Sonya Lynch

The Signal Staff

One of the carnival rides featured at the festival.

Residents of LaPorte and surrounding areas celebrated their 54th Annual Sylvan Beach Festival and Crawfish Jam Saturday, April 24.

The 10 a.m. parade was free. Immediately following, the parade, the park was open to residents and visitors alike for a minimal charge.  Park visitors had a choice of live entertainment, a carnival for all ages, games of chance, and the opportunity to shop for arts and crafts under staked-down tents leading to Harris County’s only public beach.  The platform that welcomed live entertainment also introduced the pageant contestants eager to be crowned Miss Sylvan Beach. Continue Reading

Stephanie Lee

The Signal Staff

Stephanie Lee: The Signal

With summer quickly approaching, planning for fun summer activities becomes a subject on many people’s minds. For individuals not wanting to stray far from home, the Houston Zoo, located at 6200 Hermann Park Dr., is the place to be. Not only is the zoo a place to entertain children but it also offers a great educational experience for all ages.

The Houston Zoo has many exciting upcoming events for people of all ages to enjoy. One of the first events that will soon take place is the birth of 19-year -old Asian elephant Shanti’s calf.

Shanti was scheduled to give birth on Sat. April 10, but she still has not gone into labor. Continue Reading

Astros pitcher Roy Oswalt winds up on the mound.
Kirk Sides: Courtesy

Season opener falls short for the home team

Ryan Eldred

The Signal Staff

The Houston Astros opened the 2010 regular season April 5 with a loss against the San Francisco Giants. More than 43,000 people attended the game at Minute Maid Park to help celebrate the 45th anniversary of the franchise.

Festivities and pep-rallies took place outside Minute Made Park all afternoon. Bill Worrell, television broadcaster for the Houston Astros, said it best during the game by announcing, “Everyone in the ballpark has an extra step in themselves on opening day.”

Encouraged fan and League City resident Julia Gregory, who attended the game, said the atmosphere in the stadium was “reassurance to root for the good guys.”

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Lindsey Watson

The Signal Staff

Rain did not stop the spirit and fun of the 21st annual Chili Cook-Off. The day started off gloomy and overcast and by midmorning the rain started to roll in. This did not, however, hamper the participants and attendees at Chili Cook-Off Saturday, April 10 hosted by Student Life.

Chili Cook-Off made a comeback this year, since the event was not held last year due to staff shortages.

With a rock wall, two bouncy houses, karaoke and enough chili to feed an army, the day was off to a great start. While a rendition of “Summer Loving” was belted out on the karaoke machine, someone else climbed the rock wall. Children and some adults were scrambled through the bouncy house and took a plunge down the slide. The Chili Cook-Off proved to be a success come rain or shine.

“I was worried the rain would affect numbers, but we had about 300 people there including teams,” said Allison Scahill, coordinator of student life for activities and student organizations and the organizer of Chili Cook-Off. “The most important thing for me was to make sure people were having fun and that most certainly was the case.”

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The Vietnamese Student Association dances and sings Ghe Ben Sai Gon & Sai Gon.

Alicia Nguyen

The Signal Staff

Students representing different countries came together March 27 in Bayou Theater to showcase their cultural heritages. Cultural Extravaganza is a show put on by University of Houston-Clear Lake students to share their culture with the community through singing, dancing, poetry, food and much more.

The show is held once a year in the spring. It is the biggest event hosted by the Office of Intercultural and International Student Services this semester. Susana Hernandez, coordinator of educational and programming outreach, coordinated this year’s Cultural Extravaganza.

More than 500 people filled the Bayou Theatre to attend the 15th anniversary of this annual show. Continue Reading

Kara Rice

The Signal Staff

Twitter, Facebook, blogging, Skype, and texting were all nonsensical jargon to us a decade ago, lol, but thanks to social media and the Internet they are now part of our everyday vocabulary.

