Throughout the year, SMU student callers talk with alumni and parents on behalf of the University. It’s called the Tele-Pony Student Calling Program, and these students play a special role in the University’s goal of staying connected with alumni after graduation. Meet one of our callers, Briana Monsalve.

Briana is a first-year SMU student majoring in political science and international studies, and a member of the Mustang Band who plans to attend law school after graduation. Her role as a student caller is important in helping the University connect with SMU alumni, which she believes helps maintain a strong SMU community. She has the opportunity to talk to alumni from all classes and hear about their experiences and memories at SMU. Through Tele-Pony Briana has learned the value of listening to alumni and appreciates the advice they offer. One of her favorite conversations was with a former band member who shared information about interesting experiences and travels.

Briana is proud to call herself a Mustang because SMU not only offers an outstanding education but also promotes community involvement and understanding the world. She is also proud to be a donor. She chose to make a gift to the University as a student, because, “like in any community, we get what we put in, and the vitality of our community is due to the strength and faith everyone has in contributing to it.” 

“Tele-Pony allows alumni to talk with current students and hear first-hand how their generous gifts are benefiting them,” Briana said.

For more information about the Tele-Pony Student Calling Program, please visit smutelepony.com.

Make plans to join us for Centennial Homecoming and Reunion Weekend, November 3-6, 2011. Some highlights of the weekend include:

Distinguished Alumni Awards
In honor of SMU’s Centennial, this prestigious event returns to SMU’s campus on Thursday, November 3.  Join us as we celebrate SMU’s history makers and recognize the 2011 Distinguished Alumni and Emerging Leader Award Recipients. Distinguished Alumni include Ike Griffin ’57, David B. Miller ’72, ’73 and Annette Caldwell Simmons ’57. The Emerging Leader Award will be presented to Blake Mycoskie ’99. Learn more »

The Boulevard and Homecoming Parade
March on down to Hillcrest on Saturday, November 5 for SMU’s Centennial Homecoming Parade, featuring bands, twirlers and SMU spirit. Join us on The Boulevard for a fun-filled day with family, friends, food and festivities.  Learn more »

Reunion Weekend
Centennial Reunions for the Classes of 1966, 1971, 1976, 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2006 include a full weekend of opportunities to reconnect. Highlights include the Earl Stewart Lady Mustangs and Reunion golf invitational on Friday, campus tours, open houses, the Reunion Village on the Boulevard and class reunion parties. Learn more and register »

Mustang Mini Reunions
New this year, Mustang Minis are reunions by alumni open to all alumni who share a common SMU connection. Check out the list of Mustang Minis and register » 

SMU vs. Tulane
Your SMU Mustangs continue to build on the success of back-to-back bowl berths and Conference USA Western Division Co-Championships. Be there when SMU takes on conference rival Tulane on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. For reunion-year alumni and their families, discount group tickets are available using online reunion registration through Oct. 31. Tickets may also be purchased through the SMU Ticket Office.
View the full weekend schedule »

Two exhibitions in New Mexico with ties to SMU alumni showcase photographs by Debora Hunter, associate professor of photography in Meadows School of the Arts.

Hunter’s solo exhibit, “Land Marks: Photographs from Taos, New Mexico,” will continue through November 12 at James Kelly Contemporary in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

For the past 13 years, Hunter has taught photography courses at SMU-in-Taos. “This project has grown from that experience,” says the artist, who joined the Meadows faculty in 1976.

Untitled, 2004, Debora Hunter

James Kelly, a Meadows alumnus with a Bachelor’s degree in art history (’79) and Master’s degrees in business and arts administration (’84), opened his highly regarded gallery in 1997 in a renovated warehouse. The gallery, located in the Railyard District, which has become a center for contemporary art in New Mexico’s capital city, represents a host of notable photographers, painters, sculptors and video artists, including Hunter.

Called a “blue-chip gallery” in Food & Wine magazine, Kelly’s venue also was listed by RL Magazine (Ralph Lauren Media) among the Santa Fe galleries that “can hold their own against any of the most modern spaces in New York, Los Angeles or Chicago.”

> View more photographs by Debora Hunter

A second exhibition featuring Hunter’s work, “Contemplative Landscapes,” opens October 23 at the New Mexico History Museum/Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe. Through images captured by 24 photographers, the show explores the people, practices and sacred places of the state’s diverse religious communities. “Contemplative Landscapes” will continue through December 31, 2012.

