Everything Nac

State Sen. Robert Nichols will be the inaugural speaker at the STEM Innovation – Tying Creativity to Success patent education lecture series at Stephen F. Austin State University at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Monday, Sept. 28, in SFA’s Kennedy Auditorium.

Nichols, an industrial engineer who holds 32 U.S. and 128 foreign patents, will share his insights as an entrepreneur and his patent expertise. He will discuss career opportunities in fields that involve patent work in the 50-minute repeat sessions.

In addition to his success in obtaining patents, Nichols has built four successful manufacturing facilities in East Texas, creating more than 900 jobs.

In the Texas Senate, Nichols is chairman of the transportation committee. He also serves on the Senate Finance Committee, the Natural Resources and Economic Development Committee, and the Intergovernmental Relations Committee.

Nichols served as mayor of Jacksonville and as a city council member before his election to the Senate in 2007.

“As an industrial engineer and legislator, Sen. Nichols is keenly aware of the importance of attracting students to pursue college degrees in the STEM disciplines,” Dr. Kimberly Childs, dean of SFA’s College of Sciences and Mathematics, said. “Sen. Nichols is regarded as one of the leading patent experts in the country, and we are delighted to host him on campus and have him share his expertise with our students and the community.”

Admission to the lecture series is free and open to the public. The series is sponsored by Deborah Nichols Pruitt and Tom Pruitt and hosted by the SFA STEM Research and Learning Center.

For information about the lectures series or the SFA STEM Research and Learning Center, visit www.cosm.sfasu.edu/stem/index.html.

The Alazan Trio at Stephen F. Austin State University will present a concert at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 24, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus as part of the Cole Performing Arts Series.

The Alazan Trio features SFA School of Music faculty members Jennifer Dalmas, violin; Evgeni Raychev, cello; and Ron Petti, piano. The concert theme is “Angel Band” from the title of Daron Hagen’s Piano Trio No. 4, which is the culminating work on the concert.

Other works include Stacy Garrop’s piano trio “Silver Dagger,” Samuel Barber’s Sonata for Cello and Piano, and Lowell Liebermann’s Sonata for Violin and Piano.

“Garrop’s trio is based on an Appalachian folk tune of the same name,” Petti said. “The Barber sonata is dark, brooding with hints of optimism and light at the end of the tunnel, and the Liebermann sonata is both haunting and full of rhythmic fire.

“‘Angel Band’ is also based on a folk tune and has moments of musical bliss that will surely make the listener shed a tear or two,” he added.

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.

Cole Concert Hall is located in the Tom and Peggy Wright Music Building, 2210 Alumni Drive.

The Stephen F. Austin State University School of Music will present “Double the Fun!” at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 23, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

The double-reed recital is part of the Cole Performing Arts Series and features guest oboist Leah Forsyth, instructor of oboe at Northwestern State University, along with SFA music faculty member Staci Spring, bassoon, and staff accompanist Geneva Fung, piano.

“We have a saying in the double-reed community, ‘Double the reed, double the fun!'” Spring said. “This program highlights old and new repertoire for double-reed instruments and demonstrates the virtuosity and range of characters that the oboe and bassoon are capable of achieving.”

Forsyth and Spring attended graduate school together at Florida State University. They now live in “sister cities” – Nacogdoches and Natchitoches – and have the opportunity to perform together again.

The program will feature Jenni Brandon’s “The Wildflower Trio” and Geoffrey Bush’s Trio for oboe, bassoon and piano. Forsyth will display her virtuosity on Johann Wenzel Kalliwoda’s “Morceau de Salon,” a humorous and charming tour-de-force for oboe and piano. Spring and Forsyth will close the program with a duet by Robert Hutchinson. “Bird Suite” was inspired by the bebop tradition of making up new melodies over a standard chord progression.

“‘Bird Suite’ also draws on the common practice of quoting snippets of tunes that fit the chord progression, and the audience will hear many familiar melodies flying by at a fast pace throughout the piece,” Spring said.

Prior to joining the NSU faculty in 2011, Forsyth served as oboist with the United States Army Field Band in Washington, D.C., where she also performed regularly throughout the United States with the Woodwind Ambassadors Quintet. She previously held the position of solo English horn with the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra.

She is principal oboe of the Rapides Symphony Orchestra in Alexandria, Louisiana, and second oboe with the Texarkana Symphony. She performs regularly with the Shreveport Symphony as well as other orchestras throughout Louisiana and Texas. She is a founding member of the Three Reeds Duo with husband and saxophonist Paul Forsyth. Three Reeds performs throughout the world, building a repertoire ranging from baroque and classical transcriptions to contemporary and newly commissioned works.

