The Student Speaker Bureau, HPU’s speech and debate team, won second place overall at the Texas Intercollegiate Forensics Association Spring Championship tournament held recently at San Antonio College in San Antonio. 

At Howard Payne University, interaction with students beyond the classroom is an important part of the university experience. How can faculty and staff find new and fun ways to relate with students?  Faculty member Lester Towell has an answer – Full Court Fellowship, student and employee basketball games played on a regular basis.  

Robert W. Cook of Granbury takes the People’s Choice Award at the 2012 Stars of Texas Juried Art Exhibit which was announced Monday.  Each year the People’s Choice award is selected through votes from visitors at the exhibit during the first week.

Howard Payne University senior Adam Hardy, like many students, leads a busy life. The Corpus Christi native keeps a tight schedule of class work, extracurricular activities and church involvement. Most of his sparse “free time,” however, is spent behind the lens of a camera, documenting life around him. 

Buddy Preston, Fire Marshal for Brownwood Fire Department, visited First United Methodist Weekday Preschool on Friday and brought Nika the arson dog to visit the students.  Preston talked about what Nika does and how she helps him investigates fires.  Preston visited with all the students, ranging in age from 2-5 years old.  He talked to the boys and girls about fire safety and how he investigates fires with Nika's help.  He explained to the students that she can smell over 200 different types of scents associated with fires.  He was the school’s second visitor this month.

The Stars of Texas Juried Art Exhibit drew artists from across the area for the annual paint off competition which was won by two Abilene artists.

Early Cub Scouts Pack 4 held their Pinewood Derby on Saturday as scouts showed their car building skills as their creations raced to the finish line.

As a long held tradition in the Cub Scouts, the Pinewood Derby teams an adult coach and a Cub Scout as they design, carve, paint, weigh, refine, and race the car.  The race takes place in 3 car heats and is divided by age groups.  Awards were presented for the fastest times in each group and then an overall grand champion is chosen in a final race of the first place winners.

A tradition at Woodland Heights elementary school each year, the annual Jump Rope for Heart event gave students a chance to exhibit their jump roping skills and raise money for the American Heart Association on Friday.

Several Howard Payne University faculty and staff members wore red on Friday in support of the American Heart Association’s “Go Red for Women” campaign for heart health awareness.