41 minute read
MEAN GREEN
Strong Start
With players named to watch lists for skill and integrity, football kicks off in Mean Green fashion.
Momentum is building for the Mean Green football team with great skill and leadership.
Senior offensive lineman Manase Mose has started every game of his career for the Mean Green, playing both center and guard over the course of his four years with the team. He’s been named to the watch lists for the Outland Trophy and for the Polynesian College Football Player of the Year Award, which is presented annually to the most outstanding college football player of Polynesian ancestry who epitomizes great ability and integrity. Mose helped spearhead what was the nation’s fifth-ranked rushing attack (233.5 yards per game) in 2021. “Mose is one of our captains and a great leader and another coach on the field,” head coach Seth Littrell says. “He makes all our calls and he’s invaluable with his experience and the way he works.” Senior linebacker KD Davis, leading tackler for the Mean Green the last three years, made the watch lists for the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, the Butkus Award, the Chuck Bednarik Award and the Rotary Lombardi Award.
Also named to watch lists were junior receiver Roderic Burns for the Biletnikoff Award, and senior punter Bernardo Rodriguez for the Ray Guy Award. “We have a mature football team with a lot of great men and a great culture,” Littrell says. “We’re going to continue to grow stronger and have a great season.”
Find information about Mean Green Football and the Mean Green Scholarship Fund challenging fans to make a Pledge Per Touchdown scored during the 2022 season. meangreensports.com
Unity Plaza
Construction is nearing completion
on a new Unity Plaza honoring the men who broke the color barrier in major college football in Texas. Abner Haynes and Dr. Leon King (’62, ’72 M.Ed.) were the first Black players to integrate college football at a fouryear Texas institution.
The pair joined the North Texas freshman team in 1956, moved up to the varsity team the following year, and served as inspiration for many young men that came after them. Both had successful careers — Haynes in the American Football League and King as a teacher, coach and administrator in Dallas ISD — and they have served as wonderful ambassadors for UNT. Unity Plaza is being constructed adjacent to the UNT Athletic Center and the Lovelace and McNatt Families Practice Facility.
Women’s Golf Wins Again
Thanks to teamwork and determination, the UNT women’s
golf team overcame a challenging course and two-shot deficit to win its second consecutive Conference USA Championship at PGA National in Florida in April. This year’s excellent performance landed three players on the all-conference team, and sixthyear head coach Michael Akers was named C-USA’s Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season. The team’s successful season came to an end at the NCAA Regional in Albuquerque May 9-11, where they finished in 10th place.
By the Numbers
11
That’s how many Mean Green teams had spring 2022 semester GPAs over 3.0. The teams were: men’s cross country, men’s golf, women’s basketball, women’s cross country, women’s golf, women’s soccer, women’s softball, women’s swimming and diving, women’s tennis, women’s track and field, and women’s volleyball. The overall UNT studentathletes’ semester GPA was 3.206 — the highest in UNT Athletics history.
REMAINING 2022 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE
OCT. 1 vs. FLORIDA ATLANTIC
OCT. 15 vs. LA TECH
OCT. 22 at UTSA
OCT. 29 at WESTERN KENTUCKY
NOV. 5 vs. FIU HOMECOMING GAME
NOV. 12 at UAB
NOV. 26 vs. RICE
Check for the latest ticket information: meangreensports.com
Best of the Best
Six new members will be welcomed to the North Texas
Athletics Hall of Fame this fall. The 2022 induction class — voted in by current Mean Green for Life Letterwinners Association members, Hall of Fame members and the Hall of Fame committee — was announced in August. The new Hall of Fame members are Adrian Awasom, football; Brelan Chancellor, football; Rachel Holden, soccer; Jessica Hulsebosch, volleyball; Rives McBee, men’s golf; and Nick Zuniga, football.
The early 2000s Mean Green football teams that won 26 consecutive Sun Belt Conference games, four straight conference championships and played in four bowl games are represented by offensive lineman Zuniga and defensive end Awasom. Chancellor helped UNT to one of the most remarkable seasons in recent history, the 2013 team that went 9-4 and won the Heart of Dallas Bowl on Jan. 1, 2014.
Holden was a leader on a team that won three Conference USA championships and posted a 64-21-4 record. She earned all-conference honors all four years at UNT and ranked in the top five in several statistical categories when she graduated.
Hulsebosch was one of the best defensive players to ever play for the Mean Green volleyball program. She led her team in digs all four years of her career and is still the career leader in that category. She holds every single-match record for digs and has three of the top five all-time best seasons for digs.
McBee was the No. 1 player for the North Texas golf team in 1959 and again in 1961 and 1963. His teams posted a 32-8-3 dual match record, and he won 16 individual medalist titles during his college career. He also helped his team to a third-place finish in the NCAA Men’s Golf Championship in 1963.
