Pictured: first-place winners (from left) Gracie Gray, Mary-Faith Wilson, and Stephanie Hernandez
By: Dr. Andrew Yox, Honors Director
As in 2023 and 2024, NTCC scholars performed admirably in the Red River Symposium, hosted again by Texas A&M Texarkana, 20 May 2025. It was the third poster and oral-presentation conference chaired by the founding dean of the honors college at Texarkana, Dr. Craig Nakashian. There were four categories of presenters, and NTCC scholars won $100-first-place-awards in three. Gracie Gray, one of the students in a special research class in biology took first-place in the poster division for STEM fields. Stephanie Hernandez won the oral presentation area with her work on parasites in Black Buffalo fish. Mary-Faith Wilson placed first in the poster division of the humanities with her work on cowboy conservation in the novels of Elmer Kelton, and Larry McMurtry.
Of the nine awards that were given at the conference, NTCC scholars also won two second-place awards. Gracie Gray won second-place in the oral presentation division, and Stephanie Hernandez won second in the Humanities for her poster on Tejano murals.
Other NTCC students who participated in the conference included Sarah Dierflinger with her poster on Winnsboro’s reaction to Bonnie and Clyde, Yahir Garcia, who accommodated his work with the NTCC film, Crude Conquest, to a poster, Andrew Higgins with his thesis on religion and the American pursuit of Space, Skylar Hodson with her work on African-Americans in film, Emma Mendoza with her analysis of the elusive time dividends of the sewing machine, Araceli Landaverde with her survey of Hispanic Catholicism, and Noah Pettey with a poster on Tecumseh as the “North American Cassandra.”
Besides NTCC’s input, honors students from Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Texarkana College, Texas A&M University-Texarkana, and Tyler Junior College also competed at the symposium.
“Again, noted Honors Director, Dr. Andrew Yox, we returned last Friday with the sense that there is something very special about our ‘miracle on FM 1735’.” One thing that struck me during the conference, was not only how well our students were prepared, but essentially how articulate they seemed. There are many factors that just seem to come together in terms of scholarship here at NTCC, that go beyond any one person or situation, and we can only be thankful for the result. We also thank Dr. Nakashian, and a cast of thirty professionals—judges, committee members, and supporters, including Professors Fulgham, Skaar, Sparks, and Vice President Ingram of NTCC, for making this conference possible, once more.
