Killeen, Texas – Standing like a soldier over the universities that prefaced the official existence of A&M-Central Texas, Dr. Pauline Moseley, won’t share her age. She prefers the portrait that she took more than 40 years ago.

But her place in the history of the universities that were – American Technological University and University of Central Texas – and the deep roots that still exist in the now eleventh university of the storied Texas A&M University System: Texas A&M University-Central Texas is secure.

She was there, four decades ago, when community leaders came together to create a local university for residents who would have otherwise had gone without.

There are, of course, other universities – to both the north and south of Bell and Coryell counties – but cost and distance made access limited, especially for the adult, working, or military populations in an age when there were no online or off campus options.

“To have been here at the beginning, through all of the transitions, and witnessed what we had as it became a part of The Texas A&M University System has been an extraordinary thing,” said Moseley.

There were times, she said, at the beginning when the budget was tight and the job of ‘creating a university – literally from whole cloth – seemed like an endless series of challenges, from accreditation to finance to staffing.

“I remember when there were literally five faculty at ATU,” she said, her steady voice quickly outlining memory after memory.

“I was the only person in the education program. The business program had one person, and so did computer technology and aviation,” she stated flatly, and then laughed, “Criminal Justice had two people. They were lucky. They had the enrollment.”

The social work program – still a part of the University’s degree offerings – began, she remembered, at the suggestion of a now-retired WWII veteran and general’s spouse who “wanted us to create a program for the women,” Moseley remembered.

The diversity of the student body and its eventual graduates has been a long-time source of pride for Moseley, who remembers officials from another sister university questioning her during the transition of University of Central Texas to Tarleton State University.

“They wanted to know how we managed to recruit such a diverse student population,” she observed slyly. “I told them we just opened the door!”

Alumni records from A&M-Central Texas reveal that almost 6,000 Central Texas residents from Temple, Killeen, Belton, Harker Heights, and Waco graduated from either ATU or UCT. Many were service men from Fort Hood.

Now recognizing graduates of both American Technological University and University of Central Texas, A&M-Central Texas offers “Legacy Alumni” certificates to more former ATU and UCT alumni in the hopes that they will know that the previous universities transitioned into part of The Texas A&M University System, becoming the 10th of 11 statewide universities.

Recently, honorees have included John Charles Thomson, Jr. who – all these years later – still remembers the moment he graduated 1974. His son, John, was young and also remembers being in awe of his father’s accomplishment.

His son, now LTG John Thomson, now serves at the NATO Allied Land Command in Turkey.

Moseley retires with a nomination for emeritus status pending consideration by The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents, and words of praise from long-time colleague, Dr. Sam Fiala, Associate Professor in the Counseling and Psychology Department.

“It is with great pleasure that I am nominating Dr. Moseley for Faculty Emeritus Status,” wrote Fiala. “In her tenure with the University and its legacy institutions, she has built a reputation as a devoted educator who cares deeply about the success of her students and the University at large. Her commitment to student learning and to the growth of this University will continue to serve as an exemplar and inspiration to her colleagues for years to come.”

Moseley, reserved about the numerous words of gratitude she has received upon her announcement, takes it all in stride, remembering, for example, the important things.

Like the fact that few if any universities can claim to have been created by a community college. ATU, she says, was founded in cooperation with Central Texas College.

“Central Texas College was the original source of our mission,” she said. “The community colleges open their door to all who can benefit from an education, and that’s how we wanted to do it, too.

“We were selective, but not in the traditional sense. We wanted to select 100% of the most motivated students who wanted access to undergraduate and graduate degree programs.”

A&M-Central Texas President, Dr. Marc Nigliazzo, acknowledged the on-going and purposeful mission that has become integral to the University.

Elisa Chamberlain, 46, U.S. Army E-5 was 20 years old when she enlisted in 1992. For more than two decades, she reported for duty as a 92G Food Service Specialist, baking, frying, boiling, simmering, steaming and sautéing as prescribed by Army production schedule.

But this woman, whose honey colored eyes, cherubic countenance, forthcoming smile, and thick pre-rafaelite chestnut colored hair falling in a casual tumult upon her shoulders has known responsibility far beyond her tender years.

She is a combat veteran, a spouse and a mother of three sons, and on Saturday, August 11th, she’ll cross the stage at graduation in the Bell County Expo Center, shake the university president’s hand, and receive her graduate degree in Marriage and Family Therapy.

Chamberlain came to A&M-Central Texas in 2014, earning an undergraduate degree in psychology in 2016 and, in true up-tempo rhythm of a soldier preparing for duty, she enrolled in the Marriage and Family Therapy Program in the University’s College of Education without even taking a semester off to rest.

She credits her experience in the military, half a lifetime in service to country and corps, as the foundation upon which she and her family built their lives, even though there were times when it was difficult.

“Dual career military families have it especially hard,” she said. “For example, in 2008, we were both deployed at the same time. I went to Iraq and he went to Afghanistan.”

Fortunately for their family, Chamberlain and her husband, Vance, had made good friends with another military family who stepped in to provide a family for their children, as they faced the inevitable separation, not just from their children, but from each other.

