The Frontier Fiesta festival will begin at 4 p.m. in an new location: parking lots 20A and 20C. Though the festival may be the latest in a long UH tradition that stretches back to 1939, this year’s festival will bring new changes behind the scenes and for all to see at Fiesta City.

Construction management junior Simon Romero and finance sophomore Trevor Schumann piece together the old-time store front decorations that will become Fiesta City. The festival will occupy parking lots 20 A and 20 C for three days, beginning 4 p.m. today with the parade to late Saturday night. | Nichole Taylor/The Daily Cougar

The Frontier Fiesta board worked with UH Advancement to create an online program where alumni and other interested parties could directly donate money toward the event. The program has raised nearly double the amount of last year’s donations. The board was determined to sign on with more sponsors who would be interested in funding Fiesta for a longer period of time.

“The blank email we sent out (to alumni) was the first of its kind at Frontier Fiesta and UH Advancement, and doing that allowed us to generate more income that really was untapped before,” said Eduardo Reyes, director of development with Frontier Fiesta.

Among this year’s new events are the Wild West Talent Show, presented by the CFA, and the Universal tent.

“(The Universal tent) is just a place where, if anybody can’t go to our cook-off, they’re more to happy to come in here; there’ll be movies, promotions …karaoke… DJs playing music, so that’s really going to be a central hub for students that aren’t involved in organizations, and they want something to do other than going to a variety show or going to (one of the concerts),” said Frontier Fiesta Chair Jeffrey Syptak.

More than fifty student organizations are hosting events and contributing to the festival in contrast to past years where Greek organizations ran most of the events. According to Syptak, this year’s Fiesta has tried to bring the entire university into the festival, not just the Greek organizations and the Fiesta board.

Democrats UH and UH College Republicans will be hosting a carnival booth called Politically Incorrect, while the Baptist Student Ministry will be hosting a booth called Price of Life. True to tradition, Greek organizations will hold variety shows, like Alpha Psi Omega, which will hold “For Memories Sake.”

“We’ll be doing a T-shirt pop this year and also we’ll be doing giveaways at different hours each day,” said Director of Marketing Clement Agho-Otoghile.

The cook-off, hosted in part by the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, will compete in food categories such as beans, beef, chicken, chili, fajitas, pork, chili and desserts, and various food trucks will offer a wide variety of food for guests to choose from. Food can be eaten in Willy’s Café, a nearby space where students can sit down with food bought at the festival.

This year’s slogan is “In Time, This Time, Our Time,” referencing the past books that were published in order to celebrate the University’s history, In Time and This Time.

“Our slogan (represents) the University and how far we have come, not only as a university but as Frontier Fiesta,” Syptak said.

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The establishment of the Arabic Studies minor has brought the recently developed Arab Student Union and the Arab Studies Program together to help promote Arab culture on campus through the screening of “Under the Bombs.”

The Lebanese film is based on the events of the war that took place in 2006. With the rapid growth of the Arab Studies minor, this film will be the start of what will help bridge the gap that many students taking Arabic courses deem to be important.

Emran El-Badawi, director of Arab Studies and assistant professor of Arabic Language and Literature at the Department of Modern and Classical Languages said, “First, I want to promote film and culture as an integral part of language study. That is to say, students studying Arabic should be exposed to Arab culture as well.”

“Film is an essential media in this vein, which leads me to my second goal. Since the MCL has a strong and growing Film Studies program, it houses a splendid foreign language film series, which is the ideal venue to promote awareness about the Arab world to the student body as well as the public,” he said.

What attracted students to this minor was the ability to take courses to help them better understand the culture. Taking courses like History of the Modern Middle East can instill a foundation and produce background information to the previous Arabic courses students took.

“It’s currently impossible to develop a holistic perception of the world without a thorough understanding of the Middle East, and an Arab studies minor would be the perfect way to do that,” said biology junior Fatima Syed who is interested in declaring an Arab Studies minor.

“Middle Eastern food will be served at the event. The film will be followed by a lecture and discussion,” said Michael Fares, instructional assistant professor of Arabic. “We are happy to announce that Arab Studies is co-sponsoring this event with the Arab Student Union, a quickly growing student organization likewise dedicated to promoting and celebrating the presence of Arabic language and culture among the student body.”

ASU was established to promote Arab culture through folkloric music, cultural food and intellectual discussion.

“Hopefully it will present an antidote to some of the prevailing stereotypes people have about the Arab world. Additionally we want students of Arab background, and students interested in the Arab world, to know that ASU is now active and ready to provide meaningful events to the campus community,” said ASU President Luai Allarakia.

The event is scheduled to take place at 1 to 4 p.m Friday in Room 101 at the Social Work Building. Admission is free, and anyone interested is encouraged to come.

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UH is now home to the Association of College Unions International 2013 president of the year. President Renu Khator accepted the prestigious title at the Community Builders Awards Ceremony in St. Louis.

Students and faculty accompanied president Renu Khator to St. Louis during Spring Break where she received the President of the Year award. | Courtesy of UH.edu

The award was created last year to recognize university presidents who advance the college union idea: to complement the academic experience through an extensive variety of cultural, educational, social and recreational programs.

“This award is more precious to me than any other,” Khator said, “because this one is for being the most student-friendly president.”

Involvement, promotion and support for the college union and student activities were the criteria considered for each nominee, with emphasis on going above and beyond typical duties.

“In my 20 years of involvement with ACUI and the College Unions (University Centers) and the Student Activities profession, I have not seen or heard of a president that has impacted a campus like President Khator has in her five years at UH,” said Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs Keith Kowalka, who personally coordinated the nomination of Khator for the prestigious title.

Adorned in her usual Cougar red, Khator was approached by several people after her acceptance speech to express their surprise that she attends so many student events and meetings.

“That’s the most rewarding part of my job, for sure,” she said. “I get my inspiration and motivation from the success of our students, and it’s a good day when I get to spend time with them.”

During the first weeks of class, she visits as many freshmen and introductory classes as possible, introducing herself to more than 9,000 students annually, Kowalka said.

Since Khator’s appointment, UH has experienced record-breaking research funding, enrollment and private donations.

During her interview process, she told UH System Board of Regents members that she believed it would take five to seven years for UH to become a Carnegie Foundation-recognized Tier One campus. She did it in four.

“Achieving Tier One status is just the icing on the cake in terms of the many accomplishments we have achieved during her tenure,” Student Government Association President Cedric Bandoh said in his recommendation letter.

The most recent launches were the 75-acre Energy Research Park and the new Health and Biomedical Sciences Building, which will include the Health Science Center. Construction on the new University Center has also been underway since last semester.

“Both staff and students have been invigorated by the presence of Dr. Khator,” Kowalka said. “Students remark time and time again how excited they are to have a leader who embodies principles of access, transparency and student success.”

“She is constantly improving the campus environment, and the effect she has had on campus morale has been almost as profound as the effect she has had on the growth and national stature of her university.”

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UH has partnered with two leading Texas medical schools to create a program to shorten the time it takes for students to become doctors.

University of Texas Medical Branch and University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston will join UH in an effort to guide medical students on a fast-track path that reduces their time in school to seven years from the usual eight.

“There are several programs that some universities have like this already, so Dr. Khator decided we needed to create one of our own, so we did,” said professor Simon Bott, director of Undergraduate Affairs and Advising for the Department of Chemistry.

The program will allow 10 hand-picked students to earn credit hours toward a Bachelor of Science degree at UH as well as a doctorate of Medicine from one of the two collaborating medical schools. These students will spend three rigorous years at The Honors College preparing to enter medical school during what would have been their senior year. The first class is set to start in fall 2013.

“We pretty much know already who those students will be because we interviewed some of the candidates at the start of Spring Break,” Bott said. “Most students are not the ones who would think about staying in Texas for med school. These are students of the caliber to go off to Ivy League schools.”

“We are attracting that kind of person to stay in Texas, and the way we do it is by saying, ‘Hey, you come here and bust your butt, and we will make absolutely sure you get to med school faster.’ You can’t say that to too many people.”

In addition to taking rigorous science and math courses, the students will enroll in a two-semester capstone honors course called The Human Situation, which will provide an open conversation about the most important issues for human beings, according to a UH press release.

Students will also minor in the Medicine and Society program at The Honors College. This will support an interdisciplinary understanding of health and health care through academic courses, research, student internships, scholarly and public conferences, visiting speakers and fieldwork that will include domestic travel and opportunities to study abroad, according to the release.

During this time, they will be able to get exposure to medical school from the moment they enter the program.

“We will be interacting with these students from day one,” said Dr. Latanya J. Love, assistant dean for Admissions and Student Affairs at UTHealth. “They will have the opportunity to come on to our medical school campus, interact with our medical students and faculty and also to do preceptor shifts with some of our faculty members in the medical center starting from their first year of undergrad. That is what makes this program a little unique.”

Love said the program’s initiative is to get hardworking students to become doctors faster and realize the great local schools and opportunities they have, especially since there is a health care shortage in Texas.

“Our hope is that we are getting some of the best and brightest students at UH,” Love said. “It will get them out in seven years, and it will be nice to get physicians working in less time but with the same quality. One of our goals in the medical school is to produce doctors who ultimately will want to practice in our great state of Texas.”

A condensed medical education in less than eight years is something generally accepted around the world, and the U.S. is jumping on the bandwagon, said Steven Lieberman, vice dean for Academic Affairs for UTMB.

“We are excited about this joint program with the University of Houston as it helps to open a career in medicine to students who might have been deterred by longer, more expensive schooling,” Lieberman said.

The program benefits UH by not only attracting extremely bright students to participate, Bott said, but also will ultimately help students who are not enrolled in the program.

“An awful lot of our students go on to medical school,” Bott said. “The more relationships we can build with the medical schools close to us, the better it can create opportunities for the rest of our students in the future.”

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The Campus Recreation and Wellness Center celebrated its 10th anniversary Monday.

The Recreation Center is more than just a rock wall, said Floyd Robinson, assistant vice president for Student Affairs — Health and Wellness.

“(The Recreation Center) is a facility for the students, and the fact that freshmen, alumni and faculty all have engaging options shows that they are doing something right,” Robinson said.

Kim Clark, the director of campus recreation, said she is grateful to the students of UH and hopes to maintain and build on their hard work and ambitions for the facility and programs.

“What I really want to do is thank the students who passed the referendum 15 years ago to build this facility. They decided to leave a legacy and that is to be commended,” Clark said.

Clark said she hopes to expand on that. She said the Recreation Center plans to continue to grow and keep up with improvements and fitness trends that will encourage UH students to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

To continue improvements, the Recreation Center will be conducting benchmark studies that will help evaluate their facilities and services compared to universities across the country. This will provide a national perspective that will benefit the institution.

Clark said she encourages students and staff to email and submit comment cards to foster a positive, diverse and continuously-improving environment for everyone.

The staff of the Recreation Center, which includes more than 250 students, pride themselves on leadership development, student development, communication skills, conflict resolution, customer service and being a fun place to work, Robinson said.

It’s all about balance, diversity and maintaining the legacy that students over a decade ago put into place, Clark said.

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UH is the only school to have won three national championships in NCSC history. Two of the titles were received back-to-back. | Courtesy of UH.edu

A team of four students faced pressure and anticipation as they went to Kennesaw State University in Georgia to represent the most recognized school in the 2013 National Collegiate Sales Competition.

Competitors from the Program for Excellence in Selling at the C.T. Bauer College of Business were Nicole Pinkelman, who placed fifth overall, and Ricardo Guerra, who placed in the top 15. With their team alternates, Raul Giron and Juan Rueda, they represented UH at the competition and claimed third runner-up out of 67 schools from the U.S. and Canada.

UH holds the title of being the only school to have won three national championships in NCSC history, and two of the titles were received consecutively, Marketing lecturer Amy Vandaveer, who has been coaching PES teams for the past five years, said in a press release. 

“It is a great thing to be able to compete at a national level to represent the program that has given me so much,” Pinkelman said. “The experience not only gave us sales experience and personal branding, it gave us the chance to defend the title that we have the best sales program in the nation.”

The 134 students participating were required to individually prepare a sales presentation on the mobile app powered by ADP, RUN, for a client whose profile they had been given prior to the competition. Each competitor was recorded and then judged by a panel on needs identification, approach and communication skills among other sales criteria.

Several companies attended the event to meet talented sales students and potential recruitment.

“This was more than just a school competition,” Pinkelman said. “What we learn here is real life. It shows that if we can do it here then we can sell anything to anyone. It shows that we have the knowledge and skills to be successful.”

Vandaveer said students and the school receive an exceptional amount of exposure from the competition.

“Students are the ones that go under the microscope. They are the ones that compete and do all the hard work,” Vandaveer said. “They show the caliber of the students we have in our program to other schools and potential employers.”

The competitors o Pinkelman n this year’s team are full-time students who have full-time jobs. said they put in all the time and hard work into this extra curricular activity to represent UH and PES. 

“We have the best sales program around the nation,” Pinkelman said. “To see that so many coaches and so many schools model their programs around ours reinforces our pride. We have the best coaches. None of this would have been possible without the constant hard work, time and effort they put into this to help us succeed.”

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For a group of UH students, the clichés associated with Spring Break — like beaches, drinking and wild parties, didn’t have an affect on their week off.

The 200 acres of land housing Six Flags Fiesta Texas enthralled two UH students to make it their Spring Break plan. | Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Multiple places in Texas have large crowds of college students on Spring Break without parties or alcohol.

