Oscar Wu felt pulled toward scientific research years ago. At age 15 and a sophomore in high school, Wu sent out queries to 50 research labs. The result through the years brought him internships at places like the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston, Rice, MD Anderson and Harvard, where he did work in the cancer immunotherapy lab.

Earlier this year, Wu’s extensive research experience helped him earn a prestigious Goldwater Scholar award.

The only charter school in Texas focused on young students with language-based learning challenges like dyslexia and ADHD is opening in Lubbock. The Condra School for Education Innovation this year will teach kindergarten through second grade. Plans are to add third grade next year.

Merinda Condra, the school’s superintendent, says the staff includes a diagnostician and two dyslexia therapists, 11 teachers – most with dyslexia training – aides, student teachers and volunteers.

This is a special three-part episode of Faith Matters with Tom McGovern, centered around the 50th anniversary of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. 

Joining Tom in this first conversation are the editors of A Fiftieth Anniversary History of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Margaret Vugrin and Richard Nollan.

For our second part we pulled from our archives with host Ted Dotts and guests Dr. Ted Hartman and Dr. Henry Shine discussing the very beginning, ground breaking stages of, and the early years of the Health Sciences Center.

Texas Tech professor Luis Herrera-Estrella is known worldwide for his work with cotton’s genome. And he’s the university’s first National Academy of Sciences faculty member. 

The native of Mexico will begins his second year in the Department of Plant and Soil Science this fall and he is hopeful that his research and that of colleagues he’s still recruiting will make a lasting mark.

It’s not easy to pick one happening to top all of Texas Tech’s accomplishments the past fiscal year.  Tech got its first National Academy of Sciences faculty member. Men’s basketball had a so-close loss in the NCAA title game and the men’s track and field team won outdoor NCAA title. There was also final state approval for new vet and dental schools. And Tech was reaffirmed as a Tier I research institution.

University president Lawrence Schovanec says all of it helps raise the school’s profile.

Feed sacks were in many homes across rural America in the middle of the 20th Century. The sacks held flour, salt and sugar, sometimes chicken feed. But once empty, rural Americans recycled the sacks, making them into dresses, tablecloths, curtains, quilts and other household items.

Several years ago, the Museum of Texas Tech University acquired the Pat L. Nickols Printed Cotton Sack Research Collection, which numbered about 5,600 pieces. An exhibition featuring about half of the museum’s 6,000 feed sack holdings are now on display.

David Naugher began keeping honey bees 19 years ago. A year later he started working with homeowners and others to help them get rid of unwanted hives under house eaves, in attics, crawl spaces or even in sprinkler boxes.

Removing hives isn’t Naugher’s vocation – he’s an engineer with Texas Tech System’s Facilities Planning & Construction team - but he enjoys sharing his knowledge about his honey-bee avocation.

Sarah Miller had two interests in her last couple of high school years. She did well in science but also in reading and writing. She pursued the latter first after she felt intimidated by Texas Tech classmates who came from high schools that heavily stressed science and math. She got a bachelor’s of arts degree in Humanities in 2013, while minoring in French.

Pablo Ziegler
Milongueta
Muchacha de Boedo
Francanapa
Milonga del Adios

Pedro Giraudo - Vigor Tanguero (2019)
A Octavio Brunetti
A Campo Abierto
La Rabiosa
Con un Nuda en la Garganta
Chicharitta

Kara Frame is a video producer for NPR, she's most known for producing the explainer series, "Let's Talk: Big Stories, Told Simply," and also films for the Tiny Desk Concert series, both at NPR. She also has personal projects, mainly focusing on veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.