names in the news

NEW GAME WARDENS
>> Trey Sparkman, Andrew Banda and Bryan Newman were among 41 cadets graduating as the 55th Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Game Warden class.
Sparkman will report for duty to the Gaines and Andrews county areas and Banda and Newman to Presidio County.
Game wardens’ duties include responding to natural disasters and conducting public outreach on a variety of topics in addition to enforcing hunting and fishing laws and water safety regulations. This class of cadets is the second to be trained in the new Texas Game Warden Training Center in rural Hamilton County.
Located on a 220-acre tract donated by the Police Assistance League of Texas, the $20 million training center project has so far seen completion of an administration building, education hall-armory, dining hall and fitness center. The second phase will include a firing range, a water rescue facility, emergency vehicle operations course, refitting of instructor quarters and cadet cabins and helicopter landing pad.

SCHOLARSHIP
>> ALPINE Sul Ross State University student Melinda Valenzuela of Alpine received scholarship recognition from Delta Mu Delta, the international honor society for business administration.
Valenzuela was named a 2010 Delta Mu Delta Scholarship honorable mention recipient. The recognition includes a certificate and cash award.

CAMPER
>> Sam Canty of Odessa participated in the Texas Brigades summer leadership camps in June and July. He was among one hundred and 35 high school students that took part in this award-winning leadership development program.
The Texas Brigades’ mission is to empower high school youth with the necessary skills and knowledge in wildlife and fisheries, habitat conservation, land and water stewardship, team building, communication, and leadership to become ambassadors for conservation in order to ensure a sustained wildlife and fisheries legacy for future generations. There are five Brigade camps each summer; two Buckskin Brigades, two Bobwhite Brigades, and the Bass Brigade. Participants must be between 13 and 17 years of age and submit a complete application for consideration.
For more information, visit www.texasbrigades.org.

RESIGNATION
>> ALPINE Travis Hendryx, Sul Ross State University sports information specialist, has resigned to accept a teaching position in Kansas.
Hendryx, who began at Sul Ross in August 2004, was recently hired as an adult education instructor at Barton Community College, Great Bend, Kan. He will begin his new duties Aug. 17.
At Sul Ross, Hendryx maintained statistics for all the Lobo and Lady Lobo athletic teams, prepared game programs and media guides, wrote sports releases and feature stories of student-athletes and maintained the athletics websites.
An Alpine native, Hendryx graduated from Alpine High School in 1994 and from Sul Ross in 1998 with a B.A. in English. In 1998-99, he taught English and middle school reading and was a middle school football coach at Johnson, Kan. Prior to coming to Sul Ross, he was employed by KVLF/KALP Radio as a sales associate and reporter. Hendryx also spent several summers in Alaska doing mission work.
A nationwide search is underway for his replacement.
>> OALIFE@OAOA.COM

PROCLAMATION
>> W/PICThe Odessa Mayor Larry L. Melton proclaimed July 21-27 as Houston and Lisa Copeland Insurance Week at a city council meeting July 13 in honor of the 43 years the agency has served the Permian Basin.
Houston Copeland started his career as a pizza restaurateur; he then found his calling when he started selling insurance. The agency is the largest insurance agency in the Permian Basin with more than 7,000 customers currently enrolled and represents four of the most responsible, major insurance companies in the nation.
The agency also currently employs more than two-dozen employees at the Odessa and Midland offices.
For more information, call 366-8888 or 617-7066.

TEACH FOR AMERICA
>> Andrew Serrano, a 2006 graduate of Permian High School, participated in the Teach for America’s summer institute and has been selected to teach for the next two years under the Teach for America program in San Antonio.
To be accepted by Teach for America, applicants survived a lengthy process, with thousands cut at each step. That included an online application; a phone interview; presentation of a lesson plan; a personal interview; a written test; and a monitored group discussion with several other applicants.
As a college senior, Wendy Kopp proposed Teach For America’s creation in her Princeton University undergraduate thesis. She was convinced that many in her generation were searching for a way to assume a significant responsibility that would make a real difference in the world and that top college students would choose teaching over more lucrative opportunities if a prominent teacher corps existed. As a 21 year-old, Kopp raised $2.5 million of start-up funding, hired a skeleton staff, and launched a grass-roots recruitment campaign. During Teach For America’s first year in 1990, 500 men and women began teaching in six low-income communities across the country. Since then, Teach For America’s network has grown to more than 28,000 individuals.
Serrano is also a May honors graduate from Texas Tech University with a major in political science and minored in psychology. He is the son of Lou and JoAnn Serrano and brother to Lauren Serrano and Landry Serrano, all of Odessa.
For more information, visit http://www.teachforamerica.org/what-we-do/.

