Everything Nac

Stephen F. Austin State University’s SFA Gardens will host the monthly Les and Theresa Reeves Lecture Series at 7 p.m. June 9 in the Brundrett Conservation Education Building at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center, located at 2900 Raguet St.

Dr. Allen Owings, longtime educator and professor emeritus of horticulture at the Louisiana State University AgCenter, will present “Super Flowers, Super Shrubs and Super Trees for a Super Landscape.”

Born and raised in Hammond, Louisiana, Allen received his bachelor’s degree from Southeastern Louisiana University, a master’s degree from Louisiana State University, and a doctoral degree in horticulture from Mississippi State University in 1991. Owings retired in 2017 after 26 years of educational service, which included serving as coordinator for the LSU AgCenter Louisiana Super Plant program.

Owings has provided statewide extension service programming for nursery growers, landscapers, garden centers, and to master and home gardeners. Currently, Owings is employed as a senior horticulturist at Bracy’s Nursery in Amite, Louisiana, and horticulturist at Clegg’s Nursery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. There, Owings works in education, outreach, social media and new plant production, and connects with nursery professionals and landscapers across the country.

The Les and Theresa Reeves Lecture Series is held the second Thursday of each month. It is preceded by an attendee social at 6:30 p.m., and a rare plant raffle will follow the program. The lecture is free and open to the public, but donations to the Les and Theresa Reeves Lecture Series fund are always appreciated.

Parking is available at the PNPC and Raguet Elementary School, located at 2428 Raguet St.

For more information, call (936) 468-4129 or email sfagardens@sfasu.edu.

SFA music alumna and soprano Amanda Sheriff was awarded first prize in the 24th Lotte Lenya Competition in New York City. Sheriff earned a Bachelor of Music in Music Education in 2016 and Master of Music in Vocal Performance in 2018 from Stephen F. Austin State University School of Music.

The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music announced the competition winners. The final round took place at Merkin Hall on May 6, the first time the competition has been presented publicly before a New York City audience.

As first-prize winner, Sheriff was awarded $20,000. Reflecting on her first-place performance, the judges stated that “she did it all,” citing her “sensual, funny and heartbreaking” realization of a program that showed her willingness to embrace “risky repertory and acting choices.” The 2022 competition drew 259 applicants from 39 U.S. states and 21 countries.

Later this year, Sheriff will perform concerted works with Penn Square Music Festival, Clifford Brown Jazz Festival and Wilmington Concert Opera.

In 2021, Sheriff made her debut at Opera Delaware as Norina in “Don Pasquale” and Monica in “The Medium” with Baltimore Concert Opera. She was also an aprentice artist at Des Moines Metro Opera where she performed Miss Lightfoot in “Fellow Travelers” and covered Clarine and L’amour in “Platée.” She was a studio artist at Florida Grand Opera and performed the roles Beatrice in “Three Decembers,” 1st Trio member in “Trouble in Tahiti,” and Célie in “Signor Deluso’ and Babs in “New York Stories.”

During 2020, Sheriff sang Pamina in “Die Zauberflöte” and Little Red in “Little Red’s Most Unusual Day” with Opera Iowa and participated in DMMO’s virtual season due to COVID. In 2019, she was an emerging artist at the Seagle Festival and sang Susanna in “Le Nozze di Figaro.”

At SFA, Sheriff sang Lauretta in “Gianni Schicchi,” Rosabella in “The Most Happy Fella,” Marenka in “The Bartered Bride,” Anne in “The Merry Wives of Windsor” and Pamina in “The Magic Flute.” She was named Recitalist of the Year in 2016 and 2018 and Alumnus of the Year in 2019. She studied with soprano and vocal coach Debbie Berry while attending SFA.

For more information about Sheriff, visit amandasheriff-soprano.com.

In 1998, to honor the centenary of the birth of Lotte Lenya (1898-1981), singer/actress and one of the foremost interpreters of the music of her husband, Kurt Weill (1900-1950), the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music established an annual Lotte Lenya Competition. The competition recognizes talented singer/actors of all nationalities, ages 19 to 32, who are “dramatically and musically convincing in repertoire” ranging from contemporary Broadway scores to opera/operetta, including the works of Weill. More information about the Lotte Lenya Competition is available at kwf.org/2022Finals.

Stephen F. Austin State University’s James I. Perkins College of Education has partnered with the Nacogdoches Independent School District to staff up to eight paid internships during the 2022-23 academic year.

The program, which launches this fall, will let students use clinical teaching assignments to gain valuable classroom experience before entering the education workforce.

Implementation of the new program is meant to ensure that the educational field is keeping pace with others, said Gabriel Trujillo, NISD superintendent.

“Paid internships are common in other fields, and this is one more way we can make public education more competitive with other professional endeavors,” he added. “We already have an extensive and successful relationship with SFA, so it only makes sense to work closely with the college.”

The paid internship program at NISD is similar to those recently established with Huntington Independent School District and Lufkin Independent School District.

Eight SFA students will be selected by NISD principals and will be paid as paraprofessionals, prorated over a 90-day period. The first group beginning work this fall will start in early August, when new teachers report to the district for professional development.

The first day of classes for NISD students is Aug. 22. Student teachers hired for the clinical teaching positions will remain with the district through Dec. 16 when NISD enters Christmas break.

Competition for the eight paid slots, which could turn into full-time positions after students graduate, is expected to be fierce as NISD typically has 20 to 25 clinical teachers on its campuses each semester.