Joining forces to bring Spanish into the classroom
Texas A&M-San Antonio and Instituto Cervantes joined together to sign a Memorandum of Understanding on Monday, October 6, enabling A&M-SA students to learn Spanish and developing a strategic program of special Spanish courses for companies and other community stakeholders. The new partnership will designate A&M-San Antonio as a DELE (Diplomas of Spanish as a Foreign Language) Examination Center. The Instituto Cervantes, founded in 1991, is the largest institution in the world dedicated to teaching Spanish, and partnering with A&M-San Antonio is mutually beneficial, both expanding Cervantes' influence in education and better preparing A&M-SA students to work in the rapidly expanding Spanish speaking world. Read more about the impact of this partnership here and on the Rivard Report.
A&M-SA honors legendary football coach
At its fifth annual scholarship luncheon, the Texas A&M San Antonio Foundation honored legendary coach and former Texas A&M University System Regent Gene Stallings with the Dream Maker Award. Established in 2009, the Dream Maker Award honors community members for their significant contributions to education and in making the dream of a higher degree possible for thousands. The award ceremony was held at the Pearl Stables on Tuesday, October 7, and was attended by a crowd of business leaders, community members, and distinguished previous recipients of the Dream Maker Award: Peggy and Dan Allen Hughes, Jr., Weisie and John Steen, Peter Holt, Carl F. Raba, and Lowry Mays.
Regent Emeritus and former football coach Gene Stallings accepts the 2014 Dream Maker award.
Special education alumnus receives national award
A&M-SA alumnus Blake Sammons traveled to Philadelphia last week for the Council for Learning Disabilities (CLD) national conference, where he was presented with the highly competitive Outstanding Teacher Award for his dedication to teaching special education. Blake was nominated after teaching special education for just a single year, demonstrating his extraordinary commitment to improving the education and life of students with learning disabilities. He graduated from Texas A&M University-San Antonio in May 2014 with a Master of Education in Special Education. Read more about Blake's inspirational story here, on the Rivard Report, the CLD website, and the Express-News.
Recollecting the horrors of war
The Texas A&M-San Antonio History Club and Phi Alpha Theta invited U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Senior Research and Scholar, Dr. Geoffry Megargee, to speak at the University as a special guest on October 9. Dr. Megargee, author of Inside Hitler's High Command and War of Annihilation, spoke about the post-war recollections of Hitler's generals. The lecture was held in the auditorium and attracted a large number of students who wished to learn more about World War II from the perspective of the men who followed Hitler's directives.