The Mustang Momentum Challenge is complete, and we are thrilled to announce $119,376 was raised by 516 alumni in just 14 days! Of that amount, nearly $67,000 was given to a current-use SMU Fund.
With Homecoming days away, we are raising the stakes and challenging our alumni to reach $75,000 to SMU’s current-use funds. During the past fourteen days, SMU alumni made an average gift of $171. Some quick math reveals that we need fewer than 50 alumni donors to reach our $75,000 goal.
If you want to make a difference in the education of a current SMU student, become one of these donors today.
Read more at Mustang Momentum.
Category: November 2017
It’s finally here – SMU Homecoming and Reunion Weekend, November 2–5, 2017! Beloved traditions, engaging events and special performances will bring Mustangs together on the Hilltop.
The exciting weekend begins with the Distinguished Alumni Awards and continues with class reunion parties, the Mustang Band Centennial Celebration and Pigskin Revue, The Boulevard, the “Homecoming of Heroes” parade and, of course, football in Ford Stadium as the Mustangs play the UCF Knights. Kickoff is at 6:15 p.m.
These are just a few highlights of the four action-packed days. Check out the events schedule and gameday guide, and map out your plan for an unforgettable weekend!
Read more at SMU Homecoming.
A new season of Moody Magic opens on November 10 when a trio of talented returning players fronts SMU men’s basketball, the reigning American Athletic Conference champions, against UMBC, and four returning starters lead the women’s team against Nicholls State in Moody Coliseum.
SMU men’s basketball only returns three rotation players from last season’s squad that captured the conference championship, but it’s an extremely talented and experienced core for the 2017-18 team to build around. Senior Ben Emelogu II ’18, along with juniors Shake Milton ’19 and Jarrey Foster ’19, have all been through the battles and played a huge role in SMU making the NCAA Tournament.
“Even though we only have three guys (returning), they are guys you wouldn’t trade for the world,” head coach Tim Jankovich said. “They’re tremendous competitors. They’re all very bright. They help us set a tone of what this program is all about and how we’ve gotten to where we’ve gotten and what is really valued here.”
Read more.
SMU women’s basketball returns four of five starters, including all-conference honoree Alicia Froling ’18. McKenzie Adams ’18 averaged 12.2 points per game a year after leading the Mustangs in scoring with 13.4 points per game as a sophomore. Kiara Perry ’18 led the team with 58 steals and was tied for the team lead with 84 assists. Stephanie Collins ’18 started 19 games and led the Mustangs with a 52.0 shooting percentage. The Mustangs also set a program record with 187 blocks.
SMU plays 13 non-conference games, featuring road trips at Oklahoma, Texas A&M and Alabama. The Mustangs also play at UT Arlington and the University of North Texas as well as two games in a Thanksgiving tournament at Nevada.
Read more at SMU Athletics.
As venerable statesman and decorated war hero Sam Johnson ’51 prepares to leave Congress at the end of 2018, he is making two gifts to SMU that will support the education of military veterans and preserve for future study papers and materials from his distinguished life and career.
Johnson’s gift of $100,000 to SMU will establish The Hon. Sam Johnson Endowed Military Scholarship Fund, with the Collin County Business Alliance (CCBA) providing seed funding to make the scholarship operational for the 2018-2019 academic year.
Johnson’s dedication to public service spans a 29-year military career and 26 years in the U.S. Congress. SMU’s Board of Trustees and President R. Gerald Turner will celebrate the creation of the scholarship and the donation of his historic papers and other materials to the University’s special collections repository at an on-campus reception in his honor at 10 a.m. Friday, Oct. 20, in Fondren Library.
“SMU helped shape me into the person I am today, and I can’t think of a better way to say thank you to my alma mater than with this scholarship and library gift,” Johnson said. “I’m grateful to join SMU in making a commitment to the military and its families by helping these deserving individuals achieve their higher education. And I’m hopeful that this library archive will help inspire future generations to build a legacy of service on behalf of others and our great nation.”
Johnson’s archive will be housed in DeGolyer Library, SMU’s special collections repository.
Read more at SMU News.
By Kenny Ryan
SMU News
Iraq war veteran Jason Waller, 40, knows how challenging it can be for veterans to find civilian work when they leave the military. He heard it firsthand from the men and women he served with during his own deployments overseas.
Now, he’s in position to help both veterans and Americans who lost their homes in a hurricane season unlike any in living memory.
A senior at SMU’s Lyle School of Engineering, Waller has launched his own company, Emergent Services LLC, to provide on-the-job training for vets to work as independent property insurance adjusters. Waller says the client base – Americans struggling to navigate insurance claims after devastating storms – is one that vets are eager to help.
“There are a lot of aspects of being an insurance adjuster that veterans can relate to,” says Waller, who will graduate with a management science degree in December. “There’s something in our nature that we want to serve Americans. When we can do it face-to-face instead of on the other side of the world, it’s therapeutic for us.”
