stay CONNECtED:• FormerNavycorpsmannowcarryingoutnewmissionatBlinn

• BlinndegreeledRuffinotocareerwiththecollege

• BlinnnamesformerBrenhamsuperintendentnewdirectoroftheHoddeCenter

• Blinntheatrestudentsearnnationalrecognition

• TexanscheerleaderjoinslonglistofdancerswhogottheirstartatBlinnCollege

‘Give it all you have’Navy vet’s new mission is to earn Blinn degree while playing football

Keep Informed. Get Involved. Stay Connected.

OCtOBER 2012VOLUME iii issUE 2

BReNHamBRyaNsCHuleNBuRgsealy

BlinnConnection

BLINN CONNECTION Brenham, Bryan, Schulenburg, Sealy OCTOBER 2012 OCTOBER 2012 Brenham, Bryan, Schulenburg, Sealy BLINN CONNECTION2 3

from the top

Keep Informed. Get Involved. Stay Connected.

Blinn Connection is a newsletter for the faculty and staff of Blinn College published monthly by the Office of Blinn College Marketing and Media Relations.

marKetiNG aND meDia relatioNS

Jeff tilley, Brandon Webb, Charlie Kelm

Jeanelle moreno, richard Bray, layla Barrett

To submit information, contact the Office of Marketing and Media Relations Brenham campus phone: 979-830-4663 email: richard.bray@blinn.edu

Bryan campus phone: 979-209-7285 email: brandon.webb@blinn.edu

mission StatementBlinn College provides a personal commitment to individual and community enhancement through educational excellence.

vision StatementBlinn College will raise the educational aspirations and achievements of all people by being the doorway for enriching lives and broadening horizons.

accreditationBlinn College is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia, 30033-4097, 404-679-4501) to award the associate degree. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board approves the courses and programs offered by Blinn College.

Blinn College seeks to provide equal education without regard to race, color, sex, age, national origin, religion, disability, or any other constitutionally or statutorily impermissible reason. This policy extends to all programs and activities supported by the college.

oN the Cover

Blinn freshman turned life around in the Navy.

BlinnConnection

All of us at Blinn were saddened recently by the loss of one of our students, freshman liberal arts major Jason Mouton. Jason was a popular student, beloved by his fellow students in Brenham and respected and cared for by the professors guiding him towards a college degree.

In this time of grief, one shining light was the way the Blinn family and community stepped forward to help one another. Our counseling department was available throughout the day to aid those in mourning, and a candlelight vigil was held outside Solons Hall the following evening, led by the Rev. Michael Haywood of Mission Brenham. The ceremony, eloquent but simple, was attended by hundreds of students who came to bid farewell Jason, a classmate taken all too soon.

I thank Board of Trustees Vice President Leon Toubin, Vice President of Student Services Dr. Dennis Crowson, Brenham campus Student Leadership & Activities Director Mordecai Brownlee and Compliance Officer Keith Thomas for their leadership and guidance in helping our students and the Mouton family in their time of grief.

Our deepest condolences go to the Mouton family. Harold Nolte, Ed.D.

PresidentHarold Nolte, Ed.D.President

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STAY CONNECTED:• FormerNavycorpsmannowcarryingoutnewmissionatBlinn

• BlinndegreeledRuffinotocareerwiththecollege

• BlinnnamesformerBrenhamsuperintendentnewdirectoroftheHoddeCenter

• Blinntheatrestudentsearnnationalrecognition

• TexanscheerleaderjoinslonglistofdancerswhogottheirstartatBlinnCollege

‘GIVE IT ALL YOU HAVE’Navy vet’s new mission is to earn Blinn degree while playing football

Keep Informed. Get Involved. Stay Connected.

OCTOBER 2012VOLUME III ISSUE 2

BRENHAM

BRYAN

SCHULENBURGSEALY

BlinnConnection

page 13

Blinn College Board of TrusteesSeated, left to right: Douglas Borchardt - Secretary, Atwood Kenjura - President, Leon Toubin - Vice President

Standing, same order: Carolyn D. Miller, C.P. A ., David Sommer, Dr. Henry Boehm, Jr., Norwood Lange

4 Navy turned life around for Blinn freshman

6 BoarD NoteS

7 Blinn degree led Ruffino to career with the College

8 Blinn names former Brenham superintendent new director of the Hodde Center

9 Sophomore twirler keeps busy with band, Lions Club

10 Hospitality Management at Blinn serves a vital role

11 arouND the CampuSeS• Texas poet laureate reads poems,

prose for Blinn students• Longtime NASA engineer

inspires Blinn students

12 arouND the CampuSeS• Forecasters tell Blinn students

this year’s election impossible to predict

• Signs point to a quality education

13 arouND the CampuSeS• Blinn theatre students earn

national recognition• New Blinn endowed scholarship

pays tribute to Lonnie Henry Stern

14 athletiCS• Texans cheerleader joins long list

of dancers who got their start at Blinn College

16 perSoNal NoteS With CoNDoleNCeS marK your CaleNDarS

BLINN CONNECTION Brenham, Bryan, Schulenburg, Sealy OCTOBER 2012 OCTOBER 2012 Brenham, Bryan, Schulenburg, Sealy BLINN CONNECTION4 5

feature feature

Navy turned life around for Blinn freshmanFormer Navy Corpsman now playing for Buccaneer football team

Blinn College freshman Daniel Clemons wears an entirely different uniform these days.

Where once he once wore the colors of a U.S. Navy Corpsman, today he steps to a locker at Blinn College and pulls on a blue Buccaneer football jersey. Each time, Clemons takes a moment to look at the photo of Lance Corporal David Raymond Baker taped to the inside of his locker. He remembers where he’s come from, all that he’s seen before his 30th birthday and remembers Oct. 20, 2009, the day Lance Corporal Baker stepped on an improvised explosive device and died.

He knows he has come a long way. He knows he still has much further to go.

‘GOING DOWN THE WRONG PATH’Growing up, there weren’t many who saw Daniel Clemons as a

young man who would save lives while serving his country overseas.He was just 13 when his mother, Rebecca Charlene Roane, died

after a two-year battle with cancer. In the years to follow, he would be passed around to nine different homes, staying with family, friends – anyone who would take him in. Six months after his mother’s death, Clemons’ cousins told him that the man he had grown up believing was his dad was not, in fact, his biological father.

“It makes you grow up faster,” Clemons said. “I wasn’t allowed to be a kid.”

