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Stephen F. Austin State University’s College of Sciences and Mathematics will host the second annual Women in STEM Luncheon and Style Show in April as part of its ongoing effort to increase college enrollment among science, technology, education and mathematics disciplines.

“The purpose of this luncheon is to raise scholarship funds for female STEM majors at SFA,” said Vicki Shimer, special projects coordinator for the college. “It also is a way to raise awareness of the need to enroll more females in the STEM disciplines and encourage them to pursue STEM-related degrees.”

According to Change the Equation — an organization working to ensure all students are STEM literate through collaboration with schools, communities and states — female STEM students are 6 percent more likely to change their major. Also, only 30 percent of elementary school teachers feel well prepared to encourage girls to participate in science.

Girls also are more likely than boys to earn credits in algebra II, precalculus, advanced biology, chemistry and health science, Change the Equation reported. However, no improvement has been noted in the number of women enrolled in STEM disciplines since 2001.

SFA’s newly appointed Regent Nelda Luce Blair will be the event’s keynote speaker. Blair is president and owner of The Blair Law Firm. During the majority of her 30-year law career, she has shared a home and office in The Woodlands with her husband, retired attorney Jim Blair. Their daughter, Maris A. Blair, also is an attorney with the firm.

The luncheon and style show will begin at noon Thursday, April 7, in the Baker Pattillo Student Center Grand Ballroom. More than 225 attended the event in 2015.

The reservation deadline is Friday, April 1. Tickets are $40 each or $300 for a table of eight. Fashions will be provided by The Town House.

For information or to make a reservation, contact Shimer at (936) 468-5197 or shimervm@sfasu.edu.

The Stephen F. Austin State University College of Fine Arts, School of Music and School of Theatre will present “The Bartered Bride” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, April 7 through 9, in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus.

The opera, considered Czech composer Bedřich Smetana’s most beloved and well-known comedic opera, will feature SFA’s outstanding student singers accompanied by an orchestra and staged with full set and costumes, according to Dr. Deborah Dalton, professor of voice at SFA and the opera’s director. She described the opera as “a brilliant lyric comedy with a strong nationalistic flavor.”

“Composer Bedřich Smetana wrote spirited, tuneful melodies that are firmly rooted in his Czech homeland, but his music has a universal appeal,” Dalton said. “Smetana’s operas truly established him as the father of Czech classical music.”

Dalton explained the synopsis of “The Bartered Bride” as taking place in a small Bohemian village. It is festival day. Mařenka is in love with Jeník, but her parents have engaged Kecal, a marriage broker, to marry her off to the son of Tobias Micha, a wealthy landowner. The son turns out to be a bumbling, stuttering simpleton – Vasek. It seems that Mařenka’s father owes Micha a long-standing debt. When Kecal bribes Jenik to renounce his claim on Mařenka, all seems to be lost, until Jenik reveals that he is the long lost son of Micha from a previous marriage.

“The music is beautiful and catchy enough to whistle tunes as you leave the theatre,” Dalton said. “The arias have sweeping, long melodic lines that carry the listener along with the emotions of the character singing it. The chorus of villagers and their music is a character unto itself, and the men sing one of the best drinking songs in the repertoire. There is also a traveling circus troupe that comes to entertain the villagers. We even have a bear!”

With approximately 150 people involved in the production, “The Bartered Bride” is a huge undertaking, Dalton said. There are 56 cast members, 42 musicians in the orchestra and many others working backstage.

“As always, our first concern is to provide an excellent learning experience for our voice students,” she said. “This opera has several leading and featured role for all voice types, and we have students with the needed voice types who are ready to sing these roles.”

“The Bartered Bride” is “the perfect opera for first-time opera-goers,” Dalton said.

“It is colorful, entertaining, funny and has an exceptional score that is beautifully sung and played,” she said. “The students are outstanding in their singing and acting of the comic and sometimes tragic plot turns.”

The set, designed by Richard Ellis, is a picturesque village street and the costumes by Angela Bacarisse are “colorful and fun,” Dalton said.

“People who come to see this opera will leave the theatre saying ‘I never knew that opera could be so fun,'” she added.

Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and $7.50 for students and youth. For tickets or more information, visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu or call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407.

Stephen F. Austin State University College of Fine Arts and School of Music will present bassoonist Scott Pool in a guest recital at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 30, in Cole Concert Hall in the Wright Music Building on the SFA campus.

Pool’s program, “The Romantic Bassoon,” will feature music from 19th century Romanticism, either from the era or in its spirit, Pool said.

“The bassoon has a lyrical voice of great expression, which is not often heard in the orchestral setting,” he said. “This solo recital seeks to exploit the melodic nature of the instrument.”

Composers represented on this program include Sergei Rachmaninoff, Robert Schumann and Carl Maria von Weber, who are ” all important composers of the 19th century,” Pool explained.

On the program are Rachmaninoff’s “Do Not Sing, My Beauty” and Weber’s Concerto for Bassoon, Op. 75. A highlight of the concert is a performance of Schumann’s Fantasy Pieces, Op. 73. “Originally for clarinet and piano, this piece embodies the essence of Romantic chamber music,” Pool said. “It appears as an international contest piece for bassoonists this year.”

Pool currently serves as the academy director of the Talis Music Festival and Academy in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. He also performs as contrabassoon/3rd bassoon with the Las Colinas Symphony Orchestra and is on the chamber music faculty of the Orfeo International Music Festival in Italy. A resident of the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area, Pool is a frequent recitalist across the nation and abroad with appearances at numerous festivals and solo engagements. He has served as principal bassoon for a number of orchestras across the U.S.

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.

The Stephen F. Austin State University College of Fine Arts and School of Music will present Dr. Evgeni Raychev in a faculty recital at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 29, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

Titled “Cello Airs,” Raychev’s concert will feature cello favorites diversified with some violin transcriptions.

“Some works will be familiar to the audience members, while others may not be,” said Raychev, cello instructor in the School of Music. “Everything on the program, however, is taken from the music jewelry box, and I hope that the listener will leave the recital with a personal satisfaction and delight.

“From songs from the Jewish life, through gypsy airs, and all the way to ‘Intermezzo,’ (music from the famous film featuring Ingrid Bergman and Leslie Howard) this program will have something for everyone,” he said.

Pianists Dr. Andrew and Linda Parr will join Raychev “in this musical adventure,” he added.

The concert is part of the School of Music’s Cole Performing Arts Series. 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.

Several Stephen F. Austin State University students enrolled in the Department of Elementary Education and an international business student will study abroad for 18 days in Beijing and Nanjing, China, this May and June. Drs. Wynter Chauvin and Tingting Xu, SFA elementary education faculty members, are coordinating the trip and courses.

While overseas, the 12 participating students will observe and compare different systems of education at the elementary and middle school levels as well as visit the International School of Beijing. SFA students also will have the opportunity to develop their ESL skills by teaching English at the Nanjing University of Finance and Economics — something Chauvin said is unique to this trip.

In the morning, students will tutor university students in English, and in the afternoon, they will visit additional schools or participate in cultural events. Students will have a reflection and tutoring debriefing at NUFE in the evenings.

“We expect our students will be able to learn about different schools in China and accumulate some teaching experience, especially experience in teaching ESL students,” Xu said. “This trip also provides our students with insights into Chinese culture and history.”

Xu completed her undergraduate degree from NUFE, and her connection helped secure the university as a location for SFA students to practice their teaching. The university also will serve as the host school, and SFA students will live in dorms on campus.

“Living in the dorms and working with the NUFE students will help SFA students develop a better understanding of daily life in China,” Chauvin said. “Students will have a unique opportunity to be a part of a local community instead of just visiting and observing.”

The trip will include visits to the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Great Wall of China, Ming tombs, Purple Mountain Park and more. To follow along, visit the class blog at http://SFAChina2016.wordpress.com.

For more information, contact SFA’s Department of Elementary Education at (936) 468-2904 or elementaryed@sfasu.edu.

Stephen F. Austin State University students in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Science recently attended the Texas American College of Sports Medicine Conference.

