Archives for October 2013

Clarendon College Regents will meet October 24 to decide which of three finalists will be the next president of CC.

College officials, employees, and students as well as the public got to meet each of the men being considered for the job last week during open forums, and regents interviewed the candidates behind closed doors.

Dr. Robert Riza of Hill College in Hillsboro was the first to visit Clarendon on Wednesday, October 16. Riza currently serves as the Vice President of Student Affairs at Hill, but he came up through athletics, starting as a high school coach before going into higher education and eventually becoming an athletic director and director of student life. He has been in his current position since 2009.

Riza is involved with the Hillsboro ISD Foundation as well as the economic development foundation and chamber of commerce in Hillsboro. He has also overseen Hill’s branch campus in Cleburn.

Riza said, as a graduate of a community college, he knows the impact the college can have on students’ lives and that the college’s job is to show them there are bigger things and make their experiences better. He said athletics can be a great thing for a college in terms of rallying community support and noted that CC and Hill have both used athletics to drive enrollment. He also said that though the college has three locations, it still must be one college.

Dr. Riza also said he would have an open door for students at his office and said he would focus on building dual credit hours with area high schools to increase enrollment.

Dr. Gary Stretcher visited the campus on Thursday, October 17. He is the current Vice President of Academic Affairs at Lamar State College in Port Arthur, a two-year school that operates under the Texas State University System.

In his current position since 1996, Stretcher, among other things, is Lamar’s reporting officer to the Southern Association of Colleges & Schools, the same accrediting agency that governs Clarendon. Stretcher is also a tenured professor in the math and science department at Lamar and said he is “first and foremost about making sure students succeed.”

During his time at Lamar, Stretcher said he’s helped develop and expand the student computer lab, start a student success center, remodel the library, and expand dual credit opportunities. He encouraged creative scheduling to allow students to attend classes two or three days a week and worked to expand or improve technical programs.

“I sense there is a lot of interest in doing more in Clarendon,” he said, “and I would love to develop a niche program just for Clarendon.”

Stretcher also said community colleges provide the only option for success for some students. He said athletic programs attract a core group of college age students.

Stretcher’s activities outside the college included serving on a school board and a zoning board, and he is active in the Masonic lodge, Rotary, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Red Cross.

Dr. Steve Rook of Mena, Ark., finished the week on Friday. He is currently the Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs at Rich Mountain Community College.

Rook said he came up through student services and has a special place for students, and he likes small towns and small schools. His hometown has a population of about 1,200 people and Rich Mountain has an enrollment of about 1,000 students.

Community colleges in Arkansas have faced the same budget and funding challenges that Texas colleges are facing, he said, and so he is familiar with the “success based” funding formula that Texas is moving toward.

Rook has been involved in several fundraising efforts both from private and public sources, including a grant to fund the development of an aviation maintenance program, funding for an industrial maintenance program, and a $7 million federally funded cooperative program with other community colleges to start nursing programs at rural colleges in Arkansas.

Rook also has focused on student success initiatives that focused on better tutoring and building connections between faculty and students. He is the accreditation liaison for Rich Mountain, and he said would actually enjoy working under the accrediting body that governs Clarendon College because its guidelines are more specific and less arbitrary.

Rook said his management style would be participatory and the first thing he would do if he is president of CC is listen to people.

“I would want to hear what you think needs to be changed,” he said. “I also think any president ought to walk around and be involved, and the president needs to be the face of the institution.”

He also pledged to attend college student activities to show his support for students.

Rook’s outside interests include high school band boosters, public school activities, serving on a water utility board, serving as Lions Club president, working as a second grade basketball coach, and providing color commentary for high school football games.

Clarendon Family Medical Center is proud to announce the addition of a new member to their staff, Misty Nobles, who has been working as a Physician’s Assistant at the clinic for about five weeks.

Nobles grew up and went to high school at Bells, Texas, a small community near Sherman. She then did her undergraduate work at Southeastern Oklahoma State University before going to PA school at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth and graduating in May.

Nobles said she received a National Health Service Corps scholarship and also wanted to serve a small community. She first made contact with the folks from Clarendon Family Medical Center at a job fair in Grapevine last December, and she followed up on that contact after graduating.”

“Bells is a small town of 1,200 people, and I knew I would be comfortable here,” she said. “I called Lori [Howard] in August, the position was still open, and I started September 23.”

Nobles worked in a pharmacy in high school and college, which sparked her interested in medicine. Her desire to have more interaction with patients led her to choose the path of a physician’s assistant, she said. Before graduating, she also joined a mission to India with her church to provide pediatric health care. Now she says she wants to give back and be an asset to the local clinic.

“Everyone is so supportive here. I’m very blessed to have help and to have three great mentors,” she said, referring to Dr. John Howard and fellow PA’s Devah Pittman and Sarah Burcham. “Sarah and Devah have helped me tremendously, and Dr. Howard is great and always available to answer questions or look at X-rays with me.”

With growing families, Pittman and Burcham have shifted their work schedules to part-time rolls, and Nobles works full time at the clinic.

Nobles says she enjoys Clarendon and the close knit nature of the community and the nice people that she meets.

“Everyone is nice and welcoming. I love it here and enjoy waving at people when I walk or run,” she said.

A statewide charitable organization that builds wheelchair ramps is looking for volunteers to take up that mission in Donley County.

Texas Ramp Project representative John Laine says his organization needs 14 to 16 people who want to lead a local ramp team, and two ramps are scheduled to be constructed on Saturday, November 2 – one in Clarendon and one in Lelia Lake.

The Texas Ramp Project is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization funded through a variety of public and private sources throughout the state. Laine says the group has received a challenge grant to help spread its mission throughout the Texas Panhandle. If the local community can come up with $1,000, Texas Ramp Project will match it with $1,000 and use the money to buy all the tools a local team will need to build ramps for people who need them but can’t afford them.

Laine said the effort has to be locally driven, but the state organization will provide support and funding for new ramps moving forward. Youth groups, service organizations, and churches are typical groups that come together to form local ramp teams, Laine said.

The Texas Ramp Project builds more than a thousand ramps across the state every year and wants to expand to build ten times that amount. Requests for ramps are not accepted from individuals or family members but must instead come from a third party health provider, Laine said.

For more information about the Texas Ramp Project, contact Laine at 214-675-1230 or view the online video at www.TexasRamps.org/story.

It may be no coincidence that Pampa musician J.A. Mejia’s middle name is Amadeus, the same as famed classical composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. “I grew up listening to a lot of Mozart,” said Jesus Amadeus Mejia, who likes to go by the initials J.A.

Asked if Mozart is an influence for his own compositions, Mejia answered, “I would say it’s a mix between Mozart and Beethoven.”

The 23-year-old multi-instrumentalist will perform several of his original piano compositions at the Buyer’s Reception on Thursday at 6:00pm for the Clarendon Arts Festival (located at the Donley Activity Center on N. Hwy 70).

Mejia also plays violin and classical guitar. Though he has copyrights for his compositions, he hasn’t had any of them published, at least not yet, Mejia said. Mejia began listening to classical music in third grade, encouraged by a teacher who saw his potential.

He’d had some instruction in accordion and a year of violin lessons. He taught himself guitar and piano, using the read-out on an electronic keyboard.

By 15, he was writing music and composed his first symphony as a high school freshman. He graduated from Pampa High School in 2008, where he played the baritone in the Harvester Band. He was accepted into the music programs of several universities, but chose a prestigious and exclusive music program offered by the University of Southern California.

At USC, he got the opportunity to study at the Universitat Mozarteum Salzburg in Austria, earning a European Master’s Degree in Classical Composition.