Pictured: Accepting the Quit of Behalf of the Mowerys, Associate Vice President Anna Ingram, left, with Honors Students, Sam Pollen and Skylar Fondren.
By: Dr. Andrew Yox, Honors Director
At a 20 April dinner, students and friends of Honors Northeast presented film patrons, Jerald and Mary Lou Mowery of Mount Vernon with a special commemorative quilt. The quilt, created and donated by Ann Finch Goodson of Hughes Springs, and Donna Burns of Royce City, embraced colors and motifs of the most recent honors film on the Texas Suffragettes. The Farmersville (Texas) Quilt Guild also had a role in its creation. Conceived in polycotton, and representing the multifaceted endeavors of the Texas feminists one century ago, the quilt involved technical challenges that invited outside suggestions.
Honors Director Dr. Andrew Yox notes: “Since 2014, Jerald and Mary Lou Mowery have faithfully supported our film initiatives in honors. With their support we have completed nine films—all in niche cinema, concerning regional themes, and they have already provided support for our tenth film coming up, on the circuit riders who brought the Church to Northeast Texas. The films, involving scholarship, technical alacrity, student leadership, and public service, have, in turn been a significant source of accolades for over 100 honors students. This would include former film directors Matthew Jordan, Kayleah Cumpian, Brenda Godoy and Jessica Velazquez who all won significant scholarships down the line such as Jack Kent Cookes. The Mowery film donation gifts therefore have kept on giving in remarkable ways!”
The Mowerys have also donated to other causes at NTCC and within the honors program over the years. Jordan Chapin, NTCC’s current All-USA-Team scholar, a designation reserved for only twenty students in the nation, is also the college’s second recipient of a Russell-Mowery Scholarship, thanks to a gift from the Mowerys.
The most recent feature-length film of Honors Northeast to receive a Mowery donation, on the Texas Suffragettes, is now affixed to the honors website and available to the public at: www.ntcc.edu/honorsfilms
