ETA SIGMA CHAPTER OF PHI ALPHA THETA
Stephen F. Austin State University History Department
Student Organized & Operated Platform
Eta Sigma Member News
Fall 2023 Semester
This page is dedicated for Eta Sigma chapter members to share their accomplishments, awards, research, scholarships, conference presentations, and more!
(L-R) graduate student Matt Sudano, Eta Sigma Secretary Hannah Lau, and Eta Sigma member Will Peterson working the registration desk at the East Texas Historical Association conference in Oct. 2023.
(L-R) current graduate student Jordan Coleman with Clayton Jones (BA May 2023), and current undergraduate students Madeline Wheeler, and Savannah Peterson after presenting on the Old North Church Cemetery at the East Texas Historical Association conference in Oct. 2023.
Graduate students Jessica Reid and Kollynn Hendry went to the Houston County Museum in September to digitize materials for the museum and the East Texas Research Center.
Jessica Reid created a both a physical (above picture) and a digital exhibit that was on display at the East Texas Research Center during the Fall 2023 semester.
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"From the first building on campus in 1923, to the newest renovations and demolitions finished just in time for the centennial celebrations, SFASU has seen amazing growth and evolution throughout its 100 years. The exhibit shows tis growth of campus by displaying maps and pictures from each decade, allowing visitors to see the physical expansion and growth through the years. The digital exhibit also allows visitors to understand the gravity of change by illustrating all ten decades stacked on top of each other in one flourishing map."
Jordan Coleman presented his research paper titled, “Indigenous Contributions to the Corps of Discovery Expedition Maps” at the 64th Annual Society for the History of Discoveries Conference in Minneapolis, MN in September 2023. Jordan was awarded the 2023 Undergraduate Student Essay Prize for this essay.
If you are interested in reading the abstract, you can find it by following this link.
From left to right: Jessica Reid, Kollynn Hendry, Dr. Perky Beisel, Jordan Coleman
Graduate students Kollynn Hendry, Jessica Reid, and Jordan Coleman presented at the Northeast Texas Regional Preservation Summit for Preservation Texas on September 7, 2023 in Tyler, Texas.
Here is an abstract of what their presentation titled "100 YEARS OF HISTORY: DOCUMENTING THE HISTORIC RESOURCES OF STEPHEN F. AUSTIN STATE UNIVERSITY" entailed. During the Spring 2022 semester, on the eve of Stephen F. Austin State University’s centennial, undergraduate and graduate students from SFASU participated in two different projects to document and survey the university's historic resources. The graduate students set out to create a comprehensive inventory of SFA’s movable historic, cultural, artistic, scientific, archival, and natural items and created a tentative conservation plan for the resources found. The undergraduate students documented and surveyed over fifty erect and non-erect buildings and sites on the campus, and created a tentative preservation plan for these resources. These two projects are important because in the first 100 years of the university, no such plans or documentation took place. Therefore, without these documentation and surveying projects, the resources may have gone unnoticed and unappreciated for another 100 years.