Dr. Robert Ballard to speak at WTAMU about Titanic discovery

Posted on April 21, 2012 by Lisa Hellier

Dr. Robert Ballard will speak at the Mary Moody Northen Recital Hall at 8 p.m. on April 23 as part of the WTAMU Distinguished Lecture Series. His presentation will focus on his discovery of the R.M.S. Titanic, which sunk in the North Atlantic on April 15, 1912.

“The committee decided, with this being the 100th anniversary and the current release of Titanic in 3D, it would be a perfect time to bring him to campus,” Dr. James Calvi, associate dean of education & social sciences, said.

With years of work and his development of state-of-the-art underwater visual imaging technology, Ballard was able to discover the Titanic in July of 1985. Ballard has participated in over 100 deep-sea excursions and has discovered other underwater historical graves.

Calvi described Ballard as “the most famous explorer of the ocean alive today.” Calvi said he hoped students would take advantage of the lecture because of all of the knowledge Ballard has to offer.

Ballard is the director of the Institute for Archaeological Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island, president of the Institute for Exploration, explorer-in-residence for the National Geographic Society and scientist emeritus at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

“I think this event is cool and beneficial because the Titanic was a moment in history that, for 73 or so years, nobody actually knew the facts about,” Maranda Rivas, junior Biology major, said. “Robert Ballard is the man that brought light to the events that happened that fateful night. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that WT is giving to us students to listen to a man who made history by discovering the Titanic.”

The event is open and free to the public. No tickets are required.

Spring Fling draws an all-ages crowd

Posted on April 19, 2011 by Krystina Martinez

TOMS Style Your Shoes being auctioned by the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum.

Spring Fling brought the party to WT on April 16, featuring entertainment for all ages. Sponsored by CORE, it was an opportunity for the community to come together to see local bands, play carnival games, and enjoy a good Snow Cone.
Highlights included a rock climbing wall, a mechanical bull, and a game called The Wrecking Ball. Many people, young and old, tried their hand at the rock-climbing wall, one of the most popular games of the event.

There was also Style Your Sole booth for people to decorate their TOMS shoes, which were also sold at the event. These custom shoes saw a variety of designs, from paint splatters to landscapes.

“Style Your Sole is an awesome way to explore your creativity” Taylor Meyer, a junior Graphic Design major and owner of Taylored TOMS, said. “I think people really enjoy the freedom they have when decorating their own TOMS.”

When they weren’t playing games or painting shoes, students stretched out on the grass to watch local bands compete in a Battle of the Bands, the main draw of the afternoon. There was a diverse array of competitors, ranging from rock groups like Archimedes Watch Out and Five Floors Above to hip hop groups like Team Glory. However, each attracted a different age group.

“[Neverblu] played really well for [what looked like] a first time band,” JR Alvarado, a freshman theatre performance major, said.

“I like [the Fordham 4's] sound and style,” Emily LeGrande, a freshman Sports and Exercise Science major, said. Her mother, Sharon LeGrande, came to visit for the weekend and also enjoyed the diversity of the bands.

“I like the cellist [of the Fordham 4],”Sharon LeGrande said. “They’re really unique.”

Team Glory brought something different to the competition with their slick beats and Christian rhymes. By the end of their set, people were dancing and wanted to take pictures with the group.

“We expected that people may or may not like us,” Mike Loera of Team Glory said. “We’re different, but some people like that.”

Attendees voted for their favorite band via text message, and in the end, Team Glory won. The group will open for Hawk Nelson on April 21 in the First United Bank Center.

“This will be a great opportunity for us,” said Loera. “A lot of people know them and we’re both Christian groups.”

As for the Spring Fling, party-goers seemed to enjoy themselves and some students expressed a desire to see such an event happen again.

“We should have more events like this,” Jacob Kemp, a General Studies major, said. “It would be cool to get more organizations involved in the future.”

21 Days of Change Schedule

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Maria Molina

The University is sponsoring ‘21 Days of Change’, a series of events planned to coordinate with the visit of TOMS Shoes Founder Blake Mycoskie.

Schedule

April 1 – 21: Style Sole Celebrity Auction

April 1: Social Justice Leadership Conference
April 2: Campus clean-up
April 4 – 9: Buff Soles
April 5: A Day Without Shoes
April 11 – 14: National Volunteer Week
April 13: Shack-a-Thon/Give a Goat
April 16:
- Battle of the Bands
- Style Your Sole
- The Lloyd Doble Effect Concert
- S.T.O.P. Film Festival
April 21:
- Hawk Nelson Concept Reception and Dinner with Blake Mycoskie – Invitation Online
- Distinguished Lecture Series Featuring Blake Mycoskie, TOMS Founder and Chief Shoe Giver

Counting down to finals

Posted on March 22, 2011 by Maria Molina

3 days until…

The Amarillo Museum of Art opens their art show featuring WT and AC students’ and professors’ artwork.

