Extra Credit

UT Dallas celebrates new campus look

The University of Texas at Dallas in Richardson celebrated the campus's $30 million enhancements project.  The two-year project included reforesting the main entrance along University Parkway with more than 5,000 trees and native plants. The enhancements also include a columnar misting system and walkways lined with magnolias.

"UT Dallas was the ambitious dream of individuals who created a place where young researchers and future leaders would find a first-class education," said UT Dallas president David E. Daniel, in a press release. "This project is an external expression of the confidence and commitment that imbued our founders, and that we share today. The university must be excellent in all it does, and that should be reflected in the way our campus physically welcomes those who join us here."

Photo provided by UT-Dallas

A Fort Worth middle school gets free band instruments

The band at Daggett Middle School had dwindled down to a handful of students with little resources.

But now the revived program now has more than 60 students involved, and today it received an extra boost -- a gift of about $25,000 in new instruments. That included four euphoniums, three trumpets, two trombones and two French horns.

The instruments were provided by Fidelity Investments, Inc., through the California-based Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation. Daggett was the only school to receive the instruments this year and is the first school in Tarrant County to receive such from the foundation. Dallas, Houston and San Antonio schools are past recipients.

“Our growth has been so strong, I think in another two years we will have almost half the school in the band,” Daggett band director Alejandro Story said. “This size donation is really very rare, and we are so grateful on behalf of the students.”

You can see video of the gift presentation here.

Seeking the instruments is part of the school's efforts to improve Daggett, which has been struggling to meet federal academic standards in recent years.

Principal Erin Deel said last week that school officials revamped the band program after meeting with students who said they wanted better electives. Students become more focused on academics when they are also excited about other things school has to offer, such as electives, Deel said.

(Photos courtesy of Fidelity)

-Eva-Marie Ayala

Fort Worth school administrator receives international honor

Assistant superintendent Art Cavazos was honored by the Association of School Business Officials International receiving the group's Distinguished Professional Eagle Award for modeling outstanding leadership in the school business management profession.

Cavazos oversees district operations including child nutrition services, emergency preparedness, safety and security and auxiliary services.

Earlier this year, the Texas Association of School Business Officials gave Cavazos the 2010 Commitment to Excellence Award. He has served as TASBO's  board president in 2003 and has chaired ASBO's International’s Professional Development Committee. Cavazos has been active in implementing various state initiatives related to professional standards, financial excellence and reporting requirements, officials said.

“Perhaps the best evidence of a true leader is in the measure of respect accorded by those who are led,” Superintendent Melody Johnson said. “Art’s professional judgment, common sense approach and genuine concern for staff and students have benefited the District exceptionally well in every regard.”

-Eva-Marie Ayala

U.S. Education Secretary says DREAM Act helps students

 
Photo from Star-Telegram archives.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said he and President Obama and Duncan fully support passage of the DREAM Act during a telephone press briefing held Tuesday. The event was moderated by the National Immigration Law Center.

Many immigrant students have pinned their hopes to the DREAM Act, or the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act. It would provide a path to citizenship for college students who came to this country as children, have been in the U.S. at least five years and have not been in trouble.

The bill would eliminate the fear of deportation and legal roadblocks they face while seeking college degrees and jobs, immigrant students say. Students have also said it would provide uniformity nationwide for undocumented students applying for colleges across state lines.

Proponents of the DREAM Act hope it will be passed as an amendment to the Department of Defense authorization bill in upcoming days.

Duncan said the DREAM Act is the right thing to do for our country because it allows children of undocumented immigrants to gain legal status by attending college or serving the country through the military.

Duncan said it is time to stop punishing young people who came to the United States without choice as undocumented children.

“America is the only country they know,” Duncan said.

Allowing undocumented students to pursue their skills, talents and passions will help the U.S. economy in the long run, he added.

“We have to educate our way to a better economy,” Duncan said.

Diane Smith

 

UNT dean will train journalists in Liberia

Dr. Mitchell Land, interim dean of the University of North Texas Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism, will travel to the Republic of Liberia to train journalists. The Liberian journalists will be covering the African nation's general election in 2011. Land was recruited by the U.S. Department of State. Liberians will elect a president and fill seats in the House of Representatives and half of the seats in the Senate on Oct. 11, 2011.

_Diane Smith

TCC Chancellor is recognized as an outstanding Texas woman

TCC Chancellor Erma Johnson Hadley was selected to the Texas Women's Hall of Fame. The award was created in 1984 by the Governor's Commission for Women to recognize outstanding Texas women. Hadley was one of five inductees Monday to the Texas Women's Hall of Fame. A ceremony took place Monday at TWU's Denton campus.

Hadley was recently chosen chancellor of TCC and is the first woman and African American to sit in this post. Gov. Rick Perry and Anita Perry presented the award.

 TWU Photo by: Shannon Drawe

A Fort Worth school mascot gives birth to many little mascots

South Hills High School's live mascot "Scorpia," a scorpion who lives in an office terrarium, is giving birth today. School officials did not know she was pregnant when they aquired her less than a year ago, but they noticed she was getting chubbier a few weeks. The gestation period for a scorpion is 10 to 18 months and a mother scorpion can produce 15 to 40 offsprings. Some scoripons have had up to 100 babies at once.

South Hills Lead Science teacher Cheryl Morton says baby scorpions immediately crawl onto their mother’s back and stay there, leaving only at mealtime for the first few weeks. At birth, they are white and stay that for up to a year before slowly turning black, she said.

-Eva-Marie Ayala

Gospel Fest to raise funds for Dunbar cheerleaders

Tonight's Gospel Fest 2010 will raise funds for the Dunbar High School cheerleaders to participate in the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York and the New Year's Day Parade in London. The school had six of its cheer squad selected as All American-All Star Cheerleaders this summer to qualify for the events. For the first time, the school also had its mascot ranked as an All American, making student Jawon Hunter eligible to perform at the 2011 Capital One Bowl pre-game show in Orlando.

The free concert will be at the Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church, 1901 Amanda St., where a collection will be taken up for the squad. The school sent letters to Stop Six area churches inviting them to participate. Various youth choirs and praise dancers will be showcased.

Cheer sponsor Gloria Peppers said the squad has participated in the parades since 2006. This year's cheerleaders qualifying for the various events are Asia Odhams, Allison Stinnett, Shelby Williams, Jasmine Washington, Jardyne Parker and Rachel Kincaid.

“I would ask everyone to rally behind them to achieve their goals,” Peppers said.

For more information on how to help, contact Dunbar High School at 817-496-7400.

-Eva-Marie Ayala

Birdville, Crowley high school theaters to stage musicals

Bon voyage and let there be light.

Two powerhouses that shared top honors in the 2010 Betty Lynn Buckley Awards for Tarrant County high school musical theater have announced their fall productions - and they're going in different directions.

Birdville High School in North Richland Hills will stage "Anything Goes," officials announced on a Facebook page. It's a Cole Porter musical about an ocean liner with a nightclub singer and a famous criminal aboard, among others.

For its part, North Crowley High School will perform "Children of Eden," a school district official said today. Composed by Stephen Schwartz, it tells the stories of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel and Noah and the flood.

Jessamy Brown