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.

Faculty members of the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Music will be the featured performers during the annual Pi Kappa Lambda Music Faculty Showcase at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 22, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

“This concert is a showcase featuring the talents of our diverse performing faculty,” said Deborah Dalton, SFA associate professor of voice and president of the local chapter of Pi Kappa Lambda, the national music honor society.

“In addition, all proceeds benefit the Pi Kappa Lambda scholarship we give each year to the sophomore music major with the highest grade point average,” Dalton said. “For the past few years, awards were given to several sophomores with 4.0 grade-point averages.”

The musicians have selected a wide range of musical styles and will perform in a variety of solo and ensemble settings.

Among the composers’ works to be performed are Frédéric Chopin, Ben Moore, Domenico Scarlatti and Maurice Ravel.

Voice faculty Nita Hudson will perform Moore’s “Sexy Lady,” accompanied by pianist Mary Cooper. Christina Guenther and J.D. Salas will perform a movement from “Fantasy for Flute and Tuba,” while Andrew Parr will play a Chopin polonaise. Geneva Fung will perform a sonata by Scarlatti, Nathan Nabb will perform a tango by Astor Piazzolla, and Debbie Berry will sing an aria from “The Ballad of Baby Doe.” Percussionists Brad Meyer and Keith Lloyd will perform “Hold Fast,” for vibraphone and drum set. Other performers include Dr. Charles Gavin, horn; Charlotte Davis, voice; a men’s quartet; Stacy Spring, bassoon; Jennifer Dalmas, violin; Evgeni Raychev, cello; and the popular father-son piano duo of Mario and Antonio Ajero.

“This is one of the most popular concerts of the year because there is truly something for everyone, sopranos and saxophones to tuba and tenors,” Dalton said.

The concert will also give the Nacogdoches community its first opportunity to hear the talents of new voice faculty member Dr. Gennard Lombardozzi, who will perform in the men’s quartet singing “Goodbye, My Coney Island Baby.”

“He’s a wonderful tenor and is going to be such an asset to our voice faculty,” Dalton said.

The recital is a joint presentation of the SFA College of Fine Arts and School of Music and is a part of the 2015-2016 Cole Performing Arts Series. Cole Concert Hall is located in the Wright Music Building at 2210 Alumni Drive.

Tickets are $12 for adults, $8 for seniors and $5 for students. For tickets or more information, please visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu or call (936) 468-6407 or (888) 240-ARTS.

Audience members who attend the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Theatre’s production of “The Arabian Nights” Oct. 6 through 10 will find themselves “on an enchanted journey to places far away and times long ago.”

The play by Mary Zimmerman celebrates the connection between storytelling and life itself, according to Scott Shattuck, director of the School of Theatre and of the play.

“The vast collection that gave us ‘Sinbad the Sailor’ and ‘Aladdin and His Magic Lamp’ is also full of stories that are surprisingly sophisticated, sexy and hilarious,” Shattuck said.

And who isn’t intrigued by the story of Scheherezade, a woman who humanizes a monstrous mass-murderer by telling him stories and saves her own life in the process?

“It’s a story about the joy and importance of storytelling, and one that equates the idea of a story with life itself,” Shattuck said. “That’s irresistible to a dyed-in-the-wool storyteller like me.”

That’s one reason Shattuck selected “The Arabian Nights” to be included in this year’s School of Theatre’s Mainstage Series. Another reason is how different this play is from the others to be produced this year. Other 2015-2016 Mainstage selections include William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” Bruce Norris’ “Clybourne Park” and the biennial “Festival of New American Plays.”

The stories in “The Arabian Nights” are drawn from cultures all over the Far East, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, and North Africa, so this play gives student actors and production staff a unique insight into cultures with which they may be unfamiliar, Shattuck said.

“Much more than that, the story-theatre nature of this play gives the student actors an opportunity to develop creative movement, physical imagery, and multiple characterizations to make the stories as vivid as possible for the audience,” he said.

Although various animated and picture-book versions have left the impression that the stories of “1,001 Nights” are for children, in fact, many of them are very sophisticated and some get great humor from sexual innuendo, Shattuck said. For this reason, the play is recommended for mature audiences.

