by Cheval John

To say that the weekend was busy for songwriter Allen Shamblin is an understatement. The 1982 graduate of Sam Houston State University was recently recognized as a Distinguished Alumnus along with four others including former SHSU president, James Gaertner at the Distinguished Alumni Gala last Friday and will be inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame along with Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson tonight at the Renaissance Nashville Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. 

We caught with Mr. Shamblin to get his reaction on being selected as a Distinguished Alumnus and on getting inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

What’s the Word: Congratulations on being selected to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. What does it feel like?

Allen Shamblin: To be honest, I haven’t quite processed it yet. The feeling is quite overwhelming  and it’s more than what I can actually take in right now, so it will be a few years down the road before I can tell you what it was like because I’m still in a state of shock over it all.

WTW: How has Sam Houston prepared you for what you are doing right now?

AS: Well, I think it prepared me in a lot of ways. When I was here, I was a marketing major. In taking business classes, it helped me to understand the business side of life a little better. In the music industry, it is easy to get tripped up in finances and if you are in the industry for over a period of years, you will need to have your business taken care of. So I feel that I was prepared here at Sam to take care of the business side of the arts. That is why they call it the music business.

WTW: Can you take us to the time when you got discovered?

AS: At the time, I was a real estate appraiser in Austin. After coming home from work everyday, I would write songs. I was at Wyatts Cafeteria one day with the lyrics of the song that I had written the night before when Linda Orsak, the sister-in-law of legendary fiddle player Johnny Gimble, was standing in line next to me when I was reading it to my co-worker. I was able to play my song for her and she took me over to Mr. Gimble’s house and we played it. Afterwards, she sent the cassette to her best friend, Martha Sharp, who was the executive vice president at Warner Brothers Records in Nashville, Tennessee. Just meeting Linda in the cafeteria that day literally changed my life. It was a big deal.

WTW: You are also about to be inducted as a Distinguished Alumnus at the Distinguished Alumni Gala on Friday. How much does it mean to you?

AS: It means a whole lot. First of all, I am extremely proud to be an alumnus of Sam Houston State University. I love the school, the campus and the people. After all of these years, to be honored with this award and to be brought back, is very, very special to me. I was not a distinguished student when I was here, but it all worked out and I am thankful that they brought me back.

WTW: Tell us about the time when you wrote the song “He Walked On Water” that Randy Travis recorded? What was it like hearing it?

AS: It was incredible to hear it. I wrote the song at one of my lowest points. I had moved to Nashville and was struggling really hard and the song was a gift. It came in a special way at a special time. It is a personal song to me because it is based on my great-grandfather and for Randy Travis to record it and then to hear it on the radio, it was like a dream.

WTW: You co-wrote the song “I Can’t Make You Love Me” by Bonnie Raitt with Mike Reid. Can you describe that moment?

AS: That was an incredible experience. Mike and I worked on that song off-and-on for a few months and when we finished it, it was an incredible feeling. He leaned over the keyboard that he was playing on and said, ‘Don’t you ever forget this feeling in the room right now. Money and awards will not equal to what we are feeling at this very moment.’ It was great to be a part of that. It was a huge gift and a blessing to have Bonnie Raitt sing that song. She did an incredible job and made the song her own.

WTW: The hit single “The House That Build Me” that was recorded by Miranda Lambert, what was the process in writing the song and afterwards, listening to it?

AS: That song actually started eight years ago when my co-writer Tom Douglas was in Utah. We wrote the song and people were not connecting with it. So we put it away for about five years. Later, he called me and said, ‘Let’s revisit this song.’ So we returned to it and after all those years, the flaws and the holes in the song was real obvious. It took us about a hour and a half to fix it. We took some things out of it, change a line or two and felt that we had made it a lot better. It went on hold, which means that the producer will ask you not to play it for anyone else. It was on hold for Blake Shelton, the husband of Miranda Lambert. While he was picking her at the airport, he had the song with him and played it. When she heard it, she asked if she could record it. We were thrilled about that and it turned out well.

WTW: On George Strait’s new album “Here For A Good Time” you co-wrote a song title ‘Poison.’ Can you tell us what it is about?

AS: ‘Poison’ is about falling in love with things that can hurt us really bad or even kill us. I felt that it was a subject that needed to be explored and to find out why we love things that would hurt us. I wanted to shed some light on the subject.

