Everything Nac

The sharp thud of an axe hitting wood accompanied by the rhythmic whir of a crosscut saw often emanates from behind the Stephen F. Austin State University Forestry Building in the afternoon. More often than not, passersby also will hear the voice of Dr. Jeremy Stovall, associate professor of forestry and faculty advisor for the SFA timbersports team, the Sylvans, providing advice on how to improve technique with the occasional dose of good-natured ribbing thrown in.

Stovall has served as advisor of the Sylvans since 2012, and during that time, the team has won six of the past seven Southern Forestry Conclaves held each spring at universities across the southeastern U.S.

While the team’s wins often focus heavily on the physical events of the competition, the student’s performance in the academic portion of the Conclave best reflect Stovall’s priorities as a professor and mentor.

“He holds you to a really high standard in his roles as a teacher and faculty advisor, but he provides you with the tools to succeed,” said Chris Longman, president of the Sylvans and senior forest management student.

Stovall was recently awarded a Bright Spot award by the SFA Faculty Senate, the Center for Teaching and Learning and the SFA vice presidents in recognition for his work in creating an online, open-access textbook for use in his silviculture class.

“Our college has a three-pronged mission of education, research and outreach,” Stovall said. “By putting this information on a readily available website, it served to meet our teaching and outreach mission.”

Due to the increasing cost of higher education, Stovall said there is a push for more open resources across all disciplines.

He explained that larger disciplines like biology, physics and English currently offer more resources than smaller fields such as forestry, and this is a step in bridging that gap.

Not only is the textbook free, Stovall also provides students with the opportunity to contribute to the textbook.

“They don’t have to publish, but if they would like to, I help them edit and format the document for the website,” Stovall said. “They are then listed prominently as authors of that section.”

This is not the first instance Stovall has been recognized for his contributions to teaching. In 2018, he was one of seven faculty members recognized with an SFA Teaching Excellence Award. Stovall also maintains an open-access dendrology website full of tree identification resources for the region.

For more information about SFA’s Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture, visit sfasu.edu/forestry.

Story by Sarah Fuller, outreach coordinator for Stephen F. Austin State University’s Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture. Contact information: (936) 468-1185 or fullersa@sfasu.edu.

The Stephen F. Austin State University Early Childhood Lab, in partnership with the Greater East Texas Community Action Program’s Head Start, invites the community to participate in the Week of the Young Child, which will be observed Monday, April 8, through Friday, April 12, in Nacogdoches County.

As part of the national Week of the Young Child, Nacogdoches will honor young children and all those who make a difference in children’s lives.

“All young children need and deserve high-quality early learning experiences that will help prepare them for life, and Nacogdoches has a great opportunity to do our part to help young children,” said Lori Harkness, director of the SFA Early Childhood Lab. “Week of the Young Child is a time to recognize the importance of early learning for all young children and to bring the community together to help give all young children a great start.”

Weldon T. Beard, Head Start director of GETCAP, agrees community involvement in early childhood education is of the upmost importance.

“As a community, we share the responsibility to provide all children with a safe, nurturing, engaging, enjoyable and secure learning environment that will give them the necessary confidence to succeed in the present and to deal with later responsibilities in school and in life,” Beard said.

The annual Family Fun Day will be from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, April 6, at Festival Park in downtown Nacogdoches. This free event will include many fun-filled activities for children and families to do together. This year, the Family Fun Day is being supported by Suddenlink Communication, Nibco, Court Appointed Special Advocates, Texas Agri-Life (County Extension), SFA Early Childhood Organization, Pineywoods Pediatrics, Brandi Cartwright and Eversong, Emily Taravella and River the Support Dog, Susan Gonzalez with Dental Plans, Katherine Sage Temple Childcare in Diboll, Dentaquest, and East Texas Community Health Center.

