SFA’s planetarium in the Cole STEM Building will offer two shows on Saturdays starting Oct. 12.

The planetarium has public shows every Saturday with group shows available throughout the week upon reservation.

“Earth, Moon & Sun” will be presented at 3 p.m. and tackles concepts associated with the Earth-moon-sun system, including eclipses, lunar phases, the seasonal changing of constellations, and the physical nature of the sun and moon. It is geared toward children ages 7 to 13 but open to all ages. Tickets are $3.

“From Dream to Discovery – Inside NASA” is scheduled for 4:30 and 7 p.m. Tickets are $6 for adults and $4 for children, students, and faculty and staff with ID.

“This show is all about how NASA designs, builds and tests robotic spacecraft that explore our solar system and the universe beyond,” said Ed Michaels, planetarium director. “It is truly amazing what humans can do when they dare to dream!”

For more information, to make a group reservation or view the schedule, visit planetarium.sfasu.edu.

Human Resources will offer professional development training each month throughout the fall semester.

HR 101, for administrative staff, is schedule for Oct. 14.

For session details, visit myTraining and click “Browse for Training.”

Author Gary Pinkerton will be the guest speaker during a lunch-and-learn program hosted by SFA’s Stone Fort Museum, from noon to 1 p.m. Oct. 24 in the Culinary Café, located in the Education Annex, Room 121.

During lunch, Pinkerton will discuss his newest book, “True Believers: Treasure Hunters at Hendricks Lake,” which chronicles the story of a 150-year-old Spanish silver legend and the people who believed in it enough to hunt for the treasure.

Copies of Pinkerton’s book will be available for purchase at the lunch. Tickets are $10 each and must be purchased in advance. The meal will feature a Mediterranean menu.

