Everything Nac

The Stephen F. Austin State University Alumni Association announced that Zachary McSwain of Spring and Morgan Pulliam of Dallas have been selected as recipients of the 2017 Mr. and Miss SFA Award.

The Mr. SFA Award was established in honor of the late Stan McKewen, a 1934 SFA graduate. The Arnodean Covin Miss SFA Award honors the late alumna who was named Miss SFA in 1940, 1941 and 1942.

A 2013 graduate of Klein Collins High School, McSwain, who received the Stan McKewen Mr. SFA Award, is a senior history major and the son of Randall and Susette McSwain.

“Zach has demonstrated exceptional leadership in his contributions to the university, its students and our community,” Lacey Folsom, associate director of student engagement at SFA, said. “He truly exemplifies the Lumberjack spirit, tirelessly giving his time and energy to show others the value of an SFA education. He is an excellent role model for all students.”

McSwain serves as secretary of the SFA Traditions Council, co-founder and former president of the SFA League of Legends Club, and is a member of the History Club. He also has made the College of Liberal and Applied Arts Dean’s List.

Additionally, McSwain has volunteered with The Big Event and works as a student technician for SFA’s Technical Support Center.

“SFA has shown me more than just the college experience. I discovered that this university is rich in culture and tradition. Through all these things, I have become more than a student. I have become a true Lumberjack,” McSwain said.

Pulliam, recipient of the Arnodean Covin Miss SFA Award, is a 2013 graduate of Newman Smith High School. She is a senior psychology major and the daughter of Joy Pulliam. She also is a first-generation college student.

“Without SFA, I do not know where I would be,” Pulliam said. “I have met so many people and made so many connections, which wouldn’t have happened without my campus involvement. SFA is in my heart and soul. I eat, sleep and bleed purple.”

Pulliam is active in many community and SFA-related clubs, organizations and associations, including serving as student director of the Purple Haze Association, student instructor for SFA 101 and Jack Camp counselor.

She has served as president and vice president of New Opportunities for Romanian Orphan Children. She also has served as an SFA Orientation leader, and volunteered with the Nacogdoches Animal Shelter, The Big Event and SFA’s food pantry.

“Morgan is welcoming, approachable, personable, a leader and a true SFA Lumberjack,” said Dr. Hollie G. Smith, assistant dean of student affairs for programs at SFA. “The list of organizations she is involved in as a member and/or leader is something to admire. She takes on each new task with a lens of going above and beyond.”

SFA’s Alumni Association awards the Mr. and Miss SFA titles annually to exemplary students who represent and promote the university. Recipients are selected based on their scholarship, participation and leadership in academic and co-curricular activities, and citizenship, service and loyalty to the university. A committee of faculty and staff members, community leaders and alumni makes the selections.

A reception announcing the public opening of The Rusk Family Letters — a new collection representing Texas historical figures Thomas J. Rusk and his brother, David Rusk — will be held at 1 p.m. Monday, Jan. 30, in the East Texas Research Center, located on the second floor of the Steen Library on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus.

SFA’s Board of Regents approved the purchase of the collection, which contains about 1,000 items, from members of the Rusk family. The family generously donated approximately 600 additional items, and ETRC staff members have been diligently working since then to prepare the materials for public presentation.

“I have finished organizing the purchased materials,” said Kyle Ainsworth, ETRC special collections librarian. “Now, I’m organizing and describing the donated materials so that I can integrate them with the purchased items and create one collection.”

The collection contains Republic of Texas historical materials that have been in the Rusk family since the 1830s and includes several legal and personal documents of Thomas J. Rusk, a political and military leader of the Republic of Texas who served as its first secretary of war and as a general in the Battle of San Jacinto. He was later a U.S. politician and served as a senator from Texas.

Comprising the majority of the collection are documents addressed to David Rusk, Thomas’ brother, who served as a Nacogdoches County sheriff and tax collector during the Republic period. Additional documents in the collection include letters addressed to David’s son, John, as well as other family members. There also are important county records, including delinquent tax rolls from the 1830s, several of David’s civil and criminal sheriff’s docket books, and receipts for the construction of the county’s courthouse.