In addition to lovers of storytelling, the production will appeal to those that enjoy beautiful and elaborate costumes, sumptuous scenery and colorful lighting, he said. The play is also extraordinarily complex, being made up not only of stories within stories within stories, but also of songs, dances and “spectacle of various kinds,” Shattuck said.

“None of this is my specialty, so I’m especially grateful to have a wonderfully creative cast and team,” he said.

These include faculty movement coach Slade Billew, student choreographer Caitlin Parker and student composer Jason Gray in addition to SFA’s regular designers, Professors Angela Bacarisse (costumes), Tara Houston (scenery and props), and CC Conn (sound), plus student designer Amanda Warren (lighting).

“Audience members at this show will find themselves on an enchanted journey to places far away and times long ago,” Shattuck said, “and the most surprising things they will find there are humor and fun that are as fresh as today because they are so universally human.”

The School of Theatre will present “The Arabian Nights” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, Oct. 6 through 10, in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and $7.50 for students. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit theatre.sfasu.edu.

The Mainstage Series is sponsored in part by Tipton Ford Lincoln.

Stephen F. Austin State University’s Marleta Chadwick Student Financial Advisors’ benefits are twofold. Not only do the advisors offer students and the community free financial advice and money management tips, but advisors also are practicing skills that will benefit them once they leave the university and begin their careers.

The Nelson Rusche College of Business created the Student Financial Advisors organization in 2014 to emphasize financial literacy and smart money management to help people dealing with financial crises. The advisors assist individuals with budgeting, credit card and debt management, identity theft, and fraud.

Student director and SFA business administration graduate student Brian Cook has been with the program since its inception and is looking forward to the program’s development. “We counsel people financially. We help them make smarter decisions and realize the impact these decisions have on their lives,” Cook said.

Four student assistants work alongside Cook as student advisors. Mi-Kayla Lemon, Clark Taylor and Flo Soto specialize in community efforts, while Corey Belcher and Cook focus on the SFA campus. In addition, Soto handles Web and media projects and Belcher is in charge of the organization’s social media presence. Cook said the increase in student advisors should yield more workshops this semester.

The five-member group shares their financial knowledge through presentations to community and campus organizations, groups, and teams. Women’s and homeless shelters, United Way, and churches are some of the organizations the advisors assist.

The advisors also reach out to students at both SFA and beyond. Lemon explained the organization works with Center High School students to help them prepare for the real world, and at SFA, the advisors talk to SFA 101 freshmen seminar and other students to help educate them on financial issues.

“I feel students have a closer connection with us because we can relate to them,” Lemon said. “It’s a good feeling to see the transformation when students understand their financial situation.”

Recently, the organization moved into a new office on the first floor of the R. E. McGee Building, Room 169. This location has a reception area and private offices for each advisor to counsel individuals on sensitive financial issues.

Cook said the new location also enables advisors to meet with walk-in clients. Walk-ins are welcome from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 9 a.m. to noon Fridays. Visitors also can schedule advising appointments.

“It is an easy process. Clients can come in and fill out a quick form telling us the area they want to focus on,” Lemon said. “It takes less than 20 minutes.”

Cook encourages visitors to partake in this free service and stresses that the advisors have all been in their shoes and know the struggles they may be facing.

“We have people from all walks of life come here. We never talk down to or judge anyone,” Cook said. “We are here to help and genuinely want to meet our clients’ needs.”

Dr. Banker Phares, SFA economics and finance professor and director of the financial banking program, is impressed with the students’ work and dedication. “Their commitment to helping others reassures me that this generation of students is going to make a significant and positive contribution to society,” Phares said.

The office and program’s growth is a result of a recent gift to the university by the Marleta Chadwick Trust. This gift resulted in the naming of the Marleta Chadwick Student Financial Advisors, as well as the Chadwick Family Banking Program within the Nelson Rusche College of Business.

“We are so appreciative of the generosity of the Chadwick Family, as these programs will support hands-on learning experiences that are very beneficial to our students and will be an asset to the entire community,” Dr. Tim Bisping, dean of the Nelson Rusche College of Business, said.

The gift also will support a scholarship program for Center High School graduates who wish to pursue degrees in either SFA’s James I. Perkins College of Education or the Nelson Rusche College of Business.

“We have a great relationship with the Chadwick family and this has opened so many doors,” Cook said. “Having the capital to set long-term budgets, goals and grow the program as needed is great.”

To take advantage of the free services and schedule an appointment, email student.financial.advisors.sfa@gmail.com. Request a presentation by accessing sfastudentfinancialadvisors.wordpress.com and click on the “Request a Presentation” tab.