WTW: What advice would you give to current students here or to anyone in general who have a passion for something, but don’t pursue it?

AS: I would say, whatever your deepest passion is, pursue it with all of your heart . Pray about it and give it a shot. For several years after college, I chased money and I was miserable. When I began to chase my dream, money didn’t matter that much, even though I needed it. I am more happy because I am doing something that I love. We get one chance at this life and it is very short. You do not want to go through life and say, ‘You wish you would have done it.’ Win, lose or draw, step up to the plate and swing for the fence.

Three SHSU students had the opportunity
to do something that many dream of doing: spending a year in Japan.

Mass communication major Junko
Yoshimaru, sociology major Andrew Smith and graphic design major
Edwin Calvillo studied at Momoyama Gakuin University in Osaka, Japan
during the 2010-2011 school year. Momoyama has an exchange agreement
with Sam Houston State University through the  Office of
International Programs that allow students to pay tuition on campus
as if they were taking classes at SHSU.

They recently returned from their trip
and are taking classes towards their graduation within a year or two.

I caught up with them to talk about
their experience studying abroad in Japan.

What’s the Word: How did the process
began?

Junko Yoshimaru: I applied and fill out
the necessary forms to get there. The selection process kind of made
us nervous because they were four people applying and the university
only accepts 2 students per semester. Since the three of us wanted to
go for a year, they made an exception to accept the three of us
because of that.

Edwin Calvillo: It was pretty straight
forward as to what to do. I waited until the very last minute and I
was rushing the week that I had to leave. It was horrible for me.

WHW: That’s really awesome! So once you
all got there, what were your feelings and what was it like?

JY: For me, it felt like I was coming
home, even if it was a different region. I am originally from Chiba,
in the central region of Japan. We studied in Osaka, located in the
south. It’s a different culture even though it’s the same country, so
I felt like this is where I belong.

Andrew Smith: It is a complete opposite
of America when going to Japan and you feel that way anywhere when
studying abroad. It was exciting, but at the same time very scary
because I didn’t speak any Japanese when I first got there, so they
was definitely a language barrier to overcome. Overall, it was great.

EC: I was ready to go because it was a
lifelong dream. Andrew and Junko took the plane together while I flew
on my own. I had taken Japanese for a while, but I didn’t take the
classes as serious as I should have. So when I got off the plane, I
thought that I was so big that when someone spoke to me in Japanese,
I didn’t understand at first. So I stood there until another person
came up and told me in English what that person said. It was a
humbling experience.

WTW: Can you explain the class
structure in Japan?

JY: At Momoyama, we take classes once a
week, sometimes twice, depending on how many credit hours we receive.
It was nice. In order to fulfill the visa requirements, everyone had
to take at least seven courses, but we were not getting credit for
some of the courses.

AS: In Japan, they gave two credit
hours per class, instead of three, so some of the professors were
like ‘hey this is only two,’ so I had to take basically the same
thing, like a 400-level class at SHSU. It was an o.k. Trade-off.

EC: I am on the complete opposite
because I am an art major and Momoyama did not have an art program,
so I only went to learn Japanese, but I wanted to do an art study in
Japan. For a while, it bothered me, but then I realized that my
Japanese was getting better and from that moment, it didn’t bother me
anymore.

JY: The first semester that I was
there, I was able to take a few mass communication classes in
Japanese, but in the second semester, they did not offer anything.
Unlike America, they didn’t have a lot of  “hands-on” courses, so
you just sit in the class and get lectured.

AS: That’s a good point that she made
because a lot of the classes here in America, the teachers interacts
with the students. In Japan, the teachers just lecture and the
students takes notes. I got so used to it there that in classes here,
when the teachers call on me, I am thinking, ‘How do I respond?’

WTW: What did you do outside of class
while in Japan?

JY: We taught English classes the
entire time that we were there.

ES: My students ranged from the ages of
two to sixty-seven years old. It was a lot to handle, but they were
enthusiastic about learning English. I always keep in touch with the
students in Japan.

AS: I really enjoyed teaching English.
We worked with younger kids and in some private classes, they were
retired people that wanted to learn English. It was really fun
talking to people.

WTW: What was it like coming back to
the United States? Did you re-entry shock?

AS: Yes, I did! When I went to Japan, I
had culture shock where I was getting use to it. When I returned, I
was shocked at how different everything seemed. I felt like a foreign
here than how I felt in Japan.

