Thank You Dear Contributors,

SCOPE (Summer Collaborative Opportunities and Experiences) is a selective and immersive eight-week program that occurs every summer on Southwestern’s campus, allowing students the opportunity to work full time on collaborative research with a faculty mentor.  Associate Professor of Psychology Erin Crockett ’05 says she really enjoys participating with SCOPE because it gives both faculty and students “a space to focus on research away from the demands of a typical semester.”

Each summer, from about mid-May to mid-July, around three dozen SCOPE students gather across campus to work on any one of 10-12 engaging research projects. Professor of Biology and Department Chair Romi Burks describes how mentoring students researching the detection of apple snails through eDNA benefited everyone participating:

“SCOPE allowed me to continue a collaboration about environmental DNA (eDNA) with SU alumni and Texas Tech faculty, Dr. Matthew Barnes. I took students to his eDNA lab to learn practice techniques, discuss data analysis and plan future work. The students clearly got a bigger picture for the connections of their research to issues in ecology and management of natural resources.”

Although open to faculty from all programs, SCOPE is a predominately lab-based model.  In addition to the full research days, professional development workshops and both academic and social events are also scheduled into each workweek. Students are paid a stipend and stay, without cost, in campus housing for the duration of the program. Upon completion of SCOPE, all participants present their research at a poster presentation in the fall and at Southwestern’s Research and Creative Works Symposium in the Spring. In many cases, students have the opportunity to continue their research into the academic year. Dr. Crockett emphasizes that by receiving advanced training in statistical analysis and writing, and numerous opportunities to discuss relevant issues in the field, “students obtain a graduate level experience that shows them what it is really like to be a scientist.”

During Summer 2018, 35 students collaborated with 10 faculty mentors on the following projects:

Biology
Dr. Romi Burks:  Environmental Detective Work: Using eDNA to Detect Aquatic Invasive Species
Dr. Martín Gonzalez: Identifying Regulatory Factors of the ICE391 SOS Mutagenic Response

Chemistry/Biochemistry
Dr. Maha Zewail-Foote: DNA Damage within Alternative DNA Structures

Computer Science
Dr. Jacob Schrum: Developing Artificial Intelligence for Video Games
Dr. Charles Stolper: Solving a Mystery with Data Science

Kinesiology
Dr. Scott McLean: Segmental Contributions to Angular Momentum Generated During a Competitive Swimming Start
Dr. Edward Merritt: Histological and Molecular Analysis of Skeletal Muscle Regeneration in Animal Models of Peripheral Artery Disease and Resistance Exercise Training

Physics
Dr. Steven Alexander: Creating a Self-Navigating Robot for the Ocean

Psychology
Dr. Fay Guarraci: Understanding the Side-Effects of A New Treatment for Depression: Ketamine Miracle Drug or Nightmare Waiting to Happen
Dr. Erin Crockett: Expectations of Understanding and Physical Health

With such a wide array of projects for SCOPE participants to select from, it’s easy to see why Assistant Professor of Kinesiology Edward Merritt claims, “SCOPE really is a unique opportunity for our students to be immersed in research. I have never seen a program quite like SCOPE at all the other universities I’ve been associated with over my educational training and professional life. Through SCOPE, students gain valuable skills and experience that they will be able to talk about in their medical school interviews, graduate school essays, or in their professional bios as the program that truly got them sold on science!”

Participation in SCOPE is by application only, and the program encourages applications by diverse and underrepresented participants.

SCOPE Mission:

To foster a culture of research at Southwestern, made possible by student-faculty collaboration; to promote student investigative learning, persistence, self-efficacy, and success, and to create an inclusive and diverse research community.

Original funding for the development and launch of the SCOPE program in 2013 was provided by a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. SCOPE was funded in part this year by gifts from the Moody Foundation, The Welch Foundation, W.D. Kelley Foundation, HEB, and a National Science Foundation S-STEM grant, along with numerous gifts from generous individual donors.

When alumnus Jack A. Lyons ’75 stepped down from his three-year position as Chairman of the Board of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in 2017, the Rodeo honored his service by giving him the opportunity to direct a $100,000 scholarship gift to a Texas school of his choice. Jack and his late wife, Nina (Nelms) Lyons ’75 knew immediately where the gift would go—to their alma mater, Southwestern University. Jack says the decision wasn’t hard, given their love for Southwestern, where the couple first met on a blind date.

