Pictured clockwise from top above: James Dickson, Israel Perez, Brian Ramirez, Nallely Gutierrez, Hilda Rodriguez, John Rodriguez, Cade Bennett, Jalyn English, Jansen Laney, Maxime Risner, Dorali Hernandez, and Katelyn Lester
By: Dr. Andrew Yox, Honors Director
In addition to the Britt poster winners, Aaliyah Avellaneda, and Maritza Quinones highlighted last week in “What’s Happening at NTCC,” the college managed one of the more robust showings at the spring meeting of the 2021 Great Plains Honors Council. The conference, hosted virtually by the Redwine Honors Program at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas, featured qualifying students from universities and colleges in the area from Nebraska and Missouri down to Texas. NTCC had fourteen students qualify in the college’s fourteenth year of participation, a record for the college.
Two NTCC students were involved in special panel discussions with students from other colleges, and gave oral presentations on zoom. Brian Ramirez, the Unit Production Director, and Producer of the recently premiered film on Bo Pilgrim, discussed the making of the NTCC film. John G. Rodriguez, one of NTCC’s two Boe nominees as determined by the NTCC Honors Committee, presented his paper on Hispanic Quietism in Texas. Rodriguez delineated differences between the historic positions of Hispanics in California and Texas.
NTCC’s Tom Seabourne was the subject of a spirited vodcast by James Dickson. Dickson juxtaposed Seabourne’s many athletic feats and books supporting better health with the current sensibility of athleticism in American culture. This culture, ironically according to Dickson, gravitates to “spotlight sports,” which actually are inimical to health. Dickson has received some offers that would attach his video with established websites.
Health has indeed been an important idiom in NTCC’s recent student research. Maxime Risner and Dorali Hernandez presented their Caldwell-Award winning works on the disenchantment of a rural veterinarian, and the showcase successes of two turn-of-the-twenty-first-century nurses, Cynthia Amerson, and Karen Timmons. Nallely Gutierrez presented her poster displaying the history of nursing during the twentieth century, with an emphasis on the “sudden surge” in professional care that occurred for a variety of factors in the 1970s. Jansen Laney presented his work on the once famous Texan TV-host of health, Dr. Red Duke.
Besides Quinones, NTCC also had two “veteran” presenters, Katelyn Lester, and Jalyn English. Lester came in second in the virtual 2020 McGraw Hill Poster Contest, and Jalyn English gave a museum talk in Franklin County on NTCC’s Conrad film. Both Lester and English presented at the National Collegiate Honors Council this past November and in Austin last year in March for the state Webb Society. Both also presented a second topic. At the GPHC, Lester presented work on neo-medieval symbols in modern culture. English detailed a remarkable tie between the City of Gladewater, and the great 1950s singer, Elvis Presley.
Other scholars who contributed to NTCC’s Bo Pilgrim film research also won acceptance with the GPHC. Israel Perez presented his thesis on how Bo Pilgrim embodied the “Protestant Work Ethic.” Hilda Rodriguez detailed the “domestic isolationism” of an anonymous Hispanic immigrant, and how this type of isolation, especially with females. contributes to a lack of civic involvement.
NTCC’s Cypress Bank Scholar, Cade Bennett, gave a spirited and highly focused story of how capitalism in Texas has powered innovation. Compared to the universities whose innovations are peripheral, Texas corporations and investors have bequeathed to the world three legendary innovations: the integrated circuit, the artificial heart, and fracking.
Anyone interested in this research, much of it featuring local and regional themes, should feel free to contact, Dr. Andrew Yox, director of Honors Northeast at ayox@ntcc.edu.
