Patrick Evoe
Master of Arts in International Studies

Patrick Evoe is working passionately toward two goals: a career in international relations and professional status as an Ironman distance triathlete. Patrick, who ranked fifth in his age group (25-29) in last year’s Ironman World Championship competition, is an industrial and operations engineer who got his first exposure to international relations working for the Austin-based semiconductor company Applied Materials. He managed the company’s contracts with its suppliers, who came increasingly from overseas.

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That exposure, coupled with his interest in world history, politics, and travel, led him to enroll in Texas State’s graduate program in International Studies to obtain the credentials for a career in international relations, perhaps working in the U.S. government’s intelligence program. Outside of class, Patrick spends 25 hours each week training for the two Ironman competitions he competes in every year, which feature a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bicycle ride, and a 26.2-mile run. “I get stronger every day, and that’s what makes me want to keep pushing. I don’t know how deep the well is yet,” said Patrick, explaining that he hopes to compete as a professional triathlete for a year or two while he finishes graduate school and establishes himself in his new career in international relations.

Ionara De Lima
Ph.D. in Geography

Ionara De Lima, a PhD student in Geographic Information Science from Brazil, is interested in the relationship between health and the environment. Her doctoral research has taken her to New Zealand, where she is studying diverse environmental problems and their effects on health. Ionara’s dissertation work—data collected on birth defects in babies born to women living or working near industrial sites using solvent—enabled her to join a university research team in New Zealand and drew the attention of New Zealand’s prime minister, who recently visited Ionara to learn more about her work. The New Zealand team is studying whether people who live in areas isolated from community services such as churches, libraries, parks, and supermarkets are more prone to health problems.

Kenneth Kubala
Master of Arts in Health Psychology

When Kenneth Kubala graduates from the Texas State master’s program in Health Psychology, he plans to enroll in a Ph.D. program and to become a researcher in the field of neuroscience. Research in neuroscience attempts broadly to correlate changes in the brain with changes in behavior. Kenneth will have an excellent chance of being admitted to one of the nation’s highly-competitive Ph.D. programs in neuroscience, because he has already performed neuroscience research in laboratories around the country specializing in the study of vertebrates. At Texas State, Kenneth takes graduate courses on brain and behavior and meets with his major professor to design his research projects. He then travels to a lab at UTSA where he conducts lab experiments. A recent project sought to determine whether adolescents can recover normal brain function after chronic abuse of anabolic androgenic steroids. Under grants from the Texas State College of Liberal Arts and the Graduate College, Kenneth traveled to Yale where he was able to analyze his results in a lab using highly-sensitive equipment. He now hopes to publish his findings in a research journal—another step toward qualifying for admission to an excellent Ph.D. program in neuroscience.

Adam Richard
Master of Arts in Anthropology

Adam Richard and several other Texas State graduate students in forensic anthropology were having lunch recently with their major professor—the well-known forensic anthropologist Dr. Jerry Melbye—when two Texas Rangers came in to Dr. Melbye’s office carrying a bag of bones they wanted help in identifying. “The bones turned out not to be human, fortunately,” said Adam, explaining that law enforcement officials often bring bones to Dr. Melbye for analysis, which could help them in establishing the identities of crime victims. Forensic anthropologists support the criminal justice system by looking at recent skeletal remains to determine a person’s sex, age, ancestry, and cause of death. They also research and develop new techniques for extracting information from badly-decomposed skeletal remains. In fact, Adam spent last summer observing the effects that burning has on blunt force trauma fractures to bones in the hopes of being able to identify such trauma in remains that have been badly burned. After receiving his master’s degree in forensic anthropology in 2007, Adam hopes to obtain a Ph.D. in forensic anthropology and become a university professor and a forensic anthropology consultant to law enforcement.

Aida Douglas
Master of Public Administration

Aida Berduo Douglas, who received her Master of Public Administration degree from Texas State this spring, works for the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority in Austin, managing its bus advertising program and its program for awarding contracts to minority-owned businesses. “Understanding the public’s needs has always been important to me,” said Aida, who enrolled in the MPA program to obtain the policy-making and management skills she believes she are important to being an effective public administrator. Because she entered the program mid-career, she says she’s able to appreciate what she’s being taught. “I’m able to contribute to classroom conversations, giving real-life examples of the decisions I’ve made in my agency,” she said, adding that she also learns a great deal from her classmates, many of whom also work in the public sector. As part of the MPA program, Aida recently traveled to London, Paris, and Bordeaux to study those cities’ government and transit systems. “I was able to discuss transit issues with a clerk in the British Parliament, to visit the French Assembly in Paris, and to learn about urban revitalization issues in Bordeaux—issues similar to those we face in Austin,” she said. “It was a life-changing experience. I will be forever grateful that I was able to pursue this degree.”

