ENMU Allied Health Symposium
By Kyle Stephens
ENMU held its inaugural Allied Health Symposium on Nov. 20-21, 2015. Students conceived the event and gathered professionals from many allied health fields together for one event. Students gathered from local high schools and colleges to attend the seminars presented by New Mexico health professionals. To kick off the symposium, ENMU President Steven Gamble hosted a reception. Guest speakers from UNM’s School of Medicine, Division of Physical Therapy, College of Pharmacy and Office for Diversity along with Roosevelt General Hospital and ENMU Nursing Program mingled with other ENMU faculty and about 30 students. The following day began with an introduction ceremony, where moderator Kyle Stephens (BS 15), President of ENMU’s Caduceus Health Society (CHS) provided 73 students with an overview about the break-out sessions. During the sessions, students learned about the application process, how to become a more competitive applicant and what to expect in these professional schools and in these specific careers. Dominique Zamora, aspiring physical therapist and ENMU track athlete, said, “I learned the time constraints and parameters of the pre-requisites that are required for admission to PT school.” President Gamble praised the event, “The symposium was highly successful. It provided our students and the students from several
Allied Health Symposium moderator Kyle Stephens (BS 15) and Brook Serrano (BS 14) enjoying the event.
other schools the opportunity to learn much more about the health science professions. I am grateful that our colleagues from the UNM-HSC traveled to Portales to speak with our students.” Joseph Sena, a senior at Texico High School, described the experience as memorable, “With the motivation and information gained at the medical symposium, I will do whatever it takes to reach my dream of becoming a doctor.” James McKinnell MD, a Pediatric Oncologist at UNM who helped by promoting the event to his colleagues at UNM-Health Sciences Center, said “The Allied Health Symposium at ENMU provided a unique opportunity for representatives from several UNMHSC programs to speak directly with potential candidates for our programs from eastern New Mexico. The responses from students who attended, their enthusiasm and engagement, were very gratifying. I hope this is the first of what becomes a regular conference at ENMU.”
Local Educator and Cowboy The National Western Cowboy Hall of Fame and Museum in Oklahoma City, inducted B. J. Pierce (MA 62, BA 49), at age 89, on Sept. 26, 2015. The Hall includes such luminaries as Western actor Slim Pickens, all-around cowboy Bob Crosby, bull riders Ty Murray and Lane Frost and steer wrestler Homer Pettigrew of Grady.
B. J. Pierce
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Green & Silver | February 2016
B. J. received a bachelor’s in industrial arts from Eastern in 1949 and a master’s in education in 1962. He met Pattie Rawls at ENMU, fell in love and got married. He played basketball for the Greyhounds under Coach Al Garten. After finishing the 1944-45 season 3-20 and 3-17 in 194546, he decided that riding horses to rope calves was more rewarding than being ridden by coaches.
He won three consecutive International Rodeo Association (IRA) calf-roping titles from 1952-54 – the only three-time IRA calf-roping champion. With a combination of speed and skill, in his first summer of rodeoing during college, B. J. won $13,000 — enough in the 1940s to pay his and his wife’s way through college for all four years. He estimates he won around $130,000 in his rodeo career, which one would multiply by several times in today’s money. B. J. says he saved money by “camping out in a tent with a sleeping bag and using a Coleman stove for cooking.” B. J. also competed in team roping, steer roping and wild cow milking during his competitive years. B. J. continued to rodeo well into the 1960s. In addition to his rodeo career, B. J. taught for 31 years in Clovis schools and was the