Shortly after his mother’s death, Clemons brought a knife to school,

landing him in juvenile detention with a fresh arrest record. He was twice expelled from the sixth grade for fighting, and at 16, he was arrested again for stealing the family car.

“When other kids were playing Pop Warner, I was breaking into houses and cars and doing what kids in my neighborhood did,” Clemons said.

He dropped out of high school in 2002, returned briefly in 2003, and dropped out again.

“I was just going down the wrong path,” Clemons said. “I was very heavy into drugs, thought I wanted to be a thug and didn’t know who I was. I was definitely turning into a bad person, but I remember one day waking up and it was just like adults always tell you, one day you’re going to wake up and reality is just going to hit you. Literally, I woke up one morning and the light switch clicked.”

Clemons began calling friends, asking for advice to turn his life around. The first person to call him back was his best friend, Sergio Moriel.

Like Clemons, Moriel was a high school dropout, but by the time Clemons called seeking advice, Moriel had spent the previous two years in the Navy. Moriel told Clemons that he had nothing to lose by joining the military. Clemons agreed.

The first step required Clemons to take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, a three-hour test aimed at identifying a recruit’s enlistment qualifications. Those without a high school diploma, like Clemons, needed a 50 on the test before they could

enlist—a score only half of test takers achieve.

He took the test three times, scoring a 48 once, but he never made the 50 he needed. He was told he’d have to sit out six months before he could take the test again. Desperate to get out of Houston and his current lifestyle, Clemons took a job as an industrial plant technician, performing inspections and traveling to Georgia, Utah and Louisiana. After seven months, he had enough money to enroll at Phoenix Academy of The Woodlands, a private school that offered a high school diploma-level program.

Clemons bolted for the recruiter’s office the day he got news he’d earned his high school diploma.

“I didn’t even say hi to him,” Clemons said. “He looked up at me with this expression as if to say, ‘What are you doing here?’ I put transcript on the desk and he said, ‘That’s what I’m talking about. Let’s get this done.’ He asked when I wanted to leave and I told him I needed to leave yesterday.”

‘APPRECIATIVE OF LIFE’Clemons arrived for boot camp in Great

Lakes, Ill. in 2006.“The day that I got off

that bus at boot camp and that first person got in my face and started screaming and yelling, there was no fear of them,” he said. “It was the fear that if I mess this up, I knew what was waiting for me back home. I knew the type of person I didn’t want to be any more and that kept driving me every day.”

After two months of boot camp, Clemons was sent to “A” school, where he received job-specific training related to being a Navy Corpsman. During his six-month stay, Clemons was required to take 13 exams

related to his medical training. Of those 13, he was only allowed to fail two before his enrollment would be re-examined.

Within the first five tests, Clemons had three failures. He appealed to his commanding officer asking to remain in the program, writing a letter describing his life story and how much the opportunity to save lives in the Navy meant to him. That letter changed his life.

Clemons was granted a final opportunity, with the understanding that if he failed any of the final eight exams, he would be booted from the program and assigned to serve as an undesignated seaman. Though the final eight

exams included the three most challenging tests in the training program, Clemons never failed another “A” school exam.

“I wanted to save lives,” Clemons said. “I wanted to help people, so I buckled down.”

He spent his first two years working at Naval Hospital Cherry Point in Cherry Point, N.C. When he was up for new orders, Clemons asked to be deployed and

was assigned to First Marine Division in Oceanside, Calif., just north of San Diego.

Before working with the Marines, Clemons had to undergo Field Medical Training Battalion, learning everything from the Marines’ ranking system and their structure to the way they march, speak and maneuver in combat. He also received rigorous training in treating patients in combat situations.

“You have instructors standing over you, yelling, screaming while you try to simulate rescuing someone with fake blood and fake rounds going off around you,” Clemons said.

In Jan. 2009, Clemons was attached to First Battalion Fifth Marines, and in March he was deployed to Afghanistan.

The first weeks were spent acclimating to the brutal 130-degree heat. Clemons’ training and hospital experience gave him more medical expertise than anyone in the immediate area, and at times he was responsible for the health of hundreds of people, including 187 local nationals, 22 Marines and 27 members of the Afghan National Army.

Of all those he cared for, Clemons only lost one patient – Baker. On Oct. 20, 2009, the Painesville, Ohio native stepped on a 60-pound IED designed to destroy military vehicles.

“I remember having a good time with that kid that morning,” Clemons said. “Twenty minutes before his death we were smoking a cigarette, just laughing and joking like we always did.”

Afterwards, Clemons told Baker’s mother how her son died. It was his toughest task as a Navy corpsman.

“The day I lost that kid, there was a feeling of helplessness,” Clemons said. “No matter how much training you have, no matter how much knowledge you have of how to save a life, sometimes there’s nothing you can do to help somebody.”

In addition to serving in Thailand, Cambodia and Malaysia, Clemons’ unit aided Japan following the 2011 tsunami that

After almost six years as a U.S. Navy Corpsman, freshman Daniel Clemons is working toward his degree while playing football at Blinn College. He is studying to one day become an orthopedic surgeon.

Continued on next page

“If you believe in something or have a dream, you have to give it all you have and

lay it all on the line.”

BLINN CONNECTION Brenham, Bryan, Schulenburg, Sealy OCTOBER 2012 OCTOBER 2012 Brenham, Bryan, Schulenburg, Sealy BLINN CONNECTION6 7

feature

7

‘I Knew I Wanted More’Blinn degree led Ruffino to career with the College

After spending 15 years in the business world without a degree, Rebecca Ruffino appreciates the value of a college education.

It’s why she came to work at Blinn College in the first place.

“Where else am I going to work that appreciates the value of education the way Blinn does?” said Ruffino, assistant to Executive Administrator of External Affairs Cathy Boeker. “It was never about getting rich, it was about knowing that what you do matters. We’re educating people here, and that’s huge for me because I didn’t think I was capable of higher education until Blinn proved it to me.”

For Ruffino, it was a long, winding path to a college education. Growing up outside of Fort Worth, Ruffino attended Crowley High School until her mother moved to Houston between Ruffino’s junior and senior years. Determined not to move to Houston, Ruffino opted to get her GED, enter the workforce and wait for her friends to graduate so she could go to college at the same time they did.

But instead of joining her friends in college, Ruffino moved to Houston and

spent the next 15 years doing clerical work, including 10 years as a judicial court clerk for Austin County.

“I knew I wanted more,” she said. “I had to work full-time because I was starting a family, so I started researching what I could do online. I wanted a real college degree from some place people had heard of. I wanted the real thing.”