HOLLYWOOD ENDING
DONNIE F. WILSON’S TENACITY EARNED HIM A CAREER AS A FILMMAKER. AND IT’S PAID OFF AGAIN — HIS MOVIE, THE QUEEN OF BASKETBALL, RECENTLY WON AN ACADEMY AWARD. STORY BY JESSICA DELEÓN
ON HIS WAY TO AN OSCARS WATCH PARTY, Donnie F. Wilson (’90) got the text. The Queen of Basketball, a film for which he served as one of the executive producers, had won the 2022 Academy Award in the documentary short category. But Wilson didn’t want to tell anyone else since the category hadn’t yet aired live.
“I was sitting in my car, and I was like, ‘Oh my god,’” he says.
Now everyone knows. His inbox has blown up with messages of congratulations from friends and colleagues. For the radio, TV and film alum, the award is the culmination of a longtime pursuit of a dream for a career in filmmaking that began with determination and some bold risks.
Wilson grew up in Dallas and always has been a storyteller — and a playwright at heart — and so the radio, TV and film program at UNT seemed like a good fit.
After college, Wilson interned at WFAA and then took a job as a minority recruitment specialist with the National Marrow Donor Program, where he headed recruiting efforts of all minority groups to the national register for several years. But he was determined to go to Hollywood to become a filmmaker. Wilson’s plan was to save $2,000 before he made the move. But one event after another kept getting in his way. He would get halfway toward his goal, but a ticket or a flat tire would set him back. Eventually, he realized he was starting to get comfortable with that.
“It dawned on me that I was afraid,” he says. “I only had $500, but I no longer wanted to be controlled by fear.”
He made the trip to Hollywood, bouncing between friends, before he found a place to stay. He worked at temp agencies for people who wanted to work in the entertainment industry. Mostly, he was filing papers instead of networking with people.
One day, the agency told him he was getting a gig with Rob Reiner. Wilson was thrilled to work with a big-name director, but then learned the agency made a mistake. Wilson, calling from a pay phone on Hollywood Boulevard, was crushed. They offered him another assignment to file papers.
“I’m not doing that,” he told them.
Eventually they called back with another assignment that he heard as Big Shack.
“You want to send me to a barbecue restaurant?” he says.
But they meant Big Shaq — as in basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal. Wilson went to help set up the office and made the connections that turned into a full-fledged job.
He’s now a partner with O’Neal with Jersey Legends Productions, which started in 2020. They co-wrote and produced an animated short, Headnoise, about two aspiring basketball players.
And then came The Queen. A few years ago, filmmaker Ben Proudfoot came to Wilson with an idea about Lusia “Lucy” Harris. She played on a college basketball team that won three national championships and was the first woman to score a basket in the Olympics and be drafted by an NBA team. Wilson had no idea who she was, but was excited.
“Oh my god, I’m in to support this,” Wilson says. “I felt like I had been cheated of something by not knowing her story. I had no choice but to be a part of it.”
The 22-minute movie is filmed with a close-up on Harris’ face as she tells her story with clips from her basketball days. The film also had the backing of two NBA legends — O’Neal and Steph Curry.
Wilson didn’t get to meet Harris, who died in January. He gave up his ticket to the Oscars ceremony so more of her family members could attend.
Now his company is considering a feature film on Harris. He also hopes to one day complete his dream project, turning the play he wrote — Tearing Down Cabrini Green — into a screenplay.
While Wilson says his resilience has helped him get to this point in his career, he also credits his family and friends.
“What makes me most excited is the love I’m receiving from my hometown and where I come from. It just feels so good,” he says. “I feel like I made my city and school proud.”
As a high school student in the late 1980s in his native Israel, Ohad Shemmer was fascinated with the stars in the sky. Every night, he would keep track of how they varied in brightness over time and mail the information to the American Association of Variable Star Observers, which collected the data. He knew he was able to fill in gaps for a particular night or target, usually a star or sometimes an active galaxy, for a professional astronomer who missed that opportunity.
Now, as an associate professor of physics, he studies and measures the mass of black holes — and he’s made significant discoveries. In 2019, he was part of a team that found the most remote “cloaked” black hole, thanks to the help of NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
“This really is my dream job,” he says. “It’s not only the observation at different wavelengths/frequencies or the study of physics that brings me joy — it’s the excitement of never-ending discoveries.”
Shemmer is just one of several UNT researchers and alumni conducting innovative research with the help of NASA — the space agency that is one of the U.S.’ most beloved institutions. Their research is varied and could have far-reaching impacts. Under UNT’s newly formed Center for Integrated Intelligent Mobility Systems (CIIMS), researchers are creating highways for drones that would allow for more accessible transport of goods, such as delivering organ transplants more rapidly, which would save more lives. Others are using NASA’s satellite images to study farmers’ irrigation techniques, which has the potential to reduce water usage.
And several alumni are working for NASA and other space programs, conducting research or spreading the word about its projects. They all share a common bond — a curiosity and love for the vast unknown of space.
Jaclyn Barrientes (’05), who handles social media for the Space Telescope Science Institute, takes great pride in sharing stories about space.
“I’m not the person making the discoveries, but I’m translating them so the public understands,” she says. “I get to do this amazing job with real-world implications.”
