Northeast Texas Community College welcomes photographer Jerry Goodale as the exhibiting artist for October.  His exhibit entitled, Latina, will be on display in the Whatley Center For the Performing Arts foyer from Friday, October 8 through Wednesday, October 27. A reception will be held on Wednesday, October 13, at 12:30 p.m.

Justin Hargrove joined the National Athletic Trainers Association (NATA) in 1995, and has been a licensed Athletic Trainer since 1998 and obtained his National Athletic Trainers Association Board of Certification in 2000. Justin arrived at Northeast Texas Community College as the Athletic Trainer and Instructor of Human Performance in 2017.  In February of 2019, Justin added the additional duties of Assistant Athletic Director for NTCC. With the completion of his Master’s degree he now he serves as Director of Human Performance in the new Associates of Science Human Performance degree program at NTCC.

I want to take a moment to introduce you to Zane Barnes, Head Men’s and Women’s Soccer coach. Zane came to NTCC in the Spring of 2020 and is in his second season as the leader of the soccer program here at NTCC. Coach Barnes has previous experience with coaching both men and women at the College level, Men’s Club level, and most recently girls at the high school level in Southeast Texas.

A tradition initiated in 2008, continued for students of Honors Northeast as they visited a major city, in this case, Fort Worth on Friday, 19 September.  With COVID still a variable, students sat spaced in two large vans, and attended mainly outdoor venues. But because of recent gifts from Drs. Jim and Paula Archer and Don and Margaret Muse, and the willingness of Naomi Deciga, NTCC’s Academic Transfer Coach, to drive, the group enjoyed all the traditional delights of an NTCC honors day-trip experience.

The 15th annual Honors Northeast Roundup occurred again this fall, 11 September. NTCC’s Agricultural Pavilion provided an ideal, open and covered location for the dinner during these health-conscious days. The Agriculture Club directed by Rene McCracken, provided an excellent chicken dinner, with a homegrown potato bar, and “cowboy caviar”--purple hull peas in a vinaigrette with onions and tiny tomatoes - served cold. The Ag Club also provided hayrides around the program’s self-sustaining farm after the dinner.  Members of the NTCC Rodeo team helped direct traffic, and provided a roping exhibit during the evening.

I just wanted to introduce any new employees and new students to our NTCC Athletic Director/Head Baseball Coach Andy Morgan. Coach Morgan arrived at NTCC as head baseball coach in 2017, and was named Athletic Director in January of 2018. In a decade of college baseball, Northeast Texas will mark Morgan’s second junior college head coaching position, while also having two stops as a recruiting coordinator and hitting coach at the D1 level. 

Just before Honors Biology 9 September, students were able to test their skills with a compound prehistoric spear known as an atlatl.  Biology Professor Jim Ward, who owned the set and initiated the activity, presided.  The idea of the atlatl coincided with the other course in the team-taught honors seminar, Texas history, where the group was studying the use of the atlatl during the archaic period of the regional past, around 5,000 BC. Leveraging the shaft with a launching stick, modern throwers can propel spears beyond 100 yards. However, such distances require a system of delivery similar to systems in biology, where all elements must function to make the whole possible.

Northeast Texas Community College will host a job fair on campus September 21 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Student Union Building. The event is free and is open to NTCC students, graduates and community members. 

The fourteenth annual Northeast Texas Poetry Reading at the Whatley Foyer of Northeast Texas Community College, September 3, featured scenes of death and life, country living, the devastations of Covid, and rays of hope—right on Texas State Highway 11!  Compared with last year’s rendition on Zoom, this year’s live reading included speakers more willing to optimize the natural nuances of the voice.  Long-term poetry judges, Vice President Anna Ingram, and Professors Jim Swann and Mandy Smith helped that process along.  For the first time, the judges listened to the student finalists before selecting the winners.