Convocations for Tyler Schools
Posted/updated on: August 24, 2015 at 2:22 am
TYLER — With the new school year starting on Monday, area schools held their convocations Friday. The University of Texas at Tyler kicked off the new academic year with a convocation Friday morning at the UT Tyler R. Don Cowan Fine and Performing Arts Center Vaughn Auditorium. President Mabry gave the state of the university address. Officials also introduced 49 new faculty members and presented academic and service awards.
Tyler Junior College welcomed back a pair of special visitors as it kicked off the school year. According to a news release, former TJC presidents Dr. Raymond Hawkins and Dr. Bill Crowe joined current TJC President Dr. Mike Metke in leading opening convocation activities in Wise Auditorium. Metke says the two guests’ impact “is still felt to this day,” according to the release. Hawkins served as TJC president from 1981 until 1994. Crowe was TJC president from 1994 until 2007. Metke has been president of TJC since 2007.
Following convocation, Hawkins, Crowe, and Metke met with media on the first floor of Jenkins Hall, in front of the statue of the late Dr. Harry Jenkins. Jenkins served as TJC president from 1946 to 1981. The Jenkins statue has a storied past, having been stolen from the TJC campus in April 1995 but later found in an apartment complex in Austin and returned to its rightful home at TJC in July 2013. Officials greeted well-wishers at a public reception Friday afternoon in the student lounge on the second floor of the Robert M. Rogers Nursing & Health Sciences Center, located at the corner of Fifth Street and Fleishel Avenue.
Tyler ISD’s annual district-wide convocation was held Friday morning at Green Acres Baptist Church. The guest speaker was the 2015 National Teacher of the Year, Shanna Peeples. She is the first Texas teacher since 1957 to receive the honor. A teacher at Palo Duro High School in Amarillo, Texas, Ms. Peeples spends half of her day as a high school English teacher and the other half mentoring, coaching and challenging her colleagues to grow in the teaching profession.
