NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Music streams inside the Culinary Café kitchen at Stephen F. Austin State University as seniors Anna Smith and Amanda Powers prepare a dish for a local event. Peeling pears, they read over the recipe, planning out the cooking time, temperature and method for creating the dish. On the stove, a rosemary-red-wine-muscadine sauce simmers. After a taste test proves the sauce is the right consistency, Smith and Powers soak the pears in the sauce for flavoring.

Dr. Vicki Thomas, assistant professor of elementary education at SFA, explained this two-day national conference serves as a forum for presentations and engagement of ideas in qualitative research.

NACOGDOCHES, Texas - This year's Schmidbauer Young Artist Competition winner Ethan Le will be among the guest artists who perform when the Orchestra of the Pines presents "Vim and Virtuosity" at 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 7, in Cole Concert Hall on the campus of Stephen F. Austin State University.

"The evening is a potpourri of music selections - a melting pot of variable delights," said Dr. Gene H. Moon, director of orchestras at SFA. "We have two guest artists joining us, both of whom are full of vim and virtuosity."

NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Stephen F. Austin State University is set to host the sixth biennial Lone Star Legislative Summit March 2-3, which will bring more than 20 state lawmakers to SFA's campus to discuss pressing and relevant statewide issues.

NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House will host an artist's talk and musical performance starting at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 6, in conjunction with the exhibition "East Texas Impressions: The Art of Charles D. Jones," which is currently showing at the downtown gallery.

The comprehensive catalogue of this exhibition will be available for purchase, and Jones will be available to sign following the 2 p.m. artist talk.

In the expansive swath of pine forest that spans from the Angelina National Forest to the Davy Crockett National Forest, Stephen F. Austin State University graduate student Joshua Harris stands at attention with binoculars in hand. Harris, pursuing a Master of Science in forestry at SFA's Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture, is scanning the landscape for visual and auditory indications of birds to estimate the abundance, occupancy and richness of avian species.

Trevor Smith, a Stephen F. Austin State University alumnus and benefits implementation manager at Aon Hewitt - a leading global provider of risk management, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, and human resources solutions and outsourcing services - recently visited SFA to meet with human resource management classes within the Nelson Rusche College of Business.

The $1.4 million Starr Avenue construction project is continuing, but the expected completion date has been reset for mid to late April, according to a press release issued by the Texas Department of Transportation.

NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The Stephen F. Austin State University School of Art and the Friends of the Visual Arts will present a free, one-night screening of "The Salt of the Earth" at 7 p.m. Friday, March 4, in The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House in downtown Nacogdoches.

NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Stephen F. Austin State University School of Theatre will present the student-directed "A Dollar" at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 4, and at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 5, in the Downstage Theatre on the SFA campus.

Directed by senior theatre major Greg Albright of Palestine, playwright David Pinski's "A Dollar" is about a troupe of traveling players who are tired and penniless and end up arguing over a dollar they find.