According to Ainsworth, the materials help tell the story of Nacogdoches as well as the Republic of Texas and are an intimate picture of the Rusk family’s private lives and public service.

“The highlights of the collection are the 60 letters received by David Rusk from his older brother, several rare maps and appointments signed by various presidents of the Republic of Texas naming David Rusk sheriff of Nacogdoches County,” Ainsworth said. “One of the appointments signed by Sam Houston in 1837 is exceptional because David Rusk was the first sheriff Houston appointed in Texas.”

In one letter penned by Thomas in 1835, he lets David know that a mail route to Nacogdoches has just been established via Fort Jessup in Louisiana. In another letter, Thomas tells David that he has just arrived at the Capitol, sat in his senate seat and will shortly meet with President James K. Polk.

Four letters addressed to David from various veterans of the Battle of San Jacinto ask him to provide details on how they may obtain a Texas Revolution Service Pension.

“The cursive writing from the 19th century can be difficult to read,” Ainsworth said. “During the reception, we will display mostly documents where the noteworthy feature is an important signature that everyone can recognize and appreciate as having value, including signatures from Presidents of the Republic of Texas Sam Houston, Mirabeau Lamar and Anson Jones.” The ETRC will exhibit these noteworthy items outside of their offices.

The opening reception coincides with SFA’s Board of Regents winter board meeting. There will be several speakers, including SFA President Baker Pattillo.

The reception is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

The Rusk collection will be housed inside the ETRC and available for research beginning Feb. 1 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. The exhibit of noteworthy documents is located outside the ETRC and viewable during library hours, 7 a.m. to midnight Monday through Thursday; 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday; and noon to midnight Sunday.

For more information about the reception, contact April Smith at (936) 468-2278. Contact Ainsworth at (936) 468-1590 for additional information about the collection.

New music to the repertoire for trumpet and piano will be featured when Stephen Campbell, visiting professor of trumpet in the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Music, performs at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

The program will feature works of Henri Tomasi, Michael Daugherty and Kevin McKee. Pianist Dr. Ron Petti, director of accompanying for the School of Music, will join Campbell on the program.

The Tomasi Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra is an edition Campbell wrote that augments the piano reduction by including the original percussion parts, which are not able to be replicated from the keyboard, Campbell wrote in his program notes.

“This augmentation will provide a more accurate realization of the composition,” Campbell said. “While the Tomasi Concerto was composed in 1948, this performance will be the first of the augmented version, of which I am aware.”

Daugherty’s “The Lightning Fields” highlights famous locations of Griffith Observatory, The Lightning Field, Marfa Lights and Times Square. The piece utilizes both trumpet and flugelhorn to help depict these titled locations, which are ‘nocturnal fields of natural or artificial light phenomena found in North America.’

McKee’s “Centennial Horizon” features two contrasting movements depicting two specific areas in Colorado – Aspen Grove and Roaring Gunnison.

The recital is part of the SFA 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 (888) 240-ARTS or visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu.

Make plans to join the staff members of Stephen F. Austin State University’s SFA Gardens for a public seminar offering the opportunity to learn, serve and break bread with fellow gardeners from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Feb. 4, at the SFA Pineywoods Native Plant Center, located at 2900 Raguet St.

Dawn Stover, research associate at SFA Gardens, will discuss her favorite garden vegetables that are best suited for the East Texas climate, and Jocelyn Moore, assistant education coordinator at SFA Gardens, will explore the technique of “lasagna gardening,” a method used to build rich soil with little cost.

Participants will then have an opportunity to use their new knowledge while preparing beds for the Native Edibles area at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center.

“This event is modeled after the concept of a ‘permablitz,’ a tradition of coming together to learn a skill, share labor to establish gardens or infrastructure and build community,” Moore said. “The project also will help establish fertile soil in the new gardening beds for Nacogdoches Naturally, an afterschool nature club offered in conjunction with the Boy’s and Girls Club.

