Today@Sam Article
LEAP Ambassadors Do Better Than ‘OK’ In Sooner State Trip
Nov. 29, 2016
SHSU Media Contact: Jennifer Gauntt
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| Flip through the album above to see more images from the LEAP travels (and to learn more about the people and places in the pictures, click here). |
Story by Mike Yawn.
Oklahoma is known for notable natives Toby Keith, Mickey Mantle, Will Rogers, and Kristin Chenoweth, but five of Sam Houston State University’s LEAP Ambassadors recently made Oklahoma their residence for a four-day educational stay.
The visit was part of the LEAP Center’s “Road Scholars” program, in which the ambassadors participate in an academic activity while also making the most of the cultural amenities of their destination.
In this case, the “Road Scholars” not only learned about some of Oklahoma City’s famous native sons, but they also engaged with the state’s art, nature, history, and politics.
Professor Mike Yawn and LEAP Ambassador Brian Aldaco presented separate papers at the Oklahoma Political Science Association Conference. Aldaco’s paper, on economic reforms in Mexico, was well received, and marked a threshold for the sophomore, according to Yawn.
“It was interesting to be on the other side of the podium,” Aldaco said. “I enjoyed the research, and I am eager to sharpen my presentation skills.”
The conference keynote speaker Vicki Behenna, executive director of the Oklahoma Innocence Project, addressed the innocence project’s objectives, the criteria used when accepting cases, some recent successes, and the program’s connection to the Oklahoma City University School of Law.
For the three SHSU pre-law students who went on the trip, the latter point was particularly interesting, as the conference offered the students the opportunity to tour OKC School of Law, where students learned about the school’s offerings—including third-year classes covering the Texas bar exam.
“I haven’t decided on any law school,” said political science major Mitchell Sanchez, “but it was interesting to learn about another school and its programs. Professor Yawn encourages us to explore all opportunities, and we followed that advice the whole trip.”
Among those opportunities was the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, a favorite among participants, which houses one of the largest collections of Dale Chihuly work in the country. With almost the entire fourth floor of the museum devoted to Chihuly’s work, the students were able to see colorful glass in all of the medium’s manifestations, including a 40-foot sculpture that graces the museum’s atrium.
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| LEAP ambassadors (from left) Kaitlyn Tyra, Ryan Brim, Ashley Allen, Brian Aldaco, Sadie McLaughlin, and Mitchell Sanchez stand in front of James Earle Fraser’s “End of the Trail” Sculpture. —Photos by Mike Yawn |
“It was the first time I’ve seen his art, and it was amazing,” said criminal justice major Ashley Allen. “I’ve seen glass artworks, but nothing that large, colorful or complex.”
While Chihuly took center stage in the museum, Andy Warhol, Georgia O’Keefe and Charles Wilson Peale shared that stage.
The students discovered additional art was discovered on a tour of the University of Oklahoma’s campus, where they encountered sculptures by Jesus Moroles, Robert Indiana and James Surls. The latter, an SHSU alumnus, was particularly gratifying to the students, who had met Surls at Huntsville’s Wynne Home Arts Center just the week before.
At the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, students saw the works of Charles Russell, Frederic Remington and James Earle Fraser, including Fraser’s “End of the Trail,” which occupies a privileged position in the museum’s center.
But art wasn’t the only topic of exploration on the trip.
At the Western Heritage Museum, the students also learned about the careers of screen cowboys such as John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Stewart, and Walter Brennan. In September, the LEAP Ambassadors brought in Carl Rollyson—author of some 40 biographies, including one on Brennan—for a showing of the John Wayne and Walter Brennan classic “Rio Bravo.”
Students also visited the Oklahoma City National Memorial, which commemorates the 168 people who were killed in 1995, when Timothy McVeigh set off explosives at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. It was a sobering experience.
“It was an emotional tour of the museum,” said junior accounting major Kaitlyn Tyra. “For many in our generation, terrorism is equated with 9-11, but this museum showed how it affected Americans in the 1990s as well.”
At the Myriad Botanical Gardens, students inspected wildlife up close, explored diverse ecosystems and even ice skated. The gardens also allowed the students to re-acquaint themselves with the beautiful landscape architecture of James Burnett, the Texas landscape architect who also designed the Klyde Warren Park in Dallas—another of the LEAP Ambassadors’ favorite places to visit.
But it wouldn’t be a LEAP trip without a tour of the state Capitol building, according to Yawn; having visited 18 Capitols during the LEAP Ambassadors’ travels, students will likely remember the oil derrick in front of the Oklahoma State Capitol, the only state Capitol with an active oil well on the grounds, Yawn said.
The students also may remember the large murals depicting some of Oklahoma’s more famous personages: Jim Thorpe, Will Rogers, Sequoyah, Mickey Mantle, Ralph Ellison, Speaker of the U.S. House Carl Albert, and Woody Guthrie, all of whom represent the fields of politics, art, music, literature, sports, and film, an appropriate coda to the students’ multi-faceted, four-day exploration.
SHSU’s LEAP Center is a one-of-a-kind learning program that hosts or participates in more than 100 events every year, including film festivals, career workshops, pre-law activities, heART of Huntsville, and a Citizenship Preparatory Course, as well as overseeing SHSU’s Moot Court team, pre-law society and the LEAP Ambassadors.
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