8 minute read

VISION for MOMENTUM

from Wesleyan Magazine, Spring 2023

by Texas Wesleyan Alumni

from Wesleyan Magazine, Spring 2023, page 18

Article from: Wesleyan Magazine, Spring 2023

The History of the Faye C. Goo...

As President Frederick G. Slabach says goodbye, we look back at his accomplishments

PAGE 14

CINDY FLORES

A deeper look inside the world of esports

PAGE 10

THOMAS BELL

How a family has made TXWES home for generations

PAGE 22

Cultural Day at Texas Wesleyan

International students showcase their cultural clothing at the Cultural Day event put on by the Student Diversity & Inclusion Programs this March. Students sampled food from around the world, including African, Asian and Latin cuisines, learned about the various cultures of international students, and played cultural games. With Texas Wesleyan students representing 55 different countries, students can gain a deeper insight into other cultures and have more meaningful interactions with others.

HAIL TO THEE, DEAR TEXAS WESLEYAN

We enter a new chapter in our story with a community that is stronger than ever.

Dear Alumni and Friends,

This is my last issue of Wesleyan magazine as president of Texas Wesleyan University. I want to thank those of you who have shared your stories over the years in the pages of this magazine. Your experiences are the narrative of our university community.

We have worked hard the last 12 years to leave Texas Wesleyan in a good place for the future. With its finances secure and more first-year students joining our campus community, I feel confident that while challenges remain, we can be proud of the work we have done together.

While Melany and I will be moving home to Mississippi, our hearts are still very much with Texas Wesleyan and the incredible connections we have made: With students, with our philanthropic community, with faculty and with others who cherish this institution as deeply as we do.

While this issue looks back at some of our shared accomplishments over the past 12 years, it also looks to the future. I am proud to report that the university’s future is bright. Programs like esports continue to draw students with innovative ideas about what makes smaller smarter. We are enriched by our students’ optimism and engagement with their education. And the economic revitalization of our neighborhood continues apace.

Texas Wesleyan is so much more than a campus in southeast Fort Worth – it is a story we are writing together. I anticipate the next chapter will be a good one for Texas Wesleyan University.

Features

10 CINDY FLORES

A closer look at the world of esports – and how video games can help physical therapy

12 LEAP OF FAITH

Stella’s journey from Vietnam to the United States

14 VISION FOR MOMENTUM

A look back at President Frederick G. Slabach’s remarkable decade at Texas Wesleyan

22 THOMAS BELL

How one family built a legacy at Texas Wesleyan

Departments

4 NEWS & EVENTS

11 Things the West Librarians Wish You Knew

The librarians put their heads together to come up with a list of items they wish you knew about the library. Some may surprise you!

Director of West Library Elizabeth A.M. Howard named president-elect of TLA

A commitment to intentional equity, diversity and inclusion is a priority for her term as president

The Adapt-Able Foundation partners with Texas Wesleyan to provide adaptive SCUBA experience

The organization will use the TXWES pool to help people with disabilities learn how to SCUBA dive, while also giving students the opportunity to volunteer

Elizabeth A.M. Howard, director of the Eunice and James L. West Library, was elected the 2023-24 presidentelect of the Texas Library Association.

Howard is a longtime TLA member with many years of volunteer experience. For the association, she has served as a representative at-large (academic) on the TLA executive board, chaired the Disaster Relief Committee, was part of the Texas Book Festival Committee and was on the Program Committee for the 2017 TLA Annual Conference. Howard was elected at a time when libraries and librarians are facing an unprecedented number of intellectual freedom challenges.

“My work with the executive board has emphasized intentional equity, diversity and inclusion,” Howard said. “The coalition of the Texans for the Right to Read helps librarians do the same in their communities. We must help all librarians sustain academic and intellectual freedom. Challenges in school libraries have repercussions across public and academic libraries as well. All library types and areas need spaces to collaborate more effectively. With challenges like COVID-19, censorship and other unforeseen events, librarians are leaving the field unexpectedly, highlighting our need for better succession planning. We must supplement this with more effective recruitment to fill roles that have been vacated. Finally, considering the impact these challenges have had on libraries across Texas, I will focus on rebuilding our confidence and empowering our library workers.”

1. The library is open until midnight – Sunday through Thursday, in case anyone says they couldn’t get to the library. If someone comes to the library after 8 p.m. on those days, they must show a current TXWES ID.

2. The chat feature is available 24/7 – although it could be a librarian from another library who answers the chat. In order to offer this service, called Ask a Librarian!, the library is part of a chat consortium. So if the West reference librarians are not available, a trained librarian will take the call.

