Everything Nac

Stephen F. Austin State University’s Nelson Rusche College of Business recently announced the establishment of a new lecture series.

In 2002, SFA’s College of Business was named in honor of A. Nelson Rusche, who endowed the college with a $5 million gift, which provides scholarships to students majoring in business and also supports other programs, including a distinguished lecture series.

The Nelson Rusche Distinguished Lecture Series is scheduled to premiere Nov. 3, and according to Dr. Timothy Bisping, dean of the Nelson Rusche College of Business, it will provide opportunities to bring scholars and business leaders to the SFA campus to discuss relevant issues.

“The series will convey to our students and other members of the SFA and Nacogdoches communities ideas, insights and knowledge they might otherwise be unable to obtain without considerable expense,” Bisping said. “It also is a wonderful way to highlight the Nelson Rusche College of Business and our exceptional programs, students, and faculty and staff members.”

Bisping said Rusche, who graduated from SFA in 1949 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and served on the university’s Board of Regents for three years, had a clear vision for the series.

“Although I never had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Rusche, I have learned a great deal from others about his integrity and desire to help SFA students succeed, and I am honored to have the privilege of bringing his vision to life,” Bisping said.

Bisping added the impact of Rusche’s generosity and guidance cannot be understated.

“The resources he made available to help attract and retain top students, provide special student-learning opportunities and pursue other crucial initiatives have allowed us to build upon the excellent programs already in place within the Rusche College of Business,” Bisping said.

Born in Appleby, Texas, Rusche served in the U.S. Army during World War II and received a Purple Heart for his service with the 43rd Infantry Division in New Guinea and the Philippines.

In 1951, Rusche purchased his first Gulf Oil service station and later became a commissioned agent. The A.N. Rusche Distributing Co. grew to be a 250-million-gallon-a-year distributor—Gulf Oil’s largest customer. Rusche later expanded his business to include automated car washes and convenience stores.

His distributing company received numerous awards and honors from the Texas Oil Marketers Association, now known as the Texas Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association. He served as president of the association and was active in the Past Presidents’ Association. He was honored with the E.K. Bennett Award in 1996, making him the association’s “Man of the Year.”

Rusche passed away Sept. 17, 2013.

Stephen F. Austin State University senior hospitality administration major James Crim may be graduating and embarking on a new journey this Saturday, but he will be leaving a legacy at his alma mater.

During the past seven months, Crim, a native of Lake Jackson, Texas, has worked to establish an SFA chapter of Eta Sigma Delta, a national hospitality administration honor society. After researching national organizations and filling out the required documents, Crim and 22 founding members finalized the SFA chapter in April.

“The purpose of this organization is to allow faculty members and students within the human sciences field to network on a more professional level,” Crim said. “Students who were already working hard can now be rewarded for it.”

ESD members must be hospitality administration majors who have a minimum 3.0 GPA and completed 50 percent of their core classes at SFA.

“This gives students a great opportunity to network. It also means I’m leaving a legacy behind,” Crim said. “Now, future members will have more opportunities to succeed and make this organization great.”

ESD is affiliated with the International Council on Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Education, meaning ESD members will be able to attend an annual conference in the summer to work with industry professionals and learn innovative skills.

Dr. Mary Olle, assistant professor in SFA’s School of Human Sciences, is the faculty adviser for ESD.

“We are very proud of what James has accomplished, and he’s leaving a legacy for future hospitality majors to live up to. He is a natural leader, and we are going to miss him when he graduates,” Olle said.

Next semester’s ESD officers have been selected, and Crim and Olle assure they have set philanthropic goals to assist the organization as it grows.

“I hope to see organization members be extremely active, both locally and nationally. Also, I hope this opens up opportunities for our students to grow academically and professionally,” Olle said.

Crim will graduate with honors and has accepted a professional management internship with Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

“I’m looking forward to all the magical moments I’ll be involved with at Disney,” Crim said. “Disney is one of the biggest names in the hospitality industry, and I’m excited to learn interesting management-skill techniques.”

The 2016 SummerStage Festival at Stephen F. Austin State University will entertain audiences of all ages with a pair of lighthearted productions.

This year’s SummerStage Festival is slated for June 24 through July 16 in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus and features the School of Theatre’s presentations of the children’s musical “A Year With Frog and Toad” by Robert and Willie Reale and “Picasso at the Lapin Agile,” a witty comedy by actor, screenwriter and stand-up comic Steve Martin.

The SummerStage Festival was launched in 2014 as the School of Theatre sought to reach out to new audiences looking for a fun and easy-going way of spending warm-weather time with family and friends, according to Scott Shattuck, the school’s director.

