For the eighth consecutive year, the LEAP Center (and its forerunner, the Junior Fellows) partnered with the Huntsville Public Library to lead a spring Citizenship class to immigrants. The class is five weeks long, one night a week, and it covers the major material on the Naturalization Exam.
This year, we had more than 30 people sign up, but scheduling difficulties reduced the number of immigrants who actually attended. With a core of about 10-15 immigrants per night, the LEAP Center students and volunteers (thank you Terry Stivers, Roberta Plant, and Carol Hayes) worked with these immigrants to help them learn American history and government. We had a fun kick-off, with the Mayor and council members stopping by on the first night (on their way to the parade):
LEAP Center Students & Councilmembers
To become a citizen, an immigrant must meet certain legal requirements. They have to be in the country for a specific length of time (which varies by whether you are married to a US citizen), have generally followed the law, and not have any egregious moral failings.
The test itself includes an oral section, where immigrants read statements; a written section, where immigrants write down sentences read to them; an oral interview, in which immigrants are asked about their past and behaviors (“are you often drunk?“, “have you ever been a prostitute?”); and they must answer correctly at least six out of ten questions pertaining to American government and history.
These questions range from naming one of the two longest rivers in the US to knowing three cabinet posts to knowing the name of the national anthem.
We covered these major topics over the course of the first four weeks. Karla Rosales, who took a leadership role in the program by virtue of her internship with the Huntsville Public Library, led off the proceedings with a bit of instructions…
Karla Rosales Presents to Immigrants
Although most of the presentations were led by Professor Yawn, the students worked with small groups of immigrants throughout the program.
It was also nice to receive community support. On week four, for example, the Daughters of the American Revolution attended and provided American-themed gifts to the immigrants–flags, pocket constitutions, pencils, and other fun things.
Patsyann Reed on Behalf of DAR
This was a big hit, especially among some of the immigrants’ children:
On the final week of the immigration class, the immigrants and volunteers relive the first Thanksgiving, with all participants bringing dishes from their native country and joining in a celebratory feast. The food is great!
Thanksgiving Dinner
Another special feature of the final week is the presentation made by Audrey Biggar, a local immigration attorney. She graciously agrees to assist the immigrants and provide advice for navigating the process. (She is also President of the Walker County Bar Association, making her one of the more civic-minded of the local bar.) She also brings great Thai food to the dinner!
Audrey Biggar Presents
Finally, the immigrants receive a certificate of completion, a prelude, we hope, to citizenship.
Jorge and Karla
And with one final group photo, the class is over.
Fortunately, it wasn’t long before the students and immigrants got back together. The Huntsville City Council invited the immigrants to a City Council meeting to be recognized for their efforts.
For the immigrants and the students, it was their first-ever City Council meeting and, again, a big hit among the kids.
Over the past eight years, the LEAP Center has worked with about 150 immigrants from more than 20 countries. Approximately 40 have obtained their citizenship.
LEAP Students were eager to start our final day in Austin. After grabbing a quick breakfast at the hotel, we headed to the Capitol to meet up with the Austin Interns. For the interns and capitol staff, today was an exciting day because it marked the end of Texas’s 84th Legislative session. For LEAP Students, it was an exciting opportunity to see the Texas Legislature in action.
A Junior Fellow Alum and present Advance Aide for Governor Abbott, Blake Roach arranged a photo opportunity for the Sam Houston Interns and LEAP Students! It was such an exciting opportunity for us as we were invited to meet Governor Abbott.
As we entered the Governors Reception Room, many students were eager, with maybe a few jittery nerves as they admired the intricate detailing from the molding to the door hinges. Shortly after we arrived, Governor Abbott entered and asked about us our majors and goals and such, and then we took a photo:
Meeting Governor Abbott was the highlight of our weekend and made our trip unforgettable. Not only did Governor Abbott schedule time out of his busy day to take pictures with us, but he also was very personable and friendly. Many thanks to Governor Abbott for taking time out of his incredibly busy day and to Blake Roach for arranging this memorable meet and greet.
