Everything Nac

Ireland Bramhall of Ennis has been appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott to serve as student regent for Stephen F. Austin State University during the 2020-21 academic year.

“I love SFA, so to be able to have an impact on the university at a deeper level is something that I’ve wanted since I stepped foot here my first day of freshman year,” said Bramhall, a hospitality administration senior.

The SFA Board of Regents comprises 10 members appointed by the governor, including a non-voting student regent.

“The fact that they have this position says a lot about their interest in student input,” Bramhall said. “To be able to represent the public from the student’s perspective is really unique. I can help make the student body heard in situations where it would be unheard otherwise.”

With a pandemic, unemployment and civil unrest, Bramhall, an advocate for diversity, knows college students may have another turbulent academic year ahead.

“As the university faces issues, I’m looking forward to being there alongside it to try to help everyone feel comfortable,” she said. “This is home for the students for four years, and it’s really important that it’s a place where students feel comfortable and welcome and ultimately excited to be here.”

In addition to her regent role, Bramhall helps recruit prospective students as a School of Human Sciences ambassador and serves as a student director of The Big Event, Nacogdoches County’s largest day of community service. She also participates in SFA Dance Marathon to help raise money for Christus Trinity Mother Frances Health Hospital, which is the Children’s Miracle Network hospital in Tyler.

Bramhall said finding a way to maintain student involvement in activities like these despite the pandemic is an issue she wants to address as a student regent.

“I feel like I have been successful at SFA because of my interactions with others, and I’ve grown as a leader because of my involvement with these groups,” she said. “The pandemic led to the cancellation of many student activities over the spring, and I’m hoping we can find creative ways to get back to pre-pandemic levels of involvement.”

With hopes of earning a master’s degree after graduation and establishing a successful career in travel and tourism, Bramhall has imagined some dream trips of her own.

First would be a day at Walt Disney World, where she completed an internship in spring 2019. The dream part is she and her immediate family would be the only guests.

But her ultimate dream vacation would be a trip to Europe, including her namesake island, with her immediate family and “Taylor Swift. I’ve loved her since second grade.”

Bramhall’s first official duty was attending the board’s special-called meeting June 23.

By Jo Gilmore, marketing communications specialist at Stephen F. Austin State University.

Stephen F. Austin State University recently added eight more certified public managers to the ranks through its nationally accredited certified public manager program, hosted by SFA’s Department of Government.

Since the program’s inception at SFA in 2002, more than 160 working public administrators have completed it to join nearly 2,000 certified public managers in Texas.

The CPM program trains public and nonprofit managers in the ethical values, technical competencies and management skills associated with public service.

Recent graduates are Reggie Cooper, Marshall fire chief; David Craft, Lindale finance director; Sereca Huff-Huggins, Van secretary; Ellie Monteaux, Livingston city secretary and assistant city manager; Laure Morgan, Hemphill city manager; Theresa Bell, Teague city administrator; Kyle Roadcap, Longview water department supervisor; and Brannon Robertson, White Oak patrol lieutenant. The graduates will be recognized during a ceremony at the Texas capitol.

“The nationally accredited program is designed for working professionals seeking to improve their leadership skills and enhance their opportunities for promotion into management positions,” said Dr. Richard Herzog, SFA professor of public administration and CPM program director.

According to Herzog, the CPM curriculum comprises seven courses or tracks designed to help build working public administrators’ skills in managing real-world public management challenges. The program entails 175 contact hours of management training and education. Topics covered include personnel administration, managing for quality, public financing and budgeting, productivity and program evaluation, and information systems for managers.

In addition to completing the coursework, each participant is expected to complete an applied research practicum and capstone research paper. Herzog said the research papers would be considered for future publication in the online journal Certified Public Manager Applied Research, which is published and hosted by SFA’s Steen Library.

More information about SFA’s CPM program and registration for future sessions is available at sfasu.edu/academics/colleges/liberal-applied-arts/government/academics/certified-public-manager.

By Emily Brown, marketing communications specialist at Stephen F. Austin State University.

The Wildlife Society, an international professional organization of leaders in wildlife science, named the Stephen F. Austin State University student chapter as its national 2020 Student Chapter of the Year.

The annual award recognizes exceptional achievements by student chapters in the promotion of professional standards, outreach and education, as well as advocacy for conservation policy decisions.

“To be recognized across the nation is a huge compliment to our officers and students,” said Jake Hill, forest wildlife management major and president of the SFA student chapter of The Wildlife Society. “It’s a testament to the quality of our college, our forest wildlife program and the university itself.”

Earlier this year the chapter received statewide recognition when it was named Student Chapter of the Year by the Texas Chapter of The Wildlife Society.

Hill said during the past year the student chapter focused on developing its student membership as active wildlife professionals.

One of the chapter’s most public initiatives was the development of a policy program to advocate for the bipartisan Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, which would make supplemental funds available to states for the management of wildlife most in need of conservation. These efforts included writing letters and conducting education campaigns, communicating with state representatives and partnering with other conservation organizations to advance the bill.

In addition, the chapter amplified partnerships with other conservation organizations, such as the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the National Wild Turkey Federation and other smaller nongovernmental organizations.