Highways in the Sky
Helping solve real-world problems is a specialty of Kamesh Namuduri, professor of electrical engineering and a researcher for CIIMS. “In five minutes, a drone — or unmanned air ambulance — could get to an accident scene after receiving the call,” he says.
He also is pursuing how life-saving transplants such as donated organs and human tissue can be transported quickly. Namuduri is spearheading two projects to make this a possibility. The first is the Advanced Air Mobility National Campaign, which would create air corridors to shorten the amount of time needed to deliver the organs — or other kinds of cargo.
The air corridors would be like “highways in the sky,” creating ramps in the airspace for drones to fly from point to point. The first corridor is planned to run from Fort Worth to UNT’s Discovery Park, with the first flight expected to take place in October. For the test run, researchers will determine what issues and challenges the unmanned aircraft may encounter. They have to consider regulations, safety and how to handle weather, such as hailstorms. They also need to determine how drones “talk” to each other, such as giving the right of way in an intersection.
Namuduri is partnering with Bell Textron Inc., the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG), and several cargo companies and universities.
“It is the first air corridor in the country and will create economic and workplace opportunities for
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Kamesh Namuduri, professor of electrical engineering
the region,” he says. “It’s going to make a huge impact on humanity.”
The second project — funded with a three-year $746,000 grant from NASA — will explore the supply chain logistics of high-volume manufacturing, such as the gaps that need to be addressed to be able to build drones. Namuduri is the principal investigator for the project, which also involves Terry Pohlen and Ila Manuj from the G. Brint Ryan College of Business and Nandika D’Souza from the College of Engineering. They are creating processes for certification of unmanned aircraft systems and components. His research also received funding from the U.S. Air Force and NCTCOG.
“NASA is providing the vision,” Namuduri says. “We are trying to make this a reality by doing a lot of testing, large and simple, so we can understand the big challenges.”
Looking Back to Earth
Back on the ground, the crops in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley are constantly changing the environment. Some methods to measure the changes — such as flux towers collecting data on water vapor and carbon dioxide exchange rates between the earth and atmosphere, and a census of water, assessing its supply and use — may not always be accurate.
“But satellite photos can tell a story,” says Lu Liang, associate professor of geography and the environment, adding that satellite and aerial images cover a broader landscape and allow researchers to see how the sun lies on the fields.
Of the freshwater consumed in the world annually, 70% is used for agricultural irrigation. However, 40% of water used by farmers is wasted through evaporation as well as poor irrigation and water management.
Liang and Xiaohui Yuan, associate professor of computer science and engineering, are examining high-quality satellite and aerial images to see what irrigation techniques farmers in that region are using — and to determine how techniques have been changed to accurately assess water use efficiency on farmlands. They have received $650,000 in grants from NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey and UNT (as a seed grant).
The researchers take the images with each pixel representing 1 square meter and divide them into small square patches. Using their skill sets and artificial intelligence for model generation and processing, they can annotate those patterns on the imagery.
“There are a lot of things NASA does besides looking outside to space — they also look back toward the Earth for discovery,” Yuan says.
It is the first air corridor in the country and will create economic and workplace opportunities for the region. It’s going to make a huge impact on humanity.”
— Kamesh Namuduri, professor of electrical engineering and a researcher for UNT’s Center for Integrated and Intelligent Mobility Systems (CIIMS)
Translating the Discoveries
At 3 a.m. this past Christmas, Jaclyn Barrientes (’05) was working in her pajamas in her sister’s house in Carrollton.
But Barrientes enjoyed every minute of it. As social media director of the Space Telescope Science Institute, she gets to report about the Hubble telescope and the James Webb telescope, which is now observing a million miles away. On Dec. 25, she was posting and tweeting about the long-awaited launch of the Webb as people all over the world watched it. “We thought it would be the worst possible day,” says Barrientes, noting the launch had been repeatedly delayed and staffers were out because of the holiday. But she was pleasantly surprised. “In the end, I watched the launch of this amazing telescope with my sister and nephew in a living room lit by Christmas lights and presents from Santa under the tree. It ended up being the most magical day.” Barrientes’ career also was unexpected. When she graduated from the Mayborn School of Journalism, social media barely existed. She worked as a page
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Jaclyn Barrientes (’05), social media director of the Space Telescope Science Institute
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From left, Lu Liang, associate professor of geography and the environment, and Xiaohui Yuan, associate professor of computer science and engineering
Right
John Femi-Oyetoro (’17 M.S., ’21 Ph.D.), postdoctoral fellow for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory designer for several publications in Charlotte, N.C., before joining several nonprofit organizations in Washington, D.C. She then landed the job at the institute, a government agency based in Baltimore. She uses many of the skills she learned at the Mayborn — writing, editing and designing graphics. And she’s pored through hundreds of books about galaxies and black holes to learn more about astronomy.
She admits that social media can be a wild place. In March, the Hubble got a massive scoop — it detected lights from a star that was 13 billion years old.
“For the general public, it did not come off as fascinating news,” she says. “They wanted aliens.”
This summer, she got to plan the strategy for the Webb telescope’s extraordinary pictures of some of the farthest galaxies ever seen. She’s living her dream working amid the stars, reminiscent of her years growing up under the big open skies of Brownsville.