Growing up in the heart of the Rio Grande Valley in Mercedes, TX, Jack originally became interested in Southwestern through a family friend, William (Buddy) Ross, III ’57. Jack attended Southwestern on a basketball and golf scholarship and had been offered scholarships from other colleges across the state. But when Jack received a scholarship from Southwestern, his dad told him, “That’s where you’re going to go” because he’d heard so much about the academic quality and the educational model at Southwestern from the Rosses. So, as Jack says, his dad “helped” him make that decision but he’s always been happy about it, significantly crediting Southwestern for his successes. “We had a lot of fun, and fond memories while attending Southwestern,” Lyons says, “but the template of the liberal arts education really gave me the ability to lead.” Jack also realized early on that in everything he got involved with, he wanted to give back as much as he could, a commitment, he explains, that often leads to leadership roles as well.

Jack Lyons describes he might not have fully understood the mission statement of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo when his in-laws introduced him to the organization in the early eighties, but he knew he wanted to be actively involved with a charity that he saw doing a lot of good and Jack gravitated to the Rodeo specifically because of its educational commitment. After that, he says, “I was just hooked, seeing the results of what our organization was doing for so many young adults across our great state of Texas.”

Since its inception in 1932, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo has awarded more than 20,000 scholarships and contributed more than $450 million to support Texas youth. Almost half of this has been given away by the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in scholarship awards while the balance has supported educational grants, junior exhibitors, calf scramble participants, 4-H and FFA programs. According to Lyons, the Rodeo has a far-reaching community commitment, impacting 252 of Texas’ 254 counties through their philanthropy. At an annual banquet this past year, Lyon said the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo awarded over 400 scholarships. More than 20% of the recipients were the first in their family to attend college, and 18% were the first in the family to graduate from high school. In total, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo will give scholarships, in a dozen different categories, to Texas students this year totalling more than $14 million.

Jack says that it is “truly an honor” for him to be involved with the Rodeo, and to be able to support Southwestern as a result. He also stresses that Rodeo involvement is very much a family affair, often incorporating generations of volunteers. Of his own three children and their spouses, all but one are involved with the Rodeo, serving on one of the many committees that help keep the Rodeo such a success. This past March, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo opened and closed their show with performances by Garth Brooks, showcased a brand new stage, and over 2.4 million people came through the gates. Jack is firmly convinced that “the reason the Rodeo is so successful today is because of tradition—the tradition of all the families involved, certainly, but even more importantly, it’s a tradition of our community.”

Jack Lyons recognizes a connection between the successful traditions of the Rodeo and that of his Southwestern Experience as well as the experience he sees current students thriving in. Although Jack acknowledges that “there are a lot of charities of choice for individuals out there in the world today,” this simple correlation affirmed his decision to make Southwestern the recipient of the honorary scholarship gift. Jack explains that “at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, we do things well because we do it for all the right reasons, and I really feel that’s what the students at Southwestern accomplish also—they do things really well, because they do it for all the right reasons.”

The Southwestern University Sarofim School of Fine Arts (SSFA) presented this year’s Theatre for Young Audiences production, Fluffytales, on campus on Saturday, April 21. It was a free event, open to the public, and in addition to students and other campus members, local families brought their children to this delightful, heartwarming production.

Fluffytales is a play written by the students of Southwestern University’s Creating Theatre in Schools class. It tells the story of students who, while looking for paper to line the class pet’s cage, end up destroying the class’s fairy tale anthology. The students are then transported into the world of fairytales where things have gotten a bit mixed-up. As the students work to get the fairytales back to their original state, they learn about collaboration, compromise and creativity.

The Creating Theatre in Schools class also took the play to five local elementary schools during the month of April. Assistant professor of theatre Bethany Corey-Ekin emphasizes the fact that “Many children are first introduced to theatre during school as part of a tour or a field trip.”

For the participating SU students, the experience was an ongoing lesson in adaptability. At each school performance, the Creating Theatre in Schools class had to resolve how to perform in untraditional theatre spaces that presented unique technological constraints and considerations. However, as Corey-Ekin maintains, “being able to tour a production to schools brings challenges, but it also allows hundreds of students to experience live theatre as a community.” In each performance, Southwestern theatre students rose to the occasion with enthusiasm, enthralling local schoolchildren by the fun, farcical race to get the land of fairytales put back in order.

Study guides designed by Corey-Ekin’s students also complimented all of the performances by augmenting the play with activities that directly connected to things that the elementary students were currently learning about in their classes. Additionally, SU students collaborated with one of Round Rock ISD’s Arts Integration campuses, Berkman Elementary, to have the Creating Theatre in Schools class work alongside Corey-Ekin in a pre-show workshop for Berkman’s first-grade classes. These workshops were designed to cultivate the grade-schoolers’ interest in the Fluffytales play while deepening their understanding of relevant theatrical dynamics. This level of critical engagement, Corey-Ekin says, allows SU students to “think about the role theatre plays in schools and imagine the possibilities for engaging young people through theatre.”

The Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) series originally grew out of a staging of “Androcles and the Lion” by associate professor Desi Roybal’s 2006 “Scenic Elements and Stage Properties” class. In addition to other funding and grants, the TYA series received a generous five-year gift commitment from former parents in memory of their daughter who received a bachelor’s degree in theater at Southwestern in 2004. This sustaining gift added the new course to the theatre curriculum last fall to specifically focus on play development, directing and set and costume design for young audiences. While a main-stage TYA play is produced every other year, in alternating years, the Creating Theatre in Schools class will continue to offer community elementary schools with a no-cost traveling production that, as Roybal says, “introduces live theatre to children who otherwise might have little or no opportunity to have such an experience.”

Billed as “a comedy about a not funny thing,” Southwestern University’s “Texas Beauty Pageant Murder: The Fall of Don Swan” certainly does not fail to produce plenty of laughs. In true Texan fashion, this production also bites off big questions for the audience to chew on, encompassing themes of masculinity and sexuality, beauty standards, and the cultural impact of the Don Juan myth. As Facebook reviewer Stephanie Haynes Bushak says of “The Fall of Don Swan,” the play is a “dark comedy that is both timely and intellectual. I laughed, got creeped out, laughed some more and then I picked it apart for days. Worth seeing more than once to absorb all the nuances. Witty and intelligent writing with an excellent cast!”

Devised by Southwestern students under the guidance of Director CB Goodman, “The Fall of Don Swan” is loosely based on a script originally written in 2016 by Dr. Sergio Costola, dramaturgical researcher, with music by Dr. Jason Hoogerhyde, associate professor of music. This one-act, absurdist film noir comedy was produced through the collaborative effort of the Theatre and Music Departments at Southwestern. “The Fall of Don Swan” is a twisted tale of beauty, murder, and big hair. After the tragic death of Houston real estate developer and beauty pageant owner, Don Swan, the usual suspects dish the dirt on the man, the myth, and the truth about what was really under his cowboy hat. In part an adaptation of the performance lecture, “The Don Juan Project,” staged in 2017, “The Fall of Don Swan” features new orchestral arrangements of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” composed by Dr. Hoogerhyde. In addition to soaring music, tall hats, and big character egos, this play generates larger than life commentary on the implications of intemperate actions, particularly in light of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements.

The collaborative conceptualization of a new piece by students is rare at the undergraduate level.  Much like during “The Don Juan Project,” students are finding both creative joy and challenges in devising a brand new show. To create a production in two weeks that will travel abroad is exceptional for even the most accomplished artist.  Southwestern’s students developed this production by working eight hour days that included writing, acting rehearsals, scenic and costume construction and a whole lot of comedic genius. Actress Olivia Wise ’18 shares that the production process “was nothing I have ever experienced before. It was a whole new way of thinking about and devising theatre.”

“The Fall of Don Swan” was developed specifically to participate in the International Collegiate Theatre Festival in Scotland, a program that provides opportunities for collegiate performing arts institutions to study abroad and gain global perspectives while showcasing their productions on a renowned world stage. Through the ICTF program, Southwestern students will showcase “The Fall of Don Swan” at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the largest performing arts festival in the world with over 3,000 productions, 50,000 performances and thousands of performers from across the globe. In addition to creating the production, several students have also been in charge of marketing, taking on the challenge of creating a website and social media campaign that will engage international audiences.

Fourteen students, along with three faculty and staff members from the Southwestern’s Sarofim School of Fine Arts, leave for Scotland in early August to begin onsite rehearsals and will perform “The Fall of Don Swan” at theSpace @ Venue45, one of the Fringe’s original Edinburgh venues, on four separate dates August 3-8, 2018. This is the first time Southwestern University has attended the Festival Fringe. During their two weeks in Scotland, the students will visit local historic sites, tour Edinburgh and enjoy a wide variety of shows premiering at the Festival.

Funding for the production of “Texas Beauty Pageant Murder: The Fall of Don Swan” and travel to Scotland was made possible by the generous gifts of a number of individual donors–including many alumni and Friends of the Sarofim School of Fine Arts–along with several faculty/student research grant awards.

