The Newsletter for A&M System Employees and Retirees
April 2006
The Newsletter for A&M System Employees and Retirees
April 2006
The
Big Event is the nation’s largest one-day student-run community
service project.
Service above and beyond expectations is one of the attributes that helps make Texas A&M University unique.
The latest National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) confirms that compared to their counterparts at other nationally prominent universities, Texas A&M students do more tutoring, take part in more co-curricular activities and do more community service while still putting in as many hours working to pay for their education and prepare for classes.
That pattern of service is nowhere more apparent than with the Big Event, the largest one-day student-run service project in the nation, which last month involved nearly 9,000 students working on about 1,000 projects in the community. The Big Event, massive by any standard, is sponsored and organized by the Texas A&M Student Government Association.
The Big Event began as a little project organized by six Texas A&M students who got together to clean up a local cemetery in 1982 as a way of saying “thank you” to the Bryan-College Station community.
This year, the 1,000 projects ranged from painting houses and repairing roofs for needy residents to picking up trash on vacant lots.
While the Big Event is a well-planned and well-organized endeavor that annually shows Aggies at their community-service best, Aggies in 2005 also showed what they can do exceedingly well even on short notice.
Students stepped up big-time when hurricanes Katrina and Rita ravaged the Gulf Coast last fall. Both prompted major evacuations, and hundreds of those evacuees ended up at Reed Arena on the Texas A&M campus.
Elmo
López
In the 1962 movie musical “The Music Man,” a stranger comes to town and inadvertently enriches all with a love for music. In Laredo, Elmo López is no such stranger, but the love for music he’s helped to foster here has been communitywide and lifelong.
His passion for music and tireless dedication to its study and celebration have prompted Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) to award him an honorary doctorate at its May commencement exercises.
“He has been an inspiration to us all and his commitment is the rule by which we should all be measured,” said TAMIU President Ray Keck.
“From the classroom to the boardroom, from the practice room to the half-time show field, he’s been present for every facet of music education in our community. He is an institution and a legend, fueled by endless energy and unbeatable resolve,” Keck said.
Lopez approached the university to offer his services and served as the university’s first band director—as an unpaid volunteer—from 1997 to 2003. He then worked with other Laredo-area high school band directors and contributors to get the band’s first instruments, many of which are still in use.
When not finding instruments, he found students, also volunteering as
a recruiter. His enthusiasm attracted many students to the program.
“His sacrifice then has helped us to create one of our most popular performance
programs today,” Keck said.
Rangel
College of Pharmacy at A&M-Kingsville to open this fall
TTI
enlists teens to reverse fatal crash trend
Colon
cancer detection technology recognized at competitions