With that in mind, Ruffino, then 31, called Blinn College and made an appointment with Counselor and Psychology Instructor Don Stafford. She told him she had always been passionate about psychology, and knew that her best chance of earning a degree would be to study something she enjoyed. Stafford, who taught a general psychology course himself, told her to sit in on one of his introductory courses and see if she liked it.

As it turned out, she loved it.“I knew this was something I wanted to

do no matter how long it took,” Ruffino said. “I liked learning something new, having something outside of my job that I could do just for me. This became a personal journey to see what I was capable of.”

From that point forward, she began taking two classes per semester, including the summer semesters, with the goal of transferring to the University of Houston after she earned her associate’s degree. Most of her core classes were based in Brenham but were available online, saving her the drive from her home in Bellville. She took several math courses in Sealy, and traveled to the Bryan campus on Saturdays one semester to complete a biology lab. After beginning in January 2002, Ruffino completed her associate’s degree in June 2006.

“Knowing that everything would transfer to UH made my time here at Blinn feel so

productive,” she said. “From a customer standpoint, they held my hand and walked me through every step of the way. My entire experience was positive.”

In December 2009, she earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of

Houston. By that time, she had already been working at Blinn for a year as an administrative assistant. In 2010, she moved into her current role as assistant to the executive administrator of external affairs.

“I wanted to work at Blinn because I got my first degree here and it was a very good experience,” Ruffino said. “I felt like this was a place that would appreciate my journey and passion for learning.”

With her experience as a legal clerk, Ruffino was a perfect fit for Boeker, who was looking for someone who could help craft policy language and conduct legal research in addition to records management, government compliance and responding to public information requests.

“I want people to know that if you’re going for a two-year degree or a certificate or just want to take a couple classes that interest you, don’t be afraid to do that. You never know what doors that will open up,” Ruffino said. “It’s easy to say, ‘I can’t do that,’ but this is where it all started for me. It’s the place that made me feel comfortable enough with bettering myself that there was no stopping me.”

Now that Ruffino has a pair of college degrees, she plans to keep going by enrolling in a master’s program at Sam Houston State.

“It’s made me a better person. Whether or not it furthers my career, it’s given me confidence,” she said. “I loved it here as a student and I love it here as an employee because I see the possibilities.”

devastated the island. A Japanese National Police Agency report released Sept. 12 confirmed 15,870 deaths, 6,114 injured and 2,814 people missing. Second Battalion Fifth Marines, the battalion Clemons was assigned to, aided in Japan’s recovery efforts in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami.

“I thought my friend’s death was as eye-opening as it could get,” Clemons said. “On 9/11 we lost 3,000 people. These people lost 15,000 in 20 minutes. That was a reintroduction of being appreciative of life, if nothing else.”

‘I EARNED MY OPPORTUNITY’After five years, 10 months, 13 days

and seven hours of service to his nation, Clemons returned home. His older brother, Chris Kennedy, told Clemons he could live at his house until he got settled and enrolled in college.

Clemons had played football, baseball and basketball and run track in high school, and he was long familiar with Blinn’s reputation for fielding successful athletic teams and successfully transferring students to prestigious four-year schools.

In 2009, while Clemons was still in the Navy, his former coach Greg Morgan, now the athletic director and head football coach at Madisonville High School, mailed him

a newspaper clipping about Mike Flynt, a 59-year-old who had joined Sul Ross State’s football team.

“I said to myself, ‘If a 59-year-old guy can do it, why can’t I at least try it?’” Clemons said.

He traveled to Blinn’s largest campus, in Bryan, where the College’s Office of Veterans Affairs helped him enroll and complete the paperwork for his military benefits. With that out of the way, Clemons headed back to Blinn’s headquarter campus in Brenham with football on his mind.

At first, he could read the skepticism on the coaches’ faces when he told them about his troubled upbringing, but his military career impressed them, and they agreed to give him a shot. A few days later, offensive line and strength coach Kurt Nichols joined Clemons on the Buccaneers’ practice field for a tryout.

When they were through, Nichols gave Clemons some tips for improvement and told him he’d be happy to have the young man wearing Buccaneer blue. One week later, Clemons was enrolled in summer semester courses and working toward a college degree.

“He has been terrific,” head coach Ronny Feldman said. “His work ethic and commitment make him a natural leader, and his experiences in the military help to put things in perspective for his teammates. There isn’t a player on our team who doesn’t have tremendous respect for Daniel – both for

what he has done in Afghanistan and what he’s doing here at Blinn College.”

Clemons joined the team as a center but now plays tight end for the Buccaneers, who opened the season ranked fifth in the nation.

“Every time I did something great in my life, it was because someone said I couldn’t do it,” Clemons said. “They said it was impossible.

“Every day, I know I have 10 years on 99 percent of the guys I’m competing against, so I’ve got to go hard. If you believe in something or have a dream, you have to give it all you have and lay it all on the line.”

Clemons knows he still has challenges before him. He has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, has difficulty sleeping and takes medications for anxiety disorder. He is studying in hopes of becoming an orthopedic surgeon.

“The person I went into boot camp as, I’m not that same person anymore,” he said. “The mistakes that I made before, the way I thought about things, I don’t think that way anymore.”

Occasionally, the coaches catch Clemons seated in front of his locker, gazing up at his helmet, his pads, the nameplate above his locker. Staring at the photo of a 22-year-old Marine who died in Afghanistan almost three years ago.

He knows he has come a long way. He knows he still has much further to go.

ColleGe foCuSClemons - Continued

“I loved it here as a student and I love it here as an employee because I

see the possibilities.”

BoarD NoteSregular board meeting october 16, 2012, Brenham, texas

The board reviewed the financial statement and list of checks for the period ending September 30, 2012.

the board voted to:

•Authorize the Administration to seek requests for proposals for bus travel for men’s and women’s basketball for the 2012-13 season.

•Accept gift to the College of a Sojin grand piano to be utilized at the J. Hal and Allyne Machat Music Facility on the Brenham campus.

•Authorized the Administration to award a bid for copy paper for all campuses.

•Authorized the Administration to purchase a shuttle bus for transportation of student organization groups and athletic teams.

•Authorized the administration to seek bids for the purchase of Suburbans to replace 15-passenger vans.

the board received or heard reports from:

•Richard O’Malley, executive director of facilities, planning and construction, on buildings and grounds.

•Dr. Robert Brick, vice president of applied science, on the Health Science Center Simulation and Clinical Lab.

•Dr. Mark Workman, dean of distance education, on distance education.

•Dr. Ted Raspiller, president of Brazos County campuses, on updates from the Brazos County campuses.

