17 minute read
Professor’s chaLLenge igniTes sTudenT caring
Tarleton grieves loss of Dr. Christopher Guthrie
Dr. Christopher E. Guthrie, longtime Tarleton State University professor of history and head of the Department of Social Sciences, passed away Monday, Nov. 3. He was 65.
Guthrie joined the Tarleton faculty in 1982 as an assistant professor of history, teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses including the history of western civilization, the French Revolution and imperial Russia, and topics in modern European history. He married fellow Tarleton faculty member Dr. Teresa Davidian, head of Tarleton’s Department of Fine Arts, on June 19, 1998, in Boston, Mass.
Guthrie authored or had scholarly articles appear in more than 15 publications, including a book, The Legacy of John Tarleton: The History of Tarleton State University, 1899-1999. He reviewed and presented multiple papers at various conferences across the United States. At the time of his death, he was completing a book on Philippe Egalitý.
The Faculty Fellows selected Guthrie to give the inaugural Last Lecture, which drew more than 600 current and former students, faculty, staff and family members just weeks before his death.
Dr. Joseph Gillespie, professor of kinesiology, is one of 11 faculty members in The Texas A&M University System named as a 2015 recipient of the Chancellor’s Academy of Teacher Educators. The academy recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the field of teacher education and highlights the role of the A&M System in producing K-12 teachers for the state of Texas.
Gillespie, who came to Tarleton in 1973 as head track coach and assistant football coach, was chair of the Department of Health and Physical Education, athletics director and spent 16 years in university administrative capacities, including dean of the College of Education.
Faculty Focus
Dr. Joanna Shaw
Professor’s challenge ignites student caring
By M A ry G. S A lTA r E lli
Assistant Professor Dr. Joanna Shaw challenged students in her Business Ethics class last fall to join together as a cohesive group and accomplish a project that would directly impact someone’s life. How students answered the challenge amazed and touched her, the project’s honorees, and even President F. Dominic Dottavio, who awarded Shaw a Tarleton Core Values Coin for Civility.
“I want students to learn that they can impact the world and that one small idea can snowball and grow,” Shaw said. “There is a disconnect between what goes on in class and the reality of the world. My job as a teacher is to tie in class material with what happens outside the classroom.”
The 23 students in Shaw’s class decided to honor two Environmental Service staff members who toil to maintain campus buildings every day. Students honored Rose Sullivan, who works in the College of Business Administration building, and Richard Dorman, who maintains athletics facilities.
Students wrote notes of appreciation to Rose and Richard and raised money for them as tokens of appreciation for their work. Word quickly spread across campus, and Shaw’s students collected
hundreds of personal notes of appreciation and $1,200.
Just before Thanksgiving last year, Shaw’s students invited Rose and Richard to a potluck breakfast during their 8 a.m. class. Students personally escorted them, made speeches and presented their collection of notes and donations to the honorees.
“It was heart-touching,” said Eduardo Rodriguez, a 49-year-old senior Business Administration major in the class. “And it gave me a lot of hope for our future to see Dr. Shaw creating tomorrow’s business leaders by teaching young students to care for others.”
Shaw, who is the new head of the Department of Management, Marketing and Administrative Systems, believes in building a “we mentality” in her classrooms so students learn “to network without their smart phones.”
“I try to make my classes personal. If you learn in a way that’s personal, it teaches you how to professionally interact,” Shaw said. “I believe in mentoring and talking to students—that’s why I’m a professor.”
Rodriguez said that Shaw really cares about her students, and that motivates them to succeed. Every Monday evening, Shaw and her husband, Cory, and their twin girls, Allie and Ella, invite eight to 12 Tarleton students to dinner in their home, where they sit down at the table together over a home cooked meal and share what is going on in their lives.
“We want to give these college students a sense of family, because most of them are far from home,” Shaw said. “I want to be open when a student needs someone to invest in them with counseling.”
Shaw also strives to teach students community involvement. Through the honor society Delta Mu Delta and the Society for Human Resource Management, Shaw and Dr. Reggie Hall, assistant professor of management, initiated an annual community-wide drive, conducted by students, where they collect items for Ronald McDonald House in Fort Worth. “Students learn that life outside of school can be rich and powerful when combined with an education,” Shaw said. “And that they can really impact people’s lives for the positive.”
To see a video about the class projects, visit www.tarleton/shaw.
To hear Dr. Shaw talk about her classes at Tarleton, visit www.tarleton/unscripted
Heroic student earns Good Samaritan Award
Tarleton President F. Dominic Dottavio recognized the selfless actions of Blake Pryor during the annual General Assembly by presenting the 21-year-old student with the Good Samaritan Award for Extraordinary Humanitarian Service.
Pryor, a junior from Georgetown, Texas, majoring in criminal justice, was heralded by Round Rock Police as a hero when he stopped along a busy highway to aid a woman who was threatening to end her life atop an interstate overpass. Because of Pryor’s decision to stop and aid the complete stranger, he prevented the distressed woman from taking her own life, according to officers.
On hand for the presentation were the student’s parents, Glenn and Deneice Pryor, his grandmother, an aunt and his girlfriend.
Once he graduates from Tarleton with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, Pryor said he plans to enroll in a police academy and pursue a career in law enforcement. President Dominic Dottavio with Blake Pryor
TiAEr director tapped for Texas agriculture post
Dan Hunter, former executive director for the Texas Institute for Applied Environmental Research (TIAER) at Tarleton, has been tapped as assistant commissioner for water and rural affairs within the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA).
Texas Agriculture Commissioner and former Texas state representative Sid Miller, a Tarleton alumnus, announced Hunter’s appointment.
Hunter served two years as assistant director for TIAER before being named executive director in 2008. The institute was established by the Texas Legislature in 1991 to “provide national leadership on emerging environmental policy, especially agriculture water issues.” Hunter has worked with national constituencies, including federal agencies, Congress, and producer and consumer organizations.
Tarleton students (from left) Demetrio Navarette, Alex Luce, Alyssa Lahmon and Jacob James prepare water filters for distribution. W hen Dr. Sandy Graham traveled to Ethiopia in northeast Africa eight years ago, the poor children she saw tugged at her heart. “Their living conditions are way below poverty level. Many Ethiopians are homeless; they wear rags and can’t practice hygiene,” said Graham, professor of agricultural and consumer sciences. “Those who are fortunate to have homes live in metal and tin boxes with dirt floors, and they cook over open fires burning eucalyptus wood.”
After that initial eye-opening trip, Graham developed a program to help Ethiopians through a connection between Tarleton’s Texas Institute for Applied Environmental Research and Jewish Voice Ministries International.
Each fall, she takes Tarleton students to Gondar, a city and district in northwest Ethiopia. Students volunteer at temporary medical clinics run by the non-profit ministries, educating Ethiopians on improving their water quality and sanitation.
Ethiopian Outreach
For five days, Graham and her students distribute water filters and instruct citizens on proper use and care. For students, the Ethiopian Outreach Program opens the door to a whole new world as they are immersed in a culture far beyond what they know. “If you watch the students, they transform right in front of you,” Graham said. “They go from unbelieving shock at the living conditions to an awareness that they can help people there. Hopefully they come home feeling they can make a difference in the world.”
The filters students distribute are LifeStraws© , manufactured by Vestergaard, an international company. One personal LifeStraw filters enough water to last a year.
In 2013, students distributed 3,500 filters. They asked Gondar residents to bring the used filters back in a year when the clinic returned and trade them in for new straws. Last fall, 36 Ethiopians returned their LifeStraws. Tarleton students and Dr. Sandy Graham (far right) pose with a group of Ethiopians.
Ethiopian Outreach
Applied Learning Experience
The used straws yielded important information that graduate student Kalyn Brymer collected during last year’s trip. She is compiling the data to determine if the straws are preventing illness caused by waterborne contaminates.
Brymer conveyed her conclusions in a scientific poster presentation in April at an agricultural education conference in The Netherlands. She believes her data will reflect that Tarleton’s outreach is having a positive impact on the people of Ethiopia and their sanitation and hygiene.
“My experiences in Ethiopia changed who I am and the way I feel about how one person or group can change things in the world,” Brymer said.
Undergraduate students earn three credits when they participate in the annual Ethiopian Outreach Applied Learning Experience and the program is open to students of all colleges and majors.
Junior International Business major Alex Luce said she experienced last year’s trip from a commercial perspective, because she learned about companies like Vestergaard that manufacture and distribute products for people in disadvantaged countries.
“When I realized I was there to make a difference for the betterment of the people of Gondar and Ethiopia, it made me excited for my future,” Luce said. “I know I have this opportunity, and I’ll be able to work improving other countries for the rest of my life.”
Tarleton student give a demonstration on using the water filters that provide clean water.
Tarleton Mentor Cody Propps (left) helps Fosters Home resident Jarrett return his show pig to its pen after clipping it ahead of the Erath County Junior Livestock Show.
The Steel Barn Sanctuary
that Tarleton Mentors Built
By KU rT M o G ony E
Just north of Stephenville off Highway 108 sits a steel barn where lessons are learned and lives changed. Four volunteers guide 15 Fosters Home boys and girls in raising livestock for show, teaching skills and responsibilities in caring for pigs, lambs, goats and rabbits.
Started by community volunteer Ricky Caudle, the project benefits from Tarleton Mentors Cody Propps, Izzy Ostert and Lindsey Rogers. Tarleton Mentors, established in 2007 by students who enjoyed working with livestock, unites students of varied academic disciplines as volunteers at Fosters Home.
The Mentors connect to children with issues ranging from neglect and abuse to abandonment. The partnership has a major impact on both the college students and the Fosters youths.
“When we began volunteering we hoped to see the kids compete as normal 4-H’ers,” Propps said. “Our goal was to have the kids live as normal a family-oriented life as we could.”
Propps plans to teach, and credits his volunteer work with showing him how “to teach all kinds of kids. These kids have experienced a horrible background. Some have amazing stories to tell, some you don’t want to hear. It’s about being able to relate to these kids with perceived problems and behavior issues. I’m still learning from them, and what these kids have taught me the most is to love all kids.”
One evening in mid-January as Propps and fellow mentors prepared for the Erath County Junior Livestock Show, 17-yearold Matthew Chapman, a Stephenville High School junior, gazed intently at his mentor’s hand strokes, as his clippers neatly trimmed a pig’s head and snout. “Can I try?” asks Matthew. Like a seasoned showman, he smoothes the edges to a perfect trim before brushing the show pig and releasing him back to the pens.
Two days later, Matthew and the Fosters Home Show Team, armed with the know-how to guide their prized animals in the ring past the discerning eyes of the judge, showcased their livestock, winning ribbons.
From left, Fosters Home resident Matthew gets help clipping his pig from Tarleton Mentors Cody Propps and Lindsey Rogers. James, a Fosters Home resident has taken on a livestock project for the past seven years with the help from the Mentors.
“This is the first year we had every single kid and every animal make the sale at county,” said Ostert, a first-year Tarleton Mentor and sophomore pre-vet major. “We didn’t have any goats place below fourth.”
A few weeks later, the Mentors loaded the trailer and hauled the Fosters’ livestock to major shows, including Fort Worth and San Antonio, where two pigs and a goat advanced through the first sift. “Having done it against the better competition at a major show,” Propps said, “that was perfect for them.”
Interest in the program is growing and the donation of a steer will enable one young girl, who has developed a keen sense of responsibility and work ethic with smaller animals, to take on the steer project.
“We also have a couple summer pigs the boys will get to show at the Texas State Fair,” Propps said. “There’s a group of boys, all five will be seniors, so we want to go out with a bang. We’ll take lambs and pigs to the State Fair for the first time ever.”
After receiving his bachelor’s degree in May, Propps plans to pursue a master’s in educational administration and continue volunteering. “The thing about teachers, we don’t do it for our own success. We do it to make a change and have an impact on a child’s life.”
“We’re not just here for the stock show,” Propps said. “After show season, I’ve been to these kids’ choir concerts, a soccer game and a band recital. We’re ultimately there to give our support like a normal family, and show our love for them.”
“You see the kids in their best moments and their worst moments,” Ostert says, “and they just look up to you. I work and go to school but I’m my happiest when I’m here at the barn with the kids.”
For the children entering the show ring, the volunteers have an enormous impact, said Fosters Home’s Derrick Bam, vice president of children’s services. “The Tarleton Mentors give our children a sense of perspective. They bring this mindset to our kids: ‘I can think about my future and this is what the future looks like.’”
“A lot of them don’t believe they’ll graduate high school, and the idea of going to college is often beyond them,” Bam continued. “Having the Mentors gives them a living example of future possibilities after putting forth hard work and taking responsibility.” David Asbill, Fosters Home’s chief operating officer, says the Tarleton Mentors have aided behavioral changes and provided a sense of stability in the children’s lives.
“Because a lot of our kids come from traumatic backgrounds, which can cause mistrust with other humans, it’s easier for them to take the first steps with a show animal,” Asbill said. “Through the Mentors, they learn about relationships and can start trusting again.”
That steel barn sanctuary, where it began with just three goats and three girls, has left Ricky Caudle amazed. “I start to get choked up when I talk about these Tarleton students. For them to go to school, work, then come to the barn and help out here, become a part of these kids’ lives. They love these kids like their own family.”
Imagine driving along the Chisholm Trail Parkway, just 12 minutes from downtown Fort Worth, when on the horizon you spot a singularly impressive academic building surrounded by a bustling new community. Tarleton flags fly from poles along the lane at the hub of a new vibrant education and economic development.
Entering the building, you are impressed by the sense of motion, of organized activities, as students quietly walk toward state-of-the-art teaching classrooms, a learning commons library, a café. Signs point you to the writing center, laboratories and student services.
That’s the view planners and Tarleton officials are constructing as they prepare for a new Tarleton campus in Fort Worth on 80 acres of land donated by The Walton Group of Companies.
The “very, very generous gift” was announced by Tarleton President
Dominic Dottavio at a Sundance Square event in downtown Fort
Worth that included Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price, State Rep. Craig
Goldman, City Councilman Jungus Jordan, Texas A&M University System
Chancellor John Sharp and Walton CEO Bill Doherty.
In his remarks, Doherty explained that Walton is a family-owned and operated company founded by his parents, Patrick and Maureen, who that day, Dec. 8, was celebrating her 75th birthday.
A Vision for a Fort Worth Campus
Doherty cited the value his parents, who had never gone to college, placed on education. “My mother and father instilled in me and my siblings the principles of getting an education, of doing the right thing, of success, of setting goals and making plans in order to attain those goals.” With its generous donation, Walton has shown its commitment to the community and Tarleton. Walton strongly believes that the university campus will add to its master-planned community along the Chisholm Trail Parkway that benefits all local stakeholders. “Walton is proud to support Tarleton’s new campus, and we are confident that its presence will greatly enhance the local community while bringing even more jobs, economic development and educational opportunities to the booming Chisholm Trail Parkway growth corridor,” said John Vick, South USA regional president for Walton Development & Management. Tarleton seeks $55 million in state funding for a 125,000 square foot classroom and administration building during this legislative session. The city of Fort Worth and the North Texas Tollway Authority will partner with Tarleton and Walton to make the project a reality. While Tarleton has provided classes in Fort Worth since 1978 and now offers 48 undergraduate, graduate and certificate programs, the university leases space in several locations. As the only public university in Fort Worth providing undergraduate and graduate programs, Tarleton’s current A Vision for a enrollment of 1,600 is expected to nearly double to 3,000 by 2020. The new campus will provide state-of-the-art teaching facilities and expanded student services. It will enable the university to enhance the student-focused experience and academic quality for undergraduate and graduate students. Fort Worth Campus
Participants at the announcement of the Walton 80-acre gift at Sundance Square in Fort Worth were (from left): Walton CEO Bill Doherty, Texas A&M System Chancellor John Sharp, Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price, Tarleton President Dominic Dottavio, Fort Worth City Councilman Jungus Jordan, State Representative Craig Goldman and Walton South USA Regional President John Vick.
Later phases will add academic buildings, including space for the prestigious medical laboratory science program, a student union and dining hall, and other student service and recreation/health facilities.
The goal is to create a campus feel that fosters collegiality and a sense of community, one that engenders Tarleton pride among faculty, staff and students, and spreads that pride—planting the Tarleton flag in Fort Worth.
“This transformational gift, for the university and for our students,” said President Dottavio, “opens the gates of new opportunities for future students in the same way and in the same spirit as the legacy from our founder, John Tarleton. We are most appreciative of Walton’s most generous donation.”
As Walton CEO Doherty said, “We’re very proud to be associated with your university. Now let’s move forward and build a great campus.”
