interest in making the esports team represent Texas A&M University-Texarkana in a positive and exciting way. “I would like to see the university give more recognition to esports because most colleges refuse to offer it,” says Sawyer. As of right now, the university doesn’t know that the esports team is nationally ranked. 

The school funded a dance team for $50,000 and denied the esports team half of that investment to build a gaming lab for upcoming gamers. “The fourth floor seems to care more about what looks good than what people care about,” said one student. With that money, the team could have built a better gaming lab, which would have provided more opportunities for players to learn and give everyone their own space to develop. As quoted by another source, “the school gives our Student Life Center thousands of dollars each year to show off “The Best Week Ever”, but every year the number of students participating decreases.”

George said, “I spoke with a representative to assist me with organizing a town hall meeting to gain recognition for the e-sports team’s accomplishments”. It’s not usual to see a twenty-two-year-old man spend the majority of his time protesting for change at his soon-to-be alma mater. “I just want them to recognize us [esports players] as students too. We don’t dance or participate in harmful acts. We just play video games and stay out of trouble.” By playing video games, you can learn valuable skills such as exceptional hand-eye coordination, being aware of your surroundings, and how to work as a group. 

So why would a school deny students access to those types of survival skills? Hopefully, the community will be given more insight into these issues when Mr. Sawyer holds the informative town hall meeting at the end of the month. “I’m hoping the meeting will take place at the end of September, but the beginning of October at the latest. I want to force the fourth floor [the administrative offices of President Cutrer] to finally acknowledge us as a positive and growing organization.” 

From big city lights, a European tour, and finding love, University of Texas A&M-Texarkana  (TAMUT) student Maddie Carruthers has experienced plenty in life. Born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, Carruthers enjoyed the advantages of living in a big city. She stated in comparison to the nightlife of Texarkana, “There are more open later like restaurants and theaters. There is more to do. There are more bars, clubs, and family entertainment.”

 In 2016, she had the opportunity for a two-week European tour that others can only dream of. Her church provided the trip and they were able to make stops in Poland, Italy, and drove through the sights of Germany. The beautiful architecture and breathtaking beauty of Italian lilies made Italy her favorite stop. Carruthers stated, “Italy was pretty, and I had a lot of pasta.” Enjoying the cuisine and sightseeing is a memory that will last her a lifetime.

Next, her priority was graduating high school and selecting a college. Like most teenagers, Carruthers wanted to leave home for a change of pace. Texas A&M University -Texarkana was the solution for her. She stated in comparison to other schools in the DFW area “It’s far away and affordable.” She made the transition from Fort Worth to Texarkana to start her freshman year in 2018. Reflecting on the campus pre-pandemic she stated, “There was a lot of hustle and bustle and a big community feel.”  COVID-19 hit in the spring of 2020. College campuses across the U.S. were required to do remote learning. She had a difficult time with this stating, “I did not like it. I couldn’t sit at the computer 3-4 hours a day and watch videos.” Happy to be back on campus and learn in a classroom she stated, “They know not everyone can handle online learning and they’re doing their best to adjust back to classes and keep everyone safe.”

While attending college in Texarkana, she was also able to meet her fiancé in the city. The two met in August of 2019 and started dating.  A camping trip in March of 2021 became a lasting memory for the couple as she accepted the proposal. Their ideal wedding is in the winter of 2022.  Unfortunately, the pandemic is still prevalent. The couple is taking their time since it is hard to plan. For now, they are enjoying this process and their time together. Moving to Texarkana has given Carruthers experience, education, and a piece of her future family. Upon finishing her degree, she stated, “ We talked about moving back to Fort Worth because I have all my family there.”  As she is thankful for her time here, nothing can replace the feeling of home.