•Dr. Harold Nolte, College president, on administrative announcements.

BLINN CONNECTION Brenham, Bryan, Schulenburg, Sealy OCTOBER 2012 OCTOBER 2012 Brenham, Bryan, Schulenburg, Sealy BLINN CONNECTION8 9

ColleGe foCuS

Blinn names former Brenham superintendent new director of the Hodde CenterYeager has served as instructor for past three years, assistant director since June

Blinn College has named David Yeager the new director of its A.W. Hodde, Jr. Technical Education Center.

Yeager has been a part-time instructor at the Hodde Center since 2009, serving on the center’s advisory council and working with industry leaders to determine workforce needs and overseeing its machinist program. Since being named assistant director in June, he has helped develop the machining program for manufacturing, led the implementation of a dual-credit high school machining class, organized high school career day at the Hodde Center and developed a new administrative assistant certificate program.

Blinn College recently named former Brenham Independent School District superintendent David Yeager the new director of its A.W. Hodde, Jr. Technical Education Center.

Yeager also teaches business mathematics and management and leadership training courses at the Center.

As the former superintendent of the Prairie Lea, Three Rivers and Brenham school districts, Yeager was responsible for curriculum, construction, finance, personnel and student participation programs.

He holds bachelor and master’s degrees from Southwest Texas State. He is a member of the Brenham Economic Development Foundation and the Washington County Chamber of Commerce.

The Hodde Technical Education Center was built in 2009 to provide local training to develop a quality, viable workforce in Washington and the surrounding counties.

‘It feels like I have a big family around me’Sophomore twirler keeps busy with band, Lions Club

Ashlen Smolik loves the limelight.As a twirler for the Blinn College

marching band, she relishes performing in front of a crowd, whether it’s at a Buccaneer football game or an exhibition held inside the San Antonio Alamodome.

But when it came to choosing a college, Smolik was looking for a quieter place to start earning her degree. She found the perfect fit at Blinn.

“I like the small-town atmosphere,” said Smolik, who came to Blinn from Needville High School. “I like being in smaller classes where I can get one-on-one attention from my professors, and because I live on campus it feels like I have a big family around me. Everybody who lives on campus knows each other so you’re not surrounded by strangers all day. It’s like home.”

Smolik was also looking for a place where she could continue baton twirling. When she was in the first grade, her mother took her to a high school football game and Smolik pointed toward the twirlers performing with the marching band, telling her mother she wanted to learn to do that. She has been performing ever since at twirling competitions and exhibitions, harvest fests, youth fairs and parades. While still in high school, she began teaching her 5-year-old cousin to twirl. It didn’t take long before she was teaching a class of seven young twirlers the intricacies of the discipline.

Smolik got in touch with Blinn Band Director Harry Blake during her senior year of high school, and after a tryout her years of practice paid off with a spot on the Buccaneers’ 125-member marching band.

“I love the spotlight,” Smolik said. “I love the sparkly costumes and performing in front of big audiences.”

Last year Smolik got to perform at the Mississippi Bowl in Biloxi, Miss. This year, she and the band will perform an exhibition

at the state high school marching band championships at the Alamodome.

Smolik is also active in the Blinn College Lions Club, an organization dedicated to community service. In high school, she was active in 4-H, volunteered at a local nursing home, was a member of Needville High School’s student council and was active in many school clubs. She was also a member of the honor society.

“I’ve always enjoyed volunteering, even in high school,” she said. “I was in almost every club imaginable. That’s part of why I chose Blinn, because it’s a campus where you can be involved in everything.”

On top of her work with the band and Lions Club, Smolik is vice president of the Catholic Student Union and was recently the organization’s nominee for Homecoming queen. She also works as a resident advisor for Blinn College Park Apartments.

This Summer, Smolik worked at new-student orientation, meeting the incoming freshmen and their parents and welcoming them to Blinn’s Brenham campus. She was

one of four students hired for the position and received a scholarship for her efforts.

“She’s a well-rounded student and she represents Blinn very well,” said Viridiana Acosta, coordinator of student activities. “She does really well in school and still manages to be a kid and have fun.”

Smolik’s success in the role was indicative of her growth after just one full year at Blinn College. The previous summer, she had been the wide-eyed freshman preparing for her first college experience.

“I loved working at orientation,” she said. “It’s fun because I see people around campus and they remember me from orientation, and I got to calm all the worried parents.”

Smolik is working toward an associate of arts in English and wants to transfer to Texas A&M next Fall, where she will study communications.

“I’m looking at careers like crazy and asking everybody what they do,” she said.

Whatever she chooses, her future is even brighter than the lights she performs beneath at each football game.

ColleGe foCuS

OCTOBER 2012 Brenham, Bryan, Schulenburg, Sealy BLINN CONNECTION 11BLINN CONNECTION Brenham, Bryan, Schulenburg, Sealy OCTOBER 201210

arouND the CampuSeS

hospitality management at Blinn serves a vital roleTexas A&M’s move to the SEC heightens the need for qualified service providers and managers

With football fans descending upon the Brazos Valley in even greater numbers, area hotels and restaurants are seeking higher-skilled employees with a background in business and an aptitude for offering quality service.

The hospitality management program at Blinn College is helping close the gap between the need for skilled service managers and the employees available to fill those jobs. Now in its third semester, the certificate program qualifies students to obtain management positions in hotels, motels, spas, restaurants, event planning companies and travel companies – businesses that are expected to grow in the years ahead with Texas A&M University’s recent move to the Southeastern Conference (SEC). Fans in the SEC are known to travel well, particularly to away games, which could bring a flood of new visitors to Bryan-College Station each year.

A recent study conducted by Oxford Economics found that spending in the Brazos County economy is expected to increase by

$23 million due to Texas A&M’s conference switch. The university could see an increase of 17,000-18,000 spectators per home football game, or 120,000 extra fans in town, spending money in local hotels, shops and restaurants each season.

“Bryan-College Station is about to become a destination for sports fans from around the nation, and we’re going to need qualified service providers and managers that can make College Station a place where people will come back,” said Jennifer Garcia, Blinn’s coordinator for applied business.

Of the SEC-member schools, only Louisiana State University is within 500 miles of College Station.

“These greater distances of travel will encourage longer stays in College Station and thus a higher average spending per trip,” the report says.

Blinn’s hospitality management program, which offers a 30-credit hour certificate, blends traditional business courses such as introduction to business, accounting and human resources management with

classes specifically geared toward hospitality management such as introduction to hospitality, convention and group management and services and internship for hospitality management.