After meeting Governor Abbott, LEAP Students and the Austin Interns hurried over to the House Gallery to hear the resolution and recognition of the Sam Houston Interns by Representative John Otto. It was a memorable experience for the Austin Interns to be recognized for all their hard work during the session. For visiting LEAP students, the entire experience should provide much motivation to work hard and stay focused on the goal of interning during the next legislative session.
After watching all of the Austin Interns get recognized by Representative Otto, Sadie McLaughlin, one of the Interns, gave us a tour of Representative Otto’s Office.
While at Representative Otto’s office we met up with Melva Gomez who was a previous intern and is now serves as an administrative aid for Representative Otto. Melva shared her adventures as a staff member with all of us, while crediting the Austin Internship program and the Junior Fellows for all of her wonderful opportunities.
Invited by Alexis Gonzales, another Austin Intern from SHSU, to take a tour of Armando Martinez’s office, we left Representative Otto’s office on a mission. In Representative Martinez’s office, Scott Jenkines, the chief of staff for Armando Martinez, kindly greeted us. We were able to sit down with Mr. Jenkines while he answered any questions that we had and gave us insight about what occurs during the 140 days in session.
Jenkines also showed us his black Lucchese cowboy boots that were stitched with the House of Representatives logo, which I thought were pretty cool. Alexis was also there to give us information about her life as an Intern at the Capitol. She told us about her extremely rare experience of walking on the House floor without begin stopped and let us know that anyone wanting to be a future Austin Intern must be able to work with a flexible schedule. The tours of the offices allowed us to learn more about what happens in the capitol and gain great insight into the experiences of the current Austin Interns.
We left the Capitol overwhelmed by the awesome opportunities awaiting us in our future endeavors, although that did not stop us and our grumbling bellies in search for lunch. We made a quick stop at Whole Foods Market to eat, after windy through the huge amount of Austonians aiming to satisfy their hunger as well. Satisfied, we got back in the car and made our way home, whilst discussing the weekend and everything we had learned. Not many college students can say they understand the running of a campaign or have met the governor, but we can attest to both. Safely in Huntsville once again, we left each other ready for some good sleep and hopefully the next adventure LEAP throws at us.
LEAP students woke up to nerves this morning, looking ahead to a day of preparation and presentations. After roughly forty-eight hours of learning the ins and outs of campaign management, fundraising, budgeting, and direct voter contact, we finally had the chance to present our path to victory for our fictional candidates to an esteemed panel of expert judges, most of who had been lecturing us this weekend on the same topics.
We worked for the beginning hours of the day to practice and make finishing touches to our presentations, with jitters pervading most group sessions.
In the early morning, we made some last-minute revisions to our projects, working in groups or, occasionally, alone.
By 10:30 we had to turn in our finished products and hope that everything would go well. After getting a group picture with the whole Campaign Bootcamp group, we split up into three different groups of three different rotations: presenting, a session on getting your foot in the door in the workplace, and a workshop over civic reflection and engagement in young people.
After the group photos, all of the groups were separated into three rooms, one of which was meant for civic reflection. Deborah Wise, the director of educational outreach for the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life was there to guide the session and explained to us that civic engagement is how the community gets involved with politics.
Once in the room she separated us randomly into three different groups where we discussed the lack of civic engagement as well as solutions for it. The topics revolved around the age gap in voters, why people don’t go out to vote and the impact of the media. Once we had enough time to discuss the issues and possible solutions, all of the groups sat together as a whole and we went into a deep brain storming session. Everyone had their own opinions for targeting younger people to get involved in politics but the main ones were to target education, parents, and how politics are viewed. I shared my opinion about the lack of education over local politics in high schools and giving politics a “young face”. Others shared their opinions of targeting the parents and educating them in politics. Deborah Wise then separated us into groups of 2-3 to discuss plans to boost civic engagement for younger people in communities. Once we had time to discuss our plans in the small groups we went back to our whole group and discussed them with everyone. The group as a whole agreed that the reasons that young people do not participate in politics is because they believe their vote doesn’t matter, they are undereducated in regard to local government and they believe it is an old mans game and its out of their reach. Solutions for this were showing younger people that they CAN vote by setting an example and being civically engaged ourselves, local government having a bigger part in high school other than just federal government and targeting issues in politics that affect the 18-29 year olds.
