Thirty teachers from four states years will earn their master’s degrees thanks to scholarships from a $1.25 million grant awarded to Texas Tech’s College of Education.  The five-year grant targets a shortage of specialists who work with children with visual impairments due to brain injuries or disorders.

The teachers will provide services to those in rural, remote and high-need areas in Texas, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.

Two great choral works for the holidays are being offered to the Lubbock community this weekend. Our guest, Dr. John Hollins tells us all about Handel's Messiah and Vivaldi's Gloria on today's edition of the Front Row.

Listen here or on the NPR One app.

Learning a foreign language is great, even if you don’t plan on traveling or living in the country where it would come in handy. That’s because the skills used to learn a language bring an added benefit. That’s the goal of an initiative underway now at Texas Tech.

Ballet Lubbock presents the Nutcracker Ballet this week. These performances will be the last in the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center Theatre.

Helen Hunter and Yvonne Racz Key will guide us through this year's production on this episode of The Front Row. Listen here or on the NPR One App.

On our final episode of Beyond the Report, we meet author and Texas Tech University PhD candidate, Jessica Smith. She’s lived all over the U.S. and has experienced all forms of sexual harassment…Lubbock is no exception to that. Now, she strives to hold a mirror up to society and highlight the microaggressions that lead to much larger problems.
 

The Vesper Concert Series of First United Methodist Church presents the British Choral Ensemble Voces8 this Sunday at 5pm.  Our guest, Dr. Seung-Won Cho, helps us unpack all the details on today’s show!

Researchers have explored robot technology for many years. Now, though, there’s a field of research that surrounds whether robots are legitimate agents with mental and moral capacities and how such perception contributes to human-robot interaction.

Two of the great holiday traditions in our community is the Carol of Lights and Carol Concert. To celebrate the 61st year of these events, Dr. Alan Zabriskie and Dr. Carolyn Cruse are our guests on today's edition of The Front Row.

We are in the Texas Tech University School of Music with Dr. Alan Zabriskie as well as Dr. Carolyn Cruse to talk about this tradition and what to expect from tomorrow's concert. For more, listen to the entire episode above or on the NPR One app.

Today on Beyond the Report, we meet Michelle Lewark who found herself isolated in an abusive relationship after running away with her boyfriend at 15. Eventually, her life was saved by the bite of a brown recluse spider. What started as a near-death experience, ended with a fresh start at life when she finally found the support she needed to leave her abuser for good.
 

Michelle recalls, “There was a financial account manager who was helping me with all my bills he gave me information on how to leave and said whenever you’re ready let me know.”