The years passed, she said, bringing challenges that she embraced. At Ft. Lee, Virginia, she was the first woman to be placed into quartermaster training, a new category of training that would replace traditional drill sergeants.

Describing what it was like to command virtually raw recruits, she reflected on her career with pride, and her once gentle, if not lyrical cadence, struck a different chord, detailing her expectations of her soldiers, their attention to detail and expectation, and her ability to transform them into a disciplined team, capable of executing orders at a moment’s notice.

This was, no doubt, the embodiment of a former life. Of command status, rank, and responsibility. How did it happen, then? That this “soldier’s soldier” was drawn to the softer side of psychology, only to become a therapist?

“When I retired from the Army, I had lived almost everything that could happen to a military family. And I knew that I had a heart for the complexities of military service. So, I decided to connect my past and use it to leverage my new future.”

Enrolling at Central Texas College in 2013, Chamberlain discovered that the majority of her military training would not translate into a traditional academic degree program, so she did what she was trained to do: she planned it all out, what she would need to earn the required course work at the community college, and then transfer to A&M-Central Texas.

It was there, she said, that she met Dr. Jeff Kirk, now associate provost and senior associate vice president for academic affairs at A&M-Central Texas who, at the time, was teaching a course in program review.

“I was thrown in the water and had no idea how deep it was,” she said, suppressing a laugh. “My friends had told me to take the course and that I’d learn a lot. They were right. But it was very challenging.”

One day, she said, Kirk brough in a whole team and introduced them to the students, encouraging them to turn to them for support and additional help with the subject matter.

“Dr. Kirk helped me get a job as a student worker with Dr. Amber Diaz in the College of Education,” she gushed. “It’s all been like that. It’s not easy, but there’s so much support everywhere, even when you feel like you’re going to fall, there’s someone there to anticipate it and provide guidance.”

Completing two semesters at Darnall Hospital’s Child and Family Behavioral Health Services, Elisa acknowledges that there have been struggles throughout her military service and new, post-Army retirement. But she quickly punctuates that admission with the fact that she uses obstacles as fuel for her determination.

“There’s nothing in front of me that I can’t face,” she said, also acknowledging the involvement of the Harker Heights Cathedral of Deliverance and Praise, where she met Pastor Bishop Thomas, Jr. and his wife, Lady Tihara Thomas.

“They have brought such a wonderful element of spirituality back into our lives,” she said, happily describing the closeness and sense of hopefulness that is such a part of their lives now.

But, as she crosses the stage this weekend, with husband and sons cheering from the Expo Center stands, Elisa knows she is at a crossroads – where the past and the present and the future happily intersect.

There is a long line of strong women in her family, she explains. More than three generations of tradition and triumph.

By David A. Bryant FME News Service

Fort Hood and its surrounding communities could be seeing a big boost soon thanks to the 2019 John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act, signed into law earlier this week by President Donald J. Trump.
Passage $717 billion defense bill “authorizes significant resources for the Army as well as Fort Hood and its soldiers and family members,” according to an email from Keith Sledd, executive director of the Killeen-based Heart of Texas Defense Alliance, a nonprofit that provides local governments on the inner workings of Fort Hood.
“The bill provides a 2.6 percent pay raise (for soldiers), an additional 4,000 soldiers bringing active duty Army end strength to 487,500 soldiers along with funding for increased training, modernization, and procurement in order to build and maintain readiness. This will ensure Fort Hood units have the resources to be trained and ready for whatever missions they receive.”

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said during a visit to Fort Hood on Friday that he helped secure more than 30 provisions in the bill, which includes $150 million in military construction funds for Texas installations alone.
“One of the most important (provisions) was focusing on updating and modernizing M1 Abrams tanks, Bradleys and Strykers,” Cruz said. “Another element I worked closely with Fort Hood on was to modernize the motor pools.”
Of the $150 million for Texas installations, $9.6 million will be used in funding a “Supply Support Activity Warehouse” at Fort Hood, the office of U.S. Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock, reported.
“This facility will ensure our troops have the equipment they need to effectively train, boosting morale and readiness capabilities,” the congressman said.
The bill enables the Secretary of Defense to establish a grant program for investing in infrastructure around military communities. This effort directly supports Texas’ Defense Economic Adjustment Assistance Grant Program, which is an infrastructure grant program designed to assist defense communities.
The grant has been used in the past by Fort Hood and Killeen to upgrade the U.S. Army radar approach control facility at Robert Gray Army Airfield and for upgraded security at the airfield, which also services the Killeen-Fort Hood Regional Airport.
The bill will prioritize access to high-quality public education for military children through increased Department of Defense supplemental Impact Aid, especially for disabled military children, according to the office of U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.

