Step UP! to being a Leader

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College could be a tough time for new students as they make a transition from high-school. At Texas A&M University-Texarkana it is our duty as students and faculty to make sure everyone is in a safe environment. In order to fulfill that goal, the Step-UP! Program was enacted. 

“Step UP! is a prosocial behavior and bystander intervention program that educates students to be proactive in helping others. It received a NASPA Gold award and recently was identified as a ‘Best Practice’ by the NCAA Sports Science Institute of national and international scholars,” according to the organization’s Website. The goals of Step UP! are to raise awareness of helping behaviors, increase students’ motivation to help, developing their skills and confidence when responding to problems or concerns, and to ensure the safety and well-being of self and others.

The Step-UP coordinator will work with the counseling services team to raise awareness on important topics such as sexual assault, drug and alcohol awareness, leadership, goal setting, mental health, and motivation. The counseling services staff at Texas A&M University-Texarkana include: Mr. Corey Robinson, Mrs. Brianna Taylor, and Mrs. Courtney Thomas. The Counseling Services team will be hosting various events and tables at the University to give students the resources they need so that they are educated and prepared if they need to STEP UP in any situation. “It allows our students to be educated and well equipped to manage anything that comes their way. We just want the absolute BEST for our students,” counselor Corey Robinson said.  

Most problematic behaviors on college campuses involve bystanders. The Step UP! program provides a framework explaining the bystander effect, reviews relevant research and teaches skills for intervening successfully using the 5 Decision Making Steps, and the S.E.E. Model (Safe; Early; Effective). Students are encountering multiple situations where bystander intervention would be appropriate including, among other things, alcohol abuse, hazing, eating disorders, sexual assault and discrimination.

In reality, most unfortunate results are preventable. It is our utmost passion to help students learn strategies and techniques to intervene directly or indirectly in both emergency and non-emergency situations. At Texas A&M University-Texarkana, the counseling staff just want the best for their students and they will do whatever it takes to keep them safe.

Check out the video below to get a glimpse of Step UP! in your community:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=DfeYatFeFSM&feature=emb_logo

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.

College Admissions Bribery Scandal

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The recent college admissions bribery scandal continues in the news with the beginning phase of sentencing for the people who have plead guilty. The scandal, given the name Operation Varsity Blues, is the largest college admissions scheme ever prosecuted. In the center of the scandal is William Singer, a businessman who allegedly collected $25 million in bribes from wealthy parents who were trying to get their children into some of the top colleges in the country.

The indictment claims that Singer’s company called the Key was a front to allow briberies of college sports coaches and cheating on standardized tests. Parents would pay non-taxed donations to Singer’s non-profit organization which promoted itself as a college preparation and counseling program. Prosecutors say the scam ran from 2011 to 2019. Larry Davis, Professor of Economics at Texas A&M University-Texarkana said, “Some wealthy people think they can buy their way into things that other people cannot. If you have money to buy things, that is fine, but if you use money for illegal payoffs, that is wrong.”

Fifty people have been charged in this scheme including thirty-three parents, Mr. Singer, and coaches and professionals from multiple universities. Universities including USC, Yale University, Georgetown University, Stanford University, UCLA, University of Texas, and Wake Forest University. No institution has been charged in the case. Mr. Davis stated that, “Texas A&M University-Texarkana has criteria that students must meet to be admitted. High school students must have a certain GPA and if they do not, they can appeal it and then they might have some guidance on remedial courses they can take to be admitted.”  Twenty people have pleaded guilty in this case.

The three most well-known parents indicted in the scandal are Felicity Huffman, Lori Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer; Mossimo Guinnalli. Huffman plead guilty to charges that she paid $15,000 for someone to correct her daughter’s SAT answers. The maximum sentence for her act is 20 years but prosecutors have recommended only four months in prison. She is scheduled to be sentenced on September 13, 2019. Loughlin and her husband, on the other hand, have pleaded not guilty to paying $500,000 in bribes to get their two daughters admitted to University of Southern California as crew recruits. All the university coaches involved are either on leave or fired from their universities.  It is believed that many of the students involved were not aware of the illegal activities taking place to get them admitted. As of now, no students involved have been charged in the scandal.

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.

Coach Dobbs Talks Basketball

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The student body at Texas A&M University – Texarkana have had an exciting 2019 as the Patterson Student Center opened with a beautiful basketball court, a gym filled with new equipment, a game room, fitness room, trainer’s office, and classrooms. Perhaps the most exciting aspect of this new building is the opportunity is has brought to student athletics. TAMUT has welcomed men’s and women’s basketball teams to the sports offered at the university. Women’s Basketball Coach Kevin Dobbs was excited to share how he feels about his inaugural team starting.

Coach Dobbs has 12 seasons of college head coaching experience and was previously  head coach at University of the Southwest, another team in the Red River Athletic Conference (RRAC), for three seasons. Coach Dobbs is confident heading into our inaugural women’s season due to his knowledge of the RRAC and its playing style, talent, venues, traditions, and what is needed to compete.

Coach Dobbs predicts there will be about 20 women on the roster, recruiting primarily  throughout Texas with some from Arkansas and Oklahoma. However, he is not limited to these states, “If a young lady can make three pointers in bunches, I will go to Antarctica to sign her,” Dobbs said.

As our campus gets excited for what’s to come in the Athletic department, Coach Dobbs agrees he is most eager to train and develop these young women as athletes who represent the school proudly. Get ready to cheer on our new basketball team this semester, because from the sound of it, they’re going to be ready to compete.

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

 

Walking in Non-Traditional Shoes

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The educational lifestyle of this post-traditional student has been unexpected, to say the least.

I remember telling my 15-year old son at the time, I was going back to college. His response was, “Mom, no offense, but I think you are too old for college.” I tried to explain to him older people go back to school all the time to complete an education.

After all, I had quit as a Sophomore and then went back at 24 to take two more semesters. This was not a huge or noticeable age difference at the time.

My son was right, going back to school at 49 was quite a different challenge. Back in the day, I was used to turning in a hand-written paper, literally, in paper form. Not so anymore.  I had to teach myself the basics of Word, and stayed up many nights crying in frustration because I could not get Word to understand the formatting of APA.

In my first FTF (face-to-face) class, I noticed there was another lady there close to my age, we sat together and talked about class, and about our children, which made it less anxious for me. She ended up taking 15 hours that semester and graduated.

In my next FTF class, I was the oldest.  When we were standing in line to get a research topic from the professor, about three young gentlemen students said to me, “Go ahead, ma’am.”

Ma’am?  That was confirmation, despite their efforts to be kind. I recall a couple of events I attended where I pulled out my student ID and was told to “Go ahead….oh, you’re a student?” I also remember a class where the professor was trying to show us a YouTube video and an ad for soap popped up of a 30-something woman in the shower. The young professor said, “Oh I’m sorry, I’m sure the last thing you wanted to see was an old lady taking a shower!”

In my Public Speaking class, I had chosen to write a press release about the UT sniper in 1966. From the distant looks and the yawning, I realized I needed to consider my younger audience. So, my next speech was about “college hazing”, in which the audience seemed quite interested. So, in presentations, I’ve learned to “young-down”.

I recently asked a professor in class why book titles are no longer underlined. He replied, “Awhile back, typewriters had to use underlines because they were unable to italicize.” Embarrassed, I realized I had just publicly dated myself back to the era of typewriters.

I am very excited, though, because my son will be graduating from high school this same year I graduate from college. I am quite sure he will be relieved I will be done when he starts college this fall!

If there happens to be a “traditional” student reading this, my best advice is not to quit college, finish while you are still young.