Winding down the Fall Quarter with a full slate of activities this past week….. I traveled to Bossier City and Shreveport three times this week. On Tuesday, I spoke to the Shreveport Rotary Club and gave them an update on our activities. On Wednesday, I returned to the CIC in Bossier City to welcome participants in one of our Louisiana Tech Research Institute’s workshops on Strategic Deterrence. After that, I stopped by our Bossier Academic Success Center to participate in a North Louisiana Innovations program organized by the Bossier Chamber. Dr. Sumeet Dua was one of the speakers for that program and he gave a great overview on the importance of cybersecurity in society. On Friday, I returned to BPCC to meet with several local leaders, including BAFB, to discuss what we can do to increase the numbers of Professional Aviation graduates to meet the critical global need for pilots.

Kathy and I enjoyed attending Paul Jackson’s landscape class to hear presentations by his students who used the Prez’s yard to test their landscaping skills.  I also attended the Trenchless Technology Center’s banquet where they recognized two leaders in the field of horizontal directional drilling with Lifetime Achievement Awards. Jim and Leo Barbera are legends in the field and they were instrumental in the establishment of our TTC back in 1989.

Much of the rest of the week was filled with visits by prospective students, alumni, faculty and my administrative team. I enjoyed watching the Lady Techsters defeat Houston in a record-setting basketball game too.

The highlight of my week was Fall Quarter Commencement on Saturday. One of our young alumni, Jamie Adams, gave a most relevant and inspiring commencement address based upon his personal experiences in going from college into a highly successful digital marketing career. I also presented the Tower Medallion to Hilton Nicholson, a 1980 BSEE graduate who has also been highly successful in his career as an executive in the telecommunications and cybersecurity fields. Hilton’s daughter Carmen, a computer science graduate, sat with the other Fall Quarter graduates as her father was recognized. What a special day for us all!

BTW, this marks my 400th blog to post since I became President in July 2013. Hope you enjoy.