In the News: Comets Making Headlines

Enthusiasts of the sculpture art world are talking about a current exhibition curated by UT Dallas alumna Leigh Arnold MA’10, PhD’16 at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas. The exhibition was recently reviewed in The New York Times, which credited Arnold, assistant curator at the Nasher, with putting the show together. “Groundswell: Women of Land Art,” explores the work of female artists in creating works that are often built in a landscape rather than art that is mobile and can be moved from museum to museum. The land art movement even constructs works that aren’t permanent and are eventually erased by the elements. The Times called the exhibition, “a fresh and fascinating attempt to update the land-art canon.”

The Dallas Morning News recently featured UT Dallas graduate and first-year teacher Téa Lopez BS’23 in an article about a problem many Texas schools are experiencing. The story reported on the findings of a task force appointed by the governor to study why the state’s school systems face challenges recruiting and retaining young teachers. One suggestion is a teacher residency program like UTD’s Teacher Development Center. Lopez completed the two-semester program while earning a bachelor’s degree in child learning and development. The program is designed to better prepare young teachers entering the classroom for their first teaching positions. Lopez teaches at Bush Elementary School in the Wylie Independent School District.

John Olajide BS’04, founder and CEO of home health technology company Axxess, was recently featured in a D Magazine article following a summer trip to Africa to attend the U.S.-Africa Business Summit in Gaborone, Botswana. A native Nigerian, Olajide is the vice chair of the Corporate Council on Africa and met with American and African political and business leaders to strengthen economic ties between the U.S. and Africa. According to Olajide, the Corporate Council on Africa focuses on helping facilitate more business-to-business and business-to-government engagements to promote trade, investment and goodwill. Olajide is a member of the UT Dallas Executive Board and is co-chair of the University’s philanthropic New Dimensions campaign.