“The festival brings people together by bringing engaging stories to life,” Shattuck said. “Half the fun is the audience. It’s full of neighbors laughing together and greeting each other before and after the show and at intermission, families making memories, and friends chatting about the amusing experience they’ve shared.”

Angela Bacarisse, the director of the smash hit “Spamalot” and the summer kids’ favorites “The Emperor’s New Clothes: The Musical” and “How I Became a Pirate,” now brings to SummerStage the only children’s show ever nominated for the coveted Tony Award for Broadway’s Best Musical. In “A Year With Frog and Toad,” based on the books by Arnold Lobel, the beloved suburban amphibians leap to tuneful life with irresistibly upbeat Frog lifting the spirits of his worrywart neighbor Toad.

“I remember reading these books to my son when he was younger,” Bacarisse said. “We still have them on our bookshelf. I’m sure many parents and children will love seeing these characters brought to life.”

Inga Meier will make her directorial debut on the Turner stage with “Picasso at the Lapin Agile,” a hilarious play about an imagined meeting in 1904 between a would-be scientist called “Einstein” and an irresistible-but-unknown painter named “Picasso” in a Paris café called the Lapin Agile. Wit and whimsy fuels their talk of creativity and inspiration with the bistro’s unforgettable cast of regulars until a very different kind of genius mysteriously arrives from the future. This play is recommended for mature audiences, who are invited to call it “Picasso,” leaving out the unpronounceable locale in the title.

“One of the compelling things to me about Steve Martin, whether as a playwright, novelist, actor or stand-up comedian playing a banjo with an arrow through his head, is his incredibly unique style of humor,” Meier said. “All bets are off. The rules of time and space and story don’t apply at all, and yet everything ties together in a delightfully magical way. He crafts worlds that are just so much fun to explore.”

Performances of “A Year With Frog and Toad” are at 10 a.m. June 28 and July 13 and 15; at 2 p.m. June 24 and 27 and July 14 and 16; and at 6:30 p.m. June 25 and July 9 and 13. General admission tickets are $7.50.

Performances of “Picasso at the Lapin Agile” are at 7:30 nightly July 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 14, 15 and 16. General admission tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and $7.50 for students/youth.

For tickets or more information, visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu or call (936) 468-6407 or (888) 240-ARTS. All performances are in W.M. Turner Auditorium in the Griffith Fine Arts Building on the SFA campus.

Education students at Stephen F. Austin State University gained a better understanding of Japanese culture while participating in an art class project now displayed in the Janice Pattillo Early Childhood Research Center.

Students in School of Art Assistant Professor Bill Nieberding’s art education courses for pre-service elementary teachers recently completed a project based on a multicultural curriculum developed at Princeton University. It began by inquiring about the background behind a paper crane donated to the World Trade Center Memorial Museum in New York City in 2009.

Using their smartphones in class, the students learned that the crane was donated by Masahiro Sasaki, whose sister, Sadako Sasaki, died of leukemia after exposure to radiation in the bombing of Nagasaki during World War II. Upon reading the book “Sadako” in class, students learned that she folded 1,000 paper cranes with the hopes that her wish to be healed would come true, an example of an old Japanese legend that if someone folds 1,000 cranes, their wish will be granted.

“As part of our process of coming to understand the meaning of the cranes, we started folding cranes with the intention of learning the process, each student folding a few,” Nieberding explained. “However, when two of the students suggested that it would be good to exhibit the cranes on campus, it became apparent that we should complete what is called a Senbazuru, or a group of 1,000 origami cranes.”

The students folded cranes and strung them into the traditional form of 25 strands of 40 cranes. While doing this, the students debated appropriate places to display the work, Nieberding said.

Several students suggested the ECRC, and when Nieberding reached out to Lysa Hagan, principal of the SFA Charter School, and Elizabeth Vaughan, professor of elementary education and chairman of the Department of Elementary Education, they were “extremely enthusiastic about the project,” he said. “The students all agreed that it was a good idea to donate the artwork to the ECRC.”

The process affected each student in a different way, Nieberding said.

“Making 1,000 paper cranes as a class was a really unique experience,” said Sheridan Sharp, Lumberton sophomore. ” It provided a way for all of the students from different walks of life to create a simple piece of art that would be united all together in a mass display as a symbol of unity and love.”

“To me, the cranes symbolize peace and tranquility, aspects that we, as college students, are missing in our daily lives much of the time,” Longview junior Erin Whittenberg said.