Austin Mudd

By Ashley Lewis

         By Ashley Lewis

 Austin Mudd,  a Stephen F. Austin senior from Euless, Texas, balances being a full-time student, a fraternity member, working a part-time job, playing tennis, and snowboarding.

            Mudd, 21, is a radio/television major, with a minor in history. “What you enjoy should be your major, what you like should be your minor”, states Austin. History is very important to him because he feels “you never know how you got to a place unless you know where you have been”. Mudd “enjoys writing and would like to write for the newspaper” and “work at a big media corporation.”Thankfully, he has his parents, two brothers, Dustin, 31, Chris, 12, and sister, Elyce, 29, who fully support him and his decision in wanting to do so.

He loves SFA and his fraternity, Theta Chi. He enjoys being involved and interacting with his peers. Mudd shares that they “help the community” often and he likes being able to do so. His best memory at the university “would have to be at the Piney Woods game and tailgate.” Austin loves having a good time and being with his fraternity brothers. He shares that they “all have a bond, much like a real brotherhood.” He doesn’t regret being apart of Theta Chi in any way and believes they have greatly contributed to his college experience as a whole. He is very happy and thankful to be apart of the organization.

Mudd also has a part-time job, working on the Stephen F. Austin campus inspecting buildings and making sure they are within safety code. He enjoys this because he likes to help people, even if they don’t take notice of it.

            Austin played tennis in high school and has loved it ever since. He never played for the university but plays often and at one point, considered pursuing it professionally.  He decided not to but it will always be apart of him and his life. He loves snowboarding just as much but states, “I broke my tailbone snowboarding,” but still loves to do it, “which my mom hates,” he adds. He wasn’t able to snowboard for months after his injury and really isn’t able to often because of Texas weather alone, but it remains dear to him and he does every chance he gets.

            Balancing school, work, organizations, family, and sports is no easy feat, yet unlike many people, Mudd manages.

Willie Jefferson

By Mack Stripling

Willie Jefferson III, Steven F. Austin senior, is rounding up his collegiate career as a student and all-star athlete. Jefferson is currently majoring in Radio/TV, with plans to be a high caliber movie producer or sports anchor. He is quite proficient in the field and has had an internship with the 102.5 radio station in Beaumont, Texas. 

After transferring from Baylor University, the 6’7 – 240 pound Jefferson became an instant force on the SFA Lumberjack football team.  Named to the All-Star Watch List this year, his stock value has greatly increased, adding hope and assurance to his aspiring dream of being in the NFL. Jefferson has always had the ambition to play in the NFL. “Even as a kid, I flirted with the dream of being in the NFL,” said Jefferson.  He currently holds two SFA football records, one for recording the most sacks in a game and the other for most sacks in a season.   Being involved was something that Jefferson saw as a great opportunity.  He is a currently a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.  

Even in high school, Jefferson was a superstar athlete, dominating in basketball, football and track.  After meeting his favorite NFL athlete, Randy Moss, Jefferson’s ambition of football was amplified. “Randy Moss told me to do what I love, so I can love what I do.  And that stuck with me.”  He was a reoccurring track state finalist and led his team to the state qualifier round in basketball.   In his younger years, boxing and gymnastics took up most of time.  As a junior heavyweight, Jefferson fought and won the Golden Glove, a prestige accomplishment for him.  With the dream of becoming an NFL player still fresh on his young mind, he also dreamed of one day becoming the mayor of his city.  As he was growing up, he had an eye for politics.  “Somedays, I would just channel surf and end up watching politics,” he recalled.  A strong belief and interest in the Democratic party led him to have the idea of one day being mayor.

Jefferson is a great role model and student around campus.  He donates blood at the local blood drives, is a strong believer in the Christian faith, community service chairman and local Lifeguard.  Born and raised in the town of Beaumont, Texas, a taste for Houston life made a great impression on him.  He loves Cadillac’s, his favorite hip-hop artist is Pimp-C, and the Houston Texans is his favorite team.  Jefferson is the middle child of eight children. “I’ve always been a mama’s boy, I know she loves me the most,” Jefferson jokes.  In a few more years, who knows…Willie Jefferson might be behind the camera of your favorite movie or making moves in the NFL.