“I wanted to go somewhere that was fun. Somewhere I could have a good time with my friends and not have to worry about a lot of drunk people on the roads,” said human resource development junior Shaaz Shahabuddin after going to Six Flags Fiesta Texas, one of the most visited places for Spring Breakers.

Many people decide to go to Six Flags because it is close to Houston and they enjoy the adrenaline rush they get from the rides.

“Waiting in those long lines builds up the anticipation for the rides, and it makes it all the more worth while once you get on,” Shahabuddin said.

Shahabuddin and his friends enjoyed the scenery, the bustle of the San Antonio River Walk, a trip to Ripley’s Believe It or Not! and the Ultimate Mirror Maze.

“Ripley’s was fun and interesting, but the mirror maze was a completely different experience and is something I think anyone of any age would enjoy,” said political science senior Hammad Syed.

For these UH students, Spring Break was about enjoying time away with friends in a relaxing environment with fun activities.

“This trip was uniquely phenomenal,” Syed said. “I got to experience this trip with my family of friends.”

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Burglary of a building and Evading Arrest: At 12:44 a.m. March 12 at the University Center Satellite, the tunnel alarm was activated. Two students were arrested for alleged burglary and evading arrest. Student Life referrals were issued to each student. The case is cleared by arrest.

Theft: At 5:13 p.m. March 12 at the M.D. Anderson Memorial Library, a student reported an unknown individual or individuals stole her unattended backpack. The case is active.

Theft: At 8:36 p.m. March 12 in Lot 15C, a staff member reported the theft of his secured and unattended vehicle. The case is inactive.

Burglary of a Motor Vehicle: At 7:10 a.m. Wednesday in Lot 19D, a contractor reported the theft of his UH parking decal from his unattended and unsecured vehicle. The case is inactive.

Criminal Mischief: At 10:11 a.m. Wednesday at Bayou Oaks Apartments, a student reported that an unknown individual or individuals egged several parked vehicles. The case is inactive.

Injury to Child/Elderly/Disabled: At 7:17 p.m. Thursday at the Child Care Center, a student advised that her 3-year-old daughter was assaulted. The case is active.

Driving While Intoxicated: At 2:31 a.m. Friday in the 5800 block of Scott Street, an unaffiliated motorist was arrested for allegedly driving while intoxicated when he was found passed out in the driver’s seat of his vehicle. The case is cleared by arrest.

Driving While Intoxicated: At 12:55 a.m. Saturday in the 5800 block of I-45 South, an unaffiliated motorist was arrested for allegedly driving while intoxicated following a traffic stop and was booked into the Harris County Jail. The case is cleared by arrest.

Driving While Intoxicated: At 3:03 a.m. Saturday in the 4800 block of I-45 South, an unaffiliated motorist was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated after being observed stopped in a moving lane of traffic. The motorist was booked into the Harris County Jail.

Criminal Trespass: At 11:38 p.m. Saturday in the Cullen Oaks Apartments parking lot, two students were arrested on suspicion of criminal trespass of a motor vehicle after taking a security golf cart. Both students were booked into the Harris County Jail and issued Student Life referrals. The case is cleared by arrest.

Theft: At 3:04 p.m. Sunday at Cougar Softball Field, a visitor reported an unknown individual or individuals stole her unattended and unsecured property from her backpack. The case is inactive.

Traffic Offense: At 7:20 p.m. Sunday in Lot 4A, a contract security officer reported that an unattended vehicle was struck and damaged by another vehicle. The striking driver failed to leave the required information. UHDPS police officers located the striking driver and issued a citation. The case is cleared by citation.

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Learning Support Services is offering workshops throughout the semester as a part of its Learning Through Discovery series.

The next face-to-face meeting will be “Tools To Manage Your References” at 1 p.m. Tuesday in the M.D. Anderson Memorial Library. The workshop will focus on helping students simplify their research process by being able to organize your sources, such as creating in-text citations and reference lists.

Patrick Daniel, executive director of Learning and Assessment Services, lead the first workshop, titled “Conducting Research Using Surveys and Focus Groups.”

The workshop was designed to show students how to collect information for research in whatever area they are involved in. It focused on how to actually create a survey, what questions to ask to get what you need and how to lead a focus group.

“I think it’s important that students learn good methodology, good ways to ask the right questions,” Daniel said. “The information is only as good as how you collect and gather that information.”

Daniel used an interactive approach with the students. He asked them what they wanted to get out of the workshop and what research they were doing first and then used their interests as specific examples throughout the meeting.

Jennifer Stearns, a master’s student in Human Resource Development, attended the workshop and said she was surprised by what she learned.

“It definitely has a motivating factor,” Stearns said. “You are seeing things that are outside your syllabus. I have some ideas now of different ways to tackle some of my term projects. I didn’t come here expecting to find those ideas, but now that I did, I realize how enriching this program is.”