Garcia recommends the program to students who want to earn higher wages while working toward related degrees such as business administration, small business management or accounting, and non-traditional students who either want to move up in a service industry or would like to run their own bed and breakfast.

“With this certificate, our students will have upward mobility and it’s a short investment in time,” Garcia said. “They’re going to get out with the skills they need to manage their own business.”

Students who are good communicators and can manage people are especially successful in the program, according to Garcia, and for those who aren’t strong in those areas, Blinn provides specialized training to strengthen management skills, including communications and courses in human resource management.

In the introduction to hospitality management class, students are granted the opportunity to tour businesses and get behind-the-scenes looks at careers in restaurants, hotels and event planning. The last of the 10 courses in the program is an internship, which may be paid or unpaid.

“This certificate prepares students for a variety of career opportunities,” Garcia said. “This program helps everyone from the restaurant employee who wants a management position to someone who would like to get out from behind a desk and work with people.”

Texas poet laureate reads poems, prose for Blinn studentsBrenham campus hosts noted poet

Dr. Paul Ruffin, the 2009 Texas state poet laureate, read selections of his poetry and essays in front of roughly 100 Blinn College students Sept. 25 at the Student Center on the Brenham campus.

“Poetry can be about anything if you write about the world that you live in,” Ruffin said. “You can write about yourself if you want to, but therein lay all kinds of traps you can slip into. It’s better to write about other people and other things.”

Ruffin told the students that after he was selected as the Texas state poet laureate, he was asked by the TCU Press to provide a collection of new poems for publication in a book called “Paul Ruffin: New and Selected Poems.” But with editing and newspaper column duties taking much of his recent time, he told them he had no new,

unpublished poetry to provide. The publisher, in response, told him he had three weeks.

In a panic, Ruffin looked over old files, searching for old works to polish and submit, but he quickly realized it would impossible to turn his old poetry into 30 pages of new, publishable material. Instead, in increasing desperation, he turned to his old newspaper columns.

“I thought, ‘Wait a minute, Ruffin.’ What if you wrote some of those old columns as poems?” he said. “Before I knew what was happening, I was rewriting old newspaper columns in iambic pentameter.”

It resulted in a diverse collection of poetry that included topics such as mummies, chickens, Wal-Mart and his children.

Ruffin is a distinguished professor of English at Sam Houston State

University and the founding editor and editor-in-chief of “The Texas Review.” He is also founder and director of the Texas Review Press.

During his extensive writing career, Ruffin has published almost 800 poems, more than 100 stories and more than 50 essays in magazines and journals throughout the world. His work has also appeared in numerous anthologies and textbooks. He also writes a weekly column, “Ruffin-It,” which appears in a small number of papers.

His books include two novels, three short story collections, three essay books, six poetry collections and 11 edited or co-edited books on topics such as Southern fiction, New England poetry, William Goyen and John Steinbeck.

The reading was sponsored

by Sigma Kappa Delta, a student organization dedicated to stimulating interest in the English studies.

Dr. Paul Ruffin, the 2009 Texas state poet laureate, reads poetry to rough-ly 100 Blinn College students Sept. 25 at the Student Center on the Brenham campus.

Instructor Sandra Schaeffer, students Elyssia Garcia and Jessica Hayes, Program Coordinator Jennifer Garcia and BJ’s Senior Manager Broc McKee.

Longtime NASA engineer inspires Blinn studentsPresidential Medal of Freedom winner participated in rescue of apollo 13

Presidential Medal of Freedom winner Jerry Woodfill told approximately 200 Blinn College students to keep striving for excellence in the face of adversity during an Oct. 3 presentation at the

Dr. W.W. O’Donnell Performing Arts Center in Brenham.

Woodfill spoke of his own school experiences as a youth in Indiana and how he eventually went to Rice University on a basketball scholarship. But Woodfill faced adversity as a basketball player, and described a game against Creighton University in which Creighton star Paul Silas set the Omaha Auditorium record for points while dunking over Woodfill.

“I was dazed and fell back and I laid there in Omaha, Neb. like a dead Texas cockroach,” he said.

Shortly after that, he realized he wasn’t going to become a professional basketball player and decided to concentrate on his academic career. Woodfill had been struggling in the classroom and at one point even considering dropping out, but he stayed in school and was

there on Sept. 12, 1962, the day President John F. Kennedy gave his famous speech declaring that the United States would soon conquer space flight.

The speech motivated Woodfill to two engineering degrees and a 47-year career as a NASA engineer, and at the outset of the lunar landing program he managed the spacecraft warning systems. When Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, Woodfill was monitoring the spacecraft Eagle’s descent. Likewise, he was monitoring Apollo 13’s warning system when the vehicle exploded, and his system gave the first alert of the life-threatening malfunction that was later depicted in the Tom Hanks and Ron Howard movie “Apollo 13.”

Woodfill told the students about NASA’s early difficulties in

mastering manned space flight, but showed how the dedication of NASA’s engineers allowed them to overcome their early challenges and place a man upon the moon.

Woodfill received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Richard Nixon in 1970 for his role in Apollo 13’s rescue. The Medal of Freedom is the nation’s highest civilian honor, presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.

Woodfill’s presentation was sponsored by the Beta Alpha chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, the honor society for two-year college students.

Presidential Medal of Freedom win-ner Jerry Woodfill spoke to approxi-mately 200 Blinn College students at the Dr. W.W. O’Donnell Performing Arts Center Oct. 3 about overcom-ing adversity, using examples from his days at Rice University and his career at NASA.

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Blinn theatre students earn national recognitionBrenham campus actors, mask makers recognized for recent ‘Enron’ production

The cast and crew for Blinn College’s recent production of “Enron” received national recognition from the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival (KC/ACTF).

Student actors Christian Daigle, who played Enron CEO Jeffery Skilling, and Nora Hunt, who played Enron Executive Claudia Roe, received Irene Ryan nominations, which are awarded to outstanding student performers and make them eligible to audition for scholarships at each KC/ACTF regional festival. These scholarships are made possible through the generosity of the late Irene Ryan, best remembered for playing Granny Clampett in “The Beverly Hillbillies.”

Several students also received a meritorious award for producing the masks used in the show: Emma Russell, Jamie Calhoun, Aaron Cravens, Colleen Dougan, Nate Guitron, Hayley Wilder, Josh Blocker, Jericka Gaskamp and Zackary Yoke.

The play was directed by Blinn-Brenham Theatre Director Bradley Nies. Professor Kevin Patrick served as technical director and Instructor Jennifer Patrick was the costume designer and guest artist.