Read more at SMU News.
Michael McKee, resident bishop of the Dallas Area of The United Methodist Church, is the 2017 Distinguished Alumnus of Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University. He will be honored during the annual awards banquet on Monday, November 13, at 5 p.m. in the Great Hall of Elizabeth Perkins Prothro Hall on the SMU campus.
Bishop McKee was selected for the award by the Perkins Alumni/ae Council for his demonstrated effectiveness and integrity in service to the church, continuing support and involvement in the goals of Perkins School of Theology and SMU, distinguished service in the wider community and exemplary character.
A native of Fort Worth, Bishop McKee’s service to The United Methodist Church, to Southern Methodist University, and to Perkins School of Theology has spanned almost five decades and has influenced the denomination at the local, regional, national, and global levels.
Read more at Perkins.
Nominations are now being accepted for the 2018 Distinguished Alumni Awards – the most prestigious honor the University bestows upon alumni – and the Emerging Leader Award, which recognizes an outstanding Mustang who has graduated within the past 15 years. Return completed forms by December 31, 2017.
SMU Athletics dedicated the new Payne Stewart SMU Golf Training Center at Trinity Forest Golf Club on October 13. The facility, among the finest in college golf, was made possible through the support of generous donors Ann Park Roberts Gibbs ’66 and James R. Gibbs ’66, ’70, ’72, Carolyn L. Miller and David B. Miller ’72, ’73 and the David B. Miller Family Foundation, The Dedman Foundation and family, and the Payne Stewart Family Foundation, Inc. Many additional donors also contributed generously to this initiative.
The center is named in honor of Payne Stewart ’ 79, 1989 PGA Champion, two-time U.S. Open Champion and member of five U.S. Ryder Cup teams.
The 6,700-square foot facility features team locker rooms, coaches’ offices, a conference room, a workout center and kitchen. The center also houses a hitting bay featuring premier equipment, including the Swing Catalyst, which tracks weight shift throughout the swing as well as four video motion-capture cameras and monitors to show swings. A TrackMan system uses dual radar technology to track both club movement and the ball at the moment of impact. This equipment provides the perfect foundation for analysis, enabling the Mustang golfers to use real-time data to improve their games.
Read more at SMU News.
Bearing witness to Poland’s deep physical and emotional scars that linger long after World War II – when the Nazis made the country the epicenter of the Holocaust – is the focus of a new book by SMU’s Embrey Human Rights Program, No Resting Place: Holocaust Poland (Terrace Partners, $39.95).
The large-format hardcover combines more than 200 contemporary photos of occupied Poland’s deadliest Holocaust sites with historical vignettes and poignant observations from those who have experienced one of the most comprehensive, longest-running Shoah study trips offered by a U.S. university.
Each December, the two-week Holocaust Poland trip, led for more than 20 years by SMU Professor Rick Halperin, exposes students and lifelong learners to the Third Reich’s genocidal “Final Solution to the Jewish Question.” Like the trip, No Resting Place visits 13 of the most notorious SS-run sites – Stutthof, Lodz, Chelmno, Warsaw, Treblinka, Jedwabne, Sobibor, Belzec, Majdanek, Auschwitz, Birkenau, Plaszow and Gross-Rosen – six designed solely for killing.
Read more at SMU News.
SMU anthropologist Caroline Brettell celebrated her election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences during a ceremony at the Academy’s headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts on October 7.
The 228 new fellows and foreign honorary members — representing the sciences, the humanities and the arts, business, public affairs and the nonprofit sector — were announced in April as members of one of the world’s most prestigious honorary societies. In addition to Brettell, the class of 2017 includes actress Carol Burnett, musician John Legend, playwright Lynn Nottage, immunologist James Allison and many others.
Brettell is the fourth SMU faculty member to be elected to the Academy. She joins David Meltzer, Henderson-Morrison Professor of Prehistory in Dedman College (class of 2013), Scurlock University Professor of Human Values Charles Curran (class of 2010), and the late David J. Weber, founding director of the University’s Clements Center for Southwest Studies (class of 2007).
Read more at SMU News.
Categories
ICYMI: In Case You Missed It
In case you missed it this month, please enjoy these cool stories and interesting videos!
- Celebrating the historic hunt for the unseen on Dark Matter Day
- Tate presents ‘space archaeologist’ Sarah Parcak on November 28
- After Hurricane Maria: Building a sustainable woodworking culture
- Alumnus transforms drab wall into inspiring tribute
- Music therapy students help retrain the brain
- Alumnae start-up investors focus on women-led ventures
- Dazzling Residential Commons décor draws international attention
- Archaeologist urges better integration of DNA studies
- A new spin on campus transportation
- What’s the deal with credit card deals?