Alumni: Wayne Oquin

Grad gives back through annual performance collaboration

By David King

Wayne Oquin directs students at Texas State.

The sound of teenage musicians, rehearsing as part of a summer orchestra camp, creeps through the walls of Gaila Raymer’s office in Evans Auditorium.

The air conditioner hums a white noise in the cavernous, cinderblock-walled room. The office of the production manager is home to everything from event posters to random theatrical props to odd pieces of who-knows-what.

There’s also an overstuffed couch, fronted with a cluttered coffee table. This summer afternoon, Wayne Oquin is resting on the couch, wearing a T-shirt and shorts and talking softly about topics ranging from his days of 30-credit-hour semesters to hearing Reverie, his composition for the organ, performed on National Public Radio.

Spotlight: Flowing Waters

Partnership program brings Texas State students into local classrooms

By Mary Kincy

Students examine slides under microscopes as part of a Flowing Waters exercise.

A partnership between Texas State and the San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District is changing the way middle- and high-school students in San Marcos schools understand science — and just in the nick of time.

Studies show students in the U.S. are lagging in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and Flowing Waters is a hands-on program designed to engage students in the sciences, offering avenues of approach that promote interest and inspiration.

Each year, Flowing Waters places eight Texas State doctoral students in San Marcos schools, where these “resident scientists” encourage students to ask and answer their own questions using the scientific method.

Spotlight: Gabriella Corales

Student’s commitment to education to be fostered by national award

By Mary Kincy

Gabriella Corales

Gabriella Corales will be the first to admit life isn’t always easy. But for Corales, obstacles have proved to be opportunities in disguise, setting her on the path to becoming a mentor for those attending schools with high concentrations of at-risk students.

Corales, 21, will graduate from Texas State in May with a bachelor’s degree in English. Her minor is communication studies, and she plans to put that skill to work in reaching out to students she will teach in connection with her receipt of a 2012 fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson-Rockefeller Brothers Fund for Aspiring Teachers of Color.

Bobcat Faces: Jennifer Foster

Texas State theatre major
takes the classroom off-Broadway

By Mary Kincy

Jennifer Foster. Photo courtesy of Kelsey Edwards Photography.

The walls of the classroom have widened for Jennifer Foster, a sophomore majoring in musical theatre at Texas State who is set to star in an off-Broadway musical  starting next month.

Foster, 21, won a place in the ensemble cast of “Fat Camp” after a New York City audition she rearranged last semester’s finals to attend. She says the ability to participate in the musical without jeopardizing her academic career is part of what makes the musical theatre program at Texas State special.

“At most universities, they don’t have a head of department who is still a professional, working actress and who has been on Broadway and off-Broadway,” Foster says of Kaitlin Hopkins, assistant professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance. “To have Kaitlin is so rare and so special. She knows what we’re going through because she’s been through it.”

Bobcat Faces: Darius Jones

Student touts lessons learned in University Ambassador experience

By Mary Kincy

University Ambassador Darius Jones was also a member of the 2011 Texas State Homecoming Royalty.

Darius Jones has learned a lot from Texas State, and he’ll be the first to tell you that: “I’ve learned to think fast on my feet and also to be flexible,” he says. “To be reliable and to be honest with people. It’s taught me patience, too.”

But Jones — at least in this case — isn’t talking about instruction received in the classroom. Rather, he’s referring to lessons learned during his time in service to University Ambassadors, a volunteer organization of student leaders who act as hosts for Texas State. 

Happenings: Brown Bag Research Seminar

Noon event to explore the impact
of pregnancy and parenthood

By Mary Kincy

Teen pregnancy and its impact on relationships as observed by a Texas State researcher is the topic of an upcoming Brown Bag Research Seminar.

Chelsea Houska dropped out of her South Dakota high school during her senior year to give birth to a daughter. Thanks to popular MTV reality show “16 and Pregnant” and its spinoff “Teen Mom 2,” she has done so before an audience of millions.

Not every teen who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a child does so in the spotlight,  however — and it is with these young women, who begin their journey as mothers in relative anonymity, that Dr. Michelle Toews, an associate professor in the Texas State University’s School of Family and Consumer Sciences, works.

Toews will share observations and information gleaned from five years of working with local teen parents during a Center for Multicultural and Gender Studies Brown Bag Research Seminar that will take place from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 24, in the Family and Consumer Sciences building, room 177. The event is open to the public.

Happenings: The Wittliff Collections

Texas State’s Wittliff set to kick off
new season of exhibitions, events

This photo of artist Frida Kahlo by Héctor García is part of a new exhibition at the Wittliff Collections.

A study in faces.

A retrospective focused on early 20^th-century Mexico.

A glimpse into a world of myth and mystery.

All are part of the lineup of upcoming exhibitions at The Wittliff Collections at Texas State, a repository of a broad range of archival materials perched at the top of Alkek Library.

The Wittliff is set to open Monday, Jan. 23, with exhibitions featuring journals, correspondence and more of author Rick Riordan; the photography of Hugo Brehme; and portraits by a range of artists. A permanent exhibition featuring costumes, photographs, screenplay drafts and more associated with the production of the hit television miniseries Lonesome Dove — adapted for film by Wittliff Collections founder Bill Wittliff — will continue as well.

Faculty: Oleg Komogortsev

Computer science professor explores, explains possibilities
in eye-tracking technology

By Mary Kincy

Texas State's Dr. Oleg Komogortsev researches ways the gaze of the human eye, like the one above, can be tracked to navigate a computer.

In 2003, Dr. Oleg Komogortsev — then a graduate student at Kent State University — wanted very much to play the beta version of what would become one of the world’s most popular online role-playing games, World of Warcraft.

Access to the game was highly restricted, however, with invitations to the beta test site selling online for as much as $17,000. So Komogortsev put his computer science background and his interest in eye-tracking technology to work, sending an e-mail to the game’s developers in which he pledged to explore the possibility of applying eye-tracking to online role play.

Happenings: Bobcat Sports

Texas State student-athletes
to play on over holiday break

By Mary Kincy

Earlier in 2011, Texas State men's basketball took on the University of Texas-Arlington.

While the majority of Texas State students are enjoying a much-anticipated break from all things collegiate, Bobcat student-athletes will play on during the holiday cessation of classes.

Basketball action continues when Texas State women’s basketball takes to the court at Kennesaw State University on Monday, Dec. 19, then takes on Belmont on Wednesday, Dec. 21.

Alumni: Daniel Bernal

New grad to make a difference with degree in exercise, sports science

By Mary Kincy

Daniel Bernal, a candidate for December graduation from Texas State, is pursuing a future in occupational therapy with his degree in exercise and sports science.

Daniel Bernal is leaving Texas State after four years with a degree in exercise and sports science, ready to make a difference in the world — although how he will do so is a subject for debate.

“My parents always told me, ‘Just do what you love,’ and I like being around people — I like helping others,” he says. With that affinity in mind, Bernal plans a future built around occupational therapy, even if the path he will walk to arrive at that destination is up in the air. Bernal plans to attend a graduate program — site unknown — in 2012; meanwhile, he’s casting about for leads on a relevant internship. Eventually, he hopes to land a job working in a physical rehabilitation center with individuals who have experienced traumatic injuries, mental health problems and other disabilities.