Everything Nac

In a world where visionaries in most professions are trying to figure out how to do more with less, the School of Theatre is tapping into one of its most valuable resources – the students – to help underclassmen understand the level of commitment necessary for a successful collegiate career.

The School of Theatre has initiated a peer mentoring program in which junior and senior theatre majors are guiding freshmen and new students – appropriately called “understudies”– through what can be an overwhelming immersion in university-level dramatic arts.

“SFA School of Theatre is a lot of theatre really fast, which is great, but it is also very intimidating for freshmen coming in,” explained CC Conn, assistant professor of lighting and sound design at SFA. “Freshmen are intimidated by faculty, so we’re trying to give them a junior or senior student who will help them – someone they can talk to.”

Conn attended a mentoring conference at the University of New Mexico in fall 2012 where speakers described a variety of mentoring approaches, including formal, informal and group programs.

“The ones that kept piquing my interest were the ones on peer mentoring,” she said. “We’re a small faculty, and while we all try to help students as much as we can, I liked the idea of using our older students to reach out to our younger students.”

The conference led to a pilot mentoring program at SFA in spring 2013 when about 20 interested freshmen were divided among three upperclassmen mentors. That experience led to what is now a full-blown School of Theatre mentoring program funded in part through a mini-grant from SFA Provost Dr. Richard Berry.

Standards for participating were developed. Mentors must maintain a 3.2 GPA and must have a designated number of theatre credit hours. They also must submit an essay outlining their reasons for wanting to become mentors.

“You have to really know SFA theatre to successfully be a mentor,” Conn said.

She received 24 applications for mentors, and 19 were accepted for this academic year. Steen Library provided them with theatre-specific library resources and information about the Academic Assistance and Resource Center, and a career coach talked to them about coaching others. SFA Counseling Services trained the mentors in suicide prevention. Effective communication skills also were addressed in the training.

Conn returned to the New Mexico mentoring conference last fall and gave a presentation on the SFA program. Participating understudies are
giving the program rave reviews.

“My mentor has helped me gain a lot of confidence,” said freshman Sydney Whigam of Sugar Land. “I can go to him for help with auditions or classes.”

Nicole Novit came to SFA as a sophomore transfer student and said she felt “lost” in those first few weeks on campus. Life for theatre students moves quickly, with auditions on the first day of class. The mentoring program helps clear up some of the confusion, she said.

“I think it is really helpful that we have mentoring meetings before classes start, where all of the new freshmen and transfers get to meet each other,” said Novit, a junior from Dallas. “That helps them become friends, and it also helps an entire board of really involved upperclassmen mentors get to know them.”

As a theatre student seeking teacher certification, Novit said she finds the mentoring program especially useful.

“Learning how to mentor is a helpful skill, especially for anyone who wants to work in educational theatre,” she said.

Conn hopes that the program will give SFA School of Theatre a recruiting edge when prospective students learn they will have a mentor to help them navigate the complexities of college life. She also hopes the program has even farther-reaching effects.

“We teach information, and we train our students on the technique and the art of theatre, but there’s got to be something about a university training them to be good people,” she said. “If they find themselves in a situation where they are encouraging or teaching someone, in a lot of ways, they are encouraging and teaching themselves.

“There are so many different ways we mentor throughout our lives. On the surface, the mentor can list this on his or her resumé. But the important reality of it is that mentoring makes for a stronger person.”

Nicole Novit (right), pictured here playing the role of Mrs. Arable in a recent SFA production of “Charlotte’s Web,” is serving as a student mentor to underclassmen as part of a new “understudies” program in the SFA School of Theatre.

Students at Stephen F. Austin State University and other state institutions will soon begin noticing changes in curriculum that were mandated by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. As directed by the Texas Legislature, the coordinating board issued rules in 2011 requiring a complete overhaul in all Texas public higher education institutions of the core curriculum – 42 semester credit hours of coursework that students must take and that must be transferable from one higher education institution to another.

