Everything Nac

Percussionist and composer Sean Hamilton will perform at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 11, in Cole Concert Hall on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus as part of the School of Music’s Calliope Concert Series.

The program is entitled “LOCI” and is comprised of a single evening-length composition for solo drum set and electronics. “LOCI” is one work from a series of pieces for this instrumentation that are written to explore the symbiotic possibilities of acoustic and electronic sound in an improvised setting, according to Hamilton, who began working on these pieces in 2015 and has performed them throughout the U.S. and in the United Kingdom.

“Since its completion in July 2016, I have performed ‘LOCI’ approximately 40 times,” Hamilton said. “In an average performance, audiences can expect a dynamic concert featuring combinations of intense and visceral drumming contrasted with soft and delicate percussion, static electronic ambient passages and noise-based textural passages.

“In addition to the use of traditional sticks and mallets, they will also find a wide array of alternative playing techniques and methods of sound production,” he added, “including moments when I may be producing sound with things such as a modified electric toothbrush, thin chains and aluminum foil, or by placing household objects (sheet metal, tin cans, nuts and bolts, etc.) on the drums in an effort to alter their natural sound.”

The SFA recital will be part of a large eight-week tour that will take Hamilton from Tampa, Florida, to the Pacific Northwest and back, with performances at a wide variety of venues, including Eyedrum Art and Music Gallery in Atlanta, Georgia, and Selectors Records in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Hamilton has presented performances as an artist-in-residence with Leeds Improvised Music and Experimentation (LIME) in the United Kingdom and as a featured performer at the Orlando and Asheville Fringe Festivals, the Anxious Sound Series in New Orleans, and WKCR-FM New York’s Afternoon New Music. He has given numerous lectures on improvisation and composition at universities throughout the U.S. and abroad. His original compositions include works for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, electroacoustic mediums, and fixed media that have been performed in the U.S. and Europe.

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.

Four Stephen F. Austin State University alumni working in health-care-related fields joined with two SFA dietetic intern graduate students this summer to provide care to more than 400 patients in Guatemala.

SFA dietetic interns Brandi Gouldthorpe of Tyler and Leslie Rowe of Gladewater worked alongside SFA alumni Leslie Goudarzi and Hannah Dunahoe, registered dietitians, Dr. Tedd Mitchell, president of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and internist, and Dr. Ben Mack, general surgeon in Longview, to help those in need.

The group spent a week interviewing patients, recording medical histories, collecting vital information, screening patients for hypertension and analyzing anthropometric measurements, which were used to educate patients on risk factors and disease processes.

“I grew up on this trip and was able to see how I could make a difference. I used my knowledge of nutrition and dietetics to change lives,” Gouldthorpe said. “Even though there were language and cultural barriers, being kind and helping others are universal. Little acts of kindness, such as a smile, a hug or asking others about their day, shows love and what really is important in life.”

The trip, organized by Refuge International, a non-profit organization that helps people by providing health care, nutrition information, clean water and education programs, stationed the SFA team at a remote clinic in San Raymundo where team members performed more than 60 surgeries.

“I learned to appreciate all we take for granted in America,” Gouldthorpe said. “There is a need to be bigger than ourselves and to use the gifts we have been given and the knowledge we have learned to give back to others.”

Dietetic graduate students are required to complete 1,200 supervised practice hours during the year to be eligible to sit for the national registered dietitian exam. This trip helped the graduate students earn those hours.

“Although the environment at the clinic was unlike any typical hospital, I learned about the roles of other health professionals who are involved in the care process,” Rowe said. “I enjoyed getting to be involved with or observe nurses, nurse practitioners, doctors and surgeons. I will take this knowledge and apply it to my future rotations in similar settings.”

Rowe added that although the environment was fast-paced, she learned by example, verbal instructions and practice. “I quickly learned how to conduct intake exams and how to efficiently communicate with patients in an appropriate manner, which is very valuable for my future practice as a dietetics student and professional.”

By Kasi Dickerson, senior marketing communications specialist at Stephen F. Austin State University.

A recent trip to Cuba by two Stephen F. Austin State University faculty members in the Department of Secondary Education and Educational Leadership made it possible for them to study Cuba’s educational system and culture through Educational Leaders Without Borders, an organization advocating universal education.

Drs. Barbara Qualls, assistant professor and leadership program coordinator at SFA, and Pauline Sampson, professor and coordinator of SFA’s superintendent certification program, traveled with a group and met with various educational leaders in Cuba to discuss institutional differences between the two countries.

“The most striking difference I noticed between Cuban and American schools was that the Cuban educational system is highly centralized, while American schools value some level of local control,” Qualls said.

The group also met with a teacher union representative and learned how Cuban teachers are assigned to locations based on need, and campus leaders and principals are selected from the pool of teachers.

“Those who are involved with the Cuban educational system are very proud and somewhat defensive about it. Post-revolution, there has been much attention paid to public education and literacy, but it is likely that the accepted definition of ‘literacy’ in Cuba does not align with that of the U.S.,” Qualls said.

Sampson said she plans to utilize this abroad experience as a teaching tool in her SFA leadership courses.

“The way the community connects youth with support systems to keep them involved in their neighborhood in Cuba, especially in the area of fine arts, is something I plan to share with my students,” Sampson said. “There is a clear understanding that we are a global society and that decisions made by one country impact others.”

Qualls and Sampson also traveled to Puerto Rico where they presented research at the International Council of Professors of Educational Leadership 71st annual Summer Conference.

By Kasi Dickerson, senior marketing communications specialist at Stephen F. Austin State University.