The Department of Education describes Impact Aid on its website, ed.gov, as financial support for “local school districts with concentrations of children who reside on Indian lands, military bases, low-rent housing properties, and other federal properties, or have parents in the uniformed services or employed on eligible Federal properties.”
Another provision when it comes to education is the bill will establish Cyber Institutes at senior military colleges such as Texas A&M.
“In addition to providing strong support for the men and women defending our nation, the National Defense Authorization Act strengthens the Pentagon’s relationship with academia in research and innovation important to the modern warrior,” said Marc Nigliazzo, Texas A&M-Central Texas president. “We are grateful to our elected officials for their support of our military and their recognition that higher education has an important role to play in our national defense.”
Another provision in the defense act forces the Secretary of Defense to establish a policy on the Department of Defense’s response to allegations of juvenile-on-juvenile sexual assaults that occur on military bases, including at Fort Hood, where reports of such cases have occurred without action from the courts.
The “provision will begin to address a loophole that has allowed juvenile-on-juvenile sexual assaults to go unprosecuted on military installations,” Carter said. “While I’m still supportive of the implementation of memorandums of understanding across all domestic military installations, this language is an important step forward in handling these sensitive cases, so that children may receive justice.”

Temple College trustees adopted the 2018-19 tax rate, 19.795 cents, at its August board meeting.
The rate is lower than the current rate of 20.47 cents per $100 valuation. The tax rate is higher than the effective tax rate of 19.46 and lower than the rollback rate of 19.78.The school’s budget for 2018-19 is $42 million.

The appraised amount for an average home in the TC taxing district is $144,550. The tax bill from TC for the average home at the current rate of 20.47 cents is $236.72.

The increase in the budget is mostly the result of personnel costs, particularly in the health professions.

TC is eligible for a nursing shortage reduction program grant, which will assist in TC’s plan to begin accepting nursing students in both the fall and spring semesters.

Two more faculty members were needed to accommodate a second class of nursing students, Van Miller, vice president of administrative services and chief financial officer, said. Also, additional faculty was needed in the EMS and sonography programs.

In 2016, Marc Nigliazzo, president of Texas A&M University-Central Texas, signed a memorandum of understanding with Temple that the university that would offer bachelor of interdisciplinary studies with a music emphasis, bachelor of liberal studies with music concentration.

At the Monday board meeting, TC trustees approved another memorandum of understanding with A&M-Central Texas that added the bachelor’s of music degree, which required the approval of the A&M board of regents and the Higher Education Coordinating Board. “According to our faculty this is the most desirable degree for graduate school,” Linda Guzman-Trevino, interim TC vice president of Academic Affairs, said.

Gracie Connor, TC division director of business and continuing education, reported that she made a presentation in Hutto to some nonprofits in the area that were interested in financially supporting education opportunities for residents in the area.

“They were excited by what we had to offer,” Connor said.
Reynolds Consumer Products recently offered a skills development fund and 19 first time supervisors were trained on improving workplace productivity, she said.

Go 2 Work will offer another hospitality course starting next week.

There are a couple of ways to consider the research poster presentations set for Tuesday at the Texas Bioscience Institute.
These young adults are crazy smart and their research posters are way too complicated for regular folks to understand, or these young adults are crazy smart and be glad that they’ll likely be accomplishing great things in the future to benefit society at large, or the color selections used in production of research posters are quite pleasing.
However the presentations are viewed, a lot of work went into the projects that are illustrated in the posters.

The poster presentation will be 10:30 a.m. to noon at the Texas Bioscience Institute, 5701 Airport Road, on the Scott & White West Campus. The event is open to the public.
As bright as the summer researchers are, they benefited from the critiques they received at Wednesday’s practice session.
Daniel Spencer, associate vice president academic outreach and extended programs; Luke Lichtenwalner, coordinator/advisor TBI middle college; and John Idoux, Texas Bioscience Institute partner-in-residence, were on hand to give advice to the presenters.
Twelve high school and college students participated in the summer research program, working in labs at the Olin E. Teague Veterans’ Medical Center, Temple Bioscience Institute facility, Baylor Scott & White, University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and Texas A&M University–Central Texas, to name a few.
Idoux strongly suggested the students put their summer research experience on their resume and applications. The students’ experience of working in a lab for the summer and putting together a research poster will catch the eyes of researchers at their schools looking for help in their labs.
The students were advised to stand to the right of the poster, because people viewing it at the presentation will be reading it left to right and it’s easier to guide them through the poster information if you’re not standing in front of the text.
Each student had learned an elevator pitch as quick way to tell the story of their summer research.
“If you get lost or stumble, use the poster as your cheat sheet,” Lichtenwalner said.
The titles of the projects are daunting, but it’s possible to get a glimmer of understanding once it’s explained and with the help of graphics.

Some of the projects include: Pandora Tindle, a student at University of Texas at Austin worked with Shannon Glassor at the VA, on a project titled Pinealectomy Increases Biliary Proliferation and Liver Fibrosis in Rats Cholestatic Livers.
Jeesoo Min, a Harker Heights student worked with Ruth Ann Murphy at UMHB. The topic is Atomic Absorption Spectroscopic Analysis of Divalent Nickel and Trivalent Chromium Ion Concentrations in Foods and Beverages Stored in Stainless Steel Containers.
Haley Brown, a Harker Heights High School and TBI student, worked with Laura Weiser Erlands of Texas A&M University–Central Texas on the relationship between egg stalk length and egg-larval cannibalism in Chrysoperlarufilabris.
A couple of the students were given advice on some of their verbiage. George Robinson of Troy High School was advised on not saying “we don’t want to kill somebody,” when describing a training device built by SiMMo3D.
The students were advised to get a letter of recommendation from their mentors and to stay in touch.
“As you go through school your professors will have connections with people through professional associations,” Spencer said. “Maintain those connections.”
The mentors do want to know how their interns are doing, he said.