Simone Evans

By Landon Johnson

Houston, TX native Simone Evans talks about her life and goals that she has for herself in the future. Evans, a junior majoring in fashion & merchandising talks about her love for fashion, “Every since I was a little kid I loved to dress up in clothes and look my best.” When Simone arrived at SFA, she knew that fashion and merchandising would be her major, but then she had to find herself a minor. She knew that she would like it to be something that would help her in her future work, after Simone did some research she found a minor, journalism with a concentration in public relations. “Even if I don’t get to design clothes, I can still be involved by being a fashion editor,” says Evans.

            Evans, who attended a high school in Houston, was on the dance team all throughout high school. She talks about being in a graduation class of about 930 and how attending a big school shows you a lot about how the outside world works. “Everyday you meet someone new, just like in the real world.” Even though she met numerous people throughout her high school career, she says that she did not have too many friends. She kept her circle small to ensure that she would have a stress free time while living out her younger years.

            Now 20-years-old, Simone knows that her childhood is soon coming to an end, but she is sure she can handle the real world. She keeps herself on the right path by going to class everyday and making sure that she keeps herself on tasks. However, she decided to get a little taste of the real world while still in school and found a part-time job working a local apartment complex close to campus. She says, “It makes me feel as if I already an adult because I make my own money and don’t have to depend on my parents for everything.” She talks about how proud of herself she is for taking on so much responsibility and being able to handle it.

            Simone, who is young and ambitious, admits that she is still a bit of a kid at heart. She even talks about what she does in her spare time when she is not working or studying new designs. “ I’m just like everyone else, yes I sing in the shower, yes I love to play with little kids, but hey who doesn’t,” says Evans, followed by a little chuckle. She was even a camp counselor at a church camp that she loved because of the opportunity she got to work with all of the children.

            Just like there is an “S” in her name, there is an “S” in success, which is sure promised to Simone in the near future. 

Landon Johnson

By Simone Evans

Ashley Lewis

By Austin Mudd    

        Ashley Lewis, a Cedar Hill junior, is one of many students enjoying their college experience at Stephen F. Austin State, but one thing sets her apart from the rest. Lewis, a middle child, is used to working hard to achieve what she wants. As a radio/TV major taking a full time schedule and working a part-time job, Lewis feels the same stresses as any other student, but what’s unique about her is her outlook.

            “You have all your life to work”, said Lewis. “You only have four years of college”, a message many young students across the country would benefit to hear. Although Lewis enjoys the social aspect of college life, she is also a dedicated student. Lewis hopes to one day earn a career in radio production. “I love audio production and I love music”, said Lewis. “I really like to express myself and be creative through [music].” Lewis, who is a fan of many genres, enjoys the creativity and opportunity that music offers in her field. With the addition of Internet radio and satellite radio, who can blame her?

            Lewis isn’t just interested in radio though. Lewis also hopes to work for the Home Box Office (HBO) in the future. “I would like that opportunity because it is obviously a successful and well known television network and wherever there is an opportunity for me to grow in my field, I want to go there.”

            Lewis, 20, works hard, but she also plays hard. She enjoys spending time with her friends and one of her favorite memories at school was a tailgate for the Battle of the Piney Woods rivalry between Sam Houston State and SFA. “It was so much fun”, Lewis exclaimed, “I will always remember that time with my friends.”

            Ashley, who has one older brother and one younger brother, also recently enjoyed a summer trip to the Florida coast. “It was beautiful! So much beach, and not near enough time to enjoy it all”, Lewis said jokingly.

            Well with two years left in her college career, Lewis definitely has enough time to enjoy many things. “I think that people are sometimes too wrapped up in their studies”, Lewis explained. “Sometimes you learn lessons outside of the classroom and those are some of the most important ones to learn.”

             Some people may agree with what Lewis said and some may not. Whatever the case, Ashley Lewis’s college experience, will be exactly that, an experience and that is what is should be. 

Macy Boyett

By Casey Yetter

Macy Boyett, sophomore at Stephen F Austin, is from the small town of Lake Jackson, Texas. All through school, Macy went to a private Christian school until she was a senior. Before transferring school systems, Macy participated in track and field and cheerleading. As a senior in a much larger public school, Macy thought it would be hard to jump in to those activities.

After graduation all of Macy’s friends decided to go to college together at the University of Texas in San Antonio, but she decided she didn’t want to know anyone where she went. “I just wanted to be around different people than I grew up with, so I chose Stephen F Austin,” Macy said.

She has two sisters, one of which is thinking about coming to Stephen F Austin after graduation later this year. Her older sister, Leah, was married about a year ago and is about to have her first baby girl.

