Author Archives: m_misztal

Happy holidays from ALEC

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Search now open for ALEC department head

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Professor and Head Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communications Texas A&M University Texas A&M University invites applications for the position of Professor and Head of the Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communications (ALEC). This will be a 9-month tenured position, with a substantial research appointment (25-50%), and an administrative stipend. The administrative stipend and two additional months of salary will be effective for as long the person holds the position of Department Head. The Professor and Head will serve as the chief administrative officer of the… Read More →

ALEC graduate student wins big at 3MT competition

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Kathryn Edmunds, a student in the Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communications at Texas A&M University, has found some recent success with the 3 Minute Thesis (3MT) competition. The 3MT research communication competition gives graduate students three minutes to orally present their thesis and its significance. This program challenges students to consolidate their ideas and research discoveries to present them concisely to a non-specialist audience. In total, 51 students participated in the high-impact learning experience this year. Edmunds took home first prize in the master’s division and… Read More →

ALEC Graduate Students participate in Sustainability and Development Conference at the University of Michigan

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Six Texas A&M University (TAMU) students recently participated in a panel discussion about “Gender Equity and Cultural Autonomy: Implications for Sustainable Development” at the inaugural Sustainability and Development conference. The conference was held at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Mich., November 9-11, 2018. Four presentations comprised the 75-minute discussion moderated by Dr. Manuel Pina Jr. and Tessa Davis, program consultant with the Just Like My Child Foundation. Davis informed about the trajectory and recent evaluation of the Girl Power Project (GPP) with the participating teens in… Read More →

ALEC department mourns loss of professor emeritus Dr. James Christiansen

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Dr. James E. Christiansen, professor emeritus at Texas A&M University (TAMU) in the Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communications (ALEC), passed away, Wednesday, Aug. 8. Christiansen was 87 years old, just three weeks shy of his 88th birthday, September 1. Christiansen began his career with Texas A&M in 1968 as an associate professor of agricultural education. After 36 years of teaching at TAMU, he retired in 2004 and took on the role of professor emeritus in the department. Until recently, he was in his office and at… Read More →

Critically Thinking About Ways to Improve Critical Thinking

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A recent study conducted by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU) revealed that 81 percent of employers believe that critical thinking and analytical reasoning skills are quite important when selecting college graduates as new employees. Unfortunately, a vast majority of universities fall flat when it comes to teaching this learning outcome to students. At the moment, very few methods have been developed to teach critical thinking skills and the ones in place only scratch the surface. Dr. Barry Boyd, associate professor in the Department of Agricultural… Read More →

Texas A&M ALEC department has 11 NACTA attendees take home awards

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The Texas A&M Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communications (ALEC) recently returned from the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) conference held in Ames, Iowa on June 12-15. The NACTA professional society focuses on the scholarship of teaching and learning agriculture and related disciplines at the postsecondary level. The ALEC department was well represented with 11 attendees taking home awards in the categories of graduate student teaching, educator awards, teaching scholar awards and journal awards. Graduate Student Teaching Lori Costello, Ph.D. student David Walther, Ph.D…. Read More →

Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communications department hires new Agricultural Science faculty member

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Dr. OP McCubbins is bringing some new insight to the Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communications (ALEC). McCubbins comes to us from Tennessee Technological University’s faculty and was previously an agricultural science teacher in Northern Kentucky. “I’ve only been with Texas A&M for a short while, but I love the atmosphere of the campus,” said McCubbins. “Everyone is eager to help and it makes it feel like home!” Along with his experiences from Kentucky and Tennessee, McCubbins secured his doctoral degree from Iowa State in the spring… Read More →