LEAP Center – Page 76 – Center for Law, Engagement, and Politics

Ice-Cream Social

The LEAP Center opened up the doors to all interested SHSU students in September, inviting them to come in, learn more about LEAP Activities, meet faculty, or to attend upcoming events.

Megan Chapa, Kaitlyn Tyra, and Constance Gabel–LEAP Ambassador Officers–did a great job setting up the Holcombe Room, with decorations

…giveaways…

…and ice-cream sundaes…

It didn’t take long for SHSU’s students to dig in.

One of the nicer aspects of the events was the presence of faculty members and staff., including Dr. Ashley Ross, Kristin Trojacek, and Kelly Brown…

…and Dr. John Domino with students Connor Manning and Austin Taylor.

Of course, the event was mostly for the students, and about 100 or so showed up.

Another nice aspect of the event was the presence of all the LEAP Ambassadors at the same time and same place. With only six Ambassadors, we have to split up to have as much coverage in the community as possible, so it was nice to see Karla…

…and Alex and Austin…

…assist Megan, Kaitlyn, and Constance. Interestingly, Constance’s family came up (it was family weekend), and a family pic ensued on the balcony of the Holcombe Room.

Thanks to all the students who came by–especially the freshmen, who are getting an early start on success! And make sure you enjoy our upcoming events:

A Last Day in Dallas

After a roller-coaster weekend at UNT Law, we had a half of a day left in Dallas before returning to SHSU. We decided to use it by having a little fun and enjoying good food.

We could have had both in Klyde Warren Park, one of Dallas’s newest success stories. Known as the “front lawn of the arts district: for its proximity to the arts district, the park provides an interesting 5-acre public space for families to enjoy a morning or afternoon. It also has a ring of food trucks, offering fare of every kind, making it a great place for a group as diverse as ours to go. But because we like to explore, we had our fun at Klyde Warren Park, before moving elsewhere for lunch.

There are large green spaces at Klyde Warren, with a .45-mile walking trail around it. Along the trail or mini-recreation areas: a kids’ park, a board-game station, a reading library station,

a putting green, a Foosball table, and an amphitheater. The amphitheater can be used for bands and such at night, but is used for yoga at 10am daily. The day we were there, almost 100 people were participating in the yoga relaxation/exercise techniques.

But our primary purpose was to throw the frisbee around, and we soon learned who could catch.

Austin, for example, can catch. In the picture above, notice the Jordanesque-shadow. Of course, he played college football until this year, so we expected him to be athletic.

As it turns out, though, Kaitlyn Tyra can also catch, and she may be a dark-horse for our Spring 2015 Charity Football game.

Professor Yawn is getting up there in age, but we let him play because he grades us.

We think Megan can catch, but we aren’t really sure. She had a strict rule to only move one step in any direction, which earned her the name “One-Step Chapa.” Here she is impersonating a stork.

But the day wasn’t particularly intense for any of us.

Notice the halo over Professor Yawn’s head.

Following some more fun, we had to call it a day at the park…

…and return to the hotel. As we preparing to check out, the hotel went dark. The electricity went out. The LEAP Center Ambassadors pride themselves on adaptability, but this was difficult for Constance Gabel, who was stuck in the hotel elevator. The fire department was called…

…and Constance was extricated from the hotel elevator.

Just in time for us to eat at Twisted Root, a restaurant that specializes in burgers and root beer. Their burgers are wonderful, and their root beer is interesting. The flavor of the day was “Irish Creme Root Beer,” which was better than the root beer from the last time we were there: Grape Root Beer. Of course, that was better than their “Coconut Root Beer.” Their regular root beer is excellent. And their burgers are great.

One of the interesting aspects of their restaurant is that, when you order, they provide you with a name from popular culture as your signal that your burger is ready. In our group, we had Eva Mendes (Kaitlyn), Serena Williams (Beatriz), Apollo Creed (Austin, of course), Matlock (Yawn), Mike Modano (Brian Aldaco), and others. It was interesting to see who knew which references, a process that led Austin to say, “Son, you need to watch more television” to one of the newer members.

With a general consensus that Twisted Root is a good place to lunch, we allowed Constance one more groupie for the weekend…

…and headed home.