Daniel Frouman
Master of Arts in Spanish

A bicycle accident two years ago injured Daniel Frouman’s arm so badly that he had to quit playing piano and guitar and drop his plans to be a professional musician. Feeling the need to do something useful, Daniel—from Argentina—decided to pursue a master’s degree in Spanish and Latin American literature at Texas State, because he loved literature and wanted to stay connected to his native language. Curious about science, he also enrolled in biology and chemistry courses and discovered a passion for internal medicine. In August, Daniel will begin medical training at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. “It’s a calling,” he said. “I need to be someone who can help the patient to understand what’s going on. Having had an injury that I’ll live with the rest of my life, I realize the critically-injured patient’s need to understand what he or she can do to make existence more bearable. That’s one of the reasons I continue reading Spanish literature and exploring complex ideas: it helps me to understand my experience and to know that it isn’t unique.”

Olga Kobzar
Master of Arts in Legal Studies

Olga Kobzar, a student in Texas State’s Graduate Program in Legal Studies, has always been interested in studying law, but until recently she was unsure that she could balance a law practice with raising a family. Originally from Astrakhan, Russia, Olga obtained an MBA degree from Texas Tech and worked in marketing for several years before entering Texas State’s Graduate Program in Legal Studies, a program that trains non-lawyers to help in the delivery of legal services. While she was still in the Legal Studies program, Olga found a job with the Austin law office of Akin Gump, assisting with case management as well as research and marketing of the firm's services to potential clients. Soon, she was transferred to a position as a Securities Litigation paralegal, a position she continued to hold as she started a family. Olga’s experiences in the Legal Studies program and at Akin Gump convinced her that she could manage both a family and a law career, and she has entered Baylor University Law School to become an attorney in corporate litigation.

David Hadbawnik
Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing

Before he entered Texas State’s Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing last fall, David Hadbawnik was living in San Francisco and working two jobs to support himself and his blossoming writing career. A published poet, he had read and performed his poetry around the country, and he was working to improve his writing by taking university courses and studying privately with well-known poets. He also curated poetry series, hosted readings, and operated Habenicht Press (www.habenictpress.com), which he created to publish small editions of young poets’ work—activities that he says are part of the time-honored tradition of being a poet. His two jobs left him little time to read and write. So, when he was awarded the Rose Fellowship ($50,000 over three years) in Texas State’s Creative Writing Program, the decision to accept the fellowship was an easy one to make. “The Rose Fellowship has meant the chance to be a student again, to have the time to write, and to receive productive criticism from other good writers,” he said. David’s recent work has been printed in three poetry journals: First Intensity, 26, and The Chicago Review. His chapbook SF Spleen is forthcoming from Skanky Possum Press, and selections from it are included in the Bay Poetics Anthology (Faux Press, 2006).

Sen. Bill Haley
Master of Arts in Political Science

When they study the Texas legislative process, students in the Master of Arts program in Political Science can draw on the firsthand experience of one of their classmates, former Texas Senator Bill Haley. Sen. Haley entered the M.A. program in Political Science in 2005, following a history-making tenure in the Texas Legislature (1979-1989 in the House and 1989-1995 in the Senate) and other outstanding career accomplishments. As Chairman of the House Public Education Committee, he guided the passage in 1984 of House Bill 72, the most extensive revision of public education law since the late 1940s. House Bill 72 established a 1:22 teacher-student ratio in grades 1-4 and included the famous “No Pass, No Play” rule. Sen. Haley also passed the 1987 AT&T deregulation bill that opened the telecommunications market to wider competition. In the Senate, he served as Chairman of the Senate Administration Committee, and, after leaving the Senate, he became the executive director of a non-profit association. He is currently a lobbyist for education and healthcare clients. Before serving in the Legislature, Sen. Haley taught history and government in public schools in Houston and in his hometown of Center, in Deep East Texas. The Senator enjoyed teaching so much that he hopes to teach again. He is pursuing a degree from the Master of Arts program in Political Science, in preparation for obtaining a Ph.D. and teaching at the college level.