Ivy the scholar

By Joshua Christman

j_c515@txstate.edu

Ivy Sandoval is a journalism major at Texas State University. Prior to beginning her undergraduate studies at the university, Sandoval attended Travis Early College, in her hometown of San Antonio. Here she was able to get a head start on her college education and graduate with not only a high school diploma, but her Associate degree as well. Now, at the astonishingly young age of nineteen, Ivy is on the fast track to graduation and will be walking the stage this summer!

Following graduation Ivy plans to tackle the music industry. Since the tender age of seven, Ivy has had a fond love for music, specifically pop music. Her top five acts include Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendez, Ed Sheeran and 5 Seconds of Summer- most of whom she has seen in concert multiple times- her favorite memory of a live performance however, was at an Austin Mahone show. Here she had back stage passes and an opportunity to meet and greet with her favorite artist. It was during this moment that Ivy decided she wanted to pursue music journalism.

As Ivy prepares to graduate college she is beginning to shift her focus on the future. In the coming months she hopes to land an internship with a major media outlet that will enable her to get hands on experience with artist interviews, reporting on popular music topics and keeping up with the latest trends. Regardless of where she ends up, one thing is for sure, nothing can stop Ivy.

A Woman With Many Colors

By Halle Hendry
hallehendry@txstate.edu

Claire Partain has a love for art that incentivized her to practice her budding skills early on; a talent that eventually has provided her with outside opportunities that she loves to take advantage of.

Partain, a nineteen-year-old sophomore at Texas State University is currently pursuing a career in journalism. However, her writing is not her only talent. She was very young when she discovered that she had a love for art. As she grew, she never had the opportunity to take an art class, but that didn’t stop her from growing her skills. Due to her practicing, she gained the opportunity paint a mural centered around the logo for Spotted Frogg Shaved Ice. The opportunity was very exciting for her because Partain enjoys “street art and murals the most because they’re usually very creative and bring communities together”. As long as she continues her hobby under her own circumstances, she will always have a love for art.

As Partain gets further into her career, she is always practicing and gaining skill in her hobby. She soon hopes to take an art class through the university, hopefully providing advice as to how to better her skills.

Getting to Know Olivia Chaney

By Aimee Huckeba
anh154@txstate.edu

Olivia Chaney is kicking off junior year at Texas State University and is a lover of art, music and sports while on pursuit of relaxation.

Chaney is a 20-year-old electronic media major with a focus on digital media. Her hometown is Missouri City, Texas, although she was born in Lafayette, Louisiana. When it comes to relaxation, Chaney turns to music and art. Her favorite musician is Frank Ocean. She explains, “I can hear the art he is making through his music, and I feel him in my heart even when he is MIA.” On top of that, she loves to color with markers because of the smooth structure of the pens. When she is not in the comfort of art and music, she loves to play and watch sports as well as meeting new people.

Chaney played basketball for seven years and went to college with the same passion for sports. She joined KTSW’s sports department to learn about broadcasting for sports. After two semesters, she wanted to branch out within her field of mass communication and she switched to KTSW’s social media department. She has more opportunities with this department to meet new people, create new connections and be involved with behind-the-scenes work for the radio station. Chaney will always love sports, but she is excited to have experience with more than one field while she is in college.

Student's spring break adventure

By Emily Schulte

ees88@txstate.edu

Lucas Newman, a 21 year old journalism major from Austin, Texas, hadn’t anticipated the way his 2018 spring break trip would begin. 

Newman is a frequent traveler who enjoys adventure, so he and his friend, Christian Castro, had plans to catch a bus from Austin to Mexico City. There, they would spend two nights in an Airbnb and fly to Cancun. “We wanted to save some money by buying airfare from Mexico instead of the United States,” Newman said. 

The 24-hour bus ride included a stop in Laredo, Texas to change buses, but Newman and Castro missed their bus and had to cross the border to take a bus from Nuevo Laredo in Mexico instead. “Nuevo Laredo was scary. There were guys driving around in trucks with automatic weapons at 2 a.m., and we had to pay them a $200 cash bribe to keep walking,” Newman said. 

After making it safely to their Airbnb in Mexico City, Newman and Castro unpacked and headed over to a local bar to relax after their day of traveling. 

“Even though we had some bad times, we still got to see a lot and have a lot of new experiences great experiences, so that’s why it was a good trip,” said Newman.