But not for rest and relaxation! The week ahead involved our weekly meeting (Monday), a law-school application workshop (Wednesday), a Moot Court Practice (Thursday), a volunteer meeting (Thursday), the showing of Nosferatu (Thursday, whew), a Mock LSAT (Saturday), and a volunteer event (Saturday).

More to come!

Moot Court Scrimmage: Aftermath

After an intense 24 hour period competing and observing Moot Court proceedings, the LEAP Ambassadors, Moot Court participants, and members of the pre-law cohort decided to relax a bit, explore the history of Dallas on a Segway, and fill their bellies.

The relaxation involved some downtime at the hotel, followed by an ice-cream treat.

Shortly thereafter, another treat was in order. We stopped by Segway Nation for a tour of Dallas on a segway.

It was a beautiful time of day, what movie-makers call “magic hour,” and we made the most of it with pictures.

But, of course, with it turning a bit dark, Austin felt he need to serve as a protector of the group, and adopted a secret-service/tough guy look.

At first, not everyone felt totally relaxed…

…but eventually everyone got the hang of it, and we headed off to see Dallas.

The segway tour took us to Pioneer Plaza, a large outdoor sculpture that consists of 49 bronze steers and 3 riders created by sculptor Robert Sommers. Note that it appears that Alex is saluting when, in fact, that it is a longhorn projecting in front of her face.

The tour, led by excellent guides Doug and Jack, also took us by I. M. Pei’s Dallas City Hall, where we were able to turn and see the beautiful Dallas skyline which, according to our guides, is regularly listed as one of the five most beautiful in the US.

The tour also took us by the Kennedy assassination site on Elm Street. The students had a chance to get off the segways and walk to the “X” spots, which mark where the Oswald’s shots hit Kennedy.

We also entered the Kennedy Memorial, designed by Philip Johnson, one of the great architects of the 20th Century.

Speaking of Johnson, we were also able to go to Thanksgiving Square, a public space he designed in the 1970s as a means of racial and cultural healing. With a replication of Rockwell’s “Golden Rule” painting…

…and the “Ring of Thanks,” where visitors are encouraged to stand and offer thanks. From the center of the ring, the sound reverberates, symbolically echoing the many things for which we are thankful. In our group, thanks went to family, opportunities, school, and even the LEAP Center.

Thanksgiving Square also has a spiral chapel adorned with one of the largest stained glass assemblages in the world. The glass, designed by Gabriel Loire of France, is designed to become brighter as it ascends and moves to the center.

In the midst of such beauty, it was easy to be thankful.

And with that, we returned to the segway base, where we shed our helmets and headed to Hoffbrau Steaks (thanks for the recommendation, Doug!) and enjoyed a robust end-of-the-day dinner.

But before heading out we gave a few more thanks: to our LEAP Ambassadors, who came to Dallas to cheer on their Moot Court friends; to the Pre-Law cohort, who came to check out the action and consider joining the team for next year; for Kristyn, who decided to stick with the “team” rather than go home; and to our coach, Jean Loveall, who spent a lot of time teaching us the finer points of law.

Moot Court Scrimmage: Finals

For those sufficiently skillful and fortunate to be chosen for Saturday’s matches, it was a big day. The top sixteen teams squared off at 9:00am, followed by matches at 10:15am, 11:30am, and 1:00pm–with the last being the final.

The morning began much like a typical class day, with students pointedly not listening to Professor Yawn.

Brian Aldaco, however, maintained an interested audience.

All were interested in the early rounds and the ability to watch some of the teams that the SHSU students had competed against yesterday. In the “sweet sixteen” round, the variance in speaker ability was still somewhat high. All the competitors were average or better, but there were teams in which one of the two teammates was clearly superior. By the “final four,” all the speakers were considerably above average.

During a lull between contests, all but one of the students took a quick tour of UNT Law. After a somewhat formal beginning…

…much fun ensued…

The students spent a considerable amount of time in the library, with some genuine interest in the type of reading law students do, such as here…

…and here…

…while some of the fun and interest was a bit staged…

…the giveaway being the idea of two guys spending this much time reading.

The girls, meanwhile, didn’t even pretend to read.

Constance spent most of her time posing, such as here…

…and here…

Nor did the folderol stop when adults came back around. Kimi King, pre-law advisor from UNT (and a Ph.D. and JD and the prime mover of the tournament) joined in the fun, albeit a bit distractedly….