KC/ACTF is a network more than 600 academic institutions and 18,000 students throughout the nation that allows theatre departments and student artists to showcase their work and receive outside assessment.

“Enron” was the first play in the 2012/2013 Blinn-Brenham theatre season themed “An American Year.” The season will also include performances of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” Nov. 15-18; “Biloxi Blues,” Feb. 21-24; and “An Evening of Tennessee Williams,” April 12-13.

Blinn’s theatre arts program offers a quality educational foundation through study, application and experience. A wide range of performance and production studies combined with Blinn’s outstanding reputation as the state leader in transferring students to top four-year institutions paves the way for success in an exciting entertainment career. In the theatre arts program at Blinn, students apply their knowledge each year in four or more dramatic productions, two musical theatre ensembles and local, regional and national presentations.

Blinn College’s production of “Enron” recently received national recognition from the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival. From left: Sundi Lee, Michael Kimmel, Aaron Cravens, Zachary Yoke and Christian Daigle perform a scene from the play during a performance earlier this month.

New Blinn endowed scholarship pays tribute to Lonnie Henry Stern$30,000 gift will assist ag majors

The Blinn College Foundation recently accepted a $30,000 gift from Floriene P. Stern to establish an endowed scholarship in memory of her husband, Lonnie Henry Stern.

The scholarship will be awarded to agriculture majors at Blinn.

“We are honored to award an annual scholarship in Lonnie Henry Stern’s name in recognition of his leadership in the community and in the field of agriculture,” said Blinn College President Harold Nolte.

“It was an absolute pleasure working with Mrs. Stern to establish this scholarship,” said Joe Al Picone, director of the Blinn College Foundation. “She has a wonderful family and I’m very proud of my friendship with them.”

Education was important to Lonnie Henry Stern, who graduated from Brenham High School and Blinn College before earning his degree in agriculture engineering from Texas A&M in 1939. From there, he went to work at Sears and Roebuck in Waco, where he met Floriene Pochyla. They married Dec. 22, 1940, and moved to Lubbock, Texas, where Stern worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Stern enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in January 1943 and graduated from officer training in Quantico, Va. He was later sent to Boston to attend Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he studied to become a radar specialist.

Stern served in the Marines for 3 ½ years before returning to civilian life, where he worked for the USDA, Anderson-Clayton Cotton Company and Frank Eiring Cotton Company. In 1964, he organized the Producers Marketing Association in Levelland, Texas, and received the agribusiness personality of the year award.

Stern passed away on June 8, 2008. He and his wife had two sons, Lonnie Jr. (wife Kay) and Ernie (wife Natasha); three granddaughters, Amber Stern Hendricks, Anna Serikova and Nadin Serikova; and one great-granddaughter, Winsome Hendricks.

Established in 2000, the Blinn College Foundation, Inc. supports programs and activities that enhance the quality of education for Blinn College students and expand the educational opportunities for the entire community. While raising funds is an important function, Blinn College Foundation also seeks to heighten community awareness of the mission and accomplishments of the college and to promote excellence in education.

Blinn College Foundation 902 College AvenueBrenham, TX 77833 979-830-4159www.blinn.edu/foundation

Too close to callForecasters tell Blinn students this year’s election impossible to predict

Even the number crunchers can’t figure out who will win the presidential election on Nov. 6.

Dr. Jean-Philippe Faletta and Dr. Jon Taylor of the University of St. Thomas presented their election forecasting model to Blinn College students on Oct. 15 at the Dr. W.W. O’Donnell Performing Arts Center in Brenham, but were unable to declare a clear winner in the closest presidential election in years.

Instead of declaring a firm winner, Taylor and Faletta presented five scenarios: two in which each candidate won narrowly, two in which each candidate won comfortably and one in which the election could end in an Electoral College tie. Taylor and Faletta cautioned that their numbers change daily based upon the fluctuations of the election environment, but they currently have Mitt Romney winning 47.5 percent of the popular vote and President Barack Obama winning 46.8 percent.

However, it is the Electoral College that determines the presidency.

Should the Electoral College

vote be split 269-269, Taylor and Faletta said the Electoral College would reconvene for a second vote. If it remained tied, the House of Representatives and Senate would meet jointly to count the votes. Should it still remain tied, then a House of Representatives vote determines the president and a Senate vote determines the vice president, with no guarantee that each winner would be from the same party. In fact, that series of events would likely make Mitt Romney the president and Joe Biden the vice president, Taylor and Faletta said.

Taylor and Faletta the Electoral College system works and pointed to key battleground states such as Ohio, Michigan and Colorado as being too close to accurately predict.

Faletta, an associate professor of political science at St. Thomas, and Taylor, St. Thomas’ political science chair, are noted experts on campaigns, elections and politics and have written numerous articles on the science of election forecasting. They have been predicting election results since

2004, including predictive models for the Texas gubernatorial race since 2006, Congressional elections since 2008 and the Houston mayoral election since 2009. They began constructing the current presidential election model during the 2000 election, and their forecasting model has accurately predicted the results of each presidential election since 1952 within 0.58 percent.

Taylor teaches public administration, public policy and statistics and quantitative

methodology at St. Thomas, where he has been the department of political science chair since 2003 and an associate professor since 1998. This is his fourth appearance at Blinn as part of the College’s Distinguished Lecture Series.

Faletta has taught American political institutions, American political processes, political methodology and Russian government and politics at St. Thomas since 2006.

University of St. Thomas Professors Dr. Jon Taylor (left) and Dr. Jean-Philippe Faletta (right) told Blinn College students on Oct. 15 that this year’s presidential election is too close for even their forecasting model to predict.

Signs point to a quality educationabout a dozen new signs in Bryan-College station direct visitors to Blinn

Visitors making their way around Bryan-College Station are finding new signs that point the way to Blinn College, courtesy of attractive blue “wayfinding” signs.

In all, the cities of Bryan and College Station plan to put up 144 signs directing visitors to destinations throughout both cities.

Managed by the Bryan-College Station Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB), the $400,000 project was funded by the two cities’ Hotel Occupancy Tax funds. Generosity by the cities and the CVB allowed Blinn to partner in the project without having to commit scare College funds.

”We’re deeply appreciative of the support we’ve seen for years from all of our surrounding communities—particularly Bryan and College Station,” said Brandon Webb, assistant director of marketing and media relations. “The cities and the CVB have made a significant investment to ease navigation around the Bryan-College Station area, and that includes helping thousands

of prospective students and their parents find our Bryan campus.”In addition to spotlighting Blinn, the signs will help visitors locate such

landmarks as the Northgate District, Wolf Pen Creek, the George Bush Presidential Library, the Bryan Regional Athletic Complex, Central Park, Veterans Park, the Brazos County Expo and historic downtown Bryan.