When Macy got to Stephen F Austin she decided to rush the Tri-Delta sorority to meet new people. She liked their philanthropy, St.Jude’s children’s hospital, and she got along with those girls better than the other sororities on campus. This year she is living in the Tri-Delta house and finds that there is always something to do so she has little free time.

 When Macy was a freshman at Stephen F Austin she was majoring in education, but after she looked in to career options she thought the best thing for her would be to change majors to journalism with and emphasis in public relations and a minor in marketing. When asked whether or not she had done any internships she said, “My dad has actually gotten me an opportunity to work for Farouk Shami this summer,” the owner of hair and spa product companies including Chi.

Her father is a marketer for a Houston based business, ADP. Her mother works at the private school she attended before college. In high school, Macy was a lifeguard at a local swimming pool. She said that it was really scary being responsible for people’s lives if they drown.

Currently Macy’s short-term goal is to graduate with a degree in Journalism and find a job so she could stay in Texas. In five years she hopes to be starting a family and have a stable job. 

Mack Stripling

By Willie Jefferson

San Augustine native Mack Stripling begins his junior year as one of SFA most promising Information technologist.

Mack Stripling, a junior from San Augustine who is attending Stephen F. Austin on a full academic scholarship, is really eager to start with his work in the information technology field. Stripling is the youngest of seven siblings, which makes him want to work even harder to to rise to the occasion of success. Stripling enjoys volunteer work and helps others in the community and also in his hometown.

As a kid Stripling broke both his legs at separate times. This would keep most people from playing sports, but not for Stripling. The 5’8 junior is a huge sport fanatic and was a state qualifier in track. He now participates on a school intramural team in his time off and is also a Cleveland Browns fan. He says “Hi-O-Hi-O for Cleveland” after the Browns score a touchdown. When Mack has free time, he loves to eat his favorite dish; a Cajun seafood gumbo also loves to bake. When Mack has free time, he sits down and writes free form or poetry in a journal to release some inner emotions. Other hobbies Mack enjoys are listening to music. He also chops and screws his own music like a radio/club DJ. Mack likes the Buick brand of cars as well as Android phones. “These are the things I use in my everyday life. My phone and my car are what I love the most,” said Mack. When he gets a chance to relax he watches his favorite movies, “The Temptations” and “The Wood”. If compared to a famous celebrity Mack said “ I would have to be somewhat like Denzel Washington, just because of the way I carry myself and I like the way he looks and acts so smooth in difficult times and that’s how I portray myself at times.” Mack is also a true Christian, attends church normally, and lives his life on the straight and narrow. Mack has the vision of within ten years he will have found a loving wife to settle down with and have a family, also a well established job at a good business as a web designer or software analyst.

Britney Freeney

By Crystal Villarreal

Britney Freeney, 20, is a bright-eyed young woman with her head held high and pointed towards the future. She is from Dallas, TX, and has lived there all of her life. She graduated from Bryan Adams High School in 2009.

            Freeney is well rounded and very active in sports. She’s an athlete with a passion for basketball and flag football. In fact, she’s a part of one of the intramural flag football teams on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus.  She prides on the fact that her team has been undefeated in the last three years. “This year, our goal is to beat Texas Tech in the regional championship,” said Freeney.

            Although she’s a fantastic athlete, Freeney has a fiery passion for writing. She is a public relations major with a minor in creative writing. She loves poetry and has been writing it for years.  Freeney says, “I also have a love for songwriting.” She hopes that her writing career will launch and she will be discovered as a songwriter. According to Freeney, ”The west coast is where dreams are brewed.” She wants to move to California and hopes to make connections with entertainers.

            She shouldn’t have a problem with being successful. As a young girl Freeney had the gift of being a talented writer. When she was a little girl, she wrote her first poem for a class assignment. She presented it to her teacher in hopes of getting positive feedback. Her teacher accused her of plagiarizing and searched for Freeney’s poem on the internet and in several books but her search came up empty. When she found out that it was in fact a creative poem that Freeney had actually written herself, the teacher apologized and granted Freeney the title of a little writer prodigy. After that, “I entered various poetry contests and won many of them.”