During the event, more than 50 SFA students were introduced to field experts from around the country who presented at the two-day conference. Presentation topics ranged from thermoregulation and hypo-hydration to current concussive issues and skeletal muscle plasticity in astronauts.

Dr. Eric Jones, graduate kinesiology program co-coordinator and associate professor of kinesiology and health science at SFA, explained the benefits of this conference were twofold.

“From the very first trip eight years ago, our purpose has been to expose students to the breadth of research and professions they may seek within the field of exercise physiology and sports medicine,” Jones said. “It also is a professional outlet for networking and professional development.”

SFA showcased six student-led research poster presentations at this year’s conference, which are being completed within SFA’s Human Performance Lab in conjunction with Jones and Dr. Mark Faries, SFA associate professor of kinesiology and health science. Graduate student Rachel Nanez was selected as a finalist for the TACSM Outstanding Master’s Research Award for her research on the effects of a 3-D imaging trigger on self-conscious emotions and coping.

“I love going to TACSM every year,” Nanez said. “I enjoy looking at the different research from other schools and listening to the professional presentations. This year, I had the pleasure of representing SFA with my research, and I was very excited my research made it to the top eight.”

SFA also had two TACSM Student Bowl teams compete this year in a jeopardy-style academic competition, which included 38 teams from various universities across the state. SFA’s teams finished 11th out of the 38 teams that competed.

Jones said attending this conference gave students an opportunity to witness different possibilities in their chosen field as well as meet future employers and prospective graduate and doctoral school mentors. There was a clinical track within the conference, which introduced students to medical doctors, physicians’ assistants, and physical and occupational therapists.

Six undergraduate students in Stephen F. Austin State University’s College of Sciences and Mathematics presented research at the 119th Texas Academy of Science this month, and two students are slated to speak at a national convention in April.

“These are research projects the students have been working on as undergraduates in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. As a department, we feel research is a major part of the students’ education and feel it is important not to just do a project but also present the results of that project,” said Dr. Alyx Frantzen, SFA associate professor of chemistry. “For many of the students, this is their first time presenting their research either in oral or poster format. The TAS meeting is a wonderful place for this first exposure to presenting research.”

Four of Frantzen’s chemistry students attended the convention, including Timothy Turner, who analyzed vapors released by the heating of e-liquids; David Hauer and Megan Jenkins, who conducted anion and metal analysis of mineral springs in Lampasas, Texas; and Celeste Keith, who presented findings on the influence of structure on combustion of organoclays.

Two additional sciences and mathematics students presented research at TAS. Christopher Franclemont, a student of Dr. Kefa Onchoke, SFA associate professor of chemistry, discussed the determination of element concentrations in fish purchased from stores in Nacogdoches. Amanda Raley, a student of Dr. Russell Franks, SFA assistant professor of chemistry, presented on the synthesis of fatty acid furfuryl ester mixtures.

“Many students have a lot of anxiety about speaking in front of people,” Franks said. “This is normal and is completely understandable. The best way for them to overcome that anxiety is to have them speak in front of people as much as possible.

“Opportunities for undergraduate students to make presentations at conferences like this give students experience at speaking on a technical subject in their major in front of an audience of people they don’t know,” Franks added. “As the students prepare for the presentation, they learn how to present their results in a concise, efficient and effective manner. These are valuable skills that will serve the students well once they graduate from SFA.”

Jamie Weihe and Carmel Tovar, students of Dr. Odutayo Odunuga, SFA associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, will present at the national Experimental Biology Conference in San Diego, California, April 2-6. The title of their presentation is “Metal affinity chromatography and protein refolding techniques: some observations and strategies.”

“Undergraduate student conference attendance is beneficial to all concerned: the students, the professors and the university,” Odunuga said. “Preparing for presentation at conferences takes a lot of effort and time, but students develop personal planning and other essential skills that will serve them the rest of their life. When students attend a conference, they gain a wider view, understanding and appreciation for science and research.

“For the professors, benefits of conference attendance include opportunity to network and collaborate with colleagues from other institutions, publish in conference proceedings and peer-review their research,” Odunuga added. “Promoting conference attendance is an excellent opportunity for the university to showcase its students and intellectual activities to other institutions, industry and the world in general.”