In May of 2018, Southwestern University received the largest, single private gift in its 178-year history. The donor, Life Trustee Jack Garey, who made the gift with honor to his late wife Camille Garey, describes the impetus behind his momentous decision: “I believe that Southwestern University, under the leadership of President Burger, is going to play a major role in the evolution of higher education, not just in Texas, but the nation as well. I wanted to invest in that transformation.” The $15,000,000 gift will fund an endowment to establish the Jack and Camille Garey School of Natural Sciences, joining the Brown College of Arts and Sciences and the Fayez Sarofim School of Fine Arts as one of three named schools within the University. But the impact of the Garey gift extends so much further.

As Southwestern University President, Edward Burger, announced in a public statement of gratitude following the gift: “This unprecedented and transformative gift, which has been fully allocated to the University’s endowment, will build upon our reputation as a world-class institution that is transforming higher education and as a national leader in high-impact learning and intellectual growth.”

The endowment funded by this gift will support faculty development, academic programming, need-based scholarships, and high-impact experiences. Some of the specific University priorities receiving perpetual funding through the Garey gift include:

• Competitive funds to underwrite high-impact experiences for thirty-two Garey Scholars in their sophomore and junior years
• Building to eight annual mid-cycle competitive sabbatical semesters for tenured faculty across the University
• Additional need-based assistance through the Financial Aid Office
• Five endowed chairs in the natural sciences

“It was important to me to make this gift now because we are at a crucial time in education in this country, a crossroads of sorts,” said Jack Garey. “I was inspired by what President Burger is doing and wanted to see that vision move forward in a significant way.”
Jack Garey is the retired President of Garey Construction Company and served on Southwestern’s Board of Trustees for 12 years before being appointed as the University’s second Life Trustee in 2017. Garey is a self-made entrepreneur having achieved success in real estate development, ranching, and highway construction. He is also a lawyer and owned a successful law practice. He is an outstanding member of the Georgetown community, the donor behind the development of Garey Park, and a committed environmentalist, philanthropist, and business leader. His late wife, Camille Garey, was also a Trustee of Southwestern University and a lifelong resident of Georgetown. She, too, was an avid supporter of education and the environment throughout her life and until her death in 2012.

An official announcement and community-wide celebration is planned for the beginning of the Fall semester to thank Mr. Garey for what President Burger has called “a truly generous and transformational gift to Southwestern University” that will expand the horizons of the Southwestern community and make a lasting impact on generations of students and faculty to come.

Prior to stepping foot on Southwestern’s manicured lawn, my resume could have read as follows:

• Unicorn Handler (high school spirit group that proved exceptionally frustrating for a reserved introvert like myself)
• Senior Tennis Captain (perks included choosing the team uniform and holding the title in name only)
• Featured in yearbook for “Cutest Couple that Never Was” (no comment)

However, as a graduating Southwestern senior, my accomplishments now read quite differently. Formerly an awkward contributor in a high school spirit group, I am now president of my sorority. My tennis leadership was restored in college when I assumed the role of team captain as a freshman and led my teammates all four years. And finally, I was no longer just a yearbook feature. Instead, I was a pop-up book designer, with a new understanding of what it actually meant to #BeSouthwestern.

Perhaps the oddest talent I developed during my liberal arts education, pop-up book design had not been a personal goal in August of my freshman year. My way with paper actually developed as a result of my First Year Seminar, or FYS. The FYS was a required course for new students and served as incoming freshman’s first introduction to the Southwestern Experience. My FYS, in addition to gifting me the invaluable tool of pop-up design, exposed me to the synergetic classroom that is characteristic of the Southwestern curriculum. In high school, I had always felt most comfortable being seen and not heard, and thus avoided contribution of any sort. Within a few weeks at Southwestern, however, I leapt at opportunities to offer my opinion, and actually responded to classmates rather than simply listening to them.

This collaborative mindset soon translated to the tennis court. As a freshman, I thought I had a strong grasp on what “teamwork” was. I had won three team state championships in high school, for goodness’ sake. However, I quickly learned that leadership entailed more than acting independently as an example for my teammates. It required a voice – a voice I did not naturally possess. But as I practiced and reflected on my classroom vocalism, I use these same experiences to act as a better teammate, and ultimately a better captain. In similar domino-esque pattern, my term as captain provided me the confidence and ability to serve effectively as Chapter President for Tri Delta during my junior year.

Several things struck me at the realization of my new and improved resume. First and foremost, I am no longer the shy Unicorn Handler / senior captain / has-been yearbook feature. Instead, I am a liberal arts student. I have confidence and a voice to communicate with. I have an open mind, which laid the groundwork for my new and future positions and accomplishments. I have done more than I could have ever imagined four years ago, and I now feel ready to compete in the post-graduation business world. I am a president, captain, and pop-up book designer. And I am undeniably Southwestern.