            Along with her other talents, Freeney adds to the list a skill for playing violin. She started playing as a fourth grader in elementary school and still enjoys playing on her free time. She says that one of her biggest accomplishments was being first chair violinist in middle school. In high school, her violin playing was put on a hiatus, which she regrets. “I didn’t want people to think I was a nerd,” Freeney said. However, she rediscovered her love for playing in recent years. She has such a love of music that she recently picked up guitar playing as well.

            Ten years from now, Freeney’s dream is to have a published book of poems to inspire youth and sees herself writing and living in California. 

Chad Lyons

By Britney Freeney

            Perspectives, angles, creativity and eagerness, are all qualities of a graphic designer.

Chadwick Lyons is a Graduate Student at Stephen F. Austin State University. He is originally from Longview, TX. Lyons Said he decided to attend this university because it was not too close or no too far away from home.

Lyons Major is Graphic design. At the age of 12 he gained a passion for drawing and creativity.  He once won a ceramic contest because his teacher thought that his project could win the competition. “I wasn’t expecting to win, in fact, I didn’t take the assignment seriously I just played around with some things and came up with a nice piece of work,” said Lyons.

When first attending SFA his major was computer science because he wanted to learn how to make video games. One day while taking notes in class he realized that he would draw when most of his professors would be lecturing.  “In class I always ended up drawing, so I decided to make a profit, gain some money and even a career, “ said Lyons.

Lyons decided to change his major to graphic design his sophomore year with a minor in creative writing. Despite the new and challenging course work Lyons never switched his major again. “This field of study is quite challenging but I gave it my all and I’m bout to graduate soon,” said Lyons.

Lyons Junior year in college he had some hands on training in his new field of study. There is an annual Fashion & Motion fashion show that takes place every year at the university. Lyons was able to shoot videos and create graphic arts for the fashion show. Lyons stated, “this experience allowed me to look at the world in a new perspective, and gave me a childlike sense of wonder when I was designing the graphics.”

When Lyons graduates college he wants to be a graphic designer. “I see myself as an artist, designer of logos, and a creator of album covers,” said Lyons. Lyons also has a passion for photography. He said that if he can’t be in a suit designing graphics for a company then he would have a small photography studio somewhere in the city.

His advice to future graphic designers is to take their time and enjoy the smaller things in life. Lyons said “when you take your time you can see a whole new light that allows you to see the beauty in things, and by doing this your work will be more creative.”

Jason Switlik

By Crystal Davis

Jason Switlik, Fort Worth junior, was born in Wichita, Kansas. Switlik is a junior at Stephen F. Austin State University, and a Radio TV Major with a focus in advertising and marketing minor. There he is a member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity in the Interfraternity Council and a member of AdHoc, which is an organization that works with students on their advertising and communication skills.

When Jason was born he was adopted into his family where he has an older sister who is 28 and a younger brother that is 20. Although Jason was adopted, he still does not know what his origin or culture is. Growing up, Jason enjoyed sports and playing outdoors. While he enjoyed baseball, golf was something else he could play, “I started playing at 15 years, I’m not great but it is relaxing.” Other than that, Switlik and his family volunteer with the American Cancer Society in Fort Worth. According to Jason they, “set up the event and deal with money, and make sure you had people set up to walk, and making ground reservations.”  On top of volunteering, Jason also had a job out in the oil fields where he worked “a 38 hour shift.” Family is very important and means a lot to him. Jason has a huge family, but ironically they are the only family members that stay in Texas.

Jason currently works with Stephen F. Austin’s Central Receiving department. In this, job they take various of packages and equipment to different areas on campus to professors that normal 18 wheeler trucks can not handle. A couple things that Jason enjoys to do in his spare time is watch movies and TV shows. His favorite movie to watch is Saving Private Ryan, and his TV Show is, Entourage. Switlik has a lot of goals and aspirations for his future that he wants to accomplish. His top goal is to one day work for the Texas Rangers or any Major League Baseball team. Switlik says, “I would like to create advertisements for the Rangers”.  Right now Jason is preparing to graduate December 2013. To prepare for that, Jason is competing in this Fall’s American Advertising Federation (AAF) competition. There he will be in a team and work with them to promote a product and develop a campaign for a client. With all this experience, Jason Switlik plans to accomplish all of his goals.