The Civic Reflections section was a great session that provided a more hands-on learning environment that we really enjoyed. Everyone was vocal and loved sharing and hearing different opinion. It showed us that people could really come together to solve an issue.
Heading to the conference room to present between the two different sessions, each group was given just eight minutes for their presentation and an additional seven minutes to answer questions from the judges.
As a student, the presentation was intimidating because groups were given relatively little time to prepare and practice. Although daunting, presenting to our judges proved to be a useful learning tool and a valuable public speaking experience.
In addition, each group had the opportunity to observe various other groups present and learn from what they did well and ways they could improve. Stressed the whole weekend, the hard part did not end once the presentation was over, but instead the Q & A proved to be almost more strenuous, as the judges asked questions and probed for questions that could have been left out during the presentation. The group presentations may have been stressful, however; it was arguably the best hands on learning experience and preparation for a career within political campaigns.
Continuing with rotations we moved on to a presentation by Maegan Stephens, a communications lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin. We learned about the major steps for getting our feet in the door in political campaigns. We started with an interesting and fun activity of searching for the person sitting next to us on the internet and finding anything that could affect their possibility of getting hired. It was a fun way to learn about tactics professionals use to search job candidates and tips for us to remember when posting on social media. Next, we signed up for a LinkedIn account. Our trainer gave us tips for developing our account such as customizing our URL, and developing a strategic headline and summary. She also gave us great tips for building our endorsements and recommendations on our profile. After developing our LinkedIn accounts we moved on to interview tips. We learned that Interviews would be a very important part of an employer’s decision. We learned great ways to answer commonly asked questions in a strategic way and ideas about our goals to have clear in our mind before an interview. Clear goals will help us build a story and may brand our name. Interview delivery tips are also of great importance. We should be able to deliver effectively even if we might be nervous during an interview. Lastly, we discussed networking and the importance of making connections in political careers. Sometimes networking may be hard, but we learned excellent tips on how to approach it and overcome challenges. Networking should be the next step for getting our foot in the door.
After our rotations and regrouping in the main conference room, we were able to give some feedback as a large group about what was good and what could improve for next year. Following the opinion piece, we finally received the judge’s decisions on the different categorical winners for the campaign plans and also the overall winner. Representing Sam Houston State University, Constance Gabel and her group Democratic Team 4 won the “Get Out the Vote”/voter contact category over the other teams efforts in the same area. Needless to say after much networking techniques, knowledge, and tools for campaigning presented to us, we left the New Politics Forum Campaign Bootcamp completely different students.
We did some brief site-seeing around campus…
…and then headed back to the hotel.
At this point, Jazmin Perez and Mitchell Sanchez had to leave, going back to Huntsville to begin work the next day. The rest of us, however, stayed on in Austin for another day to watch the House and Senate in their final day of the session.
To finish the day, we ate dinner at The Clay Pit, a wonderful Indian restaurant in the heart of Austin’s downtown. Most of us not ever having tried Indian, it was such a blessing to have a waitress that clearly walked us through the menu and gave suggestions that turned out to be delicious. We tried many different kinds of dishes including Naan, a pita bread type of dish, a seafood grill, Tikki Masala, a red sauce, Khuroos-E-Tursh, a chicken dish stuffed with cheese and spinach in a sweet, almond sauce, and Lamb Roganjosh, a lamb dish in an onion sauce that might have been the table favorite. We finished with a dessert of Chai Spice Crème Bru Lee, rice pudding, and vanilla pudding with a side of grated carrot pudding. Stuffed, we left the restaurant to take a late night stroll through some of the older parts of UT’s campus.
Selfies at Night
We spotted some art and some strategically placed greenery, but the evening and the whole weekend culminated standing between the UT Tower and the Capitol, feeling the immensity of the city and our civic purpose as college students in a time full of political apathy. We also ended the weekend a much closer group, better prepared to tackle future challenges and opportunities.
We ended the evening exhausted and drove back to the hotel ready to tackle the last day of our weekend trip.
Glazer, Marchant, and LEAP Students
LEAP Center Students would like to thank Emily Einsohn, Drew Galloway, Luke Marchant, and Matt Glazer for leading such a great program!