RETIREMENT
>> WPIC ALPINE Dale Christophersen, professor of political science, has retired from Sul Ross State University.
Christophersen stepped down as a full-time faculty member July 31, ending 42 years of service (he spent 1969-71 at the University of Missouri). He will remain on the faculty, teaching two classes during Fall semester under the Early Retirement Option II (50 percent time).
He was originally hired for a one-year appointment in the fall of 1965 when Barbara Hazelwood took a sabbatical to complete her Ph.D., “but nobody told me to leave,” he laughed.
Christophersen spent three years on the Sul Ross faculty, then enrolled in the University of Texas School of Law, having been granted a leave of absence. He left law school after one semester to marry Ann and returned to the University of Missouri (where he had received a M.A. in Political Science) to complete his doctoral studies. He returned to Sul Ross in 1971 as an assistant professor and chair of the Political Science department.
Through the next six years, he was instrumental in developing a Master of Public Administration program within the M.A. in Political Science, and completed his doctoral dissertation in 1977. He was promoted to associate professor in 1978 and to professor in 1985.
A native of Aberdeen, S.D., Christophersen received a B.A. in Political Science from Augustana College, Sioux Falls, S.D. in 1962. He received his M.A. from Missouri in 1965, and then was hired by Sul Ross.
“My first letter of appointment arrived by mail from Harlan Ford, then the acting President (following the death of Dr. Bryan Wildenthal). My salary was $6,300 as an instructor,” Christophersen said. “When I arrived at Sul Ross, I received another letter and my salary had been raised to $7,000, though I hadn’t hit a lick yet. The raises did not come as quickly after that, but it was quite a nice introduction to Sul Ross.”
Over the years, Christophersen has taught four of the six sub-disciplines of Political Science, as well as a law course in Criminal Justice, and Sociology and Philosophy classes.
“A small university like Sul Ross offers more diversity in your courses,” he said. “Sul Ross people have always been a comfortable fit for me and that has really made the job pleasant.”
In addition, he has served as the university’s pre-law adviser and seen at least 60 of his advisees complete their law degrees. “I have stayed in contact with numerous graduates and this has been very enjoyable for me; perhaps a vicarious connection to the other career I wasn’t destined to experience.”
Christophersen also served 20 years as director of Institutional Research and Effectiveness or Senior Research Associate, after Patricia Harveson, then Elbert Bassham assumed the directorship. He was elected the Brewster County Democratic Party chair in 1989, a position he has held ever since.
“This position has taught me a lot of things that are useful to know as a political scientist which one doesn’t learn from books,” he said. “Overall, the different positions I have held have enabled me to meet interestingly different groups of people with diverse perspectives.”
In addition to the university community, Chrisotphersen’s activities include many years of participation in Kiwanis, constantly evolving poker groups, civic involvement, pre-law adviser and institutional research conferences, public library, hospice and other boards.
He also spent two summers working as a seasonal ranger at the Fort Davis National Historic Site, where he met his future wife, Ann. They married in 1969 and have one daughter, Kirsten, who lives with her husband, Charles Moody, in Austin.
While Christophersen ponders full retirement, he will teach an introductory philosophy class and another in federal government in the fall.
“In a lot of ways, I’m still wondering what I’m going to be when I grow up,” he laughed. “My usual response over the past several years when asked when I was going to retire, has been ‘when it’s not fun anymore.’ Most of it is still fun, but still there comes a time to give up some of it.”

AIDE OF THE YEAR
>> W/MUGBIG SPRING Cherilyn Finn, a nine-year veteran of Big Spring State Hospital, has been named the hospital’s Psychiatric Nursing Aide of the Year.
Finn was one of 23 Psychiatric Nursing Aides considered for the award. Nominees are suggested by their peers and voted on by past award recipients and Nurse Managers.
“It’s a great honor,” Chief Nurse Executive Stormy Ward, MSN, RN.C, said. “We have so many great Psychiatric Nursing Aides and it’s tough to pick just one. It takes some long discussions to narrow it down.”
Psychiatric Nursing Aides provide all patient safety care and oversight under direction of the Registered Nurses. They spend the greatest amount of time with the hospital’s patients and comprise the largest segment of the hospital’s employee workforce. Nearly 240 psychiatric Nursing Aides are employed by Big Spring State Hospital.
Psychiatric Nursing Aides accompany patients to classes, supervise their daily activities on the unit and accompany them to doctor’s appointments and everyday tasks.
Many longtime hospital employees started their career in mental health as Psychiatric Nursing Aides, Big Spring State Hospital Superintendent Ed Moughon said.
“It was my first job 30-something years ago,” he said. “Most of us working here today started as Psychiatric Nursing Aides because we needed a job. And then we fell in love with the field of work and stayed in it.”
“If you look at the history of who has received this honor, it’s somebody who loves his or her job,” Moughon said.
Finn began her career nine years ago on the hospital’s adolescent unit, subsequently moving to the APS-Female unit where she has served as a Shift Team Leader for the past year. Her nominating form read that she is “compassionate, supportive and respectful to her co-workers as well as to her patients.”
“She is an excellent supervisor and role model and is extremely knowledgeable in all aspects of her supervisory role.”
“She never loses her composure or her sense of humor. She is a self-starter and is able to see the needs of the staff and addresses them in a timely manner. She is well aware of the fact that the staff must be rested and happy in order to maintain an environment which leads to the recovery and success of the patients.”
Finn is not only a dedicated employee, off-campus she demonstrates the same loyalty toward her family. Along with raising her son, Finn is the primary caregiver for her mother and nephew, Moughon said.
Big Spring State Hospital is a 200-bed hospital for people with mental illness in Howard County.
Cutline: Cherilyn Finn is presented with Big Spring State Hospital’s Psychiatric Nursing Aide of the Year Award by Big Spring State Hospital Superintendent Ed Moughon.