With time for just one more selfie…

…the students hurried off to lunch, so that they could get back in time to see the finals.

The finals consisted of a team from Howard Payne University (HPU, Team 20) against a team from UNT (team 40). The competitors (Alexis Rickmer and Kristen DeWilde from UNT; Isaac Sommers and Rebeca Puente from HPU) were excellent, with Sommers and Rickmer turning in particularly impressive final performances.

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Some 65 people watched the final round, a group that included interested observers, friends, former competitors (such as SHSU’s teams), and family. Even more impressive was the team of Judges, with former District Judge Royal Ferguson (currently Dean of UNT Law) as the Chief Justice. The final was held in the UNT Courtroom, a nice touch that added verisimilitude.

Alas, the finals were extraordinarily even, with our group leaning toward the UNT team as the winners. The judges thought otherwise, albeit by only a three-point margin! With that, HPU won the scrimmage championship.

Aftermath

Following the tournament, Dr. Kimi King gave the Tournament Director, Andrew Sommerman, an award in recognition of his efforts on behalf of TUMCA. Indeed, he is the founder of the American Undergraduate Moot Court Association.

The winners, too, were given awards for their excellent performances.

As were the runner ups.

And all the individual winners…

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And even the SHSU students, both the moot court competitors…

…and the LEAP Ambassadors and prospective competitors….

It was a long morning and afternoon, but immensely educational. With the real tournament in two weeks, at Texas Tech, it was especially good to get feedback from judges and compare yourself to the competition. The competition was impressive, but we’ve made much progress, have laid a foundation for future tournaments, and we still have hope for our upcoming tournament in Lubbock!

Postscript: Top Twenty Performers

Conor McElroy 379.56 (out of 400 possible points)
Eryn Mascai 374.54
Matt Sayre 374.33
Isaac Sommers 373.7
Kristina Smith 373.33
Taylor Ledford 371.27
Alexis Rickmers 371.1
Rachel Reon 370.3
Reagan Williams 370.2
Myles Chaney 369.9
Mindy Vo 369.2
Kirsten Koschnick 369
Kris Harrison 368.9
Ian Klein 368.78
Justin Adofina 368.41
Rebekah Mercer 368.2
Karina Laigo 366.44
Emily Stewart 366.3
Bimbola Omsile 365.56
Julieta Hernandez 364.67

Moot Court Scrimmage: Reinforcements Arrive

While SHSU’s Moot Court teams were winding up their day in Dallas, a new crew was setting out from SHSU to observe Saturday’s proceedings. The new crew consisted of LEAP Ambassadors and potential members of next year’s Moot Court team: Megan Chapa, Constance Gabel, Karla Rosales, Beatriz Martinez, Jamaus Williams, and Brian Aldaco.

Before arriving at the hotel, they stopped at Afrah’s, a Middle Eastern restaurant. Despite the fact that at least three of the students had never had Middle Eastern food before, they dug in with gusto, trying chicken schwarma, beef kabob, chicken kabob, lamb kabob, hummus, babaganooj, falafel, and tzatziki sauce.

After a long drive and good food, they settled in with the Moot Court teams, learned about the next day’s proceedings, and rested.

Moot Scrimmage: Day One Showdown!

It’s been an educational weekend for SHSU’s first-ever Moot Court team. Following a pleasant evening at the Art Department’s Gala (where the students spent some enjoyable time with Dan Phillips)…

…the Moot Court Team embarked on a late-night trip to Dallas, where the UNT Law School’s Moot Court scrimmage was scheduled. More than fifty teams competed, making this the largest scrimmage in the Texas Undergraduate Moot Court Association’s history.

The set-up for such a scrimmage is as follows:

Day One: There are three rounds of tournaments, which serve as qualifying rounds. Each team is scored in points, with the points determining which team wins and which team loses. The won-loss record then determines whether the teams compete on Saturday (teams need to win two of their three rounds, with a tie-breaker based on a complex system of schedule strength and points). The points are further used to determine individual awards.
- Points: Speakers are scored on four dimensions, each constituting up to 100 points. An award-winning speaker will likely accumulate 360 or more points (90+ average) over the four dimensions: knowledge, response, forensics, and demeanor
Day Two: Day two then follows in a playoff-style system, with winning teams proceeding to the next round. There are four such “playoff” rounds, moving from the “Sweet Sixteen” to the finals.

