By: Dr. Andrew Yox, Honors Director
Thanks to the generosity of the donors of Honors Northeast, the Honors Program and Webb Society of NTCC were able to award students for the first time for their acting. For the past fifteen summers, students of these two organizations have researched, written and filmed feature-length sagas on Texas history legends from scratch. These efforts have led to seven State of Texas Chapter Caldwell Awards for the best project in Texas history of any college or university. Regional success, in turn, has stimulated acceptances for NTCC panels relating to films in honors at the annual meetings of the National Collegiate Honors Council. This November at the NCHC meeting in New Orleans, NTCC scholars will feature scenes of their recent cinematic efforts for the twelfth time.
Three leaders who worked with the student actors intensively during film week in August made the selections for this premiere set of awards. The first judge was Honors Coordinator, Cade Bennett who functioned as the unit production director of the film, and who, when an honors student at NTCC, 2020-2022, starred in two films, as Bo Pilgrim and Carroll Shelby. The second was student-scholar director, Emma Mendoza, who was the second honors student in NTCC history—after Brian Ramirez in 2020 and 2021, to lead two films in two successive summers. Mendoza’s work on Jovita Idar, in addition, provided the basis for the story of the 2026 film. The third judge was the head cinematographer, and last year’s associate producer, Johnathn Ventura. Ventura is the Russell-Mowery Scholar of Honors Northeast, and will head the panel in New Orleans this November on NTCC filmmaking.
Cade Bennett Starring as Carroll Shelby in the 2021 film, in a poster designed by Andrea Reyes. Film Director Emma Mendoza, and Head Cinematographer, Johnathan Ventura.
As late as 15 July last summer, Mendoza was distraught to realize that she had no one suitable for the leading role of Jovita Idar, a contested figure whose likeness now appears on almost 400,000 United States quarters. When the film leaders learned, however, that the daughter of NTCC’s Spanish Professor, Dr. Maryna Svirska-Otero, and of Mount Pleasant Junior High’s Assistant Principal, Norberto Otero--Sabrina, would be coming to NTCC in the fall, all eyes turned in that direction. Sabrina Otero-Svirska has a genuine fluency in three languages—English, Russian, and Spanish. Spontaneously articulate as well, she recently won the $400 First-Place Student Award in the 19th annual Northeast Texas Poetry Contest. After Sabrina agreed to play the lead, she was by no means an automatic selection for the first top Stevenson award. What amazed the film leaders, however, was that though Svirska-Otero was in over 80 percent of the scenes, she regularly performed more winsomely, with less mistakes, and with greater control over her voice and gestures than the other actors. She thus won the first, first-place $200 Stevenson Award.
Honors Scholar, Jack Heavner placed second and won $100. He took on a difficult role of a Texas Ranger from Camp County who had little clue about how to act in a Tejano-dominated town like Laredo in 1910. For the film, Heavner sings the still-famous Mexican hit of 1882, “Cielito Lindo” in a broken Spanish, and adds a vital element of humor to the production. Tied for third place were the two “film brothers” of Jovita Idar—Clemente and Eduardo, placed by Adam Richards, and Silas Mendoza. Richards is the 2026 Bill Glass Scholar of Honors Northeast, and Silas, just entering Honors this semester, is serving as associate producer of the film. The film leaders appreciated the brotherly synergy of the two, sometimes joking, sometimes vigorously at odds, and at other times, trying to out-tough the other.
Two honorable-mention Stevenson awards of $25 apiece went to two children of Andrea Reyes, Demi, and Erik. Over the years the film effort has been indebted to Andrea Reyes of Hughes Springs and her family. Andrea was a former Hughes Springs valedictorian, and one of the first Presidential Scholars of Honors Northeast in the fall of 2007. On thirteen occasions she has served as an adjudicator and judge of NTCC poster contests. From 2019 to 2021, she served as the NTCC honors coordinator. On notable occasions such as the COVID summer of 2020 when the crew lacked actors, and the 2024 Traveling Preachers film when the script called for children, the Reyes family came to the rescue. This last August, Bennett, Mendoza, and Ventura were very impressed by the high-fidelity recall of thirteen-year-old Demi, and, Erik’s alacrity in wanting to act, coming off a high-stakes eye surgery.
Honors Director, Dr. Andrew Yox, notes that awarding the “Stevenson Awards this year was a privileged facet of having a remarkable team. NTCC has acquired a unique niche as an honors film capital because of the generous support of regional donors, college administrators who have gone above-and-beyond in dealing with unusual complications, alacritous honors students who have stepped up to the challenges, supporters like Jerald, and Mary Lou Mowery who have given generously for the promulgation of Texas legends, small-city and town officials who rather than placing restrictions on filming, welcome it, and bed-and-breakfast operators like those in Jefferson who have somehow grown to tolerate a lot of youthful naiveite through the years.”
