- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

Holzer Awarded Honorific Title of University Professor at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

John Hill — Mon, 18 Jul 2022 13:05:26 +0000

Dr. Linda Holzer, a professor of music at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock since 1995, has been promoted to university professor, an honorific title for outstanding professors. Holzer is only the second ��Vlog��ý Little Rock professor who has received the title of university professor. She joins Dr. David Briscoe, university professor of sociology, who was the first ��Vlog��ý Little Rock faculty member to earn this honorific promotion in 2021. This is a special honor conferred only upon active faculty in recognition of an extended period of exemplary service in a spirit of collegiality to ��Vlog��ý Little Rock as well as a combination of service in their profession and to the public through their professional activities. “As I’m celebrating the end of my 28th year on faculty at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, I’m very moved to receive this honor,” Holzer said. “I feel fortunate to have a job where my focus is on musical meaning and creativity.” In order to achieve the distinction, faculty members must have been a full professor for 10 years and have gained wide recognition at the national or international level for their sustained excellence in service, teaching, research, or creative activity relevant to their respective disciplines and academic roles. Holzer has become well known for her advocacy on behalf of Arkansas composers Florence Price and William Grant Still. Price was the subject of Holzer’s dissertation at Florida State University. In 2018, Holzer’s work helped Price to be honored with the Music Teachers National Association Foundation Fellow Award. This year Holzer honored Price’s memory in a celebration at Mosaic Templars Cultural Center on April 9, which was declared Florence Price Day. She has also been a featured speaker on the Clinton School of Public Service Speaker Series in November 2019, lecturing about Price and Still in advance of historic concerts by the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. On stage, highlights from her concert performances include an October 2021 concert at the Clinton Presidential Library, performing Price’s Piano Quintet in A Minor with members of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra on the prestigious River Rhapsodies Series, and performing as a soloist abroad in Austria and Slovenia under the auspices of the State Department in May 2018, giving recitals of music by American women composers.

Dr. Linda Holzer attends the Arkansas Women’s Hall of Fame celebration in 2018.

While she specializes in piano performance, Holzer is grateful to have had the opportunity to teach a broad variety of classes over the years. One of her more unique classes is Exercises in Creative Thinking, an interdisciplinary learning experience for students from all majors. “We explore creative thinking skills and techniques that anyone can acquire to add more creativity, innovation, and resourcefulness to their life and work,” Holzer said. “I enjoy that course especially because many students may not self-identify as creative. This class is designed to awaken creative skills in anyone. By the end of the semester, it’s not unusual for students to have pleasantly surprised themselves by what they can do.” She has served the university in a variety of roles, including as team leader for Teaching with Technology in the former College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (AHSS), and most recently as secretary for the college assembly for the College of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences, and Education. Holzer’s next performance will be a Sept. 23 recital at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. This will include selections by Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov and Syrian American composer Kareem Roustom as well as the Arkansas premiere of Gwyneth Walker’s piece “Riddle Variation.”

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Public History Graduate Spotlight on Christy Hendricks