The logistics alone are a daunting enterprise. Registration, for example, ended at 11:30am on Friday, and only then could tournament directors begin the pairings and room scheduling processes. Between 11:30 and 2:00pm, a series of orientations (e.g., bailiffs, coaches, competitors) took place, while other tournament officials tried to finalize the schedule. It was an impressive display of organization!

We were a bit anxious, but we tried to enjoy ourselves….

…pairing off into teams during orientation…

…

Between orientations and a quick lunch, we grabbed what study time we could come by…

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…with help from our coach.

…but, ultimately, game-time arrived, and we began the tournament.

The Tournament

A typical contest includes an 18 minute argument from the petitioner (split between the two team members), followed by a 20 minutes argument from the respondent (again, split between the two-team members), followed by a two-minute rebuttal from the petitioner (the time for rebuttal can be modified up front, but two minutes is a typical time).

The tournament is run by a tournament director. This tournament’s director was Andrew Sommerman, who is the founder of the American Undergraduate Moot Court Association and a local Dallas attorney. Also helping run the show was Dr. Kimi King, who works tirelessly to help her students and to help keep the tournament moving on schedule.

Three judges oversee the competition, interjecting as they see fit. A “hot” panel interjects often; a cold panel interjects rarely. Some contestants enjoy the give and take; others do not. A good judge will pose questions designed to assess the competitors’ knowledge, strength of arguments, and ability to think on their feet. Some judges are better than others at directing such questions.

Following the contest, the competitors (and audience) leave the room, giving the judges time to complete their ballots and prepare remarks. Once the ballots have been completed, the judges ask the competitors to return and go over the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors. Good judges mix specific and general advice and do so constructively. Less helpful judges speak in vague generalities or offer idiosyncratic advice based on their personal/ideological reactions. Fortunately, few judges fell in the latter category, and even they can be helpful, because such judges exist on the bench in real life.

For our team, the rounds were immensely helpful. While they didn’t turn out well in terms of wins and losses, they did turn out very well in terms of gaining information and experience. For Kaitlyn Tyra, she said it was a good opportunity to “gain a realistic view of the competition in the state.” This, she continued, was particularly helpful for a first-year team such as SHSU, which hasn’t seen the competition before. For Austin Campbell, the trip was helpful because it helped build “synergy among most of the team’s members.” For Kristyn Couvillion, it allowed “observation of the state’s best speakers, and the skills they have, as well as the benefits of receiving specific feedback from judges.”

Photos are not encouraged in the tournaments (especially for those in smaller rooms, where they can be distracting), but we have a couple of action photos. One is of Kristyn…

…and one is of James Perry…

By the end of the evening, teams waited patiently to see which ones would make the cut, and perform on Saturday.

Sadly, this did not include SHSU teams. It was, however, a good end to the day, and the students were satisfied with their work.

For the winning teams, the day would start early the next day, with coin tosses at 8am. Most of the losing teams went home. SHSU’s moot court team, however, didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to see the winning teams in action another day, hear more of the questions that judges ask, and to learn more about the process. In that spirit, we went back to the hotel, to prepare for another day of Moot Court.

Art + Community = A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening

The Art Department sponsored a nice evening for friends and supporters of the arts, honoring alumni, former faculty, and local artist/builder Dan Phillips. With all the LEAP Center Ambassadors on hand, plus some of the “friends of the LEAP Center,” it was a great way to kick off the end of the week.

This was the Art Department’s second such gala and, again, chair Michael Henderson emceed the proceedings. He was gracious and thankful, and repeatedly thanked the sponsors and the many people who support the arts in the community.

Community, in fact, was the explicit theme of the evening. We were happy to note that of the 29 registrants for heART of Huntsville, 19 were attendees at the Gala!

The stars of the evening, however, were those being honored. Henderson invited Linda Pease to memorialize local artists who passed away in the last year…

…and the Department honored alums Kim Cook and Dan Pratt; Art Department Scholarship winners; local art supporter and POLS faculty Jim Carter, who passed away in 2013; and former faculty Emmette Jackson, Charles Pebworth, Gene Eastman, Jimmy Barker, and Stanley Lea. While the former faculty were not able to attend, Lea’s wife, Ruth, did attend.