Upon arrival this morning, boot campers were greeted with warm breakfast tacos, fruit, homemade granola, yogurt, and coffee to start the second day of NPF’s Campaign Bootcamp. It was a great start to a fourteen-hour day, filled with learning about all manner of campaign topics.
Chris Perkins & Polling
The first presentation of the day was centered on polling and how to use it to your advantage within a campaign. The speaker, Chris Perkins, partner at Wilson Perkins Allen Opinion Research and an expert on quantitative and qualitative analysis, presented helpful guidelines to think about when managing a real campaign.
One of his main points throughout the presentation was the importance of targeting: “targeting the right persuadable voters is key to victory, especially if you cannot afford to reach out to everyone.” His close created a seamless intro for the next session, how to craft a campaign message.
Rindy Miller Media, Crafting a Message
That presentation, crafting a campaign message for earned and paid media, was led by veteran media consultant Cynthia Miller, with her spouse Dean Rindy, also a media consultant.
They gave us strategies for effective message delivery and great ways to build a campaign message. We learned the four key rules:
visualize the message,
tell the story,
use emotion,
and keep it short.
We were also reminded “it’s not what you say, but who you are.” A great way to promote a successful message is by frequency and repetition because it takes the human brain five or more repetitions before it recognizes an important message. After ten repetitions, the human brain has absorbed the message, which is especially applicable for voter contact via mail. All these great tips and strategies will be very useful when strategizing for our campaign presentations tomorrow afternoon.
Vincent Harris & Social Media
We were then introduced to “The Man Who Invented the Republican Internet,” Vincent Harris. His presentation was filled to the brim with energy and strong delivery.
Harris, CEO of Harris Media, discussed the power of the digital media and the leverage this medium can bring to a party. Facebook, a large part of the digital media, plays a vital role, as do other smaller social media outlets. Currently working on Rand Paul’s bid for President, Harris believes digital media will be one of the deciding factors of the election. The direction and the ever-changing political climate have indicated that the Internet along with digital media will become king in political campaigns. The capabilities with rapid response will make it especially crucial in the end game parts of elections. Sticking to one or two messages makes getting the word out simple and effective, and it worked for us–as we remained engaged in the midst of a long Saturday.
Of course, crafting the message is part of the battle—implementing that message is another part.
“The great thing about the NPF, is that you learn so much, from so many people, in such a short time.”–Constance Gabel, LEAP Center VP
Matthew Brownfield, Colleen Loper, and Voter Targeting
This session focused on teaching us the essentials of targeting, voter contact and voter files, and how to get the most from knocking on doors. Essential information resources for the campaign manager, according to Brownfield and Loper, include the district’s electoral history district census data, and on-the-ground reports. Each mentor then went into specific tools that their party utilizes to narrow their voter targets as quickly and accurately as possible. Loper spoke about the main Democratic tools, which include the Voter Association Network (VAN), DCCC, DND, TDP, Blue Labs and the Analyst’s Institute for research. Brownfield admitted that the Republicans are lacking in this field by only having the GOP data center, but he still gave general research methods such as the state party databases, county party databases and voter files.
The two presenters then explained how important door-to-door campaigning is and how it is much more effective when trying to get out the vote (GOTV), but can be much more time consuming than phone calls. We learned that “knocking on doors” drives turnout and can be an effective method when trying to target moderate voters. Knocking on doors also insulates the campaigns from any change in opinion that the targeted voter might have had. Brownfield also mentioned that block walks during door-to-door campaigning can provide intelligence on the electoral situation of the opposing campaign. The two presenters agreed that the most appealing aspect of door-to-door campaigning is all of the positive media attention that can be earned. We learned that a good strategy when knocking on doors for a campaign is to have the candidate himself or herself knocking on doors as well. The presenters ended by mentioning that the candidate should always show that they are willing to put in work even in the smallest aspects of the campaign and that they can change a targeted voter’s mind easily, especially face-to-face.
Maegan Stephens and Communication
Finishing up the day of informative sessions, the energetic communication specialist, Maegan Stephens, focused on political pitches and presentations.
She began by engaging the students in a quick icebreaker, allowing them to move around and tune in.
