In today’s version of a LEAP trip, we learned a lot about art, the law, and the outdoors. And to kick things off, we did all three by heading to Texas Tech’s campus and doing a self-guided outdoor art tour, followed by a guided indoor law-school tour.
Our self-guided tour was to see what the Texas Tech Campus had to offer, and we were impressed with what we found. We saw a very large James Surls piece…
…several large Jesus Moroles pieces…
….a Deborah Butterfield horse, Terry Allen’s “Read Reader…”
…and Tom Otterness’s “A Tornado of Ideas.”
It was difficult to pick our favorite: Olivia’s was Moroles’s “Lapstrake Portal;” Cinthia’s was Butterfield’s horse.
But our primary purpose for being there was to see the law school, so at 10:30, we met our guide, Katie Moorhead, and we began our tour.
Texas Tech Law School Tour
Cinthia Villarreal
Upon entering Texas Tech School of Law (TTU Law), we were immediately welcomed by the sophisticated ambiance of the building. At this time, it was really beginning to sink in that we were looking at our future. We had the pleasure of meeting with Ms. Moorhead, the Assistant Director for Admissions at TTU Law, who gave us an excellent, in-depth tour of the law school and included her insight along the way. We started with what Ms. Moorhead referred to as “the Goldilocks Bears of classrooms”. Befittingly, there were smaller classrooms, larger classrooms seating 100 students, and regular classrooms that were “just right”!
What was unique to us is that first-year students are personally assigned a study room in the library where they can study, have lunch, or even nap. We weirdly found this custom the most exciting aspect of the building itself, which of course doesn’t even begin to explain the culture and rigor of TTU. For that information, Dwight McDonald, Clinical Instructor and Director of Community Engagement, was on hand to provide. Mr. McDonald made his case for what sets Texas Tech apart from the other law schools. He believes that Texas Tech is unique in that it supports students to practice law with a firsthand approach in TTU’s clinics and curriculum. He was as persuasive as he was collegial!
To our great surprise, we had the honor of meeting former U.S. Congressman and Chancellor of Texas Tech University, Kent Hence. He had nothing but excellent things to say about the law school, and he encouraged us to consider the school upon our graduation. It simply does not get more compelling than that!
Though we already felt incredibly lucky, the enriching tour didn’t end there! We had the chance to take a peek into a seminar on domestic violence. The auditorium was filled with practicing lawyers continuing their intellectual pursuits, and from what we were able to listen in on, the seminar raised some great points in evaluating domestic violence cases. Of course, we had to end our visit with a photo op in the Donald Hunt Courtroom with Ms. Moorhead!
We thank TTU Law for opening their doors to us, Ms. Moorhead for her assistance in coordinating this tour, and Mr. McDonald for taking the time to speak with us.
Out of this World in Roswell, New Mexico
Following our wonderful tour, we grabbed food on the go so that we could get to Roswell, New Mexico. Knowledgeable readers are likely to know that Roswell is best known for what may have been an alien encounter in 1947. There was a lot of evidence of this history throughout the town, which is covered in all things alien. The street lights are alien heads; there are little plastic green men on every block; and even the McDonalds was shaped like a flying saucer.
But we did not visit Roswell just to make Cinthia feel at home. Rather, we went to this strange little town for its art. It is home to the Roswell Museum of Art, as well as the Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art—the latter of which we visited. It’s a wonderful museum.
Like every contemporary art museum we have ever been to, there was art we did not care for; art that we weren’t sure if we cared for, but that made us think; and art we really enjoyed. Luis Jimenez, the most famous of the artists in the collection, had works that fell into all three categories for us.
His work is interesting, and, in fact, the AMOCA has more Jimenez pieces on display than other museum in the country…
…but Jimenez can also be out there.
We also really liked the work of Donald Anderson, and we all had our favorites of his many pieces in the collection. In fact, it was Olivia’s favorite artist! Professor Yawn also really liked the work of Elmer Schooley;
Stephanie’s favorites were by Howard Cook; Cinthia’s favorite was Peter Zokosky’s “Skeleton in Landscape.”
There were fun pieces, too. One artist made sharks that hung from the ceiling, which would have been terrifying, but they were made from golf bags and, in one case, a vacuum cleaner. Jason Richel’s work gravitated toward stackable food objects, including smores and toast. Moreover, as LEAP Ambassadors, we also tried to kill two birds with one stone (or, as we were taught in a training once, to “feed two birds with one scone”) by not only enjoying the art, but also by working on our communication skills. This was done by sitting at a special table designed to foster teambuilding…
It was a fun visit, and one in which we blessedly didn’t encounter even a single alien, plastic or otherwise. We did, however, have the good fortune of meeting pleasant staff and learning about some new artists.
The Outdoors and (Some) Wildlife
Following our art excursion, we went full-on outdoors at the Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge.
We didn’t have a lot of time, but we wanted to try out some new (rented) camera equipment and see if we could spot some wildlife.
We were struck by the calm blue of the water, as well as the prime habitat for animals.
Birds were a bit scarce despite a landscape (wetlands) designed for birds, but we saw several hawks…
…sedges of sandhill cranes, flocks of red-wing blackbirds…
and the rare treat of seeing an owl—at pretty close range, at that!
Calling it a Night
We capped the evening with dinner in Ruidoso. The dinner was fine, but the real treat for these two Texas girls was seeing snow. Not the icy snow that occasionally sprinkles on Huntsville and causes havoc; nor the icy, slushy, and wet snow blown out for the Christmas Fair. This was real, recently fallen, snow! So, to commemorate this occasion, we flocked to the parking lot snow, which was dirtier and more icy than the snow on the ground, but which had the advantage of having already been piled up. Thus we were able to more quickly make the world’s most frightening snow man.
With this masterpiece under our belts, and with an early and cold morning in store for tomorrow, we called it a night.
Center for Law, Engagement, and Politics 