Rising Stars: Leona Osinga

International studies major roams far
for language, learning, wanderlust

By David King

Leona Osinga has a global perspective, one that reaches from her home — a Dutch-speaking family farm in East Texas — to points as far as Europe and New Zealand. With the support of Texas State University faculty, she’s made the world her classroom, seeking its lessons one language at a time.

An international studies major — with a double minor in French and geography — she’s crossed borders and language barriers near and far, all for the sake of learning about the world.

“Leona is just a force of nature,” says Dr. Jennifer Forrest, one of her French professors.

Rising Stars: Karen Chisum

Chisum, in last Southland season,
earns acclaim, honors — and wins

Texas State volleyball coach Karen Chisum (center) is in her 32nd season as coach of the Bobcat team. Flanking her are players Caleigh McCorquodale (left) and Amber Calhoun.

By Mary Kincy

Karen Chisum counts it a privilege to be a Bobcat. “It’s not a right,” she explains. “Everyone doesn’t get to. You’re recruited out there to perform, to exceed expectations and to be successful.”

It’s advice she’s taken to heart during the course of more than three decades as coach of the Texas State volleyball team, earning a record that ranks her the sixth-winningest active head coach in NCAA Division I volleyball.

Chisum’s accomplishments were honored recently when she was named to the 2011 class of Distinguished Alumni Award recipients at Texas State (She earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the university in the 1970s.). Further acclaim came in mid-November, when the Southland Conference league office named Chisum its Coach of the Year following a 24-7 (15-1 in the Southland) record over the season that earned the 2011 team the program’s sixth Southland Conference regular season championship.

Rising Stars: Priscilla Davis

Criminal justice major honors father,
Port Authority hero who died on 9/11

By David King

Priscilla Davis was just 12 years old when her father, policeman Clinton Davis, was killed in the collapse of the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001. Today, she is a senior criminal justice major at Texas State, following her father’s footsteps and bearing a permanent memorial to him.

“I don’t look like the kind of person to have a tattoo on my arm or anything,” she says with a shrug. But there it is, prominent on her right forearm: The twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center, sun beaming between them, showering rays in multiple directions. Below them, a badge: Port Authority Police, No. 1719.

It’s a memorial.

Spotlight: Bobcats Season Opener

Bobcats open football season
looking ahead to 2012 changes

The Texas State University Bobcats play their 2011 season opener against the Texas Tech Red Raiders this weekend. The game, scheduled to start at 6 p.m. tomorrow in Lubbock, will serve to whet the Bobcats’ appetite for top-level NCAA competition, as Texas State prepares to move to the Western Athletic Conference and the Football Bowl Subdivision in 2012.

“My focus now is giving Texas State a good, solid foundation as we make this transition,” says head football coach Dennis Franchione. “We need to get ready to win the WAC, and we can do that here. I believe that.”

In the following Rising Stars video, Coach Fran along with Bobcats Steven Kenney, Darryl Morris and Adley Eshraghipour share their thoughts about Texas State’s move to the WAC and its significance for the players and the university:

For Bobcats fans heading to Lubbock this weekend, the Alumni Association and the “T” Association are sponsoring tailgating near the stadium. RSVP and find information about tickets, tailgating and maps here. For Bobcats fans following from home, Saturday’s game will be broadcast through multiple outlets.

Rising Stars: Texas State SIFE 2011

SIFE National Champs ready
for World Cup in Malaysia

By Billi London-Gray

Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) is a student organization that creates business projects to empower people. Through their endeavors — which in the 2010-11 academic year ranged from remodeling and furnishing housing for migrant workers to fill labor shortages on West Texas farms to helping local high school students fund rain barrels for their class gardens — Texas State’s team, one of the largest in the nation, implements real-world solutions for real-world problems.

The Texas State SIFE team won the national title in May 2011, besting teams from 600 institutions. In October, the Texas State SIFE team will travel to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to represent the United States as they compete in the 2011 SIFE World Cup. Learn more about Texas State SIFE’s rise to the international spotlight in Texas State’s Rising Stars Archive.