Throughout this session, Ms. Stephens covered the content, delivery, slide deck, and questions and answers section of a successful presentation as well as the tools to create a political pitch. More specifically, she discussed the three parts of the content: the introduction, strategy, and the conclusion. She also emphasized the importance of delivering a presentation, being conscious of the presenter’s non-verbal and vocal communication. With her help we gained knowledge and confidence beneficial to our upcoming presentations.
Luke Marchant, Matt Glazer, Drew Gallaway, Coda
Luke Merchant and Matt Glazer, boot camp mentors, wrapped up the day with last-minute details and Q&A regarding the project and presentation…
…followed by a brief overview of tomorrow’s agenda by Drew Galloway who, prior to working for the Annette Strauss Institute, worked for the White House.
While listening and learning occupied students through most of the day, the evening hours were spent creating mock campaigns…
…from real data and hypothetical candidates from House District 117 in San Antonio.
Mitchell Sanchez and Luke Marchant
We once again practiced the “working dinner” concept and vigorously tried to get as much as possible done in our teams, with the help of our mentors, Mr. Merchant, Mr. Glazer, Ms. Holden, and Ms. Moore.
Balancing different topics such as budgeting and polling, LEAP Center students tried to recall as much as possible from the previous sessions to create campaigns that would make the mentors proud.
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Finally, with work still left to do, we left the campus for the hotel around 10:00pm, for an evening of blogging, research, and presentation practice. Hopefully, some sleep will follow this evening while we look forward to a packed day of presentations tomorrow.
By Kaitlyn Tyra–Ready for an evening in Houston, LEAP students departed from Huntsville eager to attend a World Affairs Council Meeting to learn more about how to achieve moral character. Upon arriving at the Junior League in Houston, LEAP students, many of whom were visiting a World Affairs Council event for the first time, were amazed at how large the event was. In a sense, it was a double blessing, because not only did we hear Brooks’s words of wisdom, but we also had the chance to see how the professional staff at WAC run such large events.
David Brooks, a New York Times columnist, bestselling author, regular analyst on National Public Radio, PBS News Hour, and a professor at Yale University, discussed the content of his latest book, The Road to Character. Brooks began by distinguishing between the two sides of every person, the internal and external. Citing Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, he distinguished between Adam 1 and Adam 2. Adam 1 is the career oriented Adam, while Adam 2 is the internal Adam who seeks strong moral character. The Road to Character is about Adam 2.
Brooks hearkened back to the WWII generation, which spoke often of “chivalry,” “honor,” “gratitude,” and “country,” while the younger generations today tend to think more along the lines of “me.” Citing one example, he referred to a survey taken in 1950 asking high-school seniors if they considered themselves to be a “very important person.” Twelve percent said yes. When the survey was replicated in 2005, 80 percent of the high-school seniors answered in the affirmative.
Rather than chastise groups of people, however, Brooks’s primary goal was to discuss the lives of leaders he admires: Dwight Eisenhower, Dorothy Day, George Marshall, and Frances Perkins. He explained how the lives of these great leaders inspired the writing of his book and how their struggles led to their success and the acquisition of greater character. They groped, through failure and hardship, on the road to moral character.
Brooks ended his speech by answering questions from the audience and signing books.
LEAP students were fortunate enough to have our books signed and take a group picture with David Brooks. Many thanks to Ms. Killidar, Ms. Situm, Ms. Baskota, and the entire staff of the World Affairs Council for hosting such a wonderful event…
…and allowing LEAP students to take advantage of an opportunity to learn and better ourselves.
Following the event, LEAP students enjoyed a delicious meal at Jerry Built Homegrown Burgers. A juicy burger and crispy french fries were the perfect ending to a great evening, not to mention we had the chance to experiment with automated hand-washers. Amazing what you learn on LEAP Center trips.
As we departed back to Huntsville, LEAP students reflected upon our road and what more we can do to become better leaders for LEAP, Sam Houston State University, and our local communities.
During the 82nd Texas legislative session, Senate Bill 1611, also known as the Michael Morton Act, passed with a unanimous vote in both the Texas House and Senate. The SB 1611 requires the state prosecution to offer defense attorneys any evidence that is relevant to their case. In 1987, Michael Morton was wrongly convicted of murdering his wife. It took 25 years, but Morton was exonerated in 2011 after DNA evidence proved his innocence. With the help of the Political Science Department, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department and the College of Criminal Justice, and the Student Legal & Mediation Services, The LEAP Center brought Michael Morton to SHSU to talk about his experience of wrongful conviction and his life imprisonment for nearly 25 years.