College Girl Comes Out of Car Accident Stronger Than Ever

By: Cassidy Hobbs
csh102@txstate.edu

Meet Robin Skitmas, a senior at Texas State University with a major in Advertising. Skitmas is from Houston, Texas where she lived with her parents and twin sister. She says her twin and her are opposites but they are best friends. During Skitmas’ senior year of high school, she got in a terrible car accident that left all the bones in her face broken except her jaw. During this time, she spent a lot of time at home to recover, growing very close with her sister and dog, Tootsie.  She says that it was pretty tough having to come back to school after that. She missed her senior prom and two weeks of school. Skitmas is still having doctor’s appointments for her face recovery even 4 years later.

Skitmas’ determination has caused her to push herself in her classes and to move on from her accident. Although she has only traveled outside of the country once, she is passionate about one day exploring the streets of Europe. She is not one to live in her past, as she says she does not want to go back to Houston after graduation but rather move to St. Thomas Virgin Islands for a few years and sightsee the area. Robin went to St. Thomas once before and fell in love with it, while making friends there that she still keeps in contact with. Her story is nowhere near finished and she hopes to live her life to the fullest.

Texas State Student Discovers Exciting Career Path

By Daniel Richter

djr122@txstate.edu

Inspiration for your career path can come from anywhere. In the case of Colton Henderson, a 20-year-old from Cedar Hill, Texas inspiration came from beloved television shows and films. Growing up, Henderson would watch Marvel movies as well as Avatar the Last Airbender. He admired the fictional worlds that his favorite characters would explore. “I love how you can create a whole world from scratch like Marvel or DC” Henderson said. “(These universes) can go on forever.”

Henderson formed this love of movies and T.V. not from staying inside. In fact, in High School he was involved in tennis, cross country, football and drum line. To this day he still spends a lot of time hanging out with friends.

 Henderson is currently a Junior at Texas State University and is majoring in Electronic Media. Henderson wishes to one day work in Television/Film and hopefully dig his hands into the fictional universes he grew up loving.

Student works up to news editor at school newspaper

By Paola Bakker
p_b133@txstate.edu

Sandra Sadek, journalism junior
Photo by Paola Bakker

After writing for The University Star for the past year, Sandra Sadek, a nineteen-year-old journalism major, was recently promoted to news editor.

Sadek, who is in her second year of college but is a junior in credits, went to high school in Katy, Texas, where she began her career in journalism and worked for her school’s online news magazine. She became the magazine’s editor by her senior year. 

When she came to Texas State, she wanted to get involved and build her resume, leading her to the school newspaper The University Star. Beginning as a news reporter, she managed to work up to several different writing positions. Now that her previous managing editor has stepped down, Sadek has moved up to news editor of the paper.

Her favorite part about working at The Star is seeing the hard work everyone puts in.

“It feels like a real newsroom in some ways. You can tell that it’s a college campus and we come back and forth from our classes, but there is still that spirit of ‘we want to do well, we want to write good stories that impact our Texas State community — the students, the faculty, the San Marcos community.’” 

Sadek says the job is a lot of work, with stories breaking at all hours of the day, but with time and effort, she is starting to figure out how to balance the demands of the job.

Student comes out of her shell through sorority

By Sandra Sadek

sandrasadek@txstate.edu

Paola Bakker, advertising junior
 Photo by Sandra Sadek

When introverted Paola Bakker transferred her sophomore year to Texas State, she never thought she would meet her closest friends by joining a sorority. 

An advertising junior, Bakker spends much of her time involved in her sorority, Gamma Phi Beta outside of class, despite the negative view the media gave her of sorority life.

“(I didn’t think I would join a sorority because of) the stereotype of a sorority girl and I didn’t want to have friends that were mean because that’s kind of what the media tells you they’re like, which I don’t agree with,” Bakker said. “There’s mean people everywhere but I’ve found really amazing people (in the organization).”

Since joining her sorority, Bakker’s perception of these organizations changed, allowing her to make lifelong connections and meet some of her closest friends.

“Before, I thought it was a lot more like a clique than it actually is and I kind of felt that way a little bit my first year in it because I didn’t get super involved,” Bakker said. “But now I’m actually involved, everyone is super open and just wants to get to know everyone, be friends. It’s really cool to have an automatic support system in college because college can be hard.”

Bakker said joining Gamma Phi Beta has brought her out of her shell in a way she never thought possible. When she is not busy with sorority responsibilities, she enjoys going to the movies, eating out and hanging out with friends.