6 days until…

The 2D/3D art show begins in Mary Moody at WT.

9 days until…

The last day to drop or withdraw from the University.

45 days until…

Dead day.

48 days until…

The beginning of finals.

Zombies scheduled to attack on March 23

Posted on March 22, 2011 by David Meraz

Humans vs. Zombies. Are you ready? Photo by David Meraz.

March 23 will mark the beginning of a war among humans and zombies at WTAMU. WT students will participate in the first game of tag, put on by the Residential Hall Association at WT. Any WT student is allowed to play. However, they must have attended a pre-game meeting before spring break to be allowed in the game.

“Humans vs. Zombies (HvZ) is a game of moderated tag, commonly played on college campuses,” Miguel Sosa, RHA president, said. “Human players must remain vigilant and defend themselves with socks and Nerf guns to avoid being tagged by the growing zombie horde.”

At the beginning of the game, all students will start out as humans, except for one randomly student chosen to be the original zombie. It is his or her job to tag as many humans as possible and convert them into zombies.

“Humans win by surviving and zombies win by turning everyone to zombies,” Sosa said. “Humans survive by outsmarting the zombies and stunning them with their Nerf blasters or socks.”

Humans can either carry an approved Nerf gun or solid white socks to throw at the zombies. If the zombie gets hit by either the Nerf bullets or the sock, they are stunned and unable to attack a human for 15 minutes. The zombie stuns are timed and ends every 15 minutes on the hour, making it easier for the players. This means that if a zombie is hit at 1:05, they must wait only ten minutes until 1:15. The stuns will end exactly on the hour, a quarter after, half after and fifteen till the hour.

“I’m really excited to play,” Steven Scott, freshman Sports and Exercise major, said. “It is going to be intense, since there will be multiple people against you at all times, trying to turn you into zombies.”

Scott is a resident of Guenther Hall and said he wouldn’t buy a large Nerf gun.

“I don’t want to spend too much money, but I feel it’s better to have a smaller gun to make you agile to be able to run better,” Scott said.

All humans and zombies are required to wear a bandana. If they are human, they wear it on their arms and if they are zombies, they wear it around their foreheads.

To tag a human, a zombie gently touches the back of the humans shoulder. After a zombie tags a humans, the zombie must say “Shazaam” to make the tag official. Zombies must “feed” or must not go without tagging a human for at least 48 hours before being disqualified from the game. Once the zombie tags a human, the human will give the zombie his or her unique PIN or number and the zombie must go to the game’s website and report the tag.

Once the game has started, the players may not shoot in the following locations or risk being disqualified: dorm rooms, bathrooms, academic buildings, the library, the Hastings Electronic Learning Center (HELC), Activity Center, the First United Bank Center (FUBC), the Box, the dining hall and the Jack B. Kelley Student Center (JBK).

The game will last five days. The last day to play will be on March 27. There is no grand prize, only the satisfaction of either surviving and remaining human or the satisfaction of unleashing a zombie horde.

Looking Forward, Looking Back in Comm Department

Posted on February 15, 2011 by David Meraz

Jean Kilbourne's "Killing Us Softly". Photo courtesy of WTAMU.

“Looking Forward, Looking Back” is the theme for this year’s Communication Week, a series of events that the Communication Department puts together annually. The idea for the theme came last fall when the Communication Committee met and talked about celebrating WTAMU’s Centennial.

“We wanted to look at the way communication has changed,” Dr. Trudy Hanson, Department Head of Communication, said.

Communication Week will kick off Feb. 14 with the “Dating Game.” Senior broadcasting majors Imelda Saavedra and Tyler Sweeney will be hosting.

“We have chosen one boy and one girl as our main contestants,” Sweeney said. “Then when people come into the Recital Hall, we will choose three more single guys and girls to play.”

The main contestants will ask their potential dates communication and media-related questions. The winning couples will receive movie tickets and gift certificate to Napolis.

On Feb. 15, author, filmmaker and educator Jean Kilbourne will be talking to students about the world of advertising and gender.

