PBKAAGA - News

Professor Shirley Franklin Speaks at Fall 2014 Membership meeting on November 9: Please Save the Date!

08 Sep 2014 12:39 PM | Deleted user

Thanks to all our members who were able to join us for former Atlanta mayor Professor Shirley Franklin's talk and conversation on November 9 at our Fall General Meeting. For those of you who could not be there, we hope that you enjoy the video of the event which has been posted on YouTube. To access the video, please click here.

Professor Franklin discussed “what's next” as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of President Johnson's landmark legislation - Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts and the War on Poverty.

Former two-term Mayor of Atlanta Shirley Franklin joined the LBJ School of Public Affairs as the Barbara Jordan Visiting Professor of Ethics and Political Values in 2013. Franklin served as Mayor of the City of Atlanta from 2002 to 2010.

She was the first female to hold the post and became the first African-American woman to be elected mayor of any major Southern city.

Franklin was named Governing magazine’s 2004 Public Official of the Year. In 2005, TIME magazine named her one of the top five mayors in the country and U.S. News and World Report named her one of “America’s Best Leaders”. In 2005, Franklin received the prestigious John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award.

After a short business meeting refreshments were served as members socialized. The meeting was hosted by the Graduate Students in Comparative Literature at the University of Texas – Austin.

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Thanks to all of our wonderful donors!

25 Aug 2014 10:14 AM | Deleted user

The core mission of the PBKAAGA is the support of academic excellence in the greater Austin area. Each time that you as a member pay dues, nearly all of those funds are dedicated to our scholarships. We thank every single member for what you make possible for young, aspiring minds in our community!

Each year, members also elect to make further donations. Some of our wonderful benefactors prefer to remain anonymous. Some have kindly given us permission to share their names and to thank them publicly. We are so grateful to all of you!

Kay Pinckney Braziel, Christa Schwing Broderick, Larry R. Faulkner, Diane Finch Grant, James (Jim) Hart Little, Mary Love (Bitsy) Henderson, Terry Hockens, Robert S. Hughes, Candace E. Hunter, Clark Jobe, Jennifer Loehlin, Thomas G. Mason, Eugenia Betts Miller, Michael G. Murphy, Ph.D., Barbara Bredt Norwood, Joanna C. Scarborough, and Corina Scorns

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Joshua Riehl, 2011 PBKAAGA Adult Baccalaureate Scholarship Recipient, nominated for PBS Documentary Film Award

29 Jul 2014 2:43 PM | Deleted user

Three years ago, the PBKAAGA selected Joshua Riehl as one of their adult baccalaureate scholarship recipients while he was a student majoring in Communications and Radio-Television-Film at UT Austin. He is shown here with his nominator, Dr. Thomas J. Garza, professor of Slavic and Eurasian Studies at UT Austin, and the chair of the 2011 Scholarship Committee, Dr. Noble Doss. He used that scholarship to forward his career as a documentary film maker. Now his most recent work, Digging for Water, is being featured by PBS. This is the sort of original and important work that PBKAAGA supports, and we wish Joshua all the best in his career! If you would like to see more about him and his film, please click here! If you like what you see, please vote for his film!

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Meet the 2014 PBKAAGA Scholarship Winners

06 May 2014 2:00 PM | Deleted user

At the May 4th general meeting of the PBKAAGA, the scholarship committee were pleased to present awards to three graduating high school seniors and one undergraduate in recognition of their achievements.

The scholarship committee was chaired by Ms. Connie Hicks (far left) and included (from left to right) Joyce Pulich, Beverly Shivers, Martha Jones, and Tom Cedel. Noble Doss was unable to be present. The name and photograph of each honoree, along with the award received, are listed below:

Jabu Peter Mbara

Huston-Tillotson University

Phillip Patman Memorial

Baccalaureate Scholarship ($2,500)

Majoring in Computer Science at Huston-Tillotson University, Peter Mbara consistently takes on extra academic and mentoring responsibilities. Equally committed to his pre-engineering studies and his duties as Sophomore Class President, he embodies an level of academic enthusiasm as well as accomplishment that is noted by his professors and inspiring to his peers. He has a particular gift for seeing and respecting views that differ from his own. A charismatic multilingual and multicultural leader and an excellent colleague, Mr. Mbara is already making great contributions both locally and globally.

Rio Layla Esquivel

William B. Travis High School

PBKGAA Scholarship

for Academic Excellence ($ 2,500)

Rio Esquivel graduated first in her large class from William B. Travis High School, where she was an award-winning member of the American Drill Team and the All City Dance Team. At the same time, she consistently undertook the most demanding courses at the AP and Dual Credit level. Her energy and passion for her ideas is matched by respect for those of others. She also took the time to share her talents with others for whom academic pursuits came less easily as she and in shaping the future of her school by serving on the Campus Advisory Council and volunteering with the HEB Annual Feast of Sharing. Ms. Esquivel will be attending the University of Texas in the Fall of 2014 as a Plan II major with a double major in Biology. She hopes to serve her community by becoming an orthopedic surgeon, providing care and comfort to all.

Savannah Shivers

A. N. McCallum High School
Phi Beta Kappa

Lawyers' Scholarship ($ 2,000)

Savannah Shivers was a member of the National Honors Society for all four years of high school and graduated as valedictorian for her large class from A.N. McCallum Hugh School. Always picking and excelling in the most challenging courses, ranging across the liberal arts and sciences, Ms. Shivers has two particular passions music and children. A leader and accomplished musician in voice and trumpet, she was inspired to participate on a mission in Nicaragua where she worked with special needs children. People who work with her are inspired by her concern for others, especially those at risk. Beginning in Fall 2014, Ms. Shivers will attend Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina, where she plans to major in psychology.

Samantha Adele Miller

James Bowie High School
Phi Beta Kappa

Doctors' Scholarship ($ 2,000)

Ranked as the best student in her large graduating class from James Bowie High School, Samantha Adele Miller has excelled across the curriculum, from language arts to mathematics. Having undertaken a rigorous curriculum, Ms. Miller always challenges herself personally and intellectually. Foreshadowing her success in college, Ms. Miller is able to see beyond the problems teachers set for her and to engage with the ideas that underlie those problems. Whether winning a best musical show competition, or grappling with the complexity of programming in C++, Ms. Miller stands out to all who meet and work with her. It is hardly surprising that she has been admitted to the Turing Scholars and Dean's Scholars Honors Programs and began her major in Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin in August 2014.

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The Wisdom of Two University Presidents

05 May 2014 2:19 PM | Deleted user

Drs. Larry Faulkner and Tom Cedel shared their views on the future of higher education at the PBKAAGA spring meeting on 4 May 2014. It is a rare good fortune to have two university presidents on the same stage together.

After enjoying light refreshments and socializing with old and new members, Drs. Faulkner and Cedel sat down with the membership for an open and optimistic conversation about the challenges and potentials that higher education will face in coming years. Whether speaking about the financial ingenuity that will be necessary, or about the wisest ways to tap the potential of new technologies in the classroom, both leaders invited the audience to think about the future constructively.

The university experience that these leaders remember could not in some obvious ways be more different from that on which our scholarship recipients and their contemporaries will embark. At the core however, both long-time members of Phi Beta Kappa and those only now entering college share the same goals of academic excellence combined with the shaping of the best possible citizens and leaders for our world.

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