During the week, all day cares, schools or other organizations working with children are encouraged to join and honor young children and their families. Each day will reflect a designated theme. The themes are:

Monday, April 8 – Music Monday; Sing, dance, celebrate and learn

Tuesday, April 9 – Tasty Tuesday; Healthy eating and fitness

Wednesday, April 10 – Work Together Wednesday

Thursday, April 11 – Artsy Thursday; Think, problem-solve and create

Friday, April 12 – Family Friday; Sharing family stories

The Parent Teacher Organization for the Early Childhood Lab also will host a fajita dinner fundraiser from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. April 11. The food will be provided by Sombrero’s and will include fajitas, tortillas, rice, beans and a cookie. Each plate will cost $10, and tickets will be available at the Early Childhood Lab and Family Fun Day.

The SFA Early Childhood Lab and the GETCAP Head Start Program are early childhood professionals working together to improve professional practice and working conditions in early childhood education.

For more information, contact the SFA Early Childhood Lab at (936) 468-4006.

By Kasi Dickerson, senior marketing communications specialist at Stephen F. Austin State University.

Stephen F. Austin State University’s Office of Multicultural Affairs will host the series “Something to Chew On” from noon to 1:30 p.m. April 8 in the Office of Multicultural Affairs located in the Baker Pattillo Student Center, Rooms 3.101 and 3.102.

The series helps stimulate open dialogue regarding current issues among the campus community. This event will focus on “Generational Trauma: Breaking the Cycle” and feature discussions involving how this trauma relates to how people are today.

Generational trauma can affect people in a variety of areas, including education and socialization. Participants will learn how generational trauma affects them personally and learn prevention methods and explore solutions

The series is free and open to SFA students, faculty, staff and the community. Participants also can engage in interactive activities, and food will be provided.

For more information, contact the OMA at (936) 468-1073 or oma@sfasu.edu.

By Kasi Dickerson, senior marketing communications specialist at Stephen F. Austin State University.

Students working for Stephen F. Austin State University’s campus media outlets were recognized with a combined 20 awards for journalistic excellence at the 2019 Texas Intercollegiate Press Association’s annual convention and competition held March 13 through 16 in Corpus Christi.

The Pine Log, SFA’s student newspaper, garnered eight accolades for content produced during the 2018 calendar year, including overall excellence newspaper, first place overall web design and first place special print design for the 2018 Welcome Edition, which was mailed to the homes of new students in August.

In addition, SFA-TV2 was recognized with three awards for previously published content, including first place in-depth video. KSAU radio received two awards, including second place overall excellence radio program for “Between the Lines.” The Stone Fort yearbook also received two awards for the 2018 edition, including honorable mention overall excellence yearbook.

In the previously published contests, SFA students compete against their peers at institutions with similar enrollment and program size. Ten SFA students attended the conference and participated in on-site contests, competing head-to-head with journalism students from other TIPA member institutions, regardless of size.

For their work in these “live” events, student members of The Pine Log staff received five awards. Recipients were Shannon Poe, copy editor and life and arts editor, first place radio news writing; Meaghan Morton, editor-in-chief, second place magazine design; Ana Conejo, video editor, third place live video news; Alyssa Faykus, design editor and social media editor, honorable mention public relations release writing; and Kayleigh East, photographer, honorable mention feature photo.

In addition, LaShauna Bell, photo editor for The Pine Log, was awarded TIPA’s prestigious Frank Buckley Scholarship.

“The TIPA convention and competition is an opportunity to showcase the work produced by our talented students throughout the year as they gain real-world experience contributing to our on-campus media outlets,” said Amy Roquemore, SFA director of student publications and divisional media and adjunct faculty member in the mass communication department. “These accolades are a testament to the skill and determination of SFA students preparing to enter the mass communication field, and it is a joy and privilege to work with them every day.”

Roquemore accompanied the students to the convention, along with Rachel Clark, SFA student publications coordinator and yearbook advisor.

Morton, a senior mass communication major from Trinidad, represented SFA at the conference for the second consecutive year. She said it was exciting to see SFA student media recognized as being among the best in the state of Texas.

“TIPA is such a refreshing experience for me every year, and I always look forward to sharing it with students who are attending for the first time,” Morton said. “You are among like-minded people who want the same things as you — to win and become a better publication.”

Established in 1909 at Baylor University, TIPA is the largest and oldest collegiate press association in the United States. Approximately 275 students representing 29 of TIPA’s 60-member institutions attended the 2019 conference.