Rolando Alvarez

By Megan Chase

Rolando Alvarez is a native Texan from Jacksonville and is currently a junior at Stephen F. Austin State University. Alvarez’s passion is soccer and started playing at 8 years old and ever since has been addicted. He was considered the “cool” kid in high school because he made the varsity soccer team as a freshman.  “I walked around school with my varsity letterman’s jacket and everyone had mad respect for me.” He proceeded to make the varsity team every year after that. During his high school career his team won the district championship 3 times. His high school actually beat Nacogdoches High during the championship. Alvarez also had an amazing opportunity come to him his sophomore year. The summer before sophomore year, he traveled to Mexico for three months and played on a reserves team for the UANL professional soccer team. “It was different living in Mexico. I learned that it is a luxury to have a vehicle over there and people are much more happy there than in the United States.”

His love for soccer carried over into his college career as well. Alvarez’s first choice school was Stephen F. Austin, but since the school did not have a soccer team he made the decision to attend Tyler Junior College. Unfortunately, Alvarez did not make the Tyler soccer team, but still continued to play for fun.

After his soccer career came to a close, Alvarez picked up his old passion and talent . . . playing the drums. He picked up his first drumstick at the young age of twelve and his talent progressed every year. After arriving at TJC, Alvarez and a few friends started up a metal band. They were called Wolves Among Men. Alvarez was the lead drummer among two vocalists, a keyboard player, a bassist, and two guitarists. The band was a local hit around the Tyler area. They even recorded and produced an EP on iTunes. They became so popular that the band was asked to go on tour that spring. Unfortunately, Alvarez had spring classes and could not go with his band. He ended up resigning and his friend took his place as lead drummer.

Alvarez began to focus more on school after leaving his band. He finished up two years at TJC and received his associate’s degree. Starting his junior year of college, Alvarez transferred to Stephen F. Austin and began working toward his major, radio/tv.  He is hoping one day to be an accomplished camera operator/ technician.

Kaylee Holdge

          By Daniel Karnafel

  Kaylee Holdge, now a sophomore in college from Flower Mound, Texas received some terrible news when she was only four years old. Kaylee had skin cancer.

            What started out as a typical brown mark on her arm at the time of birth, turned out to be much more serious than an innocent little birthmark. By the age of four, doctors were forced to surgically remove the cancerous legion that found itself on this little girl’s arm. “It was a lot to go through for a little girl,” Kaylee said. The cancer covered a large surface area of her arm and existed far below the surface of the skin. “The surgeons even had to remove parts of my muscle because the cancer was so deep,” Kaylee said. Recovery from the surgery lasted three to four months and left behind a massive seven-inch scar.

            Because she was born with this condition, Kaylee is very prone to future outbreaks. “I always have to check suspicious-looking freckles and moles on my body so it’s pretty much an ongoing struggle that I have to live with for the rest of my life,” Kaylee said. Most people who have never been exposed to the worries of skin cancer don’t pay much attention to new freckles and moles that may appear on their bodies. Kaylee, however, must pay close attention to every single one because if a mole is misshapen or a freckle is multi-colored, there exists a chance of contracting skin cancer all over again.

            Despite her medical background, Kaylee likes to look at the bright side. She said she would “prefer a scar on [her] arm over a giant birthmark,” and that the scar has led to fun conversations and a chance to tell people a little bit about herself. Kaylee excelled in high school choir which won six consecutive Grammy awards and was even instructed NOT to enter the national competition one year simply so that other schools could have a chance to win. Kaylee completed high school with AP credits under her belt, enrolled in Stephen F. Austin State University where she is currently majoring in Radio/TV and an active member in her sorority. To anyone going through skin cancer, Kaylee says, “Take everything day by day, don’t think too far ahead, live every day because you don’t know what tomorrow could bring.”

Crystal Davis

By Jason Switlik

            Crystal Davis, senior,  is majoring in Radio Television with an emphasis in production. Davis was born in St. Louis, Missouri, but moved to Missouri City, Texas when her parents found better jobs when she was a little over a year old. Davis is very involved with several different organizations on campus and will graduate in May 2013.

            Davis is half Cherokee half Mulatto and the oldest out of four siblings. She has two sisters 18 and 9, and a younger brother, 15. Davis broke her wrist in the second grade, “a girl was rocking in her chair and fell over and crushed my wrist!” Her family is very large as her grandpa and grandma have a combined over 20 brothers and sisters. Davis can play many composers such as Beethoven on the piano and favorite movies are “The Notebook” and “A Walk To Remember.”.  Davis stays very busy, as she is involved in many organizations on and off campus. Starting in high school, Davis was an intern at a local station called Missouri City TV for two years where she was a producer and a videographer. She also was a standout athlete in track and cross-country before she decided to focus more on school. After high school she was accepted to S.F.A.S.U. and joined Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, which is an international sorority that has over 260,000 members and prides itself on building leadership and helping solve world issues. Davis is the Vice President of the United Way on S.F.A.S.U. campus and is “working on a public relations campaign across Nacogdoches County.” Davis is also the Vice President of the National Broadcast Society on the S.F.A.S.U. campus, her main task as Vice President is to talk to distinguished alumni about coming to campus and speaking to the students in N.B.S. They also travel to premiere cities to attend conferences, “We traveled to Los Angeles and went to a conference and a workshop and did some sight-seeing as well. We also went to New York City and I met Vanessa Marano, an NBC actress.” Davis said her favorite place to visit was Los Angeles because of the beach and beautiful weather there.  Davis works as a student assistant in the agriculture department and made the deans list last fall in the radio television department. This summer was especially busy for Davis as she held three jobs and attended summer classes

Daniel Karnafel

By Kaylee Holdge

In movies, home schooled children are depicted as awkward and socially inept.  Movies may actually get some things right. Daniel Karnafel, McKinney junior, did not attend public school until he started his first year of high school. 

Daniel’s mother was his teacher from kindergarten through the eighth grade in California.  He studied math, history, English and science like every other student in public school.  He said, “I remember having a sense of pride because all my friends in public school would be at school all day and I would only go for an hour and then play outside the rest of the day.”  However, once he moved to Texas just before entering high school and was enrolled in public school, he started to feel a bit nervous.  “I really had to overcome the lack of communication skills that I didn’t gain in being home schooled.” 

In public school, children learn how to communicate with other people and learn ocial skills needed in the real world.  Those skills are very important in all aspects of anyone’s life, which Daniel felt that he just was not getting enough practice in.   He can remember the other kids asking him why he was so quiet and if he ever spoke.  
“Joining the football team really helped, though, because I could interact more with the other kids in a more comfortable environment instead of always in a classroom setting.” Daniel said. Soon after, Daniel started to make many more friends. 

As well as joining the football team, Daniel also joined the broadcast journalism department, which he excelled in.  He became the executive producer after only one semester.  Daniel said he “remembers making many homemade videos with my reptile collection and my fake Australian accent during my free time back in California. Steve Irwin was my childhood Idol.” Those videos helped him in deciding to join the broadcast journalism department in high school as well as in college. 

As a kid, Daniel recalls knowing he was learning less than everyone else, but after he entered public school he learned at a faster pace and made straight As for the first two years of high school.  When asked if he could do anything differently regarding his schooling Daniel said, “I think I would have still been home schooled. However, I wish that I would have tried more things so when I got to public school it was not so shocking.”    

Casey Yetter

By Macy Boyett

Casey Yetter is a student at Stephen F. Austin University. She is from a small town on the north side of Houston, TX called Willis. It is a small town. It consist of only two middle schools, and one high school. She played in the band all four years of high school. She was passionate about playing the trumpet. She has a supporting family that is always there for her. Her parents support her, and encourage her in whatever she chooses to do. Her father is a police officer, and her mother is a florist. She makes flower arrangements for different things like: weddings, funerals, high school dances, etc. An interesting fact about her father is whenever Casey was a child, she would ride around in her fathers police car with him, and get to listen to all the phone calls people would make about different crime going on in the town. Casey also has an older brother who is 21. He also attends Stephen F. Austin University.  Casey has no job currently, but last summer she worked the night shift at Walmart for stocking, and she said it was miserable. Her favorite vacation was when she went to Jamaica, and got to go zip lining in the jungle. She is a transfer student from Corpus Christie A&M. She decided to transfer to SFA because the weather in Corpus was very hot, and also her brother persuaded her. Her major is radio television. Casey chose this as her major because she has always been interested in TV shows, and how they operate. She wants to do behind the scenes work and make sure everything in the show is running smoothly, and correctly. She realized she had a passion for this whenever she was watching TV shows throughout high school, and she caught herself more interested in how the show was operating, instead of what was actually happening in the film. Casey wants to find a fun internship somewhere for her major, but she doesn’t want to stay in Texas. She wants to go travel and see how major productions are produced. “I want to work behind the scenes of a show like American Idol,” Casey says. Although she plans on graduating from Stephen F. Austin, she is still going to keep her eyes open for any possible opportunity that might come her way. Her dream would be to go to Hollywood, and see an actual production being filmed. She is a determined girl and ready to see what the world has to offer.