Psychology senior Rissa Thomas, who said she hopes to get into graduate school, also took advantage of the workshop.

“I got an email about eDiscovery,” Thomas said. “I had to log in and then I found all the events, and I thought ‘Oh hey, this is kind of cool.’ I’m doing my first research project, and it’s very overwhelming. I want all the help I can get.”

Thomas and Stearns said they are surprised at how many students do not attend these free workshops.

“Students need to see how these face-to-face meetings can directly benefit them,” Stearns said. “The online library databases can be pretty daunting. I think that it’s too bad that with around 40,000 students at the University, more people don’t take advantage of this tool.”

Veronique Tran, director of the Learning through Discovery program, stressed the importance of the workshops in the series for every student at the University.

“The knowledge and skills that are covered in the workshops are must-haves for UH graduates,” Tran said.  “If you think about it, every project that you will be working on for your job will involve some research. Do you know where to start? And how to go about it? What has already been done, and how do I find out?”

“Of course, for those students planning to go to graduate school or who are currently in grad school, these basic research skills are absolutely essential. The workshops supplement what you learn from your professor or faculty research adviser, who are both experts in their field,” Tran said.

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Graduate School of Social Work professor and best-selling author Brené Brown and Oprah Winfrey explored on Sunday the importance of staying true to oneself and embracing one’s imperfections using Brown’s dozen years of research.

Brené Brown joined Oprah Winfrey on her Super Soul Sunday show to discuss her research, which led to her newest book “Daring Greatly.”  |  Courtesy of UH.edu

The two women bounced back and forth with their individual “ah-ha” moments throughout the Super Soul Sunday show on the Oprah Winfrey Network. The Emmy Award-winning weekly show aims to provide viewers with a spiritual and thought-inspiring conversation with prominent self-help professionals.

“I wanted a place for people to go every Sunday to wake up,” Winfrey said. “It’s thought-provoking, eye-opening and inspiring. It’s food for your soul — every single Sunday.”

Brown more than qualifies to be on the show, having headlined on multiple news sites and talk shows, such as CNN.com and “Katie.”

Her career didn’t launch with her best-selling book, “Daring Greatly,” or the two books she authored before it.

Brown made a name for herself after appearing in the Houston TED-X talks in 2010, where she said she was going to make herself vulnerable on stage. She shared how throughout her research, and she discovered she wasn’t measuring up to her own conclusions. This drove her to a breakdown, landing her in therapy.

“I remember thinking, ‘I just, like, admitted to being crazy in front of 500 people,’” Brown said.

It wasn’t only 500 people that listened to Brown discuss her research and how this research drove her to her own therapy sessions. More than 8 million people viewed her talk on YouTube.

The TED-X experience and its success had a negative repercussion on Brown. She said the adverse comments on the internet put her into a state of depression. However, during her sadness, she stumbled upon a Theodore Roosevelt quote about “daring greatly,” which was to title her next book.

“To me, (daring greatly) means having the courage to be vulnerable. It means to show up and be seen, to ask for what you need, to talk about how you’re feeling, to have the hard conversations.”

Brown, while experienced in book writing, educating and knowing her own self-worth, said on the show even she struggles to follow her own advice when it comes to being herself and not a perfectionist.

This discussion led Winfrey to what she said was a huge “ah-ha” moment she couldn’t keep inside.

“I had never gotten this before I read (the book), that perfectionism is the ultimate fear that the people who are walking around as perfectionists, that they are ultimately afraid that the world is going to see them for what they really are and they won’t measure up,” Winfrey said.

Brown said she agreed and it is something she struggles to stifle in herself.

“I’m, like, a recovering perfectionist,” Brown said. “For me, it’s one day at a time.”

Brown’s work centers on vulnerability, worthiness and shame. However, being vulnerable progresses you on the path to greater self-discovery, she said.

“I was raised that vulnerability is weakness, like most people,” Brown said.

Winfrey said her success in her near 30 years of experience is attributed to being vulnerable to her audience and on her shows.

Brown continued in saying people can’t have joy without being grateful for the joy something brings you.

“Because for 12 years of research, I have never interviewed a single person who talks about the capacity to really experience and soften into joy who does not actively practice gratitude,” Brown said.

Yet this joy can turn into something negative for people who don’t practice being vulnerable.

“When we lose our tolerance for vulnerability, joy becomes foreboding,” Brown said.

Keeping this in her mind, Brown said her faith in God is what drives her the most to stay who she is.

“For me,” she said, “God is the divine reminder of our inherent worthiness.”

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