The following is a complete listing of TIPA awards presented to SFA students at the conference:

The Pine Log

Overall excellence newspaper — staff

First place, overall design website — staff

First place, special design print (Welcome Edition) — staff

First place, radio news writing — Shannon Poe, copy editor and life and arts editor

Second place, magazine design — Meaghan Morton, editor-in-chief

Third place, live video news — Ana Conejo, video editor

Third place, static ad design — Tyler Fisher, former ad manager

Third place, editorial — Alyssa Faykus, design editor and social media editor

Honorable mention, editorial — Juwan Lee, former opinions editor

Honorable mention, public relations release writing — Alyssa Faykus, design editor

and social media editor

Honorable mention, feature photo — Kayleigh East, photographer

Honorable mention, critical review — Alyssa Faykus, design editor and social media

editor

Honorable mention, feature page design — Meaghan Morton, editor-in-chief

Stone Fort

Honorable mention, overall excellence — staff

Honorable mention, yearbook sports page design — Tyler Fisher, former editor-in-

chief, and Russell Zahradnik, editor-in-chief

SFA-TV2

First place, in-depth video — Luke Hamilton

Second place, feature news video — Casey Cook

Second place, general news video — staff

KSAU

Second place, overall excellence radio program — staff

Second place, advertising PSA audio — Dale Rives

By Amy Roquemore, director of student publications and divisional media and adjunct faculty member in the mass communication department at Stephen F. Austin State University.

The Stephen F. Austin State University School of Music and its Friends of Music Concert Series will present a rescheduling of the faculty chamber recital “Zodiacal Light” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 2, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

The recital will feature Christina Guenther, flute; Christopher Ayer, clarinet; Lee Goodhew, bassoon; and Ron Petti, piano. They will perform works by Heitor Villa-Lobos, Roger Zare, Kyle Hovatter and Daniel Dorff.

Villa-Lobos was considered one of the most prominent Brazilian composers of the 20th century, according to Guenther. He synthesized Brazilian folk idioms with Western art music techniques to create a unique nationalist style. He composed his set of nine Bachianas Brasileiras (Brazilian Bach pieces) between 1930 and 1945 upon his return from Europe. These neoclassical compositions sought to link Brazilian popular music to Baroque harmonic and contrapuntal procedures, according to program notes by Amanda Cook.

Zare is an American composer and pianist. His “Zodiacal Light” was commissioned by the Flute and Clarinet Duo Consortium in 2018. Each movement is based on rare and awe-inspiring events that light up the night sky. The Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, is the inspiration for the first movement. The second movement, False Dawn, is a reference to the composition’s title. The Zodiacal Light is a luminous cone that appears along the ecliptic, or the line along which the sun moves throughout the year.

“Frequently during the movement, the flute, clarinet and later the piano sound create an aural representation of the meteors with quick rising gestures,” Zare writes of the piece. “The music alternates between a rapid fluid moto perpetuo and a more stilted but still energetic imitative texture. Towards the end, the flowing theme from the first movement returns. It is paired with the stilted texture at first, and finally stated in a grandiose manner. One final upward rush of meteors brings the work to a close.”

Hovatter’s works span orchestral, choral, chamber and electronic genres. Like much of Hovatter’s music, “Mutation from ‘The Cascades,'” (written in 2016) is rhythmically driven, according to Guenther.

“Almost incessant murmurings and surprising accents with constant interplay between the three instruments throughout the majority of the trio give way to a slower section with lush piano chords, culminating in a playful, very rag-like ending,” she said. “The keen listener will hear that this piece is based off of ‘The Cascades,’ a rag by Scott Joplin.”

Dorff’s “Three Romances” was composed “by accident” in several stages, he said. Throughout the summer of 2006, Dorff was mainly focused on writing a lengthy piano concerto.

“One day in July 2006, a frisky-sounding duet for flute and clarinet just popped out,” he writes. “It was a complete movement, but too short to be a stand-alone composition, so I decided to write a few more companion movements.”

Recital tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and $3 for students and youth. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu.