Arbor Day unites, beautifies campus

By ARIANNA FLORES eDitOr-iN-CHief

Spring is in full bloom and the last Friday of April mark’s Texas Tech’s push towards the beautification of campus.

The Student Activities Board along with Grounds and Maintenance work together to plan Arbor Day, an annual tradition, to bring color and life to our home.

Jazlyn Salazar, a firstyear biology student, a member of SAB leads this year’s Arbor Day, an event she’s planned since the beginning of February.

Though this is Salazar’s first planting tradition, she heard nothing but great things.

“I think the one thing I was excited to see everyone out there and just like to see it come to fruition, especially it being my first Arbor Day in general,” Salazar said. “I’m really excited to see (and) working with the department and different people and all this stuff to actually seeing it happen.”

The event begins at 11 a.m. April 28, with check-in for students and organizations. Participating students will receive a free T-shirt with their student ID with food to follow.

This year, Arbor Day festivities will honor Tech’s Centennial with the grounds workers planting white pentas flowers in the shape of a 100.

With about 2,300 students along with 129 organizations signed up, Tech grounds and maintenance confirmed about 3,000 flowers for this year’s Arbor Day.

“I feel like a beautiful campus is what draws people there,” Salazar said.

“I feel like for me whenever the tulips were in bloom, I was on campus a lot more and was spending time outside a lot more just walking around and looking at everything.”

“So I feel like it just gets students outside, it gets students into being feels like we just kind of bring that excitement of spring and summer and the warm weather,” she added. Participating students and organizations can count their hard work in Tech’s Centennial Volunteer project on the Centennial website.

Michael Quartaro, assistant director of grounds maintenance, said plant - ing flowers around campus symbolizes a sense of joy and allows flowers to bloom throughout the final exam season until the end of summer.

“I think (tulips) bring a smile on campus,” Quartaro said. “I think everybody enjoys them.”

The annual planting event was started in 1935 by former Tech President Bradford Knapp who wanted to ensure those who came to campus saw its beauty.

SAB said there will be ax throwing, face painting and other activities for students to enjoy during the duration of Arbor Day.

By AYNSLEY LARSEN Staff Writer

Ginger Kerrick Davis, through her accomplishments, her intelligence and — most of all — her ability to overcome obstacles, has proven that a person’s limits are theirs to decide, and despair is a choice each of us must choose to reject.

Kerrick Davis earned both her Bachelor’s and Master’s of Science degrees in physics from Texas Tech, graduating in 1991 and 1993, respectively. She went on to pursue a 30year career at NASA, where in 2005 she became the first female Hispanic flight director in the administration’s history.

In 2016, she was named to the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame. Following this, in 2019 Gov. Greg Abbott appointed Kerrick Davis to the Texas Tech Board of Regents, of which she was named vice chairwoman in 2022.

In each of these stages of her life, Kerrick Davis excelled. When looking at her accomplishments on paper, it is easy to paint her as a monument of success, a more-than-human representation of triumph and knowledge. But, like the rest of us, Kerrick Davis wrestled her demons and fought her battles to become the person she is, doing so with her humanity, her faith and her inherent joy intact.

“My very first setback set the stage to equip me emotionally and with a level of resilience to be able to handle every other setback I’ve had since then,” Kerrick Davis said. “The first setback I ever had was watching my dad die right in front of me.”

When she was 11 years old, Kerrick Davis’ father suffered a life-ending heart attack. In her emotional recount, Kerrick Davis said her father’s passing was paramount to her personal growth.

“It, to this day, is the worst thing I have ever experienced in my whole life; and I’ve had some pretty crappy things happen,” Kerrick Davis said. “But it enabled me to prove to myself that if I could continue to move forward after that, then I could continue to move forward no matter