A Confederate soldier statue stands at the Bell County Courthouse in Belton.

Bottom of Form
One thousand signatures may be the magic number, no one knows for certain, to sway county officials to move the Confederate soldier statue from the northwest corner of the Bell County Courthouse lawn in downtown Belton to another location.

Josh Clements, with Bell County United for Reform, the organization that is spearheading the effort, spoke at the August Care Network meeting. He mentioned a petition and when asked how many signatures were needed, Clements wasn’t sure but said he thought 1,000 might get some attention.

About a year ago, Clements and Bennie Walsh, president of Temple branch of the NAACP, met with Bell County Judge Jon Burrows and two county commissioners to discuss the possibility of moving the statue to a more appropriate location. The meeting took place when many Confederate statues were being removed from public spaces around the country.

At that time Burrows suggested the possibility of placing a plaque next to the Confederate soldier statue explaining the statue and what it has come to represent for some.

When asked last week about the proposed plaque, Burrows said he hadn’t heard anything from Bell County United for Reform since that initial meeting and the “ball is in their court.”

The objective of Bell County United for Reform is to inform residents of the local history surrounding the Confederate monument, and relocating it so “all Bell County residents feel welcome, valued, and respected,” Clements said in a release.

The Bell County Confederate soldier monument was erected in October 1916, more than 50 years after the end of the Civil War.

“Although this monument describes who we were in 1916, it contradicts who we are as a community of inclusion, equality, and love in 2018,” the release said.

The group suggests that the statue be relocated to South Belton Cemetery, where more than 80 Confederate soldiers are buried, or to the Bell County Museum, a few blocks north of the courthouse.

The statue was erected one year following the lynching of Will Stanley in Temple and four years after the lynching of Henry Gentry in Belton. As a result, it was not viewed by people of color as a memorial — it was a symbol of intimidation and fear on the courthouse lawn, Clements wrote.

At the Care Network meeting, Clements, a Temple Independent School District teacher, explained that he had set a goal this summer to reach out to every church in Bell County on the issue.

“I sent out emails and am doing follow-up phone calls,” he said.

Since the conversation is about reconciliation and healing, Clements said the feeling is that churches should be leading the effort. This effort is named Project Justice for All.

He made a presentation to the Belton Ministerial Alliance recently.

Born and raised in Bell County, Clements said he had seen the Confederate soldier statue hundreds of times, but never stopped to read it.

Then Charlottesville, Va., happened. A Unite the Right rally held a year ago in Charlottesville turned violent. The rally brought to light the pervasiveness of racism throughout the country.

Clements began asking people in the black community about the Confederate soldier statue and all felt monuments to the Confederacy didn’t deserve to be memorialized or honored in public spaces.

Clements has an adopted daughter who is black, which has prompted his activism in regard to race relations.

“Silence is complicity and I’ve been guilty of it my whole life,” Clements said while holding back tears. “Those who marched with and stood by at the Unite the Right rally looked a lot like people in my own family.”

Belton native’s perspective

Roscoe Harrison Jr., pastor of Eighth Street Baptist Church in Temple, grew up in Belton

“That statue was there when I was growing up and I didn’t pay any attention to it,” Harrison said.

Harrison said a friend once pointed out that the statue was a Confederate soldier.

“I didn’t care,” he said.

Harrison, the first black reporter at the Temple Daily Telegram, experienced segregation and racism first hand. The second-hand books provided to the black students at Harris High School in Belton were tattered and torn. He and the rest of the black children in Belton couldn’t play in Yettie Polk Park.

“We couldn’t eat at white-owned restaurants,” he said. “We struggled.”

His father, Roscoe Harrison Sr., was 9 years old when Henry Gentry’s dead body was burned in downtown Belton. In the mornings before school, the senior Harrison cleaned a Belton grocery store.

“He said he had to pass by where they lynched Henry Gentry every day,” said Harrison. “He would recall that many times to me.”

Harrison doesn’t believe removing Confederate statues is going to remove prejudice and racism.

“That’s going to require a societal heart transplant,” he said.

The community would be better served by coming up with plans to keep youth in school and out of prison.

“We’ve lost our social direction,” Harrison said. “There are too many homes without fathers, mothers who work multiple jobs and grandparents raising their grandkids.”

Removing a Confederate statue is insignificant compared to the issues many black families face every day, he said.

Statue’s significance to county

John Perry, a member of Major Robert M. White Camp No. 1250 Sons of Confederate Veterans, believes the statue is a memorial to Confederate soldiers, and only that.

