Today@Sam Article
SHSU Update For Week Of Oct. 9
Oct. 7, 2016
SHSU Media Contact: Jennifer Gauntt
- Official Ring Order Days Scheduled For Oct. 11-14
- ProfSPEAK To Highlight Wonders Of 3-D Printing Technology
- Student Group, Center To Offer ‘Ticket’ To Financial Aid
- Graduating Artists To Showcase ‘Professional Practices’
- Reading Program To Explore Diversity Beginning Tuesday
- Registration Deadline Approaches For Bearkat Family Weekend
- Staff Council Spotlights Money Management Center Director
- Send Experts, Story Ideas Here
Official Ring Order Days Scheduled For Oct. 11-14
Sam Houston State University Students who have completed more than 75 credit hours will have the opportunity to take the first step in participating in one of SHSU’s most cherished traditions by ordering their official class rings Tuesday through Friday (Oct. 11-14).
Balfour will be set up in the Lowman Student Center Atrium from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day to place orders for SHSU official class rings.
Students who order rings at this time will be eligible to participate in the 14th annual Ring Ceremony on April 4.
The popularity of SHSU class rings has increased since the creation of the official ring in 2003 and the inception of the ring ceremony in 2004, according to Charlie Vienne, associate vice president for Alumni Relations, adding that more than 700 students participated in last spring’s ceremony.
“The ring ceremony is an important milestone and achievement in a student's educational career,” Vienne said.
“It is a short-term goal in reaching their ultimate long-term goal, a college diploma. The ring is a reminder throughout the rest of your life of the good times and friends met during your brief stay on the Sam Houston campus,” he said.
For more information, call 936.294.1841 or visit alumni.shsu.edu.
ProfSPEAK To Highlight Wonders Of 3-D Printing
The Sam Houston State University Honor’s College will host Pamela Zelbst, professor and director of SHSU’s Center for Innovation and Technology, to discuss 3-D printing technology on Wednesday (Oct.12) from 4-5:30 p.m. at the CIT.
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| Staff members and students working at SHSU's Center for Innovation and Technology devised this 3-D hand for a child who was born with only a partial hand. |
“3-D printing is a technology that has potential to impact just about all industries,” Zelbst said. “For example, in manufacturing and product development, the reduction of time to market for new products had a major impact.”
The list of benefits from 3-D printing technology is almost never ending, Zelbst said.
“The medical industry is using the technology to print medications specifically for individuals, prosthetics and human organs,” she said. ”They also produce models of organs surgeons are going to preform and operation on to familiarize themselves to the patient.”
In addition to medical uses, industries like oil and gas, space, fashion, and even food are prospering.
“The food industry has just introduced a printer called the Foodini,” she said. “It can manufacture food from powders and liquids.”
However, the new technology isn’t all smooth sailing.
“The negatives that are currently apparent include the violation of intellectual property laws,” Zelbst said. “3-D printing and scanning make it easy to reproduce someone else’s products that might be protected by a patent. “
Zelbst will discuss the technology in greater detail at her ProfSPEAK, which is a series put on through SHSU’s Honor College designed to promote undergraduate research across campus.
For more information, contact the Honors College at 936.294.1090 or honors@shsu.edu.
Student Group, Center To Offer ‘Ticket’ To Financial Aid
Beta Alpha Psi, a business honor society at Sam Houston State University, will partner with the Student Money Management Center to host a series of presentations entitled “The FAFSA: Your Ticket to Financial Aid.”
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| Members of SHSU's Beta Alpha Psi will help local teens and their families in filling out the federal financial aid form used to award college funding on Oct. 10 and Oct. 14. |
The presentations, open to high school students and their relatives, will be held on Monday (Oct. 10) and Friday (Oct. 14) at 6 p.m. in the Huntsville Public Library.
Through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, students gain access to grants, loans and work-study programs for college.
The Federal Student Aid office, which is part of the U.S. Department of Education, offers more than $150 billion each year to help millions of students pay for higher education, according to studentaid.ed.gov.
“These presentations will focus on navigating the FAFSA application, as well as tips and tricks to pay for college,” said Brenna Pospisil, Beta Alpha Psi Kappa Mu chapter vice president of community service. “They are open to all high school students and their relatives interested in starting to plan for college; it is never too early.”
Spaces are limited; therefore, participants are asked to register with Mary Kokot, Huntsville Public Library services technician for adult services and interlibrary loan, at 936.291.5471 or online at myhuntsvillelibrary.com.
Senior Artists To Showcase ‘Professional Practices’
The Sam Houston State University Department of Art’s Satellite Gallery will host a series of two-person exhibitions featuring work by seniors in professor Rebecca Finley’s “Professional Practices” class, kicking off with The Senior Preview Show on Thursday (Oct 13).
The preview show will provide a sampling of three-to-five works from each student in the class, while also offering students the chance to practice installing their works before their two-person exhibits, according to Finley, an associate professor of photography.
“Students majoring in studio art and photography take ‘Professional Practices’ in their final semester before graduation,” Finley said. “These exhibitions represent many hours of hard work and provide a capstone experience for each student.”
“The Professional Practices” series exhibits will run through Dec 3. Each will include a reception and a brief gallery talk given by the students from 6-7:30 p.m. on a designated day in the Satellite Gallery.
Upcoming exhibits include:
- Oct. 18-22: Nicole Portillo and Rubi Ramirez will present paintings dealing with controlled chaos and realism versus expressionism. Their reception will be on Oct. 18.