The signs, which will be blue with white lettering, will be topped with blue stars for Bryan locations, red stars for College Station and maroon stars for Texas A&M.

Roughly a dozen signs such as this one are already pointing the way to Blinn.

Floriene P. Stern recently donated $30,000 to the Blinn College Foundation to estab-lish an endowed scholarship in memory of her husband, Lonnie Henry Stern.

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Texans cheerleader joins long list of dancers who got their start at Blinn CollegeSecond-year Texans cheerleader returned to Brenham this month for Buccaneer football game

Stephanie Farrer credits her time at Blinn for helping her become a Houston Texans cheerleader—and this earlier this month she returned to where it all began.

The former Treasures dancer returned to the sidelines in Brenham once again this month for the Buccaneers’ football game against sixth-ranked Kilgore College. Farrer and five other Texans cheerleaders came to Cub Stadium for photos with fans and an autograph session.

“I haven’t been back to a Blinn game since I left, and I’m excited to see my old coach and watch the girls dance,” said Farrer, who attended Blinn from 2009-11.

Farrer came to Blinn from Crosby High School, where her drill team coach, Nikki Blanchette, was college roommates with Blinn’s dance and cheer coach at the time. Blanchette suggested that Farrer continue her dance career at Blinn. It was there that Farrer met Lindsay Slott, who danced with the Treasures during Farrer’s freshman year. Seeing Slott make the Texans cheerleading squad and learning that Blinn has sent dancers to the Dallas Cowboy and Houston Dynamo cheer teams as well as the Houston Rockets dance squad convinced Farrer to give it a shot herself the following year.

To make the tryout, Farrer flew back to Houston from Daytona, Fla., where Blinn’s dance team was competing in the national championships. Once she arrived, a travel-weary Farrer had to face down a competition of 800 other dancers.

“Once the tryouts started, I just said, ‘Let’s just see what happens,’” Farrer said. “Whatever happens, happens.”

She survived three rounds of cuts in the first two weekends of tryouts to reach the finals. Once a finalist, she learned several Texans dance routines and performed them at Reliant Stadium for the team’s draft day celebration. About a week after draft day, she was officially named a Texans cheerleader.

“I love game days,” Farrer said. “It’s a lot of hard work, but you get to meet so many different kinds of people and being able to perform at games has been amazing.”

Farrer and her fellow cheerleaders practice three times a week for 3-5 hours each, and also make 40 public appearances throughout the year in addition to the games. The cheerleaders are expected to arrive at the games five hours before kickoff.

Because the cheerleaders are not guaranteed their spots the following year, Farrer had to win her position again this year, and this time she faced almost 1,000 competitors. Once again, she won her spot. She is one of the few cheerleaders on the squad who earned a spot on the team in her very first tryout.

“This year was a lot more stressful,” Farrer said. “It’s very hard to make it back a second and a third year.”

Farrer, 20, left Blinn with a 4.0 grade-point average and was on the dean’s list both years. After attending Blinn from 2009-11, she now attends the University of Houston, where she studies chemistry and looks forward to a career as a high school drill team instructor and chemistry teacher.

In the meantime, she hopes to cheer the Texans all the way to a Super Bowl victory. Farrer cheered for the Buccaneer football team when quarterback Cam Newton, now with the Carolina Panthers, led Blinn to the 2009 junior college national championship in a 31-26 victory over Fort Scott (Kan.) Community College. Blinn won the Citizens Bank Bowl in the game’s final seconds on an 84-yard punt return by Chad Froechtenicht.

“It was amazing,” Farrer said. “The whole game was back and forth, but when he ran that punt back we all went crazy, jumping up and down, screaming. It was definitely worth freezing in the cold.”

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Former Blinn Treasures Dancer Stephani Farrer, now a second-year Houston Texans cheerleader, poses with Blinn dance coach Sarah Barland at the Buccaneers’ game against Kilgore.

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The Blinn volleyball team recognized two college employees, human relations director Karla Roper and Hodde Center administrative assistant Robbie Thomas, prior to their Dig Pink game this month. Roper and Thomas are both breast cancer survivors.

2012-2013 Blinn Buccaneer men’s Basketball ScheduleDate oppoNeNt time SiteNov. 2 Hill College - MCC Classic 4 p.m. WacoNov. 3 McLennan CC - MCC Classic 8 p.m. WacoNov. 5 LSC - North Harris 7:30 p.m. HoustonNov. 8 lSC - Cy-fair 7:30 p.m. BrenhamNov. 10 houston Blaze 4 p.m. BrenhamNov. 12 Kingwood College 7:30 p.m. BrenhamNov. 16 victoria College 7:30 p.m. BrenhamNov. 20 *paris Junior College 7:30 p.m. BrenhamNov. 26 lSC- tomball College 7:30 p.m. BrenhamNov. 28 *Bossier Parish Community College 7:30 p.m. Bossier City, LADec. 1 *Navarro College 6 p.m. BrenhamDec. 5 *Kilgore College 7:30 p.m. KilgoreDec. 8 lSC- tomball College 4 p.m. BrenhamDec. 9 Concordia university 6 p.m. BrenhamJan. 2 lSC - Cy-fair 7:30 p.m. BrenhamJan. 5 *Tyler Junior College 6 p.m. TylerJan. 9 trinity valley Community College 7:30 p.m. BrenhamJan. 12 *Panola College 6 p.m. CarthageJan. 16 *lee College 7:30 p.m. BrenhamJan. 19 *Jacksonville College 4 p.m. JacksonvilleJan. 23 *angelina College 7:30 p.m. BrenhamJan. 26 *Lamar State College 4 p.m. Port ArthurJan. 30 *San Jacinto College 7:30 p.m. BrenhamFeb. 2 *Coastal Bend College 6 p.m. Beevillefeb. 9 *Jacksonville College 6 p.m. BrenhamFeb. 13 *Lee College 7 p.m. BaytownFeb. 16 *Angelina College 6 p.m. Lufkinfeb. 20 *lamar State College 7:30 p.m. BrenhamFeb. 23 *San Jacinto College 4 p.m. Pasadenafeb. 27 *Coastal Bend College 7:30 p.m. Brenham

