The Pine Log

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Monday, April 18, 2011
TODAY
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The
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WEDNESDAY
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Volume 90
Issue 18
Next Publication:
Thursday, April 28, 2011
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The Independent Voice of Stephen F. Austin State University
Page 4
.
Trump’s quest
continues
Page 6 PINE LOG
Ladyjacks drop
2, but win 1
against UTA
By Adrian Delgado
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
For the last two years, Ingleside senior
Stephanie Higgins (right) has been leading
one of SFA’s oldest student organizations
and has broken records at regional timber-sports
competitions.
Her dedication has made her a stand-out
student at Arthur Temple College of
Forestry and Agriculture’s (ATCOFA).
Sylvans is a forestry social club and is
SFA’s unofficial timbersports team.
Higgins feels her team is among the most
respected in the Association of Southern
Forestry Club’s Conclave competition, an
annual event where forestry clubs from
15 southern universities compete in both
technical events, such as wood identifica-tion,
and physical events such as pole fell-ing.
“Sylvans is one of the strongest and
well rounded clubs in the forestry depart-ment.”
Higgins said. She feels confident
that she will pass the Sylvan’s torch into
good hands.
“I know whomever is president next
year will continue the traditions we have
as a club and our recognition within the
college, community, and at the Southern
Forestry Conclave. We are one of the most
well known teams at Conclave, and we are
proud to carry the tradition of representing
SFA in the highest regards.”
Higgins herself, practices for and com-petes
in Conclave every year. She recently
broke two records: The first at the wom-en’s
crosscut event in 2010, where she and
Lampassas sophomore Stefanie Welker
ripped through an 8 inch by 8 inch sweet-gum
cant in 5.41 seconds. The second was
at this year’s Conclave, where she set a
new bowsaw record of 11.4 seconds. Many
athletes never surpasses their predecessors
enough to break a record, much less do it
twice.
Higgins promotes the Sylvans in a video
of Conclave 2010 on the ATCOFA website,
which features her and Welker’s record-breaking
moment.
SFA placed second overall out of 15
schools last year and this year.
Higgins credits her maturity to the chal-lenges
she faced as a Sylvan’s president,
as a competitor in timbersports, and as a
student in forestry. Membership in Sylvans
provides opportunities for future forestry
professionals to make contacts and friend-ships
that last.
Higgins is graduating with a bachelor’s
degree in forest recreation management on
May 14.
She is also involved in a project install-ing
a Spanish colonial garden at SFA’s Stone
Fort Museum, as part of her internship
class. The garden project will allow her to
leave a lasting impact on SFA as a whole.
adelgado@thepinelog.com
Local student sets records at timbersports competition
By Samantha Emerson
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
On Thursday former NASA as-tronaut
Alan Bean came to cam-pus
as a part of the 2011 install-ment
of the Archie McDonald
Speaker Series.
The Wheeler, Texas, native
is one of 12 people to have ever
walked on the moon, and he now
spends his time as an award-winning
painter, capturing the
surrealism of his experience in
space through his one of-a-kind
artwork.
Bean graduated from high
school in Fort Worth and re-ceived
an ROTC scholarship to the
University of Texas at Austin where
he studied aerospace engineering.
He then joined the Navy and was
trained as a test pilot until his se-lection
as a NASA astronaut.
Bean said he wasn’t a stellar
student in high school, but after
realizing that the Navy only ac-cepted
the diligent, he began fo-cusing
more on grades and his
performance.
“I realized, if I don’t perform,
somebody else will. Survival of the
fittest happens every day,” Bean
said.
His persistence became a hall-mark
of his character when he
wasn’t selected to become a part
of the NASA elite. But, Bean stayed
true to his values, reapplied and
was admitted after proving him-self
to the NASA program.
He then went on to man the
Apollo 12 spacecraft, and as mil-lions
watched, he and close friend
Pete Conrad took their first steps
on the moon.
When asked whether or not his
lunar landing was terrifying, he
stays true to his Texas roots and
relates the situation to football.
