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| Della Barbato, FNFGT's Greenschools! coordinator, had a friend at the University Center at SFASU |
The Y-LINC students spent the entire day at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, touring the university with very generous teachers and university staff explaining what SFASU can offer them.
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| Piero Fenci opens up the kiln for the Y-LINC campers. |
Professor Piero Fenci, a master ceramist in his 80th semester of teaching, presented SFASU’s dream like ceramic studio. There were dozens of throwing wheels, pallets of raw clay, kilns full of projects, and all the materials needed to make a custom glaze. The students got to make their own little sculptures, and the ceramics teacher agreed to have them fired and sent to the students later down the line. Austin High art teacher David De Hoyos was especially impressed with the facilities.
Dr. Jeana Paul-Ureña and Juan Carlos Ureña from the College of Liberal and Applied Arts met us outside SFASU’s opulent University Center, a commons with a food court, student organization offices, and lounges for students to relax in. They talked about how SFASU’s Language Arts department can offer the students free credits in language courses through a placement test: if the tests determines that they are competent Spanish speakers, then the student may get credits for a Spanish course. Jeana also asked the students what they wanted to study, and explained how SFASU can help them get there. When asked, many of the students said they were thinking about attending the college.
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| Giovanni Castro drew this picture of Dr. Juan Carlos. The resemblance is uncanny. |
Daniel Saenz, a herpetologist and research scientist at the US Forest Service Southern Research Station at SFASU, explained what a scientist’s job is like: asking questions, compiling data and finding answers to current conservation issues. His current research project involves studying crawfish frogs on the west side of Houston, and how they are effected by Chinese Tallow, a non-native invasive tree that has infiltrated the bayous of Houston and other waterways in Texas.
The Sylvans timbersports team demonstrated the axe throwing and other sports to the group. The team won several events at the Southern Forestry Conclave last week. Anyone at SFASU can join the team, said SFASU junior and axe-thrower Courtney Campbell. Cynthia Cantu, Emerson Hernandez, Chris Williams and Giovanni Castro got to try their hand at the crosscut saw, and we cheered on one of the Sylvans as he felled a pole.
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| A Sylvan scatters wood chips as he fells a pole. Pole felling is a timbersports event in which contestants race to chop down a pole set in the ground. They are judged not only by time, but by how close the pole falls to a stake driven in the ground. |
The SFASU chapter of the Student Association of Fire Ecology (SAFE) presented the high energy world of fire management to the campers, which seemed to be the most enjoyed presentation of the day. They explained why it is important to manage natural ecosystems with fire, and how setting fires on purpose under specific conditions can help transform an ecosystem to something more like what it was before fire suppression became prevalent in the United States. Steven Goodfellows, president, showed students his study-abroad fire ecology research opportunity he had in the Netherlands. Doug Best told us about his wildfire suppression internship he had in North Dakota, where he burned prairie with the Nature Conservancy.
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| Cynthia Cantu and Emerson Hernandez try cutting through a can't with a cross cut saw. They very much enjoyed it! |
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| Students watch a presentation by Doug Best (pictured in nomex) of the SFASU Chapter of the Student Association of Fire Ecology on his Nature Conservancy internship in North Dakota. |
Tomorrow, a very special surprise is planned for the students....
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