Hispanic leaders lecture series motivate students

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Ashley Hendrick

The Department of English, Philosophy and Modern Languages wrapped up the spring semester with a final guest speaker that ended their semester-long Panhandle Hispanic Culture and Leadership Lecture Series.

Three guest speakers – whose Hispanic heritage helped shape who they are as leaders – visited the WTAMU campus to discuss with students the importance of hard work, self-confidence and heritage.

“I think it’s wonderful for students and I think it’s great for the community,” Dr. Bonnie MacDonald, department head of EPML, said. “As a department, as a college and as a university, we seek every opportunity we can find to create outreach opportunities.”

The first guest speaker of the semester was Evelina Solis, a motivational speaker from Dallas whose academic and coaching resource, Sol2Soul, has inspired other faculty and college students around the region.

“She’s Hispanic and she travels around to regional universities to motivate or talk about student leadership,” Assistant Professor of Spanish and Spanish Program Director Dr. Andrew Reynolds said. Continue reading →

Listen Up!: Former President Bush cycles through Palo Duro Canyon for Warrior 100K

Posted on April 28, 2012 by Maria Molina

Former President George W. Bush gets ready to address the press after the 100K race.

Get your headphones on and listen up to our latest episode. This one is about Former President Bill Clinton’s speech at WTAMU. The transcript for this episode can be found below. Continue reading →

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Warrior 100K Press Conference with Former President Bush

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Maria Molina

Former President George W. Bush cycled through Palo Duro Canyon for the Warrior 100K race for wounded veterans. During the event, he gave a brief press conference and was interviewed by The Prairie. Watch the report here.

Web Editor’s Note: To read more about Warrior 100K, click here! To check out the rest of our videos, visit our YouTube channel.

100K mountain bike ride honors wounded warriors

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Maria Molina

April 27 marked the second day of the Warrior 100K mountain bike ride dedicated to the U.S. service men and women wounded during combat.

“There are 19 of us here and it is just a testament to all of us who have overcome these traumatic instances, overcome these obstacles, these barriers to get here,” Melissa Stockwell, a First Lieutenant of the U.S. Army and member of the Board of Directors for the Wounded Warrior Project, said. “Having President Bush here as our leader and just support riding with us and being there at the finish line is what America is all about, and I think we are all extremely proud Americans with our injuries and with what we have overcome.”

Stockwell said Palo Duro Canyon is a beautiful place with well-maintained routes, an opinion shared by many of the participants at the bike ride.

“This is absolutely beautiful,” said John P. Szczepanowski, Gunnery Sergeant with the U.S. Marine Corps and a wounded warrior program coordinator. “Mathew [one of his colleges] and I are both from San Diego so we came out here and witnessed some of these Texan’s hospitality. It is just something I will never forget.” Continue reading →

“There will always be something to argue about.” Former president speaks on the importance of cooperation

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Krystina Martinez

Former President Bill Clinton spoke at the First United Bank Center on April 24. The former president attracted people young and old, who listened to his remarks on the Flight 93 Memorial, his time as president and the current issues in America and abroad.

“The most interesting thing to me, today is what I think is a disconnect in what works in America in real life and what works in America in politics,” Clinton said. “In politics, what works is division and argument…what works in real life is when we have networks of cooperation with people who know different things, have different skills, and look at problems in different ways.”

Clinton pointed to successful areas of the country, such as Silicon Valley and the rise of computer simulation technology in Florida, but also brought attention to problems such as rising childhood obesity, the energy crisis, and healthcare. Continue reading →

President Clinton to speak at WTAMU on April 24

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Dino Griego

Clinton at the second Clinton Global Initiative meeting. Photo courtesy of the Clinton Foundation.

Former President Bill Clinton will discuss the William J. Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative at the First United Bank Center on April 24.

The event starts at 8:00 p.m. and the doors will open at 7:30 p.m. The Distinguished Lecture Series committee said they expect the FUBC to reach capacity of 5,500, so attendees are encouraged to arrive early for seating.

Due to President Clinton’s recognized presidency and his future work, the DLS committee sought to recruit him.

“Clinton is a distinguished speaker,” Colton Risinger, a junior Political Science major, said. “Not only is he a former President, post-presidency he has been highly active in humanitarian work through his foundation and still has influence in foreign affairs.”

Not only is the event free to the public, this event has had minimal cost for the University. Continue reading →

Miscellaneous: This Week in Photos

Posted on April 24, 2012 by The Prairie

Check out the miscellaneous photos for this week! To read the stories related to these articles, click here:

“Kony 2012” becomes a new social media trend

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Maria Molina

The Viral Video “Kony 2012” became a trend across social media during the past month with 86,723,160 views on YouTube and 17,800,000 on Vimeo as of April 3. According to Pew Research there were nearly five million tweets about the video a week after it was published on March 5.

Dr. Nick Gerlich, department head of Management, Marketing and Business at WTAMU, said despite the latest criticism about the campaign, which ranges from sketchy finances to simplifying the issue, the marketing strategy of the video shows the effectiveness of social media.

“Jason Russell [co-founder of Invisible Children and director of the “Kony 2012” video] has done everything right even though what he is doing may be wrong,” he said. “He has leveraged social media so well it is almost a textbook example of how to do it.”

The half-hour documentary raises awareness of Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda and nearby countries.

“He kidnaps children in the middle of the night and he forces the boys to become soldiers and the girls to become sex slaves,” Allie Jones, co-organizer of the Kony 2012 event in Canyon, Texas, said. Continue reading →

Retired U.N. economist to lecture on ending poverty

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Jordan Fry

Ending Poverty poster. Courtesy of the WTAMU web site.

Dr. Donald Lee, a retired United Nations economist and advocate of poverty eradication, will be speaking about efforts to end poverty on March 6 at 7 p.m. in the Mary Moody Northen Recital Hall.

Lee’s lecture, “Ending Poverty: The United Nations and Millennium Development Goals,” will discuss global poverty and what the U.N. is doing to end it.

Lee has worked with the U.N. for 20 years and was formerly an economics professor at Deakin University in Australia.

Lee’s background in economics is longstanding. It came about from his interest in liberal markets and led to his concern for global poverty. Continue reading →

Liz Murray shares homeless to Harvard experience

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Lisa Hellier

Liz Murray speaking at Mary Moody Northern Recital Hall during Comm Week. Photo by Lisa Hellier.

Liz Murray spoke at the Mary Moody Northen Recital Hall for Communication Week on Feb. 21. The Distinguished Lecture Series brought her in to talk about her experiences of homelessness and her journey to Harvard. Murray spoke with lots of emotion and a surprising amount of humor.

“I thought she was just so amazing and so real,” Amarillo resident Mikala Stephens said. “She has a very personal way of interacting with the audience.”

Initially, Murray started sharing her story with small groups of students in New York City schools hoping her story would be useful to them.

The response Murray received after sharing her story came as a shock to her. She said meeting Barbara Walters was when she realized her life was getting weird, and it would continue to get weirder from that point on. Murray started doing presentations for bigger audiences and did interviews with major news networks. Her story was the subject of the Lifetime movie called Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story. Continue reading →

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