The statue was purchased with money raised by the United Daughters of the Confederacy at a time when local Confederate veterans were beginning to die of old age.

“These ladies wanted to memorialize the valor and honor of the Confederate soldiers,” Perry said. “They had dinners, bazaars; they approached different organizations for donations.”

The statue cost $2,500.

There was a big ceremony when the statue was unveiled. A parade that began on East Fourth Street moved down Main Street to the Courthouse. The president of University of Mary Hardin-Baylor spoke and a cornerstone was placed.

“They ended with the song ‘God Be With You Until We Meet Again,’” Perry said.

It wasn’t a statue for hate or malice, its purpose was to honor the memory of the Confederate soldier, he said.

Males, ages 15 to 59, could join the Confederate Army to fight in the Civil War. In Bell County, 1,037 men joined the Confederate Army at a time when men in Bell County in that age group numbered 1,054.

“That means 98 percent of white males in Bell County served in the Confederacy,” Perry said. “This was a motivation behind the statue.”

History and memory

Often people equate history and memory as the same thing, but they are not, said Timothy C. Hemmis, assistant professor of history at Texas A&M University-Central Texas in Killeen.

Monuments are about remembering the past, but those memories are different, depending on the audience. Every monument taps into a unique history and the decision to remove or preserve any monument has less to do with that history than one might think, Hemmis said.

Often public memory misconstrues history, making it less complicated and more romanticized.

For more information about the Civil War and memory, Hemmis recommends reading the works of historians Karen Cox “Dixie’s Daughters: The United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Preservation of Confederate Culture” and David Blight “Race and Reunion: The Civil War and Memory.”

The main goal of the effort is to move toward changing perceptions, Walsh said at the Care Network meeting

“We know we’re not going to change the mindsets of old people like me,” he said. “It’s about the future, it’s our grandkids.”

After being on the receiving end of some hateful and racist Facebook posts after an article ran about the statue in the Telegram last September, Walsh said he was told to “leave it alone.”

“I can’t leave it alone,” he said.

Citlaly Rivera’s plan to attend Texas State University in San Marcos this fall was set when a chance meeting at Bryan Collegiate High School’s College and Career Day changed everything.

The incoming sophomore stopped to chat with a representative from the Texas A&M University System’s RELLIS Campus and walked away with a new academic journey. Through the RELLIS Academic Alliance, the Bryan native will have the opportunity to complete her Bachelor of Science in Health Science from West Texas A&M University.

“After learning more about the campus, I really liked the concept of nine universities coming together to offer a wide variety of degrees locally at a lower cost,” Rivera said.

Located in Bryan, the RELLIS Campus fosters cutting-edge research, technology development, higher education, and workforce training. Through the Academic Alliance, students can complete their freshman- and sophomore-level courses through Blinn College, and seamlessly complete their bachelor’s degree in related fields from an A&M System regional university, including Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Prairie View A&M University, Tarleton State University, Texas A&M International University, West Texas A&M University, Texas A&M University-Texarkana, Texas A&M University-Kingsville and Texas A&M University-Central Texas.

Blinn will open the Walter C. Schwartz Building, a new 83,000-square-foot facility at the RELLIS Campus, for the Fall 2018 semester. All RELLIS students will utilize the 19 classrooms and eight laboratories during the first academic year.

The Texas A&M System’s academic facility, located across the street from Blinn’s facility at RELLIS, is scheduled for completion in June 2019. Upper-division RELLIS students will complete their bachelor’s degrees at the facility upon its completion.

In addition to a seamless transition process, the RELLIS Academic Alliance offers a competitive tuition rate. Students enrolled in upper-division courses at one of the Texas A&M System regional universities at the RELLIS Campus pay $295 per semester credit hour, or $8,850 for a 15-hour course load for the fall and spring semesters – almost $2,000 less than many other universities in the region.

Students taking Blinn courses at the RELLIS Campus pay Blinn’s tuition rate of $111 per semester credit hour for out-of-district students.

Rivera comes to Blinn with 52 credit hours earned while attending Bryan Collegiate High School, a unique partnership between Blinn and Bryan ISD that places students on the fast track to a college degree. Rivera will earn her Associate of Science in business from Blinn before completing her Bachelor of Science in Health Science through West Texas A&M at the RELLIS Campus.

“Since I am enrolling in Blinn with so many college credit hours under my belt, I was interested in what my next step would be, especially as it applies to a bachelor’s degree,” Rivera said. “I decided I wanted to pursue the administration route and work as a non-medical professional in a hospital or clinic.”

West Texas A&M’s Bachelor of Science in Health Science serves as a foundation for students pursuing professional schooling such as medical school and physical therapy school. This degree program also offers courses that prepare students for a variety of non-medical professional opportunities in the healthcare industry, including human resources, administration, customer service, and marketing and promotions.

Blinn’s Associate of Science in biology, Associate of Arts and Associate of Science in psychology, and Associate of Science in business offer a seamless pathway to a health science bachelor’s degree from West Texas A&M.