John Hill — Thu, 16 Dec 2021 14:45:43 +0000

A ��Vlog��ý Little Rock student is graduating this fall with a master’s degree in public history. Christy Hendricks, a native of Ward, Arkansas, will graduate Dec. 18. For her thesis, Hendricks made a comprehensive interpretation analysis of the Quapaw Native Americans and created fact sheets for the Arkansas Post National Memorial Visitors Center that would further the knowledge of Native American history in the area of Arkansas Post. The Quapaw were agricultural people who lived near the confluence of the Arkansas and Mississippi rivers. When the French arrived, they set up a trading post near a few Quapaw villages in the same area. The French and Quapaw had mutually beneficial alliances allowing the two cultures to coexist. “When I began my educational journey, I was a single mother with a young child,” Hendricks said. “I didn’t have to relocate to attend class. Luckily, I worked for people who supported me in my education and allowed me to have a flexible work schedule, which meant I was able to attend day classes, put in hours at work, and still be home with my child in the evenings.” The graduate student began her master’s program in 2019 and has enjoyed meeting people of various ages with similar interests as well as proving to herself that she can achieve her life goals. “As an older, non-traditional student, I had a lot of insecurities throughout my journey, but when I began the master’s program, I realized I’m not the only non-traditional student and that my goals were within reach,” said Hendricks. While pursuing her master’s degree, she worked two jobs. She spent 20 years as the creative director of The Leader newspaper and held graduate assistantships at the Clinton Presidential Library and the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program. Hendricks was particularly interested in research methods, as well as a general understanding of archeological and anthropological approaches, which helped her prepare for her job position. “Dr. Krista Lewis, Dr. Kristin Dutcher-Mann, and Dr. Andrew Beaupre all played a part in guiding me through my education – particularly in the past couple of years,” said Hendricks. “I really enjoyed all my classes and teachers throughout my journey.” Hendricks will begin her new career as an archeologist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service following graduation. On a normal day, she and her colleagues visit a project site to assess whether there are any cultural resources that may be impacted by the project and write reports. Hendricks intends to spend as much time as she can with her daughter, Teagan, who will graduate from high school in May. Teagan, like her mother, intends to continue her study and obtain a Ph.D. in the future.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Student is Coordinating Living History Program at National Museum of the Pacific War

John Hill — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 14:25:26 +0000

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock public history student has begun a new career running a living history program at the National Museum of the Pacific War, which provides the nation’s most comprehensive account of World War II in the Asiatic-Pacific theater. Aaron Shuman, a native of Graham, Washington, recently moved to Fredericksburg, Texas, to start his new job as the museum experience coordinator at the museum, which preserves and exhibits the material history of the war in the Pacific and Indo-China during World War II. “The public history program worked out really well for me,” Shuman said. “I have a graduate assistantship at the Clinton Presidential Library, and my supervisor introduced me to my summer internship at the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History. The skills I picked up at both of those locations were critical to getting this job.” The National Museum of the Pacific War’s Living History programs, housed in the Pacific Combat Zone, includes “Pride of the Pacific,” a live battlefield program, and “The Outposts,” an in-depth presentation featuring staff and volunteers in World War II uniforms or period clothing use artifacts and items from the museum’s collection. “Pride of the Pacific” is a live-action performance featuring landing crafts, explosives, and flamethrowers as members of the museum’s own Company K. “The Outposts” includes discussions on weapons of war, Navy fighter planes, and communications during World War II. “One of the museum’s buildings is the birthplace of Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, who led U.S. naval forces in the Pacific during World War II,” Shuman said. “The museum is a Smithsonian affiliate, and it’s comparable in size to the Clinton Presidential Library. The Pacific Combat Zone is very unique, and a lot of facilities don’t have a separate building for living history programs. You see tanks driving around and programs that use real flamethrowers. It’s not every day that you see these things that are 75+ years old and being used the way they were originally meant to be.” Shuman’s new position is giving him a real living history experience. Not only does he get to use machines and weaponry from World War II, he has been temporarily lodged at the Ruff Haus, a building that has over 100 years of history and was built by the town’s original German settlers. An Air Force veteran, Shuman started in ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s public history graduate program in January 2020, just one day after leaving military service. “I was in the Air Force, and I realized that I didn’t want to be an aircraft mechanic forever,” Shuman said. “As a kid, I played war board games with my dad and got very interested in the Second World War. I was stationed at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa and then I went to Little Rock Air Force Base. I looked for a public history program in Arkansas, and low and behold this very rare public history program was down the street.” Shuman will graduate in December and is writing his thesis on the ways that presidential funerals reflect the lives and values of American Presidents. As he nears the completion of his master’s degree, Shuman is still surprised by how much his life has changed since joining ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. “Two years ago, I was changing tires on a C-1301, and now I’m running a public history program at a national museum in Texas,” Shuman said. “It’s crazy how fast things have changed. If ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s program didn’t have all these work opportunities to fill my resume, I don’t think this opportunity would have happened. I went from a mechanic to an academic in less than two years. I didn’t expect to get it done this quickly.”