- Oct. 27-29: Mallorie Giasson and Shelby Coleman will exhibit work dealing with gender, miscommunication and mistakes. Their reception will be Oct. 27.
- Nov. 3-5: Ugne Kavoliunaite and Wismary Vazquez will create photographic narratives in which things are not always as they seem. Their reception will be Nov. 3.
- Nov. 8-12: Lillie Muyskens and Samuel Wagner will present work dealing with external and internal stresses. Their reception will be Nov. 10.
- Nov. 15-19: Avery Kelley and Goldie White will explore influences of music and pop culture in their paintings. Their reception will be Nov. 17.
- Dec. 1-3: Jack Delaney and Sarah Salinas will exhibit work exploring minimalism and social media. Their reception will be Dec. 1.
The Satellite Gallery is located at 1216 University Ave. in Downtown Huntsville. It is open from 4-8 p.m. on Thursdays and from noon to 5 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
All events are free and open to the public.
For more information, contact Finley at bfinley@shsu.edu or 936.294.3418.
Reading Program To Explore Diversity On Tuesday
The Sam Houston State University College of Humanities and Social Sciences will launch its Diversity Reading Program on Tuesday (Oct. 11) with Ta-Nehisi Coates’s “Between the World and Me.”
The discussion, which will begin at 4:30 p.m. in CHSS Building Room C070, will unpack the 176-page memoir in which Coates describes his experiences as a black man in America and how those experiences shaped his thinking on race, racism and systemic violence.
The reading program, organized by associate professor of history Jeff Littlejohn and assistant professor of German Ervin Malakaj, is designed to foster sustained and transformative dialogue about important topics of our time.
The professors hope that the reading program will bring the campus community together, while providing readers with “the necessary language to tackle important issues we can’t address on our own,” Malakaj said.
“Folks coming together to exchange viewpoints, learn from one another, and find ways to do so over pressing issues of our time is at the core of the diversity mission of our college,” he said. “We hope this personal story will help our university community encourage empathy across lines of difference and face the pervasive racism in our world.”
“We hope that the book will help reveal the profound effect that race has had on our everyday lives, from our neighborhood housing arrangements and our school enrollment patterns, to our video-game narratives and our popular music selections, and even to our stop-and-frisk practices and our incarceration rates,” Littlejohn said.
For more information, contact Littlejohn at jll004@shsu.edu or Malakaj at emalakaj@shsu.edu.
Registration Deadline Approaches For Family Weekend
Families looking to make the journey to Sam Houston State University for a weekend of activities that highlight campus life have until Tuesday to register for Bearkat Family Weekend.
The traditional event, scheduled for Oct. 28-30, will allow participants to interact with various campus entities, learn about student organizations and attend sporting events.
Friday activities include campus tours; free access to the Recreational Sports Center; a pep rally featuring the football team, spirit team and pep band; and the Program Council's Loteria in the Lowman Student Center Ballroom.
On Saturday, attendees will be able to meet with SHSU’s leadership for “Coffee with the Administrators” and attend the Alumni Association’s annual reception on the Ragsdale Visitor and Alumni Center’s patio, as well as participate in activities that showcase SHSU’s different colleges, a classic car show, the Bearkat Alley tailgate, and the football game against Texas Southern University at Elliott T. Bowers Stadium.
The weekend will wrap up on Sunday with an interdenominational Christian worship service at the Farrington Pit.
A list of events and accommodations are available on the Bearkat Family Weekend website, and members of the SHSU Parents Association can receive various discounts around Huntsville with their membership card.
Bearkat Family Weekend costs $15 per person, and tickets for the football game must be purchased separately at gobearkats.com.
For more information, or to register, visit shsu.edu/weekend.
Staff Council Spotlights Money Management Director
Patsy Collins, director of the Sam Houston State University Student Money Management Center, received a basket of goodies and a certificate of appreciation as the Staff Council’s September Spotlight on Staff selection.
Collins began her career at SHSU as a College of Business Administration student assistant. After graduating, she left Huntsville to work in the energy industry for 10 years, but returned 12 years ago as a full-time staff member, performing duties such as coordinating summer camps and serving as the accountant and a senior counselor in the Financial Aid Office.
“This (energy industry experience), combined with my experience in Financial Aid, gives me a unique perspective in being able to assist SHSU students in learning how to develop income streams, set goals and budget their money to aggregate wealth,” she said.
Collins also has participated on a number of committees, including Foster, Orphan, Ward of Court; Common Reader; Study Abroad Scholarships; Re-Imagining the First Year; and Annual Fund.
She also is a member of the St. Thomas Catholic Church, for which she has served in various capacities, and is a member of the Huntsville Leadership Initiative’s Class No. 35.
Collins is one of three generations of Bearkats.
“My father E. Doyle Wright, my daughter Clair,and I all received our undergraduate and master’s degrees from SHSU,” Collins said. “My husband Roger and I are both SHSU alumni. We met in Management 381 and have been married 34 years. We love being Bearkats.”
Collins said working with students helps her stay motivated because she understands the importance of money in our everyday lives.
“Money is personal and research shows that adult learners require that topics be relevant and timely,” Collins said. “The SMMC constantly adjusts curriculum topics to meet these needs. We work with students to discern which financial topics to highlight throughout the year.”
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For more information, call 936.294.1836.
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