“Before College and Career Day, I did not know anything about West Texas A&M,” Rivera said. “This is a totally new plan to attend this university. I am excited to be a part of the inaugural class at the RELLIS Campus this fall.”

The RELLIS Academic Alliance will host its final Transfer Fair at the RELLIS Campus this month. Representatives, admissions counselors, and financial aid advisors will be available to speak with prospective students Thursday, July 26, from 9 a.m. to noon and 4:30-7:30 p.m.

For more information or to register for the RELLIS Transfer Fair, visit https://rellis.tamus.edu/TRANSFER.

Have fun and do good. Be a sponsor. The Texas A&M Central Texas Foundation is proud to present the 8th Annual Texas A&M Central Texas Golf Classic on October 6th, 2018, at Stonetree Golf Club in Killeen. This tournament is a fun-filled day of golf and giving because each sponsorship funds scholarships for A&M Central Texas students.

Please help us support our local students through one of the sponsorship levels outlined below.

VICTORY SPONSOR-$5,000

• Two foursomes in the tournament

• Logo placement top center of the Sponsor Banner

• 2 Individual company banners placed at the event (banners supplied by sponsor).

• 2 Product/Booth display at event

WARRIOR SPONSOR $2,5OO

• One foursome in the tournament

• Logo placement on event banner

MAROON SPONSOR $1,5OO

• One foursome in the tournament

• Includes common listing on group banner at the event site

DAY INCLUDES:

• Continental breakfast and catered lunch

• $100 Titleist equipment shopping spree

• Complimentary beverages on the course

For those who wish to sponsor but are unable to attend, we offer the 

NAVY SPONSOR $250

• Common listing on group banner at the event site

SCHEDULE

7:30am Registration and Breakfast

9:00am Shotgun Start

1:00pm Lunch, Awards Ceremony and Raffle Drawing

Please contact Glen Morrison to register as a sponsor

254-702-9006

On Friday, July 13, 2018, Texas A&M University-Central Texas presented a lunch concert, sponsored by Dr. Russell Porter and Mrs. Johnnie Porter. Brian Tanaka showcased his musical talents for all to hear.

Texas A&M University-Central Texas is looking forward to working with the U.S. Army Futures Command, which will be located in Austin where a team of about 500 will take on the challenge of designing the Army of the future.

The Army says is its most significant reorganization effort since 1973.

Army leaders say the new command will help the service adapt to the emerging threats from powers such as China and Russia, after years of counterinsurgency warfare.

Texas A&M University and Texas A&M University Central Texas will be part of a consortium of educational institutions and state agencies that will support the command.

A&M Central Texas President, Marc Nigliazzo, says this an exciting opportunity for the growing campus

“Because of our locations, because of the direct access to Fort Hood, and our long history of interacting with Fort Hood, this puts us in a position to do some work with and through the Army and the new command system,” he said.

Instead of enjoying a lazy summer day, one teen has decided to think about her future.

Hannah Baratang, 16, started a new job as a work study in the biology lab at Texas A&M – Central Texas. At 16 years old, she has already earned two Associate’s Degrees, one in organismal biology and the other in chemistry.

She transferred to TAMUCT as a junior in high school and has a 3.8 GPA.

“The first time I ever saw the biology lab was a few years ago,” Baratang said. “Our teachers at Central Texas College arranged a field trip and the whole class toured the new biology and chemistry labs at A&M-Central Texas, and I knew at that moment that this was where I wanted to get my degree.”

Joan Baratang, Hannah’s mom, knew her daughter was special when she was in the second grade. Every summer after that, she ordered an accelerated curriculum that Hannah was eager to consume and learn.

Sandra Whisler, Hannah’s biology professor at Central Texas College, said she is both an outstanding student and an inspiration.

“She just learned it really fast. Took great notes and was just a really really good student,” Whisler said. “I would say that I have taught for 25 years and I would say that she is one of the top three students that I’ve taught.”

She has excelled in her classes at CTC and in her work-study program at TAMUCT.

Dr. Laura Weiser-Erlandson, Associate Professor of Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences at A&M-Central Texas, said she was shocked to learn her new work-study was 16 but looks forward to having her in classes.

“She’s very mature and dedicated,” Weiser-Erlandson said. “Sometimes, I see that in a student twice her age. But 16? That’s exceptional. There’s no doubt that Hannah is going to do amazing things.”

By this time next year, Baratang will receive her bachelor’s degree in biology, before her 18th birthday.

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For 23 years, Dawn Spradley drove a truck for the U.S. Army, deploying six times before retiring as a sergeant first class in 2012.

As a military occupational specialty 88M, or motor transport operator, the 45-year-old has been to Bosnia, Kosovo, and Iraq, and has been stationed in Germany, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri and at Fort Hood, retiring from the 4th Sustainment Brigade.

So on the September morning when she began classes at Central Texas College, it was with mixed emotions as she took concrete action toward a new and very different life.

Having taken the routine placement tests prior to enrolling, Spradley was told that she was functioning “at the fourth grade level” in the fundamental skills of writing, comprehension and mathematics. And, for a moment, she questioned her decision to try college.

