Volume 3, Number 4  

June 30, 2011 

SHUMLA In The News  

AIA Article 

SHUMLA Drumbeat, May 2011    

Aka'Ula Students Discuss SHUMLA 

Students from the 2011 Field Methods in Rock Art (FMRA) class have started a scholarship fund for 2012 FMRA participants in honor of SHUMLA volunteer Teddy Stickney.  When Teddy wasn't busy cooking delicious meals for FMRA participants, she could be found working with board members or education staff.

Teddy is well known in the Texas archeological community for her significant contributions; in 2011, she was awarded the Curtis D. Tunnell Lifetime Achievement Award by the Texas Historical Commission.       

Readers who would like to donate to the 2012 Stickney FMRA scholarship can contact Assistant Deputy Executive Director Jeanette Pauer at jpauer@shumla.org.   

To read more about Teddy, click here.            

SHUMLA's education team has concluded a busy year of providing discovery learning opportunities to local school districts, and staff members are already looking at ways to improve upcoming programs. SHUMLA's Education Director Val Varner voiced enthusiasm about recent operations. "This year has been very exciting, especially the new Discovery Day program with Comstock ISD...and the 'tips for teachers' addition to the [San Felipe Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District] SFDRCISD programs."   

During the 2010-2011 academic year, SHUMLA staff partnered with Texas Parks and Wildlife, the National Parks Service and a great group of volunteers to provide Knowledge Enriching Youth (KEY) programming to 711 students and 80 adults from the San Felipe Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District.  Staff also served the Comstock Independent School District, providing services for all students from kindergarten through 12th grade.

Single week programs were held in October for St. Catherine's Montessori from Houston and in April for the Aka'Ula School from Molokai, Hawaii.  Students stayed at the SHUMLA facilities for five days while exploring archeological sites and practicing lifeways skills.  Student visitors from the Aka-Ula school have mentioned SHUMLA activities several times in their recent publications.  An Aka-Ula newsletter featuring SHUMLA-inspired activities is linked in the eNews sidebar.   

Spring programming included a staff focus on quantitative assessment.  Staff is evaluating learning stations with an eye for what SHUMLA does well and what components need to be revised.  The first cycle of assessment confirms that students who attend SHUMLA programming are benefiting from what SHUMLA has to offer. Staff has plans to strengthen the 2011-2012 programming, and eagerly anticipates working with the local school districts again in the fall.       

 SHUMLA's staff has completed its first course catalogue.  The 2011 catalogue features many classes that eNews readers may be familiar with--courses like friction fire, atlatl advantage and canyon environments--and some new course offerings like storytelling and orienteering.

 Volunteer Kerza Prewitt was instrumental in designing a look for the catalogue that matched the content developed by staff.  Using images produced by Executive Director Dr. Carolyn Boyd and text written by SHUMLA staff, Kerza produced a document that is both content driven and aesthetically pleasing.   

Starting in the fall of 2011, SHUMLA's education staff will implement programming from the new catalogue.  Schools interested in participating in SHUMLA education programming can contact Education Director Val Varner at varner@shumla.org. 

Click here to see a PDF copy of the 2011 catalogue. 

SHUMLA Welcomes 2011 Research Interns 

Two new Research Interns have joined SHUMLA's staff for the summer.  2011 Field Methods in Rock Art students Stephani Noland and Katy Schmidt will be continuing their field experiences by working on the Lower Pecos Rock Art Recording and Preservation Project.  Interns will be tasked with collecting and compiling site data for transcription into the SHUMLA database.   

Stephani, a Texas State alumna from Houston, is looking forward to preserving records of the region's former inhabitants.  Katy, originally from Bainbridge, Ohio, is a junior at the University of Evansville, and brings a strong interest in Native American archeology to her work this summer.  Former Research Intern and current SHUMLA Archeological Assistant Amanda Castaneda has an ambitious plan for the interns.  "We are so excited to add two very driven and enthusiastic interns to the research crew this summer.  With their help, we will be able to finish recording multiple sites that have already been started as well as new sites."

Staff is excited to begin working with the new interns, and anticipates a summer of challenging, rewarding work.