Mayor Mac Woodward introduced the the major award of the evening…

…which went to Dan Phillips for his support of the arts in the local community. Phillips, of course, is a local builder, whose previous careers include work in Military Intelligence, the Dance Faculty at SHSU, and newspaper writer.

Phillips said very nice things about his wife, Marsha, who is a partner in the Phoenix Commotion enterprise and works as a part-time mentor at SHSU after a long career teaching at HISD. Fifteen years ago, the two embarked on a new career building homes “made from unwanted materials for low-income people.” They’ve now completed 24 projects, and their structures dot and enrich the community, adding character to a small, historic town, work that earned Phillips this well-deserved honor from the SHSU Art Department.

Postscript: Following the gala, seven of the LEAP attendees headed to Dallas for their first-ever Moot Court scrimmage, which will be described in future posts!

Art and Architecture in Huntsville

With the fourth week of heART of Huntsville came a focus on architecture with, of course, a healthy dose of art. After weeks focusing on campus art, outdoor sculptures, David Adickes, performing arts, and Richard Haas, the final week of the program focused on three homes in the Huntsville Cultural District: The “Bone Home,” the Kellogg-Pritchett House, and the Wynne Home.

Part of what made the final week special was that Anina Moore, the Director of Communications for the Texas Commission on the Arts, traveled to Huntsville to observe the program. This was her first real visit to Huntsville, and we hope she enjoyed it!

Her visit, and our final week, kicked off with a tour of Dan Phillips’ Bone Home. For many of the Ambassadors, it was our second visit to the home, but for Ambassador Kaitlyn Tyra, it was a first-time visit. Phillips began with an overview of his philosophy, his company (Phoenix Commotion), and his work.

His talk is always engaging, mixing construction realities, with political preferences (e.g., recycling, sustainability), and philosophy (aesthetics).

From there, the tour began. The students posed with Phillips in the kitchen…

…where observers can note the intriguing floor patterns, and the bone-top counters. They also got a good look at the bone-bedecked stairway…

…and the bottle-cap bedroom floors.

The back-door patio, which connects the home to the studio, is also worth noting. The wall is adorned with decorative bones…

…and guests can rest in the bone chairs and bone table-top…

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…and enter the studio through a door equipped with bone handles.

The studio was determined by Constance to be the perfect place for a selfie or a groupie:

…and she may have gotten every person in the photo! Mr. Phillips is in the front center, alongside Huntsville artist Lee Jamison, the owner of the Bone Home, George Boone, and the aforementioned Anina Moore.

Following the Bone Home tour, we made our way to the Kellogg-Pritchett House, where Mary Laura Gibbs offered a wonderful tour.

The foyer, Victorian parlor, and Gazebo room were the highlights, although the top-secret attic is always a treat. Adding to the pleasantness and education of the evening was the presence of Lee Jamison, who did much of the artwork in the “KP” house. In particular, he did Gazebo room, which is painted in mural fashion as though it were an actual gazebo, replete with sky-views, vine-covered lattice, and the obligatory animals (e.g., hummingbird) attracted to foliage. The artwork also gave participants a chance to search for these animals, including the Texas-themed butterfly, seven-legged spider (said, Lee Jamison: “I’m an artist not a mathematician!”), and red, white, and blue snake.

And Constance enjoyed the photographic possibilities of the parlor.

As SHSU students, it was also helpful to learn about “Professor Joe Pritchett,” who owned the home, and who was the Dean of Students for more than three decades. Interestingly, he rode his horse to school until the 1930s.

With a fond farewell, to the KP house and its four porches…

…we headed to the Wynne Home, where we enjoyed their community art exhibit and heard from Ms. Moore about the work of the Texas Commission on the Arts.

The food, prepared by Sharon Rose, and sponsored by the Friends of the Wynne, was wonderful! It contributed greatly to everyone’s cheerful time:

The heART of Huntsville program brought many wonderful people together, and it was an amazing opportunity to learn more about art, artistic venues, local artists, and the community in general.

The heART of Huntsville will be offered again next year in September and October.

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