“The advisor explained that I would be starting with the basic courses below the college level courses,” she said, absently stroking a delicate necklace, adorned with dozens of Buddist charms, given to her by her mother. “And I didn’t want to do that.”

While she may have given up before she’d even started, she instead reflected on what she’d heard and what she knew about herself, realizing that her traditional high school education hadn’t been as fulsome as she’d have liked.

What she did know was that there were things she wanted to learn. And if this was the way to get to that, and the only way there was to start from the very beginning, then that is what she would do.

So the daughter of an Air Force veteran and a homemaker did what no one in her family had ever done before — she put one foot in front of the other.

“I was in a math class that was literally starting at the very beginning,” she said, her dark eyes shining like polished ebony. “It was the same in my English class. The teacher began with ‘This is a noun.’”

For five years, she attended school full time, accumulating enough credit hours to earn not one, but three associates degrees. And, without missing a beat, she applied and was accepted at Texas A&M-Central Texas. And now, what was once an uncertain academic future holds significant promise.

She anticipates graduation in May 2018, with a double major in criminal justice and psychology — and if her GPA holds, she’ll complete with honors: magna cum laude.

Understandably, Spradley can’t help but marvel at the journey and all of the opportunities she now enjoys, and the sense of having come full circle from her first days as a community college student.

That’s right. The woman who began humbly, persisting through the basics, is employed at the University Writing Center, helping students digest the complexities of the written word as it is applied in academia.

Writing center director Bruce Bowles marvels at his good fortune, describing the rigorous curricular training the University Writing Center tutors must master: a 3-hour pedagogy course, focusing on the theory of composition, instructional strategies and a mandatory internship.

Spradley, he says, made his toughest training look easy, absorbing everything he offered with an impressive work ethic and sense of calm that inevitably rubs off on the students with whom she works.

“She has the unique ability to really connect with the students. A lot of times, they come in stressed out, worried or confused. And Dawn just has a knack for meeting them wherever they are in the writing process, addressing their concerns and calming their fears, so they can concentrate on the writing.”

That’s the goal of the writing center, Bowles acknowledges. And he is justifiably proud of its success. In 2016-17, the University Writing Center doubled the consults and tripled the contact hours, providing nearly one thousand hours of actual instructional time. And in 2017, their numbers have risen a whopping 30 percent.

For Spradley, every day is another opportunity to do what she loves. And she credits Bowles and the A&M-Central Texas faculty for both setting the bar high and encouraging her to believe in herself.

“Dr. Bowles was hard on me,” she smiled, a trace of pride evident in her posture. “He’s very into his discipline and he expects us to reach beyond what we think we are capable of. He’s given me a confidence that I never knew I had.”

Dr. Agnes Tang, Assistant Professor in the A&M-Central Texas College of Education and Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program Award recipient, knows the importance of literacy, but her passion is more than theoretical.

Every year, for the past six years, she and her husband, Dennis, an engineer and seminarian, travel half way around the world – at their own expense – to offer teacher training, most recently to 40 primary English teachers, 50 seconday English teachers, and more than 100 junior high school students in the City of Heze, Shandong Province, China.

Tang, whose given name is Chi Hung, was so named by her father, to represent thousands of purple and red flowers. It was a gesture, she explains, his expression of hope for a colorful life.

Born in Hong Kong the second youngest of six children, Tang remembers that her father encouraged the girls as well as the boys, asking them only to fulfil their purpose as well as they might be able.

“He was only educated to the sixth grade,” she said. “My mother only to the fourth grade. But together, they provided for their large family as best they could.”

Her father and mother, she explained, began working as adolescents, and they were frugal with their money, one day opening and successfully running a coffee and tea shop in Hong Kong. By the time she was 18, Tang began to plan her emigration to the U.S. where, she remembers thinking that anything is possible.

With an education visa, she embarked bravely into a land that was all but completely unfamiliar to her, earning a BSW from Cal State Polytechnic in Pomona, marrying, and venturing into real estate until a friend suggested that she should be a teacher.

After earning her teaching credential at Cal State-Stanislaus, Tang began teaching second and third grade, moving to Waco, Texas where she spent six years before embarking on a graduate degree in curriculum and instruction and finally a doctorate from Baylor.

And so, in 2001, Chi Hung, promised a colorful life by the very father who destined it to be so with her naming, began “reading camps” in mainland China where she would offer teacher training, a week of intensive English learning for Chinese migrant children, and eventually recruiting a handful of A&M-Central Texas graduate students to accompany her.

“Even in their own country, migrant children are marginalized, and all too often, they are taught very little even in their own language,” Tang explains. “So we go there – we travel all that way – to let them know that they are loved, and valued, and important – but most of all, capable of learning.”

A year after their first reading camp, Tang and her husband petitioned her husband’s employer, to sponsor a migrant school in Su Zhou. And, in that process, she explains, that they were asked why they bothered.

At this notion, Tang bristles, quickly adding that while they are almost entirely self-funded, she has begun to see traction for her cause, recently receiving a modest research grant from A&M-Central Texas research funds.