Megan Chase

By Rolando Alvarez

Megan Kathleen Chase, born in Temecula, California and raised in Flower Mound Texas. She is currently a sophomore at Stephen F. Austin and is a member of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority.

Chase moved to Texas back in ’98 along with her parents and two brothers; Chase is the middle child and the only girl in the family. Chase started singing in elementary school and continued singing up to high school. She was part of the Grammy Award winning choir program at the school and has performed in multiple weddings and sorority recruitments. She also won a 1^st division award in solo and ensemble. While in high school she played sports such as tennis; she won second place in a regional tournament.

From time to time she suffers from chronic migraines she has been dealing with from such a young age. Her freshman year in high school she missed a whole month of class because she came down with pneumonia. Fortunately, she got better and resumed classes.

Upon arriving at Stephen F. Austin, Chase said she chose to come here because she enjoys the nature and small community Nacogdoches has to offer.

This fall semester her sorority elected her as part of the PanHellenic Executive Board. Chase is deeply involved with Greek life.

Initially chase came to SFA as a journalist major but later found interest in the radio/tv field, she said she feels like she would be much more productive in this type of field. Chase says she enjoys her major and does not regret changing it, “my classes are so much fun and I have met tons of nice people, I do not regret changing my major from journalism, radio/tv is so much fun!”

A couple interesting facts about chase is that she has a Texas shaped birthmark on the left side of her face and she has been a part of multiple musicals hosted by her school. 

In ten years Chase said she would love to be married and have children, “I would love to get married and have children of my own, I would try to be the best mother and educate my children as well as my parents educated me.” Chase wants to be a producer after she graduates from SFA, “I want to be a producer after I leave SFA, I want to be one of the best around and be competitive in my field, hopefully ill work hard enough to achieve this and make my parents proud, but more importantly myself.”

Devin Way

By Jaquara Anderson

              College Student is a Top 8 finalist out of thousands for model search.

Devin Way ,sophomore from Lufkin is currently a top 8  finalist for a modeling contract with the Kim Dawson Agency. He is one of the top 8 finalists out of 1200, in the running for a modeling contract with the Kim Dawson Agency.  Devin said, “All of this is happening so fast.” Devin was caught off guard, because he did not enter himself in the contest, his best friend’s mother, Kathi Harvey did. She has been a fan of the contest for many years. Harvey teased Devin for years, saying “One day I am going to enter you in the contest.” That day was a few weeks ago, and ever since then, Devin’s life has changed.

      On the morning of September 17^th,Devin received a call that would change his life. The call was from the agency wanting to interview him in Dallas. Devin made the spontaneous trip to Dallas not knowing what would happen, and  arrived at the studio eager to be interviewed. After the interview, he was photographed and had to walk the runway.

The same night, he received an email informing him that he made it to the final round. The email also included what would happen next for Devin.  The following week, he made another trip back to Dallas.  This time, the agency gave him a makeover. The makeover included chopping off his precious locks. Devin had to make a third trip to Dallas to do a photo shoot for promotion.  Now, Devin plays the waiting game. The public however, has an opportunity to vote online at: WFAA.com/modelsearch for the winner. Voting ends November 4^th. The winner will be announced November 15 at the film festival in Dallas.

      Aside from his current modeling competition, and school, Devin teaches gymnastics Monday through Friday at the local gym in Lufkin.  Devin said, “ Since I have a very busy schedule, I make sure to balance out my time wisely. There is no time to waste.” Devin also is involved at his church, where he volunteers. He is over the fine arts program at his church.  The fine arts program was created to help children stay busy and out of trouble and to grow closer to God. The program also involves the children competing across the state. Devin, along with the fine arts program, has made a trip to Disney World in Orlando, Florida, to compete. Devin said, “Disney World was not magical to me.  It was not what it was cracked up to be, but I still enjoyed myself.”

      Devin has a big family, which mostly consists of half siblings that he has never met.  On his father’s side, he has 16 other siblings. Devin has only met one of them.  On his mother’s side, he has 2 brothers. Devin has a 4-year-old niece who he adores and spoils.

      Devin hopes to win the Kim Dawson model search for 2012, and feels like this will be one of many opportunities to come. He hopes he can get your vote.