Professional advisors from SFA recently attended the National Academic Advising Association Region 7 conference.

Billy Harris and Trina Menefee, academic advisors, served on the conference planning committee. Harris developed the theme, “Let’s SALSA - Strategic Advising Leads to Student Achievement."

Dr. Brittany Fish, Student Success coordinator, made a presentation about establishing a successful peer mentoring program.

Henning was invited to participate in the Poets in Print Reading Series at the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

She will be reading with fellow poet Marcus Jackson. This prestigious reading series hosts poets who have made significant contributions to the field of contemporary poetry.

The Center for Teaching and Learning will host its first Open Classroom Initiative during the weeks of March 25 and April 1.

OCI is a coordinated event in which participating faculty members open their classrooms to colleagues for visitation and observation. The event is intended to raise faculty awareness of different teaching and learning methods, techniques and philosophies in different contexts. Its goal is to foster pedagogical conversations, build a community of practitioners and make teaching more transparent.

OCI is open to all faculty, staff, graduate and teaching assistants, and education students. Opportunities to observe online and face-to-face classes are available.

Participating faculty include Nick Long, Jane Long, Mychelle Smith, Amber Wagnon, Maggie Leysath, Lauren Burrow, Linda Black, Mark Montgomery, Sarah Drake, Kelsey Pelham, Angela Jones, Chrissy Cross, Joyce Johnston, Sarah Straub and Lauren Selden.

For a full schedule of open classes and to register, visit ctl.sfasu.edu/oci.

The Stone Fort Museum will serve as the venue for a St. Patrick’s Day concert by local band El Camino Real de Nacogdoches from 3 to 4 p.m. tomorrow.

According to band members Paul Driver, Jon Hall, Charlie Jones, Mark McLain, Robbie Roach, Craig and Michelle Smith, and Jesse Tingle, the band is East Texas’ answer to The Old Crow Medicine Show, an Americana string band based in Nashville.

The concert is free and open to the public. Weather permitting, the band will perform on the downstairs porch. Light refreshments will be served and include traditional Irish treats.

For more information, contact Carolyn Spears, Stone Fort Museum curator, at (936) 468-2408 or cspears@sfasu.edu.

In observance of spring break, SFA Today will pause publication after today.

Publication will resume Monday, March 25.

Baseball - 5 vs. Army West Point - 8

SFA’s School of Music will present a flute and piano recital when guest artists Meghan Bennett and Maria Lyapkova perform at 7:30 p.m. March 28 in Cole Concert Hall.

Their program features “Dance of the Blessed Spirits” by Christoph Willibald Gluck; Sonata for Flute and Piano by Anatoly Samonov; Black Anemones for Flute and Piano by Joseph Schwantner; and Sonata for Flute and Piano by Yuko Uebayashi.

The SFA concert is a joint presentation of the College of Fine Arts and School of Music. Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for seniors, and $3 for students and youth. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407, or visit finearts.sfasu.edu.

The Snow Pond Saxophone Quartet will perform a guest chamber recital at 6 p.m. March 26 in Cole Concert Hall.

Formed in 2016 by world-renowned saxophonist and pedagogue Dr. Fredrick L. Hemke, Snow Pond Saxophone Quartet is dedicated to continuing the legacy of Hemke’s life work of music making and saxophone performance. Quartet members are Yoko Kusaka, Maho Kuroda, Jack Thorpe and Kyle White, who have all studied with Hemke at the Fredrick L. Hemke Saxophone Institute at Snow Pond Music Festival in Sidney, Maine.

“All of the music on the program was written by American or Japanese composers or was inspired by American and Japanese culture," Thorpe writes.

Recital tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for seniors, and $3 for students and youth. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407, or visit finearts.sfasu.edu.

The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House, SFA’s historic downtown art gallery, will be open regular hours during spring break.

An encore screening of the film “Koo-Hoot Kiwat: The Caddo Grass House” will be at 2 p.m. March 24 in Cole Art Center. In the PBS film, which is directed by Curtis Craven, a Caddo tribal elder and his apprentice return to their ancestral homeland in East Texas to direct the construction of a traditional grass house.

Showing in Cole Art Center are the exhibitions “Caddo Contemporary: Present and Relevant” and “Frank Dituri: Il Sacro.” (The Sacred).

The Cole Art Center is located at 329 E. Main St. Regular hours are from 12:30 to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday; and from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday.

Griffith Gallery in the Griffith Fine Arts Building on the SFA campus will be closed during spring break and will reopen March 26.

All events and exhibitions are free to the public. For more information, contact the gallery director at (936) 468-1131 or the Cole Art Center front desk at (936) 468-5500.

Did you know there are no female leprechauns?

In traditional Irish folk tales, there are only male leprechauns. The diminutive, bearded men spend their time making and mending shoes, partaking in mischief, and hiding pots of gold.

For more fun facts about St. Patrick's Day, click here.