“Her lecture, The Naked Truth, is based on her research on ‘Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising’s Image of Women’,” Hanson said. “The thing about Dr. Kilbourne is that she is very engaging, she gets her audience involved.”

The highly anticipated Project Runway will be back on Feb. 16. Communication faculty members will participate as runway models, wearing outfits from different decades designed by student teams. The contestants are Butler Cain, representing the future; Kris Drumheller, representing the 1990’s; Jessica Mallard, representing the 1960’s; Connie McKee, representing the 1920’s; Lori Westermann, representing the 1980’s; and returning champion Kim Bruce will represent the 1940’s. Dr. James Hallmark will be judging the competition.

On Feb 17, anchor and reporter Andy Justus from KAMR NBC4; Kristy Wilkerson, Branch Manager of Juvenile for Diabetes Foundation in Amarillo and Dr. Joseph Robertson will be featured in an Alumni Panel for students to attend. Eva Harder will interview the panel. They will talk to students about their experiences in media.

Concluding the week of events on Feb. 18 is the Communication Showcase, taking place in the FAC Recital Hall. The different concentrations of Communication Studies and Mass Communication will showcase their work. Presentations will include Blake Boone, Steven Wolf, the Advertising and Public Relations Society, The Prairie and audio projections from Randy Ray’s basic audio class. 91.1 F.M., The One radio station will broadcast the event.

Students who attend all five events will have their name put into a drawing for an Apple 32GB iTouch. Students who attend the showcase on Friday will also be eligible to win faculty coupons which include 5 points added to a midterm exam, 1 excused absence, 10 points added onto a writing assignment and 5 points on a final exam.

Secret Garden cast blossoms on stage

Posted on February 8, 2011 by Krystina Martinez

Secret Garden Poster Courtesy of WTAMU

The WTAMU theater department brought The Secret Garden back to life on Feb. 3. The musical, directed by professor of theater Royal Brantley, is an adaption of the classic children’s novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

The main character, Mary Lennox, is orphaned by a cholera outbreak in India. She moves to Yorkshire and is put under the guardianship of her uncle, Archibald Craven, a melancholy man who has some ghosts of his own.

The acting of most of the cast was certainly commendable. Each character, from Mary down to the “ghosts” that inhabit almost every scene, were portrayed with zeal. The standout of the night was Dickon, played by Brandon Wilhelm, a senior musical theatre major. Although he had fewer musical numbers than some other cast members, Wilhelm had enormous stage presence and stole the show. However, Wilhelm acknowledged that the musical was challenging for him.

“The most difficult thing about musicals is actually getting the acting down and becoming the character,” he said.

Brantley also admitted that there is some difficulty when it comes to directing musicals.

“Once the show opens, it’s out of your control,” said Brantley. “It’s up to the cast and crew [after that].”

Despite the worry, Friday’s performance went off almost without a hitch. There were many opportunities for mishaps, due to the constant moving of sets for each scene, but the cast was able to pull it off.

The set designs took the musical to another level. They were simple in comparison to past shows because of the number of transitions, but they still made an impact. The use of lighting and large pieces such as chandeliers set up the story well.

The Secret Garden is a long musical, clocking in at about two and a half hours. The script is witty, yet there were many touching moments throughout. By the end of the performance, a few audience members were in tears.

The Secret Garden is a charming and captivating musical, and it is certainly one of the best performances that the Branding Iron Theater has put on. Students still have a chance to catch the musical in action. The Secret Garden will be showing in the Branding Iron Theater, Feb. 9 – 12 at 7:30 p.m.

Concert to support Autoimmune Disease

Posted on February 1, 2011 by Frankie Sanchez

Photo by Frankie Sanchez.

The Hard Back Cafe boasted a full house as Darren Flowers and Joel Vaughn performed on Jan. 28. The crowd had to overflow into Hastings to watch the two bands perform for the American Autoimmune Related Disease Association (A.A.R.D.A). The audience was offered free samples of coffee while they enjoyed the concert.

Ricky Mariscal, a senior mass communication major, helped organize the show for the A.A.R.D.A.

“January is ‘Coffee Month’ and Hastings wanted to have a celeb barista show with a few local artists, so this is what we put together,” Mariscal said.

Flowers chose to perform on behalf of the charity due to the recent emails he has received about the cause. His aunt was also recently diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.

Each band played an hour worth of songs and shared stories about life experiences that have influenced their lyrics or why they chose the songs for this particular event. Flowers was accompanied by Jody Atchley, Stephanie Brackett and Skip Chisum on bass guitar.