“Situations are scary for a high
school quarterback—he’s in a
game-winning situation, and he’s
terrified, trying to focus. That’s
high school. That same quarter-back
makes it to the Super Bowl;
the game is still on the line, but he
can think.”
After returning back to Earth, and
completing just one more 59-day
mission with Skylab Mission II, Bean
hung up his space suit and switched
his profession to art. The switch
didn’t come easy though; Bean faced
much criticism from peers who
didn’t understand his motive.
Just as he did with his Navy
and NASA stints, Bean remained
persistent and put every ounce of
effort into his craft.
“I wanted my paintings to be as
good as I can make them,” he said.
“The most difficult things require
you to just be yourself, that’s all
you can do.”
Bean still paints today and
has won awards for his unique
impressions of his experience in
space. So what makes his paint-ings
different from every other
piece of work? Bean maintains
that every piece of work has some-thing
unique that came from his
space mission:
“I thought to myself, ‘I love tex-ture.’
Why not use my space boots,
hammer, maybe moon dust? I’ve
never heard of a cowboy painter
using corral dust.”
Bean implied that space travel
isn’t profitable enough, and his
countenance lit up when he ex-plained
that he envisions the fan-tasy
of space travel becoming a
reality for Americans in the near
future.
“The problem with space flight
is that it’s not profitable. Richard
Branson of Virgin Airways, Steve
Jobs of Apple—those are the peo-ple
who would come back from
space with great ideas. I’d sent
Oprah Winfrey into space! She’d
get things done.”
Alan Bean is an iconic American
hero: coming from humble roots
in small-town East Texas to tak-ing
one giant leap of faith onto
a lunar spacecraft, there’s much
to say about the persistence he
has maintained throughout his
careers in both space and art. So
what would Alan Bean say is his
greatest satisfaction?
“I’m 79, but I still do the abso-lute
best I can every day. I’ve got
a great life. Life was meant to be
hard, but if you can make life work
for you, then life is wonderful.”
pinelog@thepinelog.com
Dr. Archie McDonald (left) speaks with former astronaut and artist Alan Bean (right) Thursday evening as part of the
ongoing speaker series hosted by the former. A native of Wheeler, Texas, Bean is one of 12 people who have walked
on the surface of the moon. He has been painting throughout the years after his career at NASA and has won awards
for his unique impressions of his experience in space.
THOMAS MOTYKA/THE PINE LOG
Alan Bean gives insight into life, career at speaker event
All four spirit teams competed this past week in the
NCA and NDA (National Cheerleading Association and
National Dance Association) Collegiate Cheer and Dance
Championships held in Daytona Beach, Fla. Both large
co-ed and small co-ed took home the Division I national
championship title. This is the large co-ed’s 12th national
title since 1994 and the small co-ed’s second title since
2009.
Tony Castro, Bastrop junior, and Candace Hoernemann,
Lewisville junior, placed first in the national partner stunt
competition. Alec Heffron, Emporia, Kan., senior, and Alli
Pagnotta, Canyon Country, Calif., junior, placed second.
Dustin Moore, Hoover, Ala., senior, and Missy Bolman,
Colorado Springs, Colo., senior, placed third at the national’s
in the partner stunts competition.
The Pom Squad placed third in the Open Dance Division I,
and Jack Attack placed fourth in the Dance Hip Hop Division
I. This was Jack Attack’s second year in existence and its
first year to compete nationally. Their hip hop division
combined both division IA and division I teams from across
the nation.
Hollie Smith, interim director of student affairs and director
of orientation, said she is pleased with all of the SFA teams’
performances and is proud of the members’ and coaches’
dedication to the SFA spirit program.
Cheerleader team tryouts begin on May 6, and pre-tryout
workshops were held this past weekend, followed by team
tryouts on April 29 and 30.
For more informat ion v isi t www.sfasu.edu/
spiritprograms.
COURTESY PHOTO
Spirit teams take national titles at national dance, cheer competitions at Daytona Beach
COURTESY PHOTO/THE PINE LOG