“I didn’t know at the time some of the lights were planets and galaxies, but I knew how to find Orion from an early age, thanks to one of my elementary school teachers,” she says. “The same teacher taught me that the gravity on Jupiter could squish the mean boy in my class as if he were made of clay. Even as I grew older, I loved looking out at the sky from the car at night, something I still do when I’m away from the city lights.”
Using His Curiosity
As a young boy growing up in Nigeria, John Femi-Oyetoro (’17 M.S., ’21 Ph.D.) always needed to know things. He was known to tear radios apart to see what was inside them.
“I was curious and I asked questions. ‘Why does this work?’ ‘Why do we look to the sky?’”
Now as a postdoctoral fellow for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, he conducts research and develops infrared detectors for space applications in ground or space telescopes.
Femi-Oyetoro didn’t have connections to NASA when he applied for his job, but his interest in microdevices got him into the organization. And now he is inspired by the challenge of his work.
“These are devices that have critical applications,” he says. “You cannot afford to have one fail. You have to make sure everything you’re doing makes a very reliable device.”
He says that researchers could spend decades — their whole career — on a project, citing a scientist from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center during the December launch of the Webb telescope who said he had worked on the project for 20 years.
But Femi-Oyetoro is hooked, knowing that he’s making a difference for humankind through his work.
“I’m passionate about this research, which helps form the foundation of technologies crucial for enabling science observations — giving us a better understanding of Earthlike planets, ocean worlds and science measurements that point to potential hubs of life. Space is vast,” he says, “and there is so much to explore.”
Find more about alumni, students and faculty who are working on NASA-related projects. northtexan.unt.edu/skies-beyond
he decision about Lauryn Woolfolk’s future came wrapped in a standard envelope. As she tore it open and began reading the letter, her grandma let out a holler of excitement as soon as Woolfolk read the words, “You have been accepted.”
Woolfolk’s reaction took a few more seconds to register. Finally, she lifted her arms above her head in celebration as her family members continued their gleeful screams. And then came the tears of joy and hugs as the news really sank in — she was going to UNT for a true university experience.
Woolfolk, who has an intellectual disability, had almost given up on college.
She first tried a community college after graduating from Cedar Hill High School in 2019. While there, she struggled and found it challenging to comprehend class expectations.
“I would just sit there and look at the paper, not understanding what to do,” Woolfolk recalls.
She was capable of the learning, but she needed one-onone guidance and a dedicated support system to have greater success in the classroom. Woolfolk and her family looked into collegiate programs for students with ID. The options were few — and even fewer if Woolfolk wanted to live on campus and be integrated with the entire university community.
At the time, the closest program was hours away at Texas A&M University in College Station, and others were located outside Texas, even farther from the family’s home in Cedar Hill.
“I didn’t want to be so far if I needed help from my family,” Woolfolk says.
Her college dreams went on hold until her grandma discovered a new program being developed at UNT. UNT ELEVAR, which stands for Empower, Learn, Excel, enVision, Advance and Rise, officially debuted in Fall 2021 as the first inclusive post-secondary program for students with intellectual disabilities in the North Texas region.
It was the option Woolfolk had been looking for, and this fall she’s joined eight other students in ELEVAR’s second cohort.
“I am so excited because this program is going to help me be better and do better,” Woolfolk says. “If I had to go back to another school that doesn’t have the support I need, it wouldn’t work.”
Those sentiments are similar to the ones felt by her ELEVAR classmates and their families. College was a path they never imagined they could take, but the tide is changing.
As one of the university’s newest programs, ELEVAR is giving educational access to a population that has been historically excluded from higher education, and it’s uniting faculty and staff across campus to bring the students wellrounded support and experiences.
It’s part of UNT’s mission to give all students the inclusive and welcoming space they need to thrive — through programs and initiatives that not only focus on academics, but also on career readiness, financial literacy, mental and physical health, and social and emotional well-being.
INCLUSIVE EDUCATION
Inclusive education for students with disabilities is widely available in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, but once students age out of high school programs, opportunities to continue education drop significantly. Lack of educational access can build disparities in the workforce as well as decrease the quality of life for these individuals.
The state of Texas has the second-highest population of individuals with disabilities in the U.S. North Texas K-12 public and charter schools serve nearly 23% of the state’s students with a primary diagnosis of ID, yet before ELEVAR there was no inclusive post-secondary option in the region for this population.
That reality didn’t sit well with Brenda Barrio (’06, ’08 M.S., ’13 Ph.D.). The three-time UNT College of Education alumna has spent her career as a champion for students with disabilities, especially those from underrepresented communities. She started her career as a bilingual special education teacher in Denton ISD and, for almost 10 years, she has served as a special education professor in higher education. In 2019, when a position opened up in UNT’s Department of Educational Psychology, it seemed like kismet. She was thrilled at an opportunity to come back to her alma mater, but if she were to return, she had a very specific goal in mind.