“The courses in the core curriculum provide the educational opportunities that distinguish university education from vocational training,” said Dr. Richard Berry, SFA provost and vice president for academic affairs. “Some majors prepare students for work in specific professions, but all SFA graduates gain an in-depth understanding in their major field of study. Additionally, through the courses in the core curriculum, students are prepared to participate thoughtfully in public discourse, to become responsible citizens in a changing world and to understand the rewards of a lifetime of continued learning.”

The core curriculum offered by Texas universities had centered on knowledge-based objectives that stressed the acquisition of information and skills specific to a particular subject. The expected outcomes have been re-envisioned as a set of core objectives that cross traditional subject area boundaries and focus on the progressive development of student skills. Each course in the core curriculum now is expected to teach:

• critical thinking
• communication skills
• empirical and quantitative skills
• teamwork
• social responsibility and
• personal responsibility.

An advisory committee appointed by the provost worked to make the necessary changes to SFA’s undergraduate core curriculum. Each department and college reviewed each core course it offers; some courses were deleted, new courses were created and most existing courses were revised. Committee members worked to balance competing needs: the expectation that core curriculum classes would achieve the new, broader objectives and ease the transfer of courses from one college to another.

Beginning in fall 2014, faculty members who teach courses designated as fulfilling a component area will be responsible for assessing the core objectives for that component area. Berry said that the “teamwork” objective may be the biggest challenge.

“Many core courses already make use of teamwork – such as students working together in science labs – but many faculty members may not be accustomed to measuring how well students’ teamwork skills improve throughout the semester,” Berry said.

Because of the magnitude of the changes required to comply with the new rules, universities across the state have been working for months to make sure that core courses meet the required educational objectives.

“The core requirements allow students to put their major coursework into a broader intellectual context and understand how other disciplines investigate and answer important questions,” Berry said. “The core facilitates students’ exploration of prospective majors and, in some cases, serves as a foundation for more advanced coursework within the major.”

The new core curriculum outcomes are based on the Liberal Education and America’s Promise initiative of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. For more information about SFA’s core curriculum, visit www. sfasu.edu/acadaffairs.

Dr. Andrew Parr, professor of piano in the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Music, has performed in countries across the globe.

But he recently had the opportunity to perform and conduct a master class in piano for the first time before audiences in China, and some of those audience members have expressed an interest in coming to the United States, specifically SFA, to study with Parr.

Parr was among a group of SFA music educators who traveled to Hong Kong and Macau earlier this spring for the purpose of building relationships with colleagues there and opening the doors for recruiting music students to come to SFA for their graduate studies.

“This could be very beneficial for SFA in terms of attracting high-level students to study here,” Parr said. “We can no longer think regionally when it comes to recruiting students.”

Parr performed for piano students and teachers at Hong Kong Baptist University and conducted a master class before an advanced piano class of about 60 students where he listened to four students play and critiqued their performances.

“In Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist University is where high-level students go for undergraduate music study,” Parr explained. “They are regularly visited by faculty from the U.S. and other countries, and the students are often looking for opportunities to study abroad. SFA would like to be among their choices.”

SFA faculty auditioned six students while in Hong Kong, and most of them have pursued discussions about applying to SFA to study and for graduate assistantships and scholarships.

“The hope is to open a conduit that will continue to produce graduate students in the future,” Parr said.

Dr. Andrew Parr, professor of piano in the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Music, instructs a student while conducting a master class in piano at Hong Kong Baptist University.

Registration has begun for the annual Summer Art Academy offered by the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Art for the two-week camp that will meet June 9 through 20 on the SFA campus.

Students in kindergarten through sixth grade may enroll in classes that include drawing, painting and sculpture.

“The academy offers an exciting introduction to the visual arts and an immersion into specific media,” said Gary Parker, SFA art instructor and director of the academy.

Classes will meet from 1 to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday in the Art Building on Wilson Drive. The students’ work will be exhibited at 5 p.m. Friday, June 20, in the Art Building. Afterward, the students may take their work home.

The registration fee, which is $160 if received by Monday, May 26, includes all art supplies, refreshments and exhibition expenses. After May 26, late registration cost is $175. Registration information is available at www.art.sfasu.edu or by calling the School of Art at (936) 468-4804.

For additional information, contact the School of Art or email parker at gparker@sfasu.edu.