NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Lufkin High School graduating senior Sierra Wills has been awarded a scholarship to study art at Stephen F. Austin State University.

NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Dr. Pauline Sampson, program coordinator for Stephen F. Austin State University's superintendent certification program, has been appointed to the Texas Association of School Administrators Higher Education Committee for the 2016-17 academic year.

Through its committees, TASA interacts with state and national education-related organizations. As a TASA Committee member, Sampson will help develop recommendations regarding areas of study, projects and programs to meet the current and diverse needs of higher education.

NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The 2016 SummerStage Festival at Stephen F. Austin State University is set to open Friday, June 24, with an afternoon performance of "A Year With Frog and Toad," a musical based on the children's stories written and illustrated by Arnold Lobel.

NACOGDOCHES, Texas - An upcoming project at Stephen F. Austin State University will not be visible to most campus visitors, but will be heard far and wide. With funding provided by the Charles and Lois Marie Bright Foundation, the university will restore and enhance the bell tower located atop the Griffith Fine Arts Building on campus.

Approved during a recent specially called meeting of the SFA Board of Regents, the project serves a dual purpose-historic preservation and university enhancement.

NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Fifty Texas high school students attended the third annual Pre-Law Academy hosted by the Stephen F. Austin State University Division of Multidisciplinary Programs on the SFA campus this month.

NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Crowds filled the south side of the Nacogdoches downtown square Monday night for an event organized by members of the Stephen F. Austin State University chapter of Psi Chi, an international psychology honor society, and Pride Nac, the LGBT organization at SFA, in remembrance of the 49 people killed in the recent shooting at an Orlando, Florida, nightclub.

NACOGDOCHES, Texas - John Calahan, coordinator for space utilization and scheduling at Stephen F. Austin State University, has been appointed to serve a three-year term on Ad Astra Information Systems Client Advisory Board.

Ad Astra, a Kansas-based company specializing in higher education software services, offers data-informed software solutions and professional services to help campus leaders effectively allocate space and faculty resources, forecast student demand for courses and accelerate student program completions.

NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Eugene Mitchell Weatherly, a 1970 graduate of Stephen F. Austin State University, was inducted into the U.S. Army Cadet Command Reserve Officer Training Hall of Fame, which recognizes overall excellence and accomplishment in leadership, this month in Fort Knox, Kentucky.

Weatherly, who retired in 2007 as the executive vice president of store operations for Pier 1 Imports, is one of only a handful of cadets to receive this honor. He is a Nacogdoches County native and current resident of Kerrville.

NACOGDOCHES, Texas - After opening their composition notebooks, several students dive into their imaginations as they begin to respond to the free-writing prompt, "Why or when is it important for your voice to be heard?"

In only its second year, Barrio Writers, a free weeklong summer writing program held at Stephen F. Austin State University, has doubled its attendance with 22 students ranging in age from 13 to 21 participating.

As the morning sun began to peek through the towering walls of vegetation lining Costa Rica's Tortuguero Canals, the air of Tortuguero National Park sprang to life with the reverberating calls of mantled howler monkeys. Deep, guttural and powerful enough to be heard up to three miles away, the calls are a key form of the species' communication. This particular morning, the daybreak interchange between members of the tree-dwelling group filled the ears of six Stephen F. Austin State University students, eliciting exclamations of awe and a myriad of photographs.