Cassandra Steele to be honored at 2017 Jazz & Juleps

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 12 Apr 2017 08:28:40 +0000

An educator devoted to improving the lives of special education students in Little Rock will be the guest of honor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock eighth annual Jazz & Juleps event. The Thursday, May 25, event, which celebrates Better Speech and Hearing Month, will be held at the Clinton Presidential Library in downtown Little Rock. Doors open at 6 p.m. There will be a silent auction and a live auction will begin at 7:30 p.m. Craig O’Neill of KTHV will serve as the special guest auctioneer. The honoree, Cassandra Steele, is the director of special programs for the, where she previously held the position of coordinator of speech and hearing services for 14 years. “It’s exciting to be honored, but I consider myself more of a behind-the-scenes person,” Steele said. “The things I have accomplished for children with hearing and speech-language disorders are very rewarding, but it’s not something for which I seek credit out front. I enjoy seeing the improvement in communicative skills and partnering with parents and individuals in the community to better lives for children with hearing and speech disorders.” In her role at Little Rock School District, Steele oversees nearly 60 speech pathologists and more than 200 special education teachers who work with the more than 2,700 students who receive special education lessons within the district. “My job is one of those jobs that touches the lives of so many different people from all backgrounds,” she said. “It just crosses all cultures, all socioeconomic backgrounds. Serving children and serving people with disabilities is one of those things that you just love.” Among her accomplishments is the formation of a parent advisory committee to help guide professional development for teachers and to serve as a resource for parents of children with disabilities. She also formed a partnership with educators from Japan to facilitate a learning environment for Japanese students with disabilities. In the higher education arena, she helped establish a partnership that started during the 2016-17 school year that allows 10 audiology and speech pathology graduate students from ��Vlog��ý Little Rock and University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences to earn practical experience and stipends by working with students in Little Rock School District. All proceeds from the event will be used to create an endowed scholarship fund in Steele’s name to assist future students in the Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology. Steele, who graduated from ��Vlog��ý Little Rock in 1988, was previously recognized as the 2014 ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Alumni of the Year for the College of Education and Health Professions for her outstanding service on the Audiology and Speech Pathology Development Council. She is the first graduate of the audiology and speech pathology department to be named the Jazz & Juleps honoree. Tickets are $50, of which $30 is tax deductible, and will be available at the door. Tickets also can be ordered online. Sponsorships are available. For more information or sponsorship opportunities, contact Kristi Smith, senior director of development for the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Office of Alumni and Development, at klsmith4@ualr.edu or 501.569.8739. More about Cassandra Steele: Steele graduated from the University of Central Arkansas in 1984. She next earned a master’s degree in audiology and speech pathology from ��Vlog��ý Little Rock in 1988. Steele is currently working toward the education specialist certificate in educational administration and supervision. Steele and her husband, former state Sen. Tracy Steele, live in North Little Rock and have two children. Their daughter, Sumone, is a sophomore at Tennessee State University and their son, Tracy, is an eighth-grader at North Little Rock Middle School. She belongs to multiple organizations whose missions encourage quality of life and leadership, including the local chapter of the American Heart Association, Greater Little Rock Chapter of Jack & Jill of America, the Council for Exceptional Children, and the American Speech-Language & Hearing Association.

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

Holzer Awarded Honorific Title of University Professor at ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

����Vlog��ý Little Rock Public History Graduate Spotlight on Christy Hendricks

����Vlog��ý Little Rock Student is Coordinating Living History Program at National Museum of the Pacific War

Cassandra Steele to be honored at 2017 Jazz & Juleps

- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

Holzer Awarded Honorific Title of University Professor at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Public History Graduate Spotlight on Christy Hendricks

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Student is Coordinating Living History Program at National Museum of the Pacific War