This spring, the chapter completed a wetland restoration project with Conservation Equity Partners, a local SFA alumni-owned environmental consulting firm. Through this partnership, the chapter planted more than 5,000 trees and gave away approximately 10,000 trees to the public.

“The students involved with the SFA student chapter of The Wildlife Society are outstanding ambassadors for SFA and are well known for their willingness to serve the profession and the community,” said Dr. Hans Williams, dean of SFA’s Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture.

The SFA chapter also donated a portion of its annual fundraising proceeds to assist a newly formed student chapter of The Wildlife Society at another Texas university.

“This award recognizes the hard work of the highly motivated and professional students we have in our program,” said Dr. Daniel Scognamillo, associate professor of forest wildlife management and faculty advisor for the SFA student chapter of The Wildlife Society.

Winning chapters receive a plaque, as well as a $1,000 travel grant to attend the annual Wildlife Society Conference. The name of the chapter also will be added to a permanent plaque on display at The Wildlife Society’s headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland. The SFA student chapter will be recognized at the national conference held virtually in September.

To learn more about the SFA student chapter of The Wildlife Society, its mission and current initiatives, email sfasuthewildlifesociety@gmail.com.

Story by Sarah Fuller, outreach coordinator for Stephen F. Austin State University’s Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture. Contact information: (936) 468-1185 or fullersa@sfasu.edu.

The Stephen F. Austin State University School of Theatre will present William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” live online for three consecutive nights starting June 30 and in a recorded version the following three days, July 3 through 5.

Selected for the School of Theatre’s virtual SummerStage Festival, “The Tempest” is a story of isolation and loss, but it is also about the power of life to continue and of humanity to recover. The script blends tragedy, comedy, songs and magic.

Nightly live performances are at 7:30. To purchase online access, visit boxoffice.sfasu.edu or call (936) 468-6407 for online purchasing questions.

With so many youth camps being canceled this summer, the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Music has a camp that offers online piano instruction that can be enjoyed from the safety of one’s own home.

Registration for the Piano in the Pines virtual camp has been extended to Friday, July 3, for the week-long camp, July 20 through 24, for junior high and high school pianists. Camp director Mario Ajero, professor of piano pedagogy at SFA, used the success of the SFA Music Preparatory Division’s virtual spring recitals for inspiration to take the traditional piano camp online.

“When COVID-19 prevented our Music Prep students from having their traditional end-of-the-semester recitals in our recital halls, I came up with the idea of putting together a virtual recital where we would collect pre-recorded performance videos from the students’ homes,” Ajero said. “We would then broadcast those videos on a Facebook Live event so that family members and friends even outside of East Texas could celebrate the students’ accomplishments. The success of these SFA Music Prep virtual recitals inspired me to shift the Piano in the Pines Camp to an online format that would include private lessons and classes with SFA piano faculty and culminate in a virtual recital.”

To present the camp online, ensuring faculty had the necessary computers, mobile devices, cameras and microphones to deliver positive music-learning experiences in an online format was paramount.

“Fortunately, internet speed is very reliable and fast on campus, and I feel confident that we won’t have to worry about losing connections on our end,” he said. “The biggest challenge is to make sure that the students who register have the technology and internet speeds to reliably connect with us.”

Access to a computer or mobile device with a decent microphone and camera is a requirement for students. Video conferencing programs like Zoom have given musicians the ability to adjust the audio settings to remove various filters and compression that optimize the online calls for speech. With these new settings, musical performances can be broadcast remotely over the Zoom calls in a way that is faithful to the original sound, Ajero said.

Students will receive daily private online lessons with faculty, participate in virtual duets and ensembles with other student pianists, attend online classes covering a variety of relevant topics for young pianists, and perform in the SFA Piano in the Pines Virtual Recital at the end of the week.

“The good news is that many students and their families had to adapt to online instruction during the spring,” he said. “So we feel families are more prepared for this than they ever were. We also intend on sharing some information and short tutorial videos on how to achieve the best home environment for the online music instruction that they will partake in.”

Long before COVID-19 halted in-person instruction for public schools and universities, Ajero had invested a number of years of research in remote piano teaching to the point “we’re confident that we can still offer positive music-making experiences online,” he said.

Ajero recently gave a presentation for The Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University entitled “Technology to Teach Keyboard Remotely.” He said he was surprised that close to 500 teachers and administrators from across the country registered for the webinar.

“I wish these circumstances did not force us to teach and learn in this fashion,” he said, “but it is comforting to know that we can with technology that is readily available to most people.”

Although most students prefer a traditional face-to-face camp experience that immerses them in the university environment, the response to the online camp has been good, Ajero said.

“As someone who values music education as such an integral part of a young person’s development, I feel that online piano instruction is absolutely better than no music-making experiences at all,” he said. “We aim the camp at junior high and high school piano students usually at the intermediate and advanced levels. If there are any beginner piano students interested in online lessons, they should contact the SFA Music Prep program for their summer offerings.”

Register for Piano in the Pines camp through July 3 at sfasu.edu/pianocamp. Ajero can be reached at ajeromp@sfasu.edu.