“In my interview, I shared my plan to create an inclusive program for individuals with intellectual disabilities here on campus,” Barrio says. “I knew it was ambitious, but the
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ELEVAR student Lucas Archibald (right) moves into Legends Hall on the UNT campus in August 2021 with the help of community members.
need is great for this population. They deserve the chance to go to college, pursue a career of their choice and live independent lives.”
Barrio started a similar program for students with ID at Washington State University, but at UNT she hoped to build a more university-wide program, giving these individuals access to the comprehensive academic options the university had to offer. The efforts would extend off campus by partnering with local school districts to offer training for special education professionals and resources for their middle and high school students with ID.
To set things in motion, Barrio gathered expertise from across campus, including that of faculty members Melissa Savage and Jean Keller in the College of Education; Chandra Carey, Brandi Levingston and Elias Mpofu in the College of Health and Public Service; and Lucy Gafford, director of the UNT Workplace Inclusion and Sustainable Employment program (UNT WISE).
In 2020, the faculty group earned a $2 million seed grant from the U.S. Department of Education to officially begin development of ELEVAR, which also means “lift, soar and rise” in Spanish, a nod to the program’s goal of empowering young adults with ID and UNT’s designation as a HispanicServing and Minority-Serving Institution.
TRUE COLLEGE EXPERIENCE
ELEVAR welcomed its inaugural students in Fall 2021. The group of five students, affectionately dubbed the “fab five,” were able to take classes in subjects of their choice, live together in a residence hall, work campus jobs and plan for their future careers. In its first year, the influence of the program is already visible both in the personal gains of its students and engagement from the UNT community and beyond.
“They really grew throughout the entire year from becoming more independent to being great advocates for themselves,” Barrio says. “They’ve even established their own identity within the university and got involved in student organizations and campus life in general.”
Alex Bartolo and other ELEVAR students joined the Disney Club along with traditional UNT students. The student-led group gathers weekly for movie screenings and activities. As an avid Pixar fan, Bartolo can name all the studio’s movies in order of their release dates. Those who spend any amount of time with him will probably be treated to his impressions of characters from Veggie Tales, SpongeBob SquarePants and other shows.
One day, Bartolo hopes to become a professional voice actor and he’s beginning his preparation for that career by taking classes in UNT’s Department of Media Arts, including a voice acting class this fall.
“People who do animated movies are not appreciated enough,” Bartolo says. “Maybe one day I can be the next Rob Paulsen, who played Pinky in Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain.”
Lourdes Rahn’s son Noah is part of ELEVAR’s first cohort, too. The changes she’s seen in him over the last year have been significant.
“At first, he was a little leery,” Rahn says. “He would still use me as his ‘dial a friend’ when he needed help, but gradually the calls became fewer and fewer and he flourished in a way I’ve never seen before.”
Rahn says Noah has enjoyed being part of the UNT community — attending sporting events, working as the manager of the men’s basketball team and getting involved in student activities — so much so that he didn’t want to come home during school breaks.
In addition to the growth in his independence and confidence, Noah, who has apraxia of speech, has made tremendous improvements in his verbal and written communication. Before, his texts might be fragmented and difficult to decipher, but now he communicates in full sentences and is able to better articulate what he wants to say.
His fellow ELEVAR classmates have become friends and have encouraged him to try things he never thought possible.
“He came home this summer and was insistent that he wanted to learn to drive,” Rahn says. “That’s a direct influence of seeing that some of his other ELEVAR classmates were driving. He told me: ‘Oh my gosh, I didn’t think I could, but if they can do it, I can do it.’”
ENGAGING COMMUNITY
An added benefit Barrio had hoped would come from ELEVAR is taking root — increased inclusivity in the broader campus community and even outside Denton.
Last fall, the UNT ELEVAR Peer Ally group launched with nearly 60 students signed up to participate in the first month. Kenzie Duwe, an undergraduate student in special education, reached out to Barrio about making it an official student organization, which took place in February. The student-led group facilitates social activities for ELEVAR and traditional students each week.
The impact of ELEVAR on campus really hit home for Barrio in May during the program’s end of the year celebration. UNT faculty and staff, along with ELEVAR students and their families, filled a conference room in Matthews Hall to reflect on the inaugural year.
“The number of people that showed up from across campus — it was just incredible,” Barrio says. “That really demonstrates how we aren’t a siloed program. We are connected with people and programs across the university.”
Those connections have reached beyond campus. Through ELEVAR’s collaborations with school districts in Corsicana, Decatur, Denton, Fort Worth and Irving, it’s making professional development in special education more accessible through monthly virtual education sessions and an annual summer institute. UNT pre-service teachers in the College of Education also lead virtual coaching sessions about life and career planning for middle and high school students with ID from these districts.
Stories about ELEVAR on local NBC and ABC affiliate television stations as well as the national NBC News have helped the program earn recognition in communities across the state and nation. The media coverage has prompted other Texas colleges and universities to inquire with Barrio about how they can start similar programs at their institutions. It’s also caught the attention of parents who have children with ID.
Traci Walker heard about ELEVAR from a story NBC DFW aired in February 2021. It gave her hope that her son Jaylen could fulfill his goal of going to college and eventually culinary school.