JY: For me, I was missings some things
in America like driving and some of the freedom to express yourself.
In Japan, you are reserved, so I kind of missed being open. But then,
I was thinking, ‘Oh, it was so nice not to drive.’ When I returned, I
was so tired of driving.

ES: It was good to see my friends and
family when I returned. Later on, I was thinking, ‘Oh, these people
are so loud here!’ Nobody was that loud in Japan.

WTW: What advice would you give to
those that want to study abroad, especially now that everything is
globally ‘connected?’

JY: I would say, ‘Go for it’ because it
broadens your horizons and experience another culture. You learn how
other people think and how they work. It is such a great experience,
especially in the Asian cultures, because it is a complete 180 from
the western world, not just in the languages, but in the mannerisms
as well.

AS: If you grow up in the same place
all your life, you would think that it is the norm. Once you travel
abroad and see other cultures, you see what it’s really like. Just
because one culture do something a certain way, doesn’t mean it is
correct. Everyone works together to get the job done. It is good to
study abroad because you learn a culture and a different language.
Also, some things are lost in translation and the more languages you
know, the more you will get out of understanding the world a lot
better.

ES: The one thing that I didn’t like
about studying abroad was leaving the friends that I had made in
Japan. Not only did I made friends from Japan, but I also made
friends from different countries who were studying abroad with me.
Having to say goodbye on my last day was really sad.

JY: One thing that I do appreciate
about studying abroad was allowing me to learn more about America and
to appreciate the customs of the United States. It was a really good
thing for me.

by Cheval John

What does business professor Sanjay Mehta, Ph.D., sociology professor Lee Miller, Ph.D., and education professor Joyce McCauley, Ph.D. have in common? Is it the fact that each one of them have spent time overseas? Yes, but that is not the only thing they have in common.

They are one of the members of the Engaged Scholars Committee at Sam Houston State University (SHSU). The Engaged Scholars Committee was the brainchild of Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs David Payne, Ph.D. and is made up of professors that represent each of the six colleges at the University.

One of the responsibilities of the committee is to create an atmosphere that will encourage students to build on SHSU’s traditions of public service and community engagement. The committee has brought greater visibility to community engagement by the recent Carnegie recognition of SHSU as an engaged campus. Additionally, the committee is fostering an environment where more faculty offer Academic Community Engagement (ACE) courses. These courses require students to be involved with the community and will begin in the fall of 2011.

An example of  an ACE course is Marketing 570, a graduate level course that is taught by Dr. Mehta. The objective of the course is for students to create a marketing plan for small businesses throughout Huntsville. Dr. Mehta choose a small business from a list of businesses that are recommended by the Small Business Development Center. The class is divided into teams of 3-5 students. The course is designed as a competition, where by they compete with one another to develop the best marketing plan. Each of the groups presents their plans (with 5-10 unique ideas) to the business owner. After the presentations, the owner helps Dr. Mehta select the best marketing plan. According to Dr. Mehta, “out of the 60-70 businesses we have written marketing plans over the past 10 years, roughly 90% of them are still in business today.”

According to Dr. Miller, they are three things that students will get from taking an ACE course:

1. Students can apply what they are learning in the classroom and means more because they see that knowledge matters in the real world.
2. As students are engaged in their communities, they are learning from their communities and are bringing it back into the classroom
3. Students are learning that they can make a difference in their communities

On a very practical level, students in ACE courses also gain experience in organizations associated with their field of study. This is experience that can be used to build their resumes and make them stronger candidates for jobs when they leave SHSU.

Dr. McCauley is the chair of the Engaged Scholars Committee and she believes that the students will benefit from the courses because applying what is being learned in a real world situation helps to make course content more meaningful. Because of the committee’s efforts, Sam Houston has achieved the Carnegie Foundation’s classification of “Community Engagement.” It is one of 161 public intstitutions nationwide to receive that classification in 2011.

“Receiving the Carnegie designation is a great accomplishment,” said McCauley. “It took two years of gathering data and each of the members was dedicated to this and it was worth it in the end.”

For those wondering if they should take an ACE designated course, Dr. Miller has this to say:

“When you are involve with any organization through an ACE course, and you do a great job for them, then the supervisor may be willing to write a letter of recommendation that will set you apart from the competition for a job when you graduate.”

For more information about the Engaged Scholars Committee, and to see which classes are designated as an ACE course, visit the ACE website at: www.shsu.edu/~ace