The museum’s director, Frances Levine, earned a Master’s and a Ph.D. in anthropology from SMU. While a graduate student, Levine directed the archaeological survey and excavation program at Los Esteros Lake in Santa Rosa, New Mexico.

In 2002 Levine was named the director of New Mexico’s oldest architectural treasure — the nearly 400-year-old Palace of the Governors. During her tenure the palace has become the centerpiece of a world-class state history museum complex.

Hunter’s photographs have appeared in exhibitions around the country, and her work is part of the permanent collections of the Amon Carter Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Corcoran Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Art, Houston Museum of Fine Art, Rhode Island School of Design Art Museum and the Yale University Art Museum, among others.

Locally she is well-known for creating eight permanent art panels for the Dallas Area Rapid Transit light rail station at Skillman and LBJ Freeway. She completed the public art project in 2002.

The SMU community now has four ways to celebrate 100 years of achievement and the University’s bright future.

Join us at Centennial Hall on Saturday, September 10 from 2–5 p.m., before the Mustangs take on UTEP at 6 p.m. in Ford Stadium! Enjoy FREE Wild About Harry’s frozen custard and get your picture taken in front of fun SMU backgrounds. This pre-game event is sponsored by Allie Beth Allman & Associates.

Centennial Hall: SMU Visitor Center at Hughes-Trigg

Centennial Hall, located in the basement of Hughes-Trigg Student Center, is a new interactive exhibition that gives you a chance to stroll through the University’s storied past, immerse yourself in the opportunity and excitement of the present, and help us write SMU’s unbridled future.

The Centennial Hall exhibits include a historical timeline, videos, interactive features and tributes to the various communities associated with SMU, such as Dallas and the Park Cities. In addition to displays, the centennial exhibit includes electronic quizzes about SMU throughout the years and opportunities for visitors to add their reflections and hopes for SMU’s future.

Centennial Pavers: Make Your Mark

Make your mark on the SMU centennial with a special $100 gift. SMU will recognize those gifts by installing personalized pavers on SMU’s Centennial Promenade on Ownby Drive to be constructed for the 100th anniversary of SMU’s opening in 2015. Visit smu.edu/100 for more information and to order a paver.

Centennial Book: Unbridled Vision

SMU: Unbridled Vision includes more than 160 pages of dramatic photography showcasing the majestic beauty of the SMU campus, historical photos and facts about SMU’s colorful history. Advance copies of the book are available for purchase online at smu.edu/100. The book will be available in bookstores in October.

Mustang Merchandise: Wear Your Pony Pride

Limited edition, commemorative merchandise is available for adults and children. You can order online or visit the SMU Barnes & Noble on campus.

Join SMU in welcoming our newest Mustangs, the Centennial Class of 2015. The class includes countless athletes, artists, and academic all-stars; many mission trips and scores of servant-leaders; class presidents, prefects, yearbook and newspaper editors; debaters, drill teamers, and drum majors; mascots, cheerleaders, and prom kings and queens.

• Average SAT score: 1268 (up 25 points from last year)
• Diversity: 26.1% of the class is minority students
• Hometown: 44.3% of the class is from Texas

The class includes:

• An FAA certified pilot
• A U.S. Intermediate Pairs Figure Skating Silver Medalist, and a member of the Men’s Gymnastics Junior National Team
• A semi-professional bagpiper
• Students who participated in the NASA High School Aerospace Scholars Program, and the NASA INSPIRE Internship Program
• A student who co-founded Future Leaders of America’s Gulf and met with the head of the EPA to discuss post-Katrina and post-BP recovery efforts
• A student who created an iPhone app to help find restaurants with gluten free menus
• Numerous students who planned and implemented community programs and charity fund-raisers
• A student who wrote a grant request to fund the installation of solar panels on his high school’s athletic facility
• A student who taught at an orphanage in Ghana
• A student who founded a business that teaches manners and courtesy in the modern world

On September 11, 2001, SMU invited students, faculty and staff to share their thoughts in a journal started by Michael Waters ’02, ’06, then an intern in the SMU Chaplain’s Office and now senior pastor of Joy Tabernacle A.M.E. Church in Dallas.

The pages are filled with inspiring statements — such as “Pray, cry, remember, but never hate” — written by members of the SMU family in the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedies.

