Serving in the Community: One Grave at a Time

The LEAP Ambassadors spent their Saturday morning in an unusual manner: photographing graves in Oakwood Cemetery.

We were moved to participate in this activity through Just Serve, a program that seeks to match volunteers with projects. So we met our main contact, Judy Webb (a former SHSU employee), and got down to work.

The concept was to help researchers, particularly those involved with genealogy. We downloaded the “Billion Graves” app, and Judy showed us–and about 20 more volunteers, including Jeff Gardner from SHSU–how things worked. Our job is to take photos of graves, and the app then marks the location of that grave. Later, we uploaded the photos, and we transcribed the grave information for 281 graves: name, date of birth, date of death, and the epitaph. This information then becomes available for researchers online.

Grave site of William Franklin Baldwin (1847 – 1911), Elizabeth Jane Baldwin (1854 – 1944)

After a bit of wandering as we tried to figure things out, we settled into teams, with one team taking the north side and one team taking the south side. In addition to the photography, there was some light cleaning, such as picking up trash or cleaning off the tombstone so that it was legible.

Aside from our operational duties, we also tried to learn about Huntsville and its history. So, we learned about the Thomason family…

Grave site of Dr. John W. Thomas0n (1864 – 1942)

…the Adickes family…

…we found the graves of Joshua and Samuel Walker Houston, and, of course, visited Sam Houston’s grave.


Some of our discoveries were somber. We saw the graves of a family who lost four children: one died at 25, one died at 3, one died at 2, and one died the day of birth. We saw the grave of Mary Bobbitt; she was an English Professor at SHSU who went in for surgery over Spring Break, and she didn’t survive. The students found out in class the week after Spring Break.

Grave site of Mary E. Bobbitt (12 Oct 1916 – 17 Mar 1988)

We saw the recent grave of Judge Bill McAdams, and we saw the grave of James Patton, also fresh. It is, of course, appropriate that he is resting in the cemetery he did so much to research and preserve.

Grave site of James D. Patton (2 Sep 1947 – 5 Aug 2022)

We finished with a selfie with Judy Webb (from Just Serve) in front of Sam Houston’s grave. The epitaph, from Andrew Jackson, reads “The World Will Take Care of Sam Houston’s Fame.” And that is true, but sometimes his grave, and the entire cemetery, needs some tending to.

A Gala Night: The Smith-Hutson Banquet, 2022

The Smith-Hutson is a wonderful program, one made possible by the generosity of the “Smith-Hutson” partnership. This generous donation is funding 162 SHSU students–as well as students from other Universities–a full ride. The students receive these scholarships if they meet certain qualifications–it is a need-based scholarship with a thorough application–and are selected following an extensive interview process. The result is impressive in terms of both the students and what they accomplish.

The LEAP Ambassador President, Jessica Cuevas, is also Secretary for the Smith-Hutson Scholars Council.

The Smith-Hutson program is administered by Chris Garcia, who served as MC for the evening.


With 310 people on hand, numerous speakers, food to be served, a PowerPoint with photos of Smith-Hutson activities rolling, and a two-hour time limit, Chris had his hands full. He introduced three Smith-Hutson alumni…

…who spoke movingly about the way that the scholarship program affected their lives.

President White also spoke, communicating words of encouragement to the students and many, many thanks to the donor.

Jerry Hutson also spoke, providing much detail about the program, its broad purposes, and the impressive number of Smith-Hutson scholars who had graduated, who made the Dean’s List, and whose lives were changed by the program.

And the students themselves spoke briefly. The President of the SHS Council (Sandy Schoeneberg), for example, read out the name of (1) every officer, (2) every team, group, and subgroup leader, and (3) the different “houses” of the Smith-Hutson group.

This is a large group, perhaps as many as 40 students, some of whom are shown below.

The final speaker of the night was Provost Stephenson, who promised to make his comments “short and sweet, like Chris…”–to much laughter. The Provost emphasized the role that supporting one another can play in all of their success, while also drawing on the University culture of providing just that type of care.

On those words of encouragement, the night ended for the guests, while Smith-Hutson scholars took cohort photos, took photos with some stragglers…

…and helped tidy up after the event–armed anew with models of generosity and with the spirit of gratitude.

A Summer Escape to the Island of Enchantment: Puerto Rico

August 10, 2022

Yvette Mendoza

This summer was a bit busier than usual, with my job, LEAP activities and volunteerism, and an LSAT Prep Course occupying my time. But I still found time to spend time with family, and I still managed to explore and learn in the process!