Learn more about Texas State SIFE through

Around Campus: COEDSO

COEDSO chalks up success for Education Ph.D. students

Recipients of the Barbara L. Jackson Scholars Program scholarship, including Mónica M. Valadez, Genise Henry and Israel Aguilar (right) — a Texas State Doctoral Instructional Assistant and mentor for COEDSO.

By Catherine Harper

Today’s education leaders carry the torch in shaping the brightest minds of tomorrow. At Texas State, the College of Education Doctoral Student Organization (COEDSO) guides doctoral students in cultivating the next generation of scholars through learning and leadership opportunities.

COEDSO is a student-run organization in Texas State’s doctorate of education program, which, under the Department of Counseling, Leadership, Adult Education and School Psychology, offers specializations in School Improvement and Adult, Professional and Community Education. For students pursuing a Ph.D. in education at Texas State, COEDSO offers a strong support system of mentors and faculty.

Rising Stars: Dennis Franchione

Franchione’s return to Texas State
readies Bobcat football for the WAC

By Billi London-Gray

From his roots in the small town of Girard, Kansas, to his leadership roles in some of NCAA football’s most prestigious programs, Dennis Franchione has spent his career shaping the lives of young men on the gridiron.

Starting his career as a high school football coach in the Midwest, Franchione moved to college coaching in 1978. From 1990-91, he led the Bobcats to two victorious seasons. Now, after a 20-year absence, “Coach Fran” has had a warm homecoming to Texas State University.

In January 2011, Franchione rejoined Bobcat athletics as head coach for the football program. He signed a five-year contract with the university, and says he plans “to culminate” his successful career — his overall record is 187-101-2 as a collegiate head coach — with a final run in San Marcos as the Bobcats move to the Western Athletic Conference and Football Bowl Subdivision competition in 2012.

Rising Stars: Dawson Muñoz

Mentor helps Muñoz find
future as Fulbrighter

Dawson Muñoz, right, with his mentor, Pat Pattison

By David King

When Dawson Muñoz was taking classes at South Plains College, he dreamed of a career in international business.

“I said I wanted to be an international entrepreneur,” he recalls.

Six years later — thanks to both his own persistence and some sage guidance from his mentor, Texas State business professor Pat Pattison — he’s there.

Muñoz graduated from Texas State with bachelor of business administration in finance in May. In September, he will begin a 9½-month Fulbright fellowship in Spain, helping teach at a secondary school and working on a research project about small business development.

Rising Stars: Michael Collins

Texas State archaeology professor
brings ancient culture to life

Michael Collins came of age during a period Texas author Elmer Kelton referred to as “the time it never rained.”

One of the worst droughts on record gripped much of the United States, including Collins’ hometown of Midland, in the 1950s. Lakes dried up. Unceasing heat desiccated the soil. Agricultural activity slowed to a crawl.

The West Texas winds did not slow down. They stole the dirt, carrying it by the ton for hundreds of miles in swirling, choking clouds. Collins remembers a horseman riding under a barbed-wire fence — and not being able to touch the bottom strand.

But while the drought and the winds were stealing topsoil from West Texas, they were giving Mike Collins a gift: archaeology.

Risng Stars: Jackson Scholars

Passion for teaching, learning,
leading earns recognition

By Mary-Love Bigony, University Marketing

Public school teachers of the 21st century face perplexing issues, from curricula that fail to fit all students, to diverse classrooms of students with different learning styles, to standardized tests that drive lesson plans.

Texas State’s doctoral program in school improvement addresses these issues — and more.

“Students and faculty of the school improvement program work within such challenges to build the assets and strength of schools, communities and their citizens,” says Dr. Miguel Guajardo of the College of Education.

Doctoral students in the program focus on becoming educational leaders and agents of change. Three of those students — Israel Aguilar, Genise Henry and Mónica M. Valadez — are receiving extra support after being named Jackson scholars for 2010-2011.

The Barbara L. Jackson Scholars Network, part of the University Council for Educational Administration, provides mentors for graduate students of color who are studying in UCEA-member institutions’ doctoral programs in educational leadership.

For the rest of the story, visit the Rising Stars archive at the Texas State website.