Everything Nac

Stephen F. Austin State University’s SFA Gardens will host its annual Fabulous Fall Festival Plant Sale from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 1, at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center, 2900 Raguet St., in historic Nacogdoches.

The sale will feature a variety of hard-to-find, “Texas-tough” plants, including Texas natives, heirlooms, tropicals, perennials, shrubs, trees and exclusive SFA introductions. Most of the featured plants are extensively trialed before being offered to the public and are produced by staff members and volunteers of the SFA Gardens.

This popular event benefits the SFA Mast Arboretum, PNPC, Ruby M. Mize Azalea Garden and Gayla Mize Garden, along with educational programs that are hosted monthly at the gardens. Educational programs provided at the SFA Gardens reach more than 15,000 participants annually.

Parking will be available at SFA’s Janice A. Pattillo Early Childhood Research Center, 2428 Raguet St., and visitors are encouraged to arrive early and bring a wagon for their plants.

For more information and a list of available plants, call (936) 468-4404 or visit www.sfagardens.sfasu.edu two weeks before the sale.

Kaitlyn Piscadlo, marketing manager at Cotton Incorporated, visited Stephen F. Austin State University Thursday, Sept. 8, to discuss the company’s Blue Jeans Go Green project, which is a recycle program encouraging people to donate denim to be “upcycled” into UltraTouch denim insulation.

This is the third year SFA has partnered with Cotton Incorporated to collect denim. Jamie Cupit, fashion merchandising instructor in SFA’s School of Human Sciences, is helping coordinate the project on campus along with students in her fashion promotion course.

During her presentation, Piscadlo reviewed the company’s goals and mission and discussed ways the company can help students during the denim drive. SFA students hope to collect more than 10,000 pieces of denim this fall. Students will have a table set up for donations from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 20 and Oct. 4 outside the Baker Pattillo Student Center on the SFA campus.

Stephen F. Austin State University recently launched a new scholarship management system to help provide students with a streamlined tool to search and apply for scholarships.

AcademicWorks, a comprehensive, integrated scholarship management system, simplifies awarding scholarships and facilitates the move toward centralizing the university’s scholarship management in SFA’s Office of Student Financial Assistance.

Tammy Mitchum, assistant director of SFA’s Office of Student Financial Assistance, said the university awards thousands of scholarships totaling approximately $8 million per academic year, which includes university- and donor-based scholarships.

Donor-based scholarships are endowed by a donor, alumni or outside entity. The online AcademicWorks scholarship application provides hyperlinks where students can click to learn more information about donors.

“Many scholarships have faces behind the funding, so the donor page provides a way for applicants to read about the people who make these funds available,” Mitchum said.

Nightly updates in AcademicWorks provide further advantages. AcademicWorks integrates with SFA’s Banner enterprise resource planning system, which allows users to be matched more efficiently with scholarships.

The Banner system stores information about students, including their majors and minors. If a student changes his or her major, that information is entered into Banner and is then automatically updated nightly in AcademicWorks. Since different majors allow for different scholarships, students might be eligible to receive scholarships based on the new major.

The software targets the 2017-18 general scholarship application process, which opened Sept. 1, 2016, and closes Feb. 1, 2017. The general application, which matches students with available scholarships, is now shorter, taking less time to complete. The AcademicWorks system also is better able to match students with scholarships pertaining to their specific major or other scholarship-based criteria.

“Scholarships are essential to help SFA students further their education and limit their loans,” Mitchum said. “Scholarships also help us attract high-quality students who are dedicated to their education. This new system will be easier and faster for students to use.”

To view and apply for scholarships, visit mySFA or sfasu.academicworks.com.