“Lasagna gardening, also called sheet mulching, is the process of layering organic materials that will decompose over time, similar to a compost pile. Utilizing this method and planting resilient vegetables in your garden will greatly increase the likelihood of a successful harvest. Brown and green thumbs alike are encouraged to join us for this enriching day,” Moore added.

Participants are encouraged to wear work clothes and bring a dish to share for a potluck following the seminar.

To register for the seminar, contact the SFA Gardens education office at (936) 468-1832 or sfagardens@sfasu.edu. A $5 donation is suggested.

An exhibition of work by artist Juan de Dios Mora will show Jan. 26 through March 9 in The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House in downtown Nacogdoches.

The exhibition will feature Mora’s finely detailed block prints – some printed with a single color and others featuring multi colors, according to John Handley, director of galleries for the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Art.

“Much of the work reveals the artist’s Mexican culture combined with his experience as an immigrant and American citizen living near the border,” Handley said. “Economic, social, political and cultural issues interplay in a poignant dialogue that includes tragic, humorous and absurd situations.”

Born in Yahualica, Mexico, Mora and his family immigrated to the U.S. in 1998 when he was 14. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in painting in 2009 and a Master of Fine Arts specializing in printmaking in 2011, both from the University of Texas at San Antonio. He is senior lecturer in the art department at UTSA.

Handley first met Mora when the artist was on the SFA campus giving a lecture in the print studio.

“What captured my attention when I saw his prints was the sheer beauty of his work – amazing in detail, with incredible mastery of line, depth, perspective and composition,” Handley said. “There were stunning examples of block prints, some simply printed with black ink, and some multi-colored ones, too. Only after spending time admiring the technical aspects of his work did I begin to notice the content.”

The artist will be present for the exhibition’s closing reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, March 9.

The show is sponsored in part by the SFA Friends of the Visual Arts, the Nacogdoches Junior Forum and the Texas Commission on the Arts, which is the state affiliate for the National Endowment for the Arts. Admission is free for all art exhibitions and receptions.

The Cole Art Center, SFA’s historic gallery, is located at 329 E. Main St. For information, call (936) 468-1131.

Members of Stephen F. Austin State University’s Hunger Jacks organization and volunteers collected more than 620 items during a food drive as part of the university’s Martin Luther King Day of Service on Jan. 16.

The collected food will be stored in the Food for Thought Food Pantry on the university’s campus, which provides supplemental healthy food to SFA students who are experiencing food insecurities.

Hunger Jacks is a student organization that operates the pantry and works to alleviate hunger in Nacogdoches and at SFA by working with SFA Dining Services and by raising awareness, food and funds through food drives and events.

Tamia Garrett, a SFA Houston sophomore and Hunger Jacks treasurer, helped collect donations around campus and was pleased with the drive’s success.

“It always makes me happy when we get donations to stock the pantry,” Garrett said. “I see a lot of people who need the pantry. It’s exciting when the pantry is full because people can get items they normally wouldn’t be able to.”

Thirty students participated in the food drive by collecting items from various departments on campus. The targeted food items were rice, rice sides, pasta, pasta sides, macaroni and cheese, spaghetti sauce and spices.

Joy Hammonds, Hunger Jacks adviser, served as the site coordinator for the drive and said participation in SFA’s MLK Day of Service provided a multitude of opportunities for students, including bringing awareness to hunger and food insecurities as they relate to college students and the community while stocking the pantry for the upcoming semester.

“It was an opportunity for students to get involved in a service project that impacts their peers,” Hammonds said. “This project allows the entire SFA campus to become part of a program that directly impacts our students. Whether they are volunteering, utilizing the food pantry or both, I have seen the difference Food for Thought has made.”

The Food for Thought Food Pantry is open from 3 to 6 p.m. Mondays and is located on the third floor of the Baker Pattillo Student Center, Room 3.201.

Students must bring their SFA campus ID to receive food and must check-in when collecting items. Students can visit the pantry once a week. The pantry is supported by charitable contributions and donations, and food drives occur year-round to help keep the pantry stocked.