*Conference GamesBold indicates home games

2012-2013 Blinn Buccaneer Women’s Basketball ScheduleDate oppoNeNt time SiteNov. 2 Northwood university J.v. 5:30 p.m. BrenhamNov. 3 **our lady of the lake 2 pm. BrenhamNov. 5 Western Texas College 5 p.m. SnyderNov. 6 Cisco Junior College 6 p.m. CiscoNov. 10 victoria College 2 p.m. BrenhamNov. 14 Temple College 5:30 p.m. Temple Nov. 17 ** Northwood University J.V. 2 p.m. Cedar HillNov. 20 mclennan Community College 5:30 p.m. BrenhamNov. 27 Southwest Christian College 7 p.m. TerrellNov. 29 Western texas College 5:30 p.m. BrenhamDec. 1 McLennan C.C. 2 p.m. WacoDec. 3 Southwest Christian College 5:30 p.m. BrenhamDec. 5 temple College 5:30 p.m. BrenhamDec. 8 *Paris Junior College 4 p.m. ParisDec. 15 LSU-Eunice 6 p.m. Eunice, LAJan. 2 lSu-eunice 5:30 p.m. BrenhamJan. 5 *Tyler Junior College 4 p.m. TylerJan. 7 Cisco Junior College 5:30 p.m. BrenhamJan. 9 *trinity valley C.C. 5:30 p.m. BrenhamJan. 12 *Panola College 4 p.m. CarthageJan. 16 *angelina College 5:30 p.m. BrenhamJan. 19 *Jacksonville College 2 p.m. JacksonvilleJan. 23 *tyler Junior College 5:30 p.m. BrenhamJan. 26 *San Jacinto College-North 4 p.m. BrenhamJan. 30 *panola College 5:30 p.m. BrenhamFeb. 2 *Kilgore College 4 p.m. Kilgorefeb. 9 *paris Junior College 4 p.m. BrenhamFeb. 16 *Angelina College 4 p.m. Lufkinfeb. 20 *Kilgore College 5:30 p.m. BrenhamFeb. 23 *San Jacinto College-North 4 p.m. Houstonfeb. 27 *Jacksonville College 5:30 p.m. BrenhamMar. 2 *Trinity Valley C.C. 4 p.m. AthensMarch 7-10 Region XIV Tournament TBA Tyler

**Scrimmages *Conference Games Bold indicates home Games

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perSoNal NoteSCongratulationsmarcelo Bussiki

Dr. Marcelo Bussiki, music director and chair of the Division of Fine Arts on the Bryan campus, became a U.S. citizen during a ceremony Oct. 12. Bussiki, who has been in the United States since 1992, was asked by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to be the keynote speaker at the ceremony.

Keith thomasCompliance Officer Keith Thomas, who

played football at Navarro College and Oklahoma University, was inducted to the NJCAA Hall of Fame during a ceremony in Corsicana on Oct. 13.

Don WilhelmFormer Blinn Athletic Director Don Wilhelm

was named to the Paris Junior College Hall of Fame, it was announced this month. Wilhelm, who served 10 years as Blinn’s athletic director and was also the women’s basketball coach and athletic director at Paris, will be inducted during a ceremony on Nov. 3.

Jami ingramAssistant softball coach Jami Ingram was

inducted into the Texas Women’s University Athletics Hall of Fame Oct. 13 in Denton, Texas. Ingram set single-season and career home run records at TWU and has been a Buccaneer assistant coach for seven seasons.

CondolencesJason mouton

Blinn College freshman Jason Mouton, an 18-year-old liberal arts major from Houston, Texas, passed away on Oct. 9. A candlelight vigil led by the Rev. Mike Haywood of Mission Brenham was held the following evening outside Solons Hall on the Brenham campus.

randell laceyRandell Lacey, adjunct faculty for Workforce

Education, passed away on Oct. 1. Lacey, who worked for Blinn for almost five years, taught the industrial maintenance technician program specific to the Igloo Corporation in Brookshire, providing skill-up training to those enrolled in their apprenticeship program. Lacey also provided instruction in all levels of welding at Hempstead High School.

Mark your CalendarsNov. 1 ................. Distinguished lecture by Gary Weiss: Hidden Struggle for America’s Soul,

6 p.m., Barbara Pearson Banquet Room, BryanNov. 2 ................. Women’s basketball vs. Northwood JV, 5:30 p.m.Nov. 3 ................. Night at Star of the Republic Museum, 7-9 p.m.Nov. 3 ................. Women’s basketball vs. Our Lady of the Lake JV, 2 p.m.Nov. 8 ................. Men’s basketball vs. Lone Star Cy-Fair, 7:30 p.m.Nov. 10 ............... Women’s basketball vs. Victoria College, 2 p.m.Nov. 10 ............... Men’s basketball vs. Houston Blaze, 4 p.m.Nov. 12 ............... Men’s basketball vs. Kingwood, 7:30 p.m.Nov. 12-13 ......... Brazos Valley Blood Drive, Janis Snead Banquet Room, BrenhamNov. 15 ............... Schulenburg campus Star Party, 6-9 p.m.Nov. 15 ............... Student Talent Show, Brenham Nov. 15-18 ......... “Snow White,” O’Donnell Performing Arts Center, BrenhamNov. 16 ............... Men’s basketball vs. Victoria, 7:30 p.m.Nov. 19 ............... Camerata & Chorale Choir Christmas Concert, St. Mary’s Catholic

Church, BrenhamNov. 20 ............... Board of Trustees Meeting, 7 p.m., Administration Building, BrenhamNov. 20 ............... Women’s basketball vs. McLennan, 5:30 p.m.Nov. 20 ............... Men’s basketball vs. Paris, 7:30 p.m.Nov. 21-23 ......... HolidayNov. 26 ............... Men’s basketball vs. Lone Star-Tomball, 7:30 p.m.Nov. 29 ............... Women’s basketball vs. Western Texas, 5:30 p.m.Nov. 29 ............... Bryan campus choir presents “Celebrations,” 5:30 p.m., Barbara Pearson

Banquet Room, BryanNov. 29-DeC. 1... “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell, 8 p.m., Barbara Pearson Banquet Room, Bryan

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Join us for A Nightat the MuseumHave you ever wondered what happens in the Museum at night after the lights dim and the doors close? Now’s your chance to experience it first-hand for yourself!The Star of the Republic Museum at Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site will host its third annual Night at the Star of the Republic Museum from 7-9 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 3.Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for students.Be sure to bring your flashlight and watch the museum’s exhibits come to life and tell the story of the Texas Republic!For more information, call 936-878-2461 or visit www.starmuseum.org.