“I propose that everyone is worthy of an education,” she suggests without flinching, firm in her conviction that there is not one human life that is not capable of learning, understanding, and applying what was previously an unknown concept.

“We invite fellow faculty to accompany us and A&M-Central Texas graduate students who receive academic credit for their participation toward their degree. So we have created is an innovation. We offer a sound curriculum that is valuable to the teachers and children who might not otherwise have access to it.

“It’s a ‘win-win-win’ for everyone,” she says brightly. “I extend my research and understanding of language and learning and literacy. Children who might not have otherwise been reached are helped to know that they can learn. And the graduate students get credit toward their degree.”

Before leaving, Tang and her A&M-Central Texas colleague, Dr. Amber Lynn Diaz, joined by graduate students, Erik Melomontoya and Angelica Rodriguez, completed their eighth annual reading camp, positioning their students for a casual photo.

Using their newly-acquired English skills, the students gathered happily donning donated A&M-Central Texas string bags, piling together in a group, and positioning their hands in the shape of so many small hearts, in one moment capturing a carefree expression of love and gratitude, existing outside the geographic boundaries of their place in the world.

“That,” Tang said, “is why we bother.”

Arnold Krostag, 82, grew up in Stratford, Wisconsin, the oldest of seven children.

In a quietly fading sepia tone era, now almost a century into the past and far removed from the disorienting digital age, he spent his youth getting his hands dirty on a daily basis, rising before the chickens and laboring to coax a living from the family farm.

Leaving high school before he finished, Arnold set his sights on a future of a different kind of service.

“I admired the fellows who came back from WWII,” he said, a hint of Upper Midwestern American accent echoing in his words, long drawn out o’s and a’s spilling out as easily as the sparkle in his pale blue eyes.

“One of our neighbors had lost a leg,” he said. “He had a farm like we did. But he came back from the war without his leg and had reconstructed parts of his skull.

“But when it came to working, he was as strong as any man I’d ever known. And he never let his physical condition weaken him. He’d just drive out to his fields, take off his prosthetic leg, throw it in the back of his truck and get to plowing.”

And so, inspired by the heroism of the returning soldiers, Krostag enlisted where he would serve for the next 24 years.

By age 29, he was Acting First Sergeant. Hiding a disability of his own, he fulfilled his promise despite the fact that he had been declared legally blind in his left eye.

Acknowledging that his disability might create an unsafe environment at the National Training Center in Ft. Irwin, California, Krostag didn’t look for reasons not to serve; he looked for ways to compensate for the fact that he had no depth perception.

Acting as tank commander in an armored unit during live fire exercises, where identifying and calling in the proper coordinates is the difference between more than winning and losing, it’s life and death, Krostag asked his crew to help him improvise.

“I asked them to signal me the firing commands, and when they did, I’d repeat them over the radio,” he explained. “We didn’t just get it done, we won. I learned a lot about team work and integrity in the Army,” he concluded. “It’s not ‘every man for himself.’ It’s every man for every other man.”

Returning from service decades later, and having served in nine different locations from Ft. Irwin, California; Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri; Ft. Carson, Colorado; Ft. Huachuca, Arizona; Ft. Gordon, Georgia; Ft. Hood, Texas and Vietnam, Korea, and Okinawa, Japan, Krostag and his wife, Sandra, now married 59 years, settled in Killeen upon retirement.

“I retired early and I wanted to get my degree,” he explained. “I had accumulated a lot of credits – too many for CTC – so the advisor pointed me to American Technological University where I earned my undergraduate degree in 1980, majoring in General Studies.”

After starting – but not finishing – his master’s degree, Krostag embarked on a second career, working with the Ft. Hood Commissary.

“My boss noticed I had taken a marketing class at ATU, so he inundated me with training. I couldn’t do all that and continue my master’s, so I focused on my second career.”

Five children, two boys and three girls, he says, have surpassed him in the education department, earning undergraduate and graduate degrees and making significant contributions in their careers: consulting, nursing, insurance, real estate, and business.

But he graciously attributes their success not to his service or his own education, but to his parents, both of whom hailed from a long line of teachers.

And so, as fate would have it, he began to think about his education, remembering ATU, and reaching out to A&M-Central Texas to Senior Administrative Assistant, Aimee Taggart, asking for a bumper sticker.

She, however, had other plans.

A&M-Central Texas offers former ATU and UCT graduates a Legacy Alumni Certificate, recognizing their contributions to the evolution that would lead to the establishment of the University and its affiliation with The Texas A&M University System.

“Talking with him was like talking with a family member,” said Taggart. “His stories were intriguing and he’s so authentic. We couldn’t be more proud of him.”

Krostag is undeniably proud as he holds the now framed certificate in his hands.

“On the back of my car,” he said, “I have a decal for the U.S. Army, the American flag, and service in Vietnam, but there was nothing there for the place I graduated from.”

Eyes welling up with nostalgia, he reflects on the unexpected honor of being welcomed home, again. This time by a university.

“I just called looking for a decal, and they treated me like I was someone special.”

“That,” concluded Taggart, “is because he is.”