LEAP Center students were privileged to meet with Morton’s prior to his general speech.
It was a great chance to ask questions and get some insight into his nightmare. In this small group discussion, Morton stressed the importance of his faith and how everyone experiences difficult trials throughout their life. One of Morton’s main points conveyed to students that we are stronger than we think we are and that we will come out of the hard times. Looking back, we will realize we needed trial to shape who we are supposed become.
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Morton’s humility and gratitude for (almost) everyone who has been a part of his journey is inspiring. Students were thankful for the opportunity to converse with Michael Morton on a variety of topics relevant to both Michael Morton’s experiences and students’ lives. Ending the student small group session, Morton signed copies of his book, Getting Life, for those in attendance.
More than 300 students and community members then attended Morton’s presentation, making this the largest event LEAP has hosted thus far this year.
Especially interesting to Huntsville residents, Morton spent more than 11 years at the Wynne Unit where he received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Sam Houston. Indeed, Morton was taught by Jerry Bruce, whom he had a chance to visit with prior to his presentation.
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Morton also got to meet Walter Bennett, Jr., whose father did more than anyone else in the past 35 years to ensure inmates had access to University education. Dr. Bennett also taught Morton in the 1990s.
Later, Morton transferred to the Ramsey Unit in Houston where he earned his master’s degree in English from the University of Houston.
Morton’s story of tragedy is unimaginable and heartbreaking. Morton was imprisoned for nearly 25 years before DNA testing provided by the Innocence Project proved his innocence. One of the most surprising parts of Morton’s story is his forgiveness towards the prosecution who withheld evidence that would have originally proved Morton’s innocence. Overall, Michael Morton’s story is incredible, heart breaking, unimaginable, and inspiring.
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Following the presentation, Morton signed books. Approximately 65 people bought books, making this the largest book sale Barnes and Noble has had in four years.
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After the lengthy book signing, the LEAP Center had a reception in the Holcombe Room, where lawyers and LEAP Center Advisory students, and others congregated and snacked…
…and discussed law…
…the world…
and, of course, took more photographs!
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The LEAP Center is thankful to the College of Criminal Justice, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Political Science Department, the Student Legal & Mediation Services, and most importantly Michael Morton for sharing his story with the community. We are saddened that such a tragedy occurred, thankful for the opportunity to learn from Mr. Morton, and hopeful that because of Michael Morton’s hard work and SB 1611 the unthinkable will never happen to another in Texas.
The LEAP Center would also like to thank Paul Olle and Ashley Norwood for the great photographs they took!
To learn more about Michael Morton’s story, “An Unreal Dream: The Michael Morton Story” is available on Netflix and his book Getting Life is available through Barnes and Noble Bookstore.
Imagine overlooking the South Lawn of the White House—the Washington Monument in the distance, honking cars passing on 17th Street. It’s a beautiful day in the Nation’s capitol, made even more magnificent because you are standing on the Truman Balcony of the White House with the President of the United States. This was the life of Alberto Gonzales, who served as White House Counsel and US Attorney General during the Bush Administration. Thanks to Lt. Colonel Yebra at SHSU, General Gonzales made a visit to our University, where LEAP Center and a smattering of other students engaged in an hour and a half discussing with the former Counselor to the President.
Born in Humble, Texas, Al Gonzales truly came from humble beginnings. His success, he says, comes from his parents and the attitudes they instilled, despite a lack of material comforts. In fact, he didn’t even have indoor plumbing as a child. As an adult, however, he excelled academically and occupationally. He graduated from Rice with his Bachelor’s Degree; he later graduated from Harvard Law. These accomplishments laid the foundation for becoming the first Hispanic male to make partner at Vinson & Elkins and the first Hispanic US Attorney General.
When asked about life’s turning points, Gonzales couldn’t pinpoint a single event. Instead, he noted that taking opportunities as they come along is a key to success. Nor, he said, did he seek out mentors. In his case, a mentor—George W. Bush—found him, another opportunity that he was quick to take.