3. There’s a research guide for that – there are a wide variety of research guides on the library’s website. There’s one with tips for accessing library databases and a troubleshooting checklist that often takes care of your log in problems.

4. The library does not have the book you want? – then recommend the library buy it! Either fill out the Purchasing Request form on the library’s homepage at westlibrary.txwes.edu or email Marquel Anteola at manteola@txwes.edu. Or request it on Interlibrary Loan, found on the library’s homepage under “Resources.”

5. Are you a published author? – then let the library know. Your book can be added to the collection. Your professional papers can be added to the academic archive. Contact archivist Louis Sherwood ’89 at lsherwood@txwes.edu.

6. Miss June! – many of you know June Johnson as the circulation supervisor. She has now come over to the reference side as the newest teaching librarian.

7. Speaking of teaching librarians – let the reference department know if you would like a teaching librarian to come to your class and demonstrate effective methods to use the library tools. Contact Dennis Miles at dbmiles@txwes.edu or June Johnson at jujohnson@txwes.edu.

8. The Makers Lab is open more hours – so bring those makeit projects in! Reserve a space on the library’s website.

9. You can use other libraries – when you get a TexShare card, you can check out books from area libraries such as Fort Worth public libraries, TCU and TCC.

10. The library has e-books – when you look up books on the library’s homepage, you can find e-books as well. Either look at them as a PDF or download them to your device.

11. Professors, when you make a library assignment – let us know so we can better help your students.

After a long closure due to the quarantine and burst pipes, the library is back. We are excited to see you

If you’ve ever completely submerged yourself in water, you know that feeling of being weightless. It can bring a sense of freedom.

It’s that freedom that Kari-Ann Melendez, president and co-founder of the Adapt-Able Foundation, shares with the disabled community. The organization has been using pools all over North Texas to help bring together adaptive and ablebodied people to experience SCUBA diving. But starting this November, Texas Wesleyan University will officially be its home pool. After being in the Navy and retiring from working for the federal government, Melendez and her partner Dale Davis founded the Adapt-Able Foundation to give people with disabilities a chance to learn how to SCUBA dive in a safe and fun environment.

“We’ve given back our entire careers, and I think it’s in our DNA,” Melendez shared in a newscast.

“This is the best way to do the second phase of our lives – to be able to give back and to work with people with disabilities and let them experience that passion, that excitement and that freedom – the physical freedom of SCUBA diving and the underwater world.”

That passion is now being shared with the TXWES community.

Dr. Pam Rast, program director and kinesiology department chair at Texas Wesleyan, was contacted by Melendez to use TXWES’ pool for the Adapt-Able Foundation. Since the university already offers a minor and certification in SCUBA , the pool is fully equipped for the foundation to use.

“We’re already offering SCUBA to our students, but now with this partnership, we can take it to the next level,” Rast said. “And it gives us a way to continue to show our students the power of diversity and engaging in our community.”

Laura Jeanne, a former Army pilot and SCUBA diver, learned about the foundation through the Department of

Veteran Affairs. Jeanne, a founding member at large, became paraplegic after a horseback riding accident and says that the foundation has allowed her to SCUBA dive again.

“I thought I wouldn’t be able to dive again,” she said. “It’s really freeing. When you’re in the water, you’re not tied to a chair or a prosthetic.”

With the partnership, TXWES students, staff and faculty can volunteer and learn with the Adapt-Able Foundation to get certified as a Dive Buddy – a term for a certified SCUBA diver that partners with a person with disabilities to help them SCUBA dive. Both buddies and the adaptive divers can become certified through the foundation’s programs.

“I was really excited that they wanted to use our pool because I was really impressed by the organization of the foundation,” Rast said. “We have a lot of faculty and students that are interested in adaptive activities and disability sports, and I thought this would be a great opportunity for them to get more exposure to that.”

Jeanne is also excited for the partnership, hoping that the TXWES community will volunteer with the program.

“It will be nice to not have to look for pools,” she said. “We’re going to have a relationship with one place.”

Melendez says that the foundation not only brings joy to the adaptable SCUBA divers, but the volunteers as well – a sentiment that is echoed by Rast.

“When we include everyone and make things more accessible for everyone, all of us benefit,” Rast said. “A lot of our students are athletes or very physically active, so the whole idea of understanding what it’s like to not be able to move the way they want to move is something I’ve tried to introduce them to. It gives them a respect and appreciation for differences.”

This article is from:

Wesleyan Magazine, Spring 2023

by Texas Wesleyan Alumni