Jaylen was born prematurely and diagnosed with an intellectual disability, a speech impediment and hearing loss. When he was a baby, doctors said he may never walk, talk, feed himself or even learn. Now, he does all of those things and has joined UNT this fall in ELEVAR’s second cohort along with Woolfolk and seven other students from around the U.S.
“His motto is, ‘If I can do it, you can do it,’ and so that’s our goal just to keep pushing him and supporting him, allowing him to be the best
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ELEVAR students including Wynter Hill (left) and Pilar Rivera (right) work through an activity together during orientation in July. Wynter and Pilar are part of ELEVAR’s second cohort, which includes students from all over the country.
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Traci Walker (left) gives an Eagle Claw with son and ELEVAR student Jaylen during the 2022 Mean Green Move-In.
person that he can be,” Traci told NBC DFW in April as the TV station covered a celebration of Jaylen’s college acceptance at his high school.
Opening doors for students like Jaylen and Lauryn is exactly what ELEVAR is designed to do. In this next year, ELEVAR will especially focus on further building the career piece of the program — a key ingredient for students’ future success, Barrio says.
“They really want to seek that career development and are excited to see what their future looks like,” Barrio says. “ELEVAR removes the barriers and gives them the foundation in skills and knowledge to launch them into their life and career.”
Watch a video showing a celebration of Jaylen’s acceptance to UNT.
UNT PROVIDES THE RESOURCES AND PROGRAMS TO ENSURE STUDENTS’ SUCCESS AND WELL-BEING THROUGHOUT THEIR TIME ON CAMPUS AND ENTERING THE WORKFORCE.
hen first-generation student Fatima Macias Ortiz enrolled at UNT, she wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. She wasn’t even certain how she would navigate college, but she knew she had to be successful and that she had to be an example for her younger sisters.
“I always knew that I wanted to go to college and have a career,” says the freshman theatre major. “But I didn’t exactly know what I wanted. Everyone thinks that everyone in college is prepared, but some people are just trying to figure it out.”
The support network she discovered at UNT helped her utilize the resources and coaching she needed.
“I found myself throughout the journey of the first year,” Macias Ortiz says. “I always think of my little sisters and that I kind of like paving the way for them so they don’t have to struggle.”
Around 41% of UNT undergraduates self-identify as first-generation students. Fulfilling needs and inquiries from these students whose parents did not earn a four-year college degree prompted the opening of the UNT FirstGeneration Success Center in Spring 2021. In collaboration with departments and groups across campus, the center hosts programs and workshops that address areas such as financial aid, navigating grad school, leadership development and community resources.
“As a first-generation student, you don’t know what you don’t know,” says Desiree Padron (’09, ’13 M.P.A.), director of the First-Generation Success Center, who was herself a firstgeneration student. “That’s why we’re here to help them find academic resources, show them how to engage in class and network with peers and faculty, explain what the financial aid process looks like and the dates and deadlines they should know, and identify opportunities for career development. Sometimes people just want to know that they’re supported, that they can do these things and that they have somebody who is rooting for them.”
It’s not just first-gen students like Macias Ortiz who need guidance and access to resources along the way. For all UNT students, being the best they can be — at UNT and in their life beyond the university — takes a kaleidoscope of support and programs.
Even before students step on campus, UNT works to ensure they are ready for the academic rigor of college.
Changes the pandemic has brought to learning and standardized testing over the last few years have made a significant impact on incoming students. In 2021, the Texas Legislature enacted a law requiring all of the state’s public higher education institutions to determine college readiness in reading, writing and math through the Texas Success Initiative program.
Through UNT’s TSI Math Summer Bridge Program, the university helps admitted first-year students meet those academic standards. The program, both inperson and online, gives students the extra assistance they need in math so they are ready to jump into their college courses in the fall. Residential participants in the inaugural cohort this summer successfully finished the program and are on track with their peers.
STAYING ON TRACK
Once the semester begins, juggling all the dates and deadlines in college can be overwhelming at first.
Through Navigate, UNT’s comprehensive student success system, students can stay on top of their schedules with personalized to-do lists, campus event reminders, class schedule and campus resources accessible from their phone, tablet or computer. Students also can connect with their classmates in study groups or schedule appointments with advisors, tutors and career coaches.
“It’s a one-stop shop for student information for us advisors as well,” says Parker Ellis (’16 M.Ed.), a senior academic counselor in the College of Health and Public Service. “It’s made it easier for us to schedule appointments and get students the answers they need without having to open up another program or send them walking across campus.”
And with up to 400 students to advise at any given time, having all the information he needs right when he needs it is vital. Since UNT began using the Navigate app a few years ago, he’s noticed students are being more proactive about messaging him to schedule their advising appointments. In 2022 alone, there were more than 60,000 appointments created in the system.
“In Navigate there will be a pop-up message saying, ‘Parker Ellis would like to schedule an appointment with you,’” Ellis says, “and then they can schedule their appointment from the app.”
Working hand in hand with the Navigate app is NestBuilders, another student success platform that keeps first-time-in-college students on track while offering financial awards to those who participate in activities.