Let me take you along the journey of my summer trip right as we wrap up our summer. My family and I went to the beautiful island of Puerto Rico, where my mother’s side of the family is from.

I had the opportunity to not only visit my family, but immerse myself in nature, learn more about my culture, eat fantastic food, and, most importantly, relax.

Here are some of my favorite things I was able to do in Puerto Rico that I recommend for anyone interested in interesting adventures.

First, hike through the beautiful El Yunque National Forest. You will fall in love with vibrant green palm trees and the touches of pink from our native flower, the hibiscus. Here, some trails will take you to the highest peak with breathtaking views. As I climbed to the top, I stumbled upon iguanas left and right. It was an excellent way to experience the island’s nature, but make sure you bring a rain jacket!

While getting a good exercise and learning more about the history of Puerto Rico, I walked through Castillo de San Felipe del Morro, a fort located at the Northwestern point of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. Its construction began in 1539 when the Spaniards governed Puerto Rico, and this fort was used to defend against naval attack.

You can’t forget Puerto Rico’s excellent food, such as tostones (fried plantains), pernil (pork), rice and beans, and various desserts! My favorite restaurant in Puerto Rico has to be the Zimple Restaurant and Bar. They had a variety of seafood. I fell in love with Paella Marinera, which has octopus and shrimp on top of perfectly seasoned rice.

Lastly, you can’t miss the beautiful palm trees stretching across the ocean shore! Puerto Rico is a lovely island that I’d recommend adding to your destinations list.

Finding a “Clue” at the Alley Theatre

If it’s summer, the Alley Theatre is offering one of their “Summer Chills” programs, and this year’s production was “Clue,” a play that is based on both the 1985 film and the board game. The result was a madcap hour and a half of hilarity, made even more enjoyable by the fact that many LEAP Ambassador alumni joined us for the festivities.

At least two of the students had never seen a live play, so this was new for them. But even those who had seen live theatre were unlikely to have seen a play of this sort: it was frenetic, screwball, a surreal in equal measure–think the Marx Brothers starring in an Agatha Christie play.

The play began with a minimal set, but the spareness of the set permitted quick transformations, allowing the audience to experience a library, a billiard room, a lounge, and a study.

Of course, the sets contained secret doors, a dangerous chandelier, and lights that flickered in a storm. It was, after all, a dark and stormy night…

And, of course, there was the well-known characters: Professor Plum, Colonel Mustard, Miss Scarlet, Mrs. Peacock, Mr. Green, and Mrs. White–each with a mysterious past. Ms. White, for example, seem to marry men who wound up dead. When asked how many husbands she had, she responded, “My own? Or other women’s husbands?”

Along with these typical characters, there was Wadsworth (the butler), Yvette (the maid), and an equally hapless cook and singing telegram singer. And, of course, Mr. Body, who died not once, but twice. There was also a police officer, an “unexpected police officer,” a “backup police officer,” and a driver of a broken-down car. Put these together, along with numerous corpses, and you have quite enough of a murder mystery.

But the mystery was secondary: the primary action was the comedy. Yvette was a prancing, jiggling exhibitionist; Colonel Mustard was painfully, comically slow; Mrs. Peacock was an elderly tippler; Mr. Green was delightfully clumsy; and yet it was Wadsworth that was the star of the show.

Collectively, they went through slow motion reenactments of deaths; performed live-action imaginings of alternative universes; and Wadsworth completed a one-man reenactment of the entire play in about four minutes.. And all of this happened while the cast drew upon “And Then There Were None,” the “Clue” Board Game (at one point, using the board as a map to the “house”), borrowed Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile” from “Modern Times,” while also parodying “Gone with the Wind” and “Casablanca”–as in, “Of all the board games, in all the world, he has to walk in to mine.”

To extend the Casablanca theme, it was an afternoon that continued beautiful friendships. Bianca Saldierna (SHSU 18), Will Phillips (SHSU 13), Deanna Youngblood (SHSU 13), and Brian Aldaco (SHSU 18)–along with some significant others–joined us for the fun and caught up on old times.

The LEAP Ambassadors would like to thank all the LEAP and Junior Fellows alumni who helped develop a wonderful program and continue to support SHSU and LEAP! Additional notes: Dr. Robert Donahoo, Professor of English and Drama at SHSU, wrote a wonderful review of the play here, and Melissa Pritchett, who played “Yvette,” is an SHSU alum!