Everything Nac

    Fred J. Allen, director of bands and professor of music at Stephen F. Austin State University, is the recipient of a 2012 Meritorious Achievement Award from the Texas Bandmasters Association.

    Allen conducts the SFA Wind Ensemble and teaches graduate-level conducting, orchestration and music education classes. He also oversees 300 students involved in the SFA band program’s four concert groups, athletic bands and several chamber ensembles. He is a past recipient of SFA’s College of Fine Arts Teaching Excellence Award.

    Under Allen’s direction, the SFA Wind Ensemble has performed at conventions of the Texas Music Educators Association, the College Band Directors National Association and the Texas Chapter of the National Association of Composers/USA, as well as the South Central Regional Music Conference in Monroe, La.

    Allen has conducted All-Region and All-State Bands throughout Texas and the United States, and he is an active concert clinician and adjudicator. He has often served as guest conductor for bands playing at the Midwest Clinic and the Texas Music Educators Association Convention, and he has conducted in Korea, Taiwan and Australia.

    He has published several pieces for band, orchestra and flute choir that draw upon his experience in teaching in the public schools in Texas. These works have been performed frequently at conventions and festivals across the United States and internationally. He also has several commissioned works in progress.

    Allen recently was elected for membership in the American Bandmasters Association. He also is a member of Phi Beta Mu International Bandmasters Fraternity, College Band Directors National Association, American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, and Texas Bandmasters Association.

    He earned a bachelor’s degree from Abilene Christian University and a master’s degree from Texas A&M University-Commerce.

    Allen will receive his Meritorious Achievement Award from TBA President Tom Harrington during the upcoming annual TBA Convention and Clinic in San Antonio.

    About 100 seventh- and eighth-grade students from five area school districts are attending iMAS (Investigations in Math and Science) Academy this week at Stephen F. Austin State University.

Dr. Darrell Fry, SFA assistant professor of chemistry, looks on as iMAS Academy participants (from left) Ana Aguirre, Ana Carrillo and Athan Jacobs participate in a forensics experiment.

    SFA STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) faculty members are guiding students in the discovery of academic skills necessary for STEM careers such as forensics, engineering, heath care and environmental science. Students from the Central, Hudson, Lufkin, Nacogdoches and Woden school districts are participating in the academy.

HDM_0313.jpg – Dr. Dan Bruton (right), astronomer and professor in the SFA Department of Physics and Astronomy, leads iMAS Academy participants in a robotics experiment. Also pictured (from left) are Destiny Marsh, teacher Emily Ingram, Rhiannon Gilbert, teacher Pat Harrison and Chyanne Mouton.

    Students are rotating among various investigative modules focusing on STEM careers, including Crime Solvers, ER, Mars Quest, The Orbit of Mercury and Water Test. Team challenges, a chemistry experiment demonstration, a physics magic show and a “This School Rocks” geology presentation sponsored by Chesapeake Energy also have been included in the program.

STEM Student Group 2012 – Area seventh- and eighth-grade students and teachers attending SFA’s iMAS (Investigations in Mathematics and Science) Academy are pictured with Jeff Holliday, public affairs manager for Chesapeake Energy, and Dr. Kim Childs, dean of the College of Sciences and Mathematics.

    The iMAS Academy is a collaborative effort between the College of Sciences and Mathematics STEM Research and Learning Center and the James I. Perkins College of Education’s East Texas GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) for Success Project.