For completing tasks such as an appointment with an advisor, attending financial coaching or joining tutoring sessions at the Learning Center, students can earn small awards to apply toward their financial aid for the following year. The average awards students earn each academic year are about $400, and the highest amount they can earn is $1,000.
“We’re such a resource-rich campus, and it’s hard for a first-time-in-college student to know what’s available without some direction,” says Stacey Polk, student success program manager in UNT’s Division of Planning. “I think that’s the real gift of this kind of program.”
The platform gave a boost to Valerie Tonn, a junior journalism major with a concentration in public relations from Pflugerville. Tonn says she likely wouldn’t have stayed up to date with required tasks her first year if it weren’t for NestBuilders. “College is expensive, so it was good to be able to earn money FIRST IN FLIGHT toward financial aid,” Tonn says. “Using NestBuilders was a great From challenges to triumphs, way for me to get more engaged on campus, especially since I came here during COVID and there watch a video and read about the experiences of two firstgen students — Fatima Macias Ortiz (left) and Arath Herrera (right) — as weren’t as many people here.” they navigate the ins and outs of UNT,
Following her first year, determined to realize their dream of Tonn started serving as a earning a degree. student success guide, informing students about the evolution of NestBuilders and raising awareness about the platform.
“We’ve curated more personalized experiences for students and provided more one-on-one support,” Tonn says. “I’m a people person, so I’ve really enjoyed getting to connect with other students through this work.”
FINDING SUPPORT
Excelling in the classroom can be greatly influenced by factors beyond teaching and learning.
Through UNT’s Student Money Management Center, students can learn how to be financially responsible; the Student Health and Wellness Center provides medical and health education services; and Counseling and Testing Services offers comprehensive psychological care to all students.
MODELS FOR SUCCESS
UNT’s living alumni network is 476,000 members strong, including 324,000 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. As a comprehensive university, our alumni are making strides across many industries and fields. Their expert knowledge and experience are a valuable resource for our students who are just beginning to build their professional network and understand the career pathways that make sense for them.
Many alumni are giving back by sharing their college and career advice with students as Mean Green Mentors, a program of the UNT Alumni Association and the UNT Career Center. Learn
more and sign up to get involved at meangreenmentors.unt.edu.
Through the video series Find Your Flight Path, the UNT Alumni Association partnered with UNT Advising Services to showcase some of our outstanding alumni who are using their majors in unique ways. Watch the videos at vpaa.unt.edu/
aservices/exploring-majors.
Learn about more ways to support students at giving.unt.edu.
For students facing food insecurity, the UNT Food Pantry Presented by Kroger is an accessible on-campus food source. Serving thousands of students in need each year, it works to alleviate the barriers and challenges associated with food insecurity and hunger, so students can remain in school and, ultimately, earn degrees that will help them lead successful lives. The pantry is part of the Diamond Eagles Student Resource Center, which also houses UNT’s Suit Up Closet for professional clothing and Mean Green Gowns for Grads program. (Learn more about the Diamond Eagles Society on page 16.)
Centralizing resources makes it easier for students to get what they need, when they need it, which fueled a few new initiatives on campus.
This fall, UNT will launch a website that gathers wellness resources scattered across the university into one place online. Similarly, UNT brought together details about its support programs for neurodivergent students through the creation of the Neurodiversity Network, a set of programs suppporting students who “think and do” differently than their neurotypical peers. Not only do students now have the access to these programs in one place, the Neurodiversity Network also allows for collaboration among representatives from these programs and other offices that work with this population.
“We need to rethink how we are supporting these students outside of the classroom, and the Neurodiversity Network is helping us gather expertise and resources to better improve that assistance,” says Lauren Mathews, clinical associate professor in the College of Health and Public Service and program coordinator for UNT EPIC, which provides organized social, philanthropic and learning opportunities for neurotypical and neurodivergent adults over age 18.
Also, earlier this year, UNT launched the Program for Counseling Diverse Students. Lilliesha Grandberry (’08, ’11 M.Ed.) joined UNT as associate director for the program, which specializes in developing more intentional and culturally representative counseling and wellness programs for students who identify as Black, Indigenous and/or People of Color.
“As UNT has moved into the designations of being a Hispanic-Serving and Minority-Serving Institution, we are having more students who are coming on campus with varied life experiences and needs related to mental health,” Grandberry says. “We’re specifically targeting our BIPOC students to provide culturally appropriate care that’s going to help them succeed academically and retain them at the university to graduation.”
The program is working to combat the stigmas of mental health as well and to empower students to help shape the care they need. Through informal meet-andgreet events Grandberry calls “Let’s Talk,” counselors meet students in areas such as residence halls or the Multicultural Center. Grandberry says the program will host an annual Black Mental Health Week and has plans to start a similar mental health event series for Latinx students in conjunction with Hispanic Heritage Month this fall.
“We want to give our students of color more of a voice in what mental health services look like on campus and provide them with that safe space where they can come and talk to therapists who look like them,” says Grandberry, who is recruiting this fall for a student advisory council for the mental health program.