If Emily Post were alive today to see us navigating through social media sites on the Internet, she would probably be appalled at our general lack of manners and proper etiquette. The American authority on social behavior and etiquette through the early part of the 20th century, she created the Emily Post Institute in 1946.  The institute is now run by third generation family members and continues Post’s work by addressing modern societal concerns.

“There’s a tendency for every generation to look at the one preceding it and to long for the good ole’ days,” said Daniel Post Senning, great great grandson of Emily Post and spokesperson for the Emily Post Institute.  “Being a fifth generation person in this business, we have been hearing these complaints for 50 or 60 years. Every generation remembers the manners and etiquette of its youth and as manners change over time, people think they are disappearing.  That’s not necessarily true.  Manners are constantly evolving.” Continue Reading

Kelly Rathbun

The Signal Staff

Take a walk on the wild side captures a whole new meaning when visiting the Allison Hunter: Zoosphere installation.  This new virtual zoo can be seen at the DiverseWorks art space in Houston.

Hunter introduces viewers to a new and innovative way of looking at wild animals in their zoo habitats by using a site-specific, immersive video to enhance the experience. This audio-visual installation draws audiences into a subdivided exhibit hall lit only by the video projections of the life-size zoo animals that have been digitally manipulated to be free from their background habitats.

This zoo offers no designated paths or fenced-in enclosures. It allows viewers an opportunity to roam around and meet the animals that unexpectedly appear and disappear throughout the art space. To further enhance this experience, Hunter infuses the exhibit with high definition recordings of natural animal sounds: trumpeting elephants, birds in flight, herding zebras and barking sea lions can all be heard in this technological experience.   Continue Reading

Ashley Webb

The Signal Staff

Moody Gardens, located at 7 Hope Blvd., features the 10-story Rainforest Pyramid, one of the most complete reproductions of the rainforest.

When people hear the name Galveston these days, most immediately think “Ike.”

“It is hard to believe that a town that was once wiped out by heavy rains and 74-mile-per-hour winds can now pride itself with 90 to 95 percent of businesses open,” said Christine Hopkins, public relations manager, for Mitchell Historic Properties.

With spring break just weeks away, Galveston, Texas, is back on the map and ready for tourists and college students.

The Island’s rich history, family traditions, easy-to-access relaxation, and the enduring sound of breaking waves brings visitors to Galveston’s beaches generation after generation.  The warm Texas breeze makes Galveston one of Texas’ premiere spring break destinations, where visitors can soak up the sun on the Island’s 32 miles of beach access. Continue Reading

Pat Martin

The Signal Staff

Students gather mulch for the garden at the Baytown Habitat for Humanity home. Pictured from left: Gie Dinh, Hoang Luu, Nirmal Shrestha and Tracy McKinnley.

Christian theologian and founder of Methodism John Wesley once said, “Make all you can, save all you can and give all you can.” The most valuable thing a person can give is their time.

This past Saturday more than 130 University of Houston-Clear Lake students, faculty and staff members gave their time by participating in the UHCL Community Outreach Day.

Community Outreach Day is sponsored by the UHCL’s center for Student Leadership, Involvement and Community Engagement, or SLICE. The mission of SLICE is to develop leadership through service to the community. On Feb. 13, SLICE hosted six different projects throughout the community. Continue Reading

Jessica Jackson

The Signal Staff

William Ferriera, adjunct communication instructor

Service learning combines meaningful community service with academic instruction and reflection to enhance the learning experience. This type of instruction is unknown to many students unless they have taken a class like William Ferreira’s Speech Communication Theory and Practice course.

Ferreira, adjunct professor in communication, has more than 20 years of experience in television production, including five years with NASA television. He also has experience in educational and commercial broadcast, as well as medical and academic programming. He began teaching at the university level in 1968 for the College of Education at the University of South Florida. He has included service learning in his class curriculum since 1989 at Houston Community College and since 2006 at University of Houston-Clear Lake.

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