Stephen F. Austin State University’s kinesiology and health science department is taking hands-on learning to the next level. Recently, the department acquired new equipment and technology to help better educate students, and began to acquire instrumentation that faculty members and graduate students need to conduct musculoskeletal and neuromechanics research and exercise biochemistry research.

Dr. Carla Murgia, chair of the Department of Kinesiology and Health Science, believes this equipment is necessary to support faculty member and graduate student research and undergraduate experiential learning.

“Our faculty members will be able to illustrate theory and provide hands-on experiences for undergraduate students,” Murgia said. “This technology will assist in making theory meaningful to students and help prepare them for careers and post-baccalaureate education. The technology also will provide our faculty members and graduate students with the tools they need to engage in selected research.”

Currently, the department has an array of laboratories that house instrumentation to examine metabolic response to body composition, bone density, and executive and cognitive function in a variety of environments.

“The ability to engage in cutting-edge research will provide faculty members with the ability to advance the existing body of knowledge in the classroom,” Murgia said.

The department has begun to acquire instruments for the new Movement Analysis Lab, which houses four high-speed video cameras, an electromyography system and a decomposition electromyography device, which is located inside SFA’s Lucille Norton Health and Physical Education Complex.

According to Murgia, the clinical and research applications of the lab’s devices are endless. The four high-speed video cameras enable users to create 3-D images and analyze kinematic parameters of the subject’s movement. The cameras detect and record data from the markers that the subjects wear to identify joints and segment endpoints.

“We are able to make the human body into a 3-D image that we can measure angular and linear displacements, velocities, and accelerations,” Murgia said. “We can analyze performance for optimization, movement mechanics that predispose a subject to injury, to measure rehabilitation progress and more.”

The wireless EMG system is equipped with sensors that can be placed on muscles to act as antennas measuring the electrical output of the functioning muscles. This measurement is summative and calculates the total activity of the motor units. The decomposition EMG tool measures the neural impulses for each of the motor units, meaning it looks at the electrical activity of motor units.

Faculty members and students are undergoing training to learn how to use the new technology. In fact, Dr. Jane Grayson, who is the clinical coordinator for the graduate athletic training program, is using the new lab and equipment to assist an SFA graduate student in researching shoulder biomechanics in pitching.

“This equipment teaches students new skills and provides a better understanding of biomechanics and functional anatomy of movement,” Grayson said. “It can potentially attract more graduate students and faculty members into the program.”

A new Biochemistry Exercise Science Lab also has been established in SFA’s Education Annex. Dr. James Rowe, assistant SFA professor, is integrating equipment within this lab that will allow students and professors to test the effects of exercise and nutrition on risk factors associated with diseases that can impact a person’s health.

The biochemistry lab includes equipment that can analyze a person’s blood for markers of heart disease and diabetes such as cholesterol and glucose. In addition, this lab will provide opportunities to learn techniques that can prepare students for careers in the medical field or health research, as well as graduate and post-graduate academic programs.

The department also received FITLIGHT Trainer™ and Fit3D ProScanner technologies. Drs. Mark Faries and Eric Jones, who are the directors for the Human Performance Lab and co-coordinators of the graduate kinesiology program, are using these devices to assess executive and cognitive function aspects of athletic performance.

The FITLIGHT Trainer™ is a wireless training system comprised of LED-powered lights controlled by a tablet, which allows users to alter colors, timing and arrangement to activate and measure cognitive aspects of sports performance such as reaction time, mental processing speed, decision making, problem solving and flexibility of thinking.

According to Faries, the Fit3D Pro Scanner is an innovative machine that captures a full 3-D, 360-degree body scan in seconds. It also provides accurate circumference measurements across the body, which can be used to track body shape changes over time. This machine will help with questions regarding body fat, body shape and health behavior.

“This technology will provide our students hands-on experience to not only understand the physiology of performance or health, but also how the psychology integrates with the physiology,” Faries said. “This integrated mindset for students is crucial for their career preparation.”

The Human Performance Lab also recently acquired a new ParvoMedics Indirect Calorimeter, which performs metabolic analysis in a variety of settings. NASA, the National Institute of Health and the U.S. Olympic training centers also use this equipment.

“Being able to expose students to equipment that is widely used by so many major organizations enhances their experiences, skill set and marketability after graduation,” Jones said.

For more information on the department’s equipment and research, contact Murgia at (936) 468-3503 or murgiac@sfasu.edu.