PLANNING A CAREER
Thinking back on her time as a college student, Elsita Dean (’17, ’19 M.B.A.) realizes it was as much about the journey as the destination.
She earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology, and later an M.B.A. in business management, from UNT. Now, as one of the university’s new career coaches, she’s using that background to help psychology,
anthropology and sociology students navigate career planning.
Ensuring that all students have the tools they need to achieve their career goals and take on a job following graduation is a priority for UNT, so the university continues to grow its career-readiness resources and services.
“Our motto is ‘Career readiness is life readiness,’” says Eileen Buecher, who was hired in January as UNT’s new assistant vice president of student affairs and career success. “I want students to trust themselves and be confident decision makers when they graduate.”
In her first months at the university, Buecher has overhauled UNT’s career services, fostering more collaboration with employers, alumni and partners across the university as well as planning better ways to engage students throughout their time on campus.
Through the new Career Readiness First Year Seminar, career planning is integrated in an undergraduate student’s journey as a required online course. The incoming Class of 2026 is the first to go through the program, which will grow with students as their own college journey unfolds at UNT.
Students begin with self-discovery assessments and career exploration, then advance to cultivating professional communication skills, developing their personal brand and resume, and learning tips for engaging in networking and professional relationship building. In the years that follow, the curriculum will progress toward securing internships, mapping majors to career paths, job searching and preparing for interviews.
Career coaches like Dean who are embedded in UNT’s colleges, schools and programs will act as a guide along the way, providing students with more personalized advice to better understand career opportunities and the skills they’ll need to excel in their fields of interest.
“I had one student who told me, ‘This is the happiest I’ve ever been in my life,’” Dean says. “So, those moments when students feel affirmed and confident they are going in the right direction and feel they are prepared to seize whatever opportunities come their way, that’s exactly why we are here.”
BOYS
CLUB REBOOT
HER COMMITMENT TO DIVERSIFYING THE TECH INDUSTRY EARNS CYBERSECURITY EXPERT AND ENTREPRENEUR LOLA OBAMEHINTI (’13 M.J., ’17 M.S.) A SPOT ON SILICON VALLEY BUSINESS JOURNAL’S 40 UNDER 40 LIST.
STORY BY ERIN CRISTALES
BACK IN FEBRUARY 2021, LOLA OBAMEHINTI
(’13 M.J., ’17 M.S.) was featured in a Wall Street Journal article headlined “No Hoodie and Allbirds for These Women in Tech.” If the title’s not enough of a hint, the story focuses on a handful of groundbreaking ladies who are delightedly dispatching the stereotypes that often plague the digital workplace. Call it a system reset.
Scroll to about the halfway mark of the article, and there’s Obamehinti pictured in a vibrant yellow dress — perhaps a knowing nod to the fact that, early in her career, a manager labeled the yellow pants she was wearing “inappropriate.” And while reshaping the tech industry’s largely white, masculine landscape is no doubt a trying task, Obamehinti is all smiles. At just 30 years old, she’s taken on plenty of roles, but this is the one she was born for.
“There’s not a lot of representation in the technology industry — there aren’t a lot of women, there aren’t a lot of Latinx or indigenous peoples, and in Silicon Valley-based companies, only 1-3% of employees are Black,” Obamehinti says. “My long-term goal is to bridge the gap and create more opportunities in the tech field for historically excluded individuals.”
In the short term, she’s accomplished plenty too, establishing an impressive reputation. In 2021, the journalism and information science alumna was named to Silicon Valley Business Journal’s 40 under 40 list. She was noted for cultivating inclusive environments via her previous work as business ethics officer and global information security training and communications lead at eBay — and through her founding of Nigerian Techie, a social media brand-turned-business through which she provides technology solutions and consulting services for individual and corporate clients.
“One client of mine was already working in tech, but felt like her career was stagnant,” says Obamehinti, a former model and TV host (she was signed to agencies in New York City and Philadelphia) who also has served as a keynote speaker at various companies including Salesforce, Twilio and Cybercrime Magazine. “I helped her revamp her resume, we did some interview prep, and she eventually secured a higher paying position as a data scientist. The accolades are great, but helping people succeed in this industry is what I care about the most.”
That affinity for outreach includes inspiring the next generation of tech titans. In October, she spoke about cybersecurity career opportunities as part of the College of Information’s CODE (Career Opportunities Direction Exploration) Series, which illuminates potential job paths for UNT students.
Obamehinti — who in 2016, received the college’s Outstanding Ph.D. Student Award — believes that it’s important to open students’ eyes to the many facets of the tech industry, and that it’s not always necessary to be an expert coder or programmer to excel in cybersecurity. Tech is a small ecosystem, she says. All you really need to do to be successful is network — and hustle.
“There are so many aspects to tech,” she says. “You can come from any background and really elevate your economic status by entering the tech industry.” — Photography by Kauwuane Burton
Read a Q&A with Obamehinti for tips on how individuals and businesses can protect themselves from cyberattacks. northtexan.unt.edu/lola-obamehinti