Alberto Gonzales with Bush and O’Connor
General Gonzales spent little time discussing the controversies surrounding his White House years, but he did describe the job as perhaps the most difficult in the cabinet. While this took a toll on his family, he remains grateful for his time in the White House, and positive about his life in general.
For students, most of whom weren’t paying attention to politics during the Bush years, it was a positive, career-affirming discussion. LEAP Center member Austin Campbell introduced the former Attorney General, and students asked approximately 20 questions, with Gonzales answering them all patiently and even cheerfully, repeating his refrain to stay positive and take opportunities.
Speaking of which, we are very grateful to Colonel Yebra for this opportunity, and we plan to implement General Gonzales’s advice!
The Center for Law, Engagement, And Politics has hosted the 10th Court of Appeals for five straight years, and the Court’s latest visit offered an especially interesting set of cases.
The first case, Brett Shane Arnold V., The State of Texas, the Fourth amendment and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Code. Appellant Brett Shane Arnold and three other men had been canoeing and kayaking on the Navasota River when Game Warden, Leanne Winkenwerder, inspected their vehicle to determine if they had life jackets or had been illegally fishing or hunting. She found no evidence of that, but she did find marijuana, which was sufficient to convict him of drug possession in a trial court. Arnold’s appeal sought to suppress the marijuana, which he argued was found during an illegal search.
The 11:00am hearing was even more interesting, involving a wrongful death suit. In that case, Thomas Sinclair, owner of the Wispers “Gentleman’s Club” in Corsicana, Texas was appealing a civil trial that found him largely responsible for a patron’s death. The dispute stemmed from the patron’s dissatisfaction with a lap dance, which led to a complaint, an escalating argument, and then a whipping (with an actual whip) by the club’s owner.
The appeals hearings are a bit different when held at SHSU. The court allows the attorneys to turn to the audience (mostly students, but faculty, staff, and locals, too) and spend three minutes discussing the facts of the case. This is an unusual opportunity, allowing us to understand the legal arguments better. With an audience of 302 students, locals, and faculty and staff on hand throughout the day, it was quite an experience.
The Chief Justice also introduces each case with a brief lesson on the proceedings, how to find the decisions (http://www.txcourts.gov//10thcoa.aspx), and even an explanation for the seating arrangements for the justices.
The biggest treat for the LEAP Center students was the lunch with the justices and their staff. I was able to speak extensively with Chief Gray, while Austin had the chance to discuss his future with Justice Davis, and Karla, Megan, and Kaitlyn had the chance to speak to Justice Scoggins. I learned that Chief Justice Gray didn’t set out to be a judge, or even a lawyer. He obtained his BA at SHSU, and his MBA at A&M, before going to law school. He told me that the best quality he has in regard to judging is being able to see and argue both sides of any argument, which was a useful skill for him while working at Fulbright & Jaworski, before becoming a judge.
Finishing up lunch, the judges proceeded back into the courtroom to continue the rest of the afternoon’s cases. The cases ranged from the alleged sexual misconduct of an A&M student to jurisdiction issues regarding lumber companies in two different states.
After the last case of the afternoon, the three judges took photos with some of the LEAP center students and Chief Justice Gray humbly gave a statement to Hannah Zedaker from the Houstonian. All in all, the court proved to be just as informative and exciting as previous goers told us they would be, and left LEAP Center students feeling excited about the prospect of fighting their own cases in the same courtroom.
The LEAP Center brings the 10th Court of Appeals to SHSU annually. The 10th Court is scheduled next year for April 5, 2016. During the fall of 2016, the TX Supreme Court will hear cases at SHSU.
It was also nice to receive community support. On week four, for example, the Daughters of the American Revolution attended and provided American-themed gifts to the immigrants–flags, pocket constitutions, pencils, and other fun things.
On the final week of the immigration class, the immigrants and volunteers relive the first Thanksgiving, with all participants bringing dishes from their native country and joining in a celebratory feast. The food is great!
Fortunately, it wasn’t long before the students and immigrants got back together. The Huntsville City Council invited the immigrants to a City Council meeting to be recognized for their efforts.
For the immigrants and the students, it was their first-ever City Council meeting and, again, a big hit among the kids.
Center for Law, Engagement, and Politics 