A digital copy of the journal has been posted on SMU’s 911Remembered.org site, where SMU alumni and other members of the University community are invited to share 9/11 memories and thoughts in a new online journal.

SMU President R. Gerald Turner and the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics & Public Responsibility invite the community to participate in a series of events reflecting on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and what it means today. The events begin on Wednesday, September 7, and conclude on Sunday, September 11, with a Service of Remembering at Dallas Hall.

Christy Lemire ’93 is living a movie buff’s dream. She serves as co-host of the TV series “Ebert Presents at the Movies” and the online program “What the Flick?!” She also writes reviews regularly as the movie critic for The Associated Press.

Lemire earned a B.A. in journalism and broadcast news from SMU and serves on the Division of Journalism Advisory Board in Meadows School of the Arts.

Christy Lemire

Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert gave Lemire a thumbs-up as co-host of “Ebert Presents at the Movies,” a retooled version of the well-known movie review show he had hosted with the late Gene Siskel for 23 years. She shares the balcony with Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, a critic for the film website MUBI.com. Ebert, who has battled thyroid cancer since 2006 and relies on computer-generated voice technology to speak, appears in brief segments.

Now in its second season on PBS, the half-hour program is taped in Chicago and broadcast in 48 of the country’s top media markets. The series airs locally on Fridays at 7:30 p.m. on KERA-TV (Channel 13). Recent episodes have focused on the year’s best and worst movies so far: Lemire admired “The Tree of Life,” filmed in Texas by Austin resident Terrence Malick, and panned “The Hangover Part II” as a dim follow-up to the wildly popular 2009 comedy.

Lemire also offers her opinions about recent hits and misses on “What the Flick?!” Appearing with her on the online program are Ben Mankiewicz of Turner Classic Movies and Matt Atchity, editor-in-chief of RottenTomatoes.com, a leading film review aggregator.

Her thoughtful, humor-tinged reviews have appeared in newspapers for more than a decade. She started critiquing movies for the global news service while working in the Dallas bureau in 1999. As a general assignments reporter for AP, she covered some University-related stories, including the first stages of construction on SMU’s Gerald J. Ford Stadium.

She was named the AP’s first full-time movie critic in 2004. Home base is her native Los Angeles, where she lives with her husband and young son.

Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño ’79 accepted the Distinguished Alumna Award from Perkins School of Theology February 7 with a confession. She was one of the pranksters responsible for placing a jack-o’-lantern in the Perkins Chapel steeple on Halloween Day, 1975. The dean at that time “was not so pleased,” she recalled with a smile.ho

Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño

While the audience in Dallas enjoyed the humorous anecdote in her videotaped address, the bishop was 8,000 miles away in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Carcaño was working with Methodist leaders from around the world on organizational issues regarding the church outside the United States, known as the Central Conferences.

Carcaño, who became the first Hispanic woman elected to the episcopacy in 2004, also acts as the official spokesperson for the Council of Bishops on immigration. The council supports “a pathway to citizenship,” fair treatment of immigrant workers and the preservation of family unity.

Immigration policy is an especially volatile topic in Arizona, where she serves the Phoenix Episcopal Area, Desert Southwest Conference, which encompasses most of the state. Some blame heated political rhetoric for the shootings in Tucson January 8 that stunned the nation. Six people were fatally wounded and 14 others were injured, including U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords. The tragedy spurred “much more conversation about what it means to have civil discourse,” she says. “I’m seeing a change in attitude, a realization that the negative tenor of conversation had been unhelpful and unhealthy.”

The calm, soft-spoken bishop, who grew up in the South Texas city of Edinburg, has never retreated from controversy. She led her first congregations in the 1980s – when female ministers were rare and some church members were vocal in their distaste for a woman in the pulpit.

“Early on, I was struggling with a particular parish relations committee. One member told me that her husband had been robbed of a spiritual leader because I was a woman, and he would never seek my counsel,” she remembers. “A few months later, her husband came to me to ask for spiritual guidance. That was a turning point.”

Carcaño credits God with giving her strength and Perkins with providing “the gift of faith expression.”

“I had a calling to serve the Mexican-American community, and Perkins was the only United Methodist seminary at the time that prepared students for ministry in the Hispanic context through its Mexican-American Program,” she says. She served as director of the program from 1996-2001.

“If ever I have provided any light for a world often consumed in darkness, Perkins has been there with me.”

– Patricia Ward, SMU Magazine