The artists mingled with the audience after the show and spoke with a few audience members affected by autoimmune disorders.

“I thought the turn out was good,” Flowers said. “It was about what I expected, and if anything, we at least raised awareness for the cause.”

Procrastinator’s Guide to Christmas Shopping

Posted on December 6, 2010 by Krystina Martinez

The holidays are serious business for the U.S. economy. With the combination of this year’s extended Black Friday and Cyber Monday blowouts, the Dow Jones jumped up 250 points on Dec. 1. According to USA Today, analysts are hoping that December will continue to be a good month for Wall Street.

Investors can thank the early bird Christmas shoppers, but while they were killing their Christmas lists on Black Friday, I had better things to do, like sleeping in. I admit I am a professional procrastinator like most college students, and there is nothing wrong with that.

With a little expert advice, I present to you the top six tips for last minute Christmas shopping. It may require you to get a little crazy, but we pay the price for procrastination, right?

Make A List

Making a list is handy for situations where you have very little time to shop. If you’re not sure where you can get a certain item, find out. The best list narrows down your shopping by location, saving time and gas.

Arrive Early

Junior broadcasting major Viridiana Diaz advises shoppers to arrive early in the morning. Most shops are fully stocked and faced in the mornings. Arriving early is important especially for items that sell out first, such as electronics and apparel in small sizes.

Employ A Wingman

If you’re a little less assertive than others, it’s best to have a partner in crime. Qualifications for a shopping wingman may vary from person to person. You may need someone who is an expert at haggling for lower prices. You may need someone who can shove people out of the way if the store gets too crazy. While said wingman is scuffling with the security guards, you can slip past other customers and get what you need. Whatever your needs, make sure your wingman is ready for anything.

Be Aggressive With Your Shopping Cart

You can thank Sylvan Goldman for the invention of the shopping cart. It can store a plethora of items and it also doubles as a plowing device. The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that 24,000 children are injured in the U.S. each year by a shopping cart. I presume that half of the injuries occur because these children just didn’t get out of the way of Christmas Eve shoppers.

Be Nice to Your Cashiers

Who cares about being nice to your fellow shoppers? You have to butter up your cashier! They ring up your items and check you out. If you were being a little snippy, I wouldn’t put it past any cashier to add an extra $5 to your total.

“The cashier can’t do very much, and odds are they’ve already been swamped with tons of complaints and questions that they couldn’t answer,” Daniel Dewde, junior broadcasting major and employee at Hollister Co, said.

“If people are nice to me I usually give them some type of discount,” Diaz said, an employee at Lady Foot Locker.

If you had a bad experience on the sales floor – or if you were the bad experience – make sure you paste on a smile by the time you get to the register.

If All Else Fails…Gift Cards!

Nothings says “I totally put this together last minute” like a gift card! However, you need to know your gift-receiver. Don’t buy a $50 Cheesecake Factory gift card for someone who is on a diet. Although it may be hilarious, you will never hear the end of it.

Students enjoy live music One Sessions show brings local artists to the Live Lounge

Posted on November 10, 2010 by Courtney Inman

The promise of free coffee and music drove students to the AT&T HD Studio, for this night known as the Live Lounge, on Nov. 8.

“It sounded appealing to me,” Eric Brown, junior Mass Communications student, said.

Students got to listen to local artists, Tori Vasquez, Joel Vaughn, and “Archimedes, Watch Out!”. The students got the chance to ask the artist questions throughout their music sets, as well as meet with the artist for a meet and greet session after the show.

Students that couldn’t make it to the show had the opportunity to watch online or to listen to KWTS 91.1, where it was being streamed live.

Students even got to help make the show. The Advanced Video class helped produce and run the show.

The artists who performed in the live lounge said they were excited to get the chance to play at the University.

“We wanted to jump on an opportunity to do something new and fun at WT,” Joel Vaughn, singer/songwriter, said.

The artists were happy to be able to play for the crowd and had fun during the show.

“Tonight was a lot of fun,” “Archimedes, Watch Out!” said on their facebook page. “Thanks to everyone that made it out.”

This was the first ever One Sessions show. The idea arose from One Sessions host, Ricky Mariscal’s summer radio show, The Coffee Shop.

Jessica Wyers, music director, said that she thinks the show went well.

“Keeping in mind that it was our very first show from our brand new HD studio, it was an awesome show,” she said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better first run.”

The crew hopes to do another show during the spring semester.

Tag Archives: Lifestyle – Stuff to Do