HOMECOMING ISSUE
TRENDS
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Reigning Homecoming King and Queen By Hollie O’Connor Trends Editor Darius Jones, communication studies junior, and Ariel Freeman, curriculum and instruction senior, were crowned Texas State Homecoming King and Queen last year to cheers from friends
and fans. Neither student expected to win, but both are still enjoying their status as Texas State royalty in the days until they pass on the titles. The University Star spoke with Jones and Freeman about last year’s ceremony and what the two have been doing since winning.
Ariel Freeman
HO: Can you take me back to the moment they announced you as the winner? AF: I was just so surprised, very surprised and honored at the same time because I truly love Texas State. It was one of the best experiences I’ve had. I was just honored to get into the top four, so to learn that I won the title of Texas State Homecoming Queen was just icing on the cake. It was just one of the best moments I had had in a long time.
HO: Do you have any special duties as Homecoming Queen? AF: I had to go to a couple of events to meet different people and shake hands, and this week we (the homecoming queen and
Darius Jones
HO: Can you take me back to the moment they announced you as the winner? DJ: I felt really honored to make it that far. It was a great experience. I was so humbled. It felt like Texas State was thanking me for the hard work that I had done. I didn’t expect to make it to the finals. I hadn’t even planned on running, but I’m glad I did. It all worked out.
HO: Do you have any special duties as Homecoming King?
Photo courtesy of Texas State
Darius Jones and Ariel Freeman were crowned Homecoming King and Queen at last year’s game against Northwestern State.
king) have a couple more events to attend. And on the game day, we have to meet different alumni and hand off the crown for this year’s homecoming queen and king.
concentration. I miss Texas State a lot.
HO: What have you been up to since last homecoming? AF: Since last homecoming, I’ve just been trying to get everything together for teaching, getting my certification, doing internships and working with children. And this summer I finished up some more classes. I moved back home in August to full-time student teach, so I’ve been busy making lesson plans and just getting ready for life. It’s a lot of work and it takes a lot of
HO: How has winning affected you? AF: Sometimes when you’re doing all of this work, you don’t always see it pay off, but winning made me feel like I did what I had to do at Texas State. I did orientation. I was a Strutter. I was an RA (resident assistant). I tried to keep my grades up. I felt like homecoming queen was an encouragement that I was doing the right thing in how I was trying to live my life. It was an encouragement to keep reaching out to people.
DJ: At our Black Student Alliance awards, myself and Ariel presented one of the awards. We will be at the spirit rally, and we will be on the field at the game to crown the new king and queen.
ment. In Student Foundation I’m on the public relations committee, so we’re trying to promote our Veterans Day commemoration coming up in November.
HO: What have you been up to since last homecoming? DJ: I’ve been busy. I’m president of the Black Student Alliance this year. I’ve been involved in Student Foundation and the Associated Student Govern-
HO: How has winning affected you? DJ: It has definitely made me more aware of who I am. At New Student Orientation we do a presentation, and part of it is about pride and traditions at Texas State. There’s a Homecoming slide, and the picture they use in it is of me
HO: What qualities make a good homecoming queen? AF: Someone who is humble. Someone who likes to talk to anyone. Someone who is encouraging, because people like to be around people who listen to them. You need to be a motivator, but also someone who is down to earth and wants to help other people. That’s a homecoming queen to me. You can’t just think you’re a queen, or that you’re “all that.” You need to care about other people.
and Ariel on the field after we won. So, a lot of students who go through orientation come in knowing who the current king and queen are. I think it’s amazing that they look up to us. HO: What qualities make a good Homecoming King? DJ: I think someone who is well rounded, diverse and gets along with everyone, someone who is a role model for students and a leader.
Alumni return for show at Texas Music Theater
By Amy Greene Trends Reporter
Two Bobcats are bringing their funky sounds back to San Marcos as a part of the band Mingo Fishtrap. Alumni Mikel Urdy and Zol Waterhouse, along with the other band members, will return to play a show at Texas Music Theater Oct. 13. Mingo Fishtrap, named for a crossroads in Denton, started in the mid ‘90s with founder Roger Blevins Jr. and five other University of North Texas Jazz Studies students. “Obviously, there wasn’t a lot of classic soul being played around campus,” Blevins said. “People around the dorms just took to it and the ball started rolling. We were good friends playing music we loved. That’s a good recipe.” The band’s sound is a mixture of soul, blues, funk and a throwback to old Motown. The band has traveled nationally and internationally playing high-energy shows. Urdy, Mingo Fishtrap’s percussionist, said he started at
Southwest Texas State University as an Asian studies major. He joked that most people start out hoping to make music their full-time job and then choose something else as a fall back, but he was the opposite. Urdy said he returned to Austin, Mingo Fishtrap’s current home base, after touring with Monte Montgomery when he was asked to play a gig with the band. The gig occurred five years ago, and Urdy has been the permanent percussionist ever since. Urdy said while Mingo Fishtrap is organized and maintains a strong work ethic, the guys still have a good time. “It is a family thing,” Urdy said. “The guys all hang out, especially when we are out on the road. It is a lot of fun.” Urdy was the lone Bobcat in Mingo Fishtrap for four years until newcomer Zol Waterhouse joined the band. Waterhouse is on the verge of celebrating his one-year anniversary in the band. Waterhouse said he was a big fan of Mingo Fishtrap for several years before joining the band. A mutual friend
threw his name in the hat for the open trombone position, but he was doubtful they would call. “I listened to George Clinton and a lot of Earth, Wind and Fire. Mingo Fishtrap seemed like they were carrying on the tradition of ‘70s funk,” he said. “They were these young dudes just out of college, very talented musicians, and writing their own music in the style of what these bands had done in the ‘70s, but with a modern flair. To me, that was just so cool that there were young people who liked this music as much as I did.” Waterhouse said he is looking forward to playing at the Texas Music Theater again because he loves the venue. “When all of the guys walked in for the first time, we just dropped our stuff and looked around,” Waterhouse said. “It is one of those venues where the stage-side is huge. There is plenty of seating area but it isn’t an enormous venue where you feel pressure to fill it with 1,000 people. It is still intimate. It is pretty much anything you want in a place for a show.”
Texas State student opens up about homeless past year, when she and her mother made the decision to go to a shelter. This was the point when Sauceda realized she and her mother did not have a home. Sauceda said the Dwyer Avenue Center in downtown San Antonio took her and her mother in immediately and gave them their own room. The “dorm-sized” room was equipped with a bunk bed, toilet and bathtub built inside the wall, and a small stove, refrigerator and television. “Everything was miniature. It was so cool, but then again I was only 10,” she said. Though she and her mother had a place they could call home, Sauceda said she “shut down” and became introverted. She was accustomed to moving and did not believe in making friends anymore for fear of never seeing them again. However, Sauceda said life for them began to look positive when the shelter later Kristen Lefebvre, Staff Photographer moved the two into a discounted apartment Irene Sauceda, anthropology freshman, has struggled with homelessness most of her life. She has spoken complex on the north side of San Antonio. to Congress about her experiences and become an advocate for the homeless. During the year she and her mother lived in the apartment, Sauceda said the shelter employed her mother as a receptionist By Jordan Gass-Poore’ up homeless. Trends Reporter “I didn’t think a lot of other kids my age and she was eventually promoted. With the were going through the same thing,” the San money saved, they were able to move to a At the Rayburn House in Washington, Antonio native said. “It made me happy but west side apartment complex on their own D.C. last month Irene Sauceda stood on sad at the same time. Why was this happen- after the previous lease had expired. Sauceda said they were content for a stage for a House Congressional Children’s ing? Why is this a problem?” Caucus briefing and spoke through tears Sauceda’s education is paid for through while, until “everything disappeared” when and shaky knees about her experiences scholarships, loans and grants. She is still her mother had a liver infection and had growing up homeless. homeless during school holidays when she to be hospitalized for a month, leaving her According to the National Center for cannot stay in her dorm, and the journey alone in the apartment. Feeling like she had nowhere else to go, Homeless Education, there were 85,155 from homeless child to college student and Sauceda said she asked friends at Jefferson homeless children and youth enrolled in advocate has been rough for Sauceda. public schools during the 2010-2011 acaThe last time Sauceda had her own room High School if she could stay with them demic year. Sauceda, an anthropology fresh- was for a few months in second grade. An until her mother was discharged from the man at Texas State, has become an advocate invitation to eat with friends or family mem- hospital. Sauceda’s mother was released from the for them through the National Association bers at a restaurant would usually end up for the Education of Homeless Children with Sauceda, her mother, nephew, niece hospital with news from her doctor that she and Youth. The organization provided her and sister staying the night with that per- would no longer be able to work. She had the opportunity to form friendships with son. Sauceda and her mother continued to already lost her job and apartment. However, Sauceda said Dwyer Avenue students from across the nation who grew “couch-hop” until the end of her fifth grade
Shelter continued to help. It moved them to an apartment complex for pregnant teenagers and homeless families on the east side of San Antonio, owned by the George Gervin Youth Center’s Transitional Living Program. This sense of stability gave Sauceda the chance to make friends, significantly improve her grades and participate in on-campus organizations, such as the Girl Scouts pilot program Gamma Sigma Girls. Sauceda said she learned about the college preparation process with the help of many San Antonio Independent School District faculty and staff. “I actually didn’t know about college until my junior year and that was the first time I checked my class rank,” she said. “…I didn’t know what going to college meant really. I was so oblivious to the fact that you could continue your education after high school. That just blew my mind. I just love learning so much.” Sauceda said though she graduated No. 7 in her high school class, it was difficult to convince her mother that college and living on-campus were the best choices for her. If Sauceda moved out of the apartment, her mother would have to leave and move in with her eldest daughter because of George Gervin Foundation rules applying to homeless families. “I felt so bad but I told her, ‘If you want to go anywhere, if you want to get any better than you are right now, then you have to let me go and try to help myself first. That way I can try to help you later,’” she said. “It was just really hard. She eventually understood and was really excited for me.” Since graduating high school, Sauceda said she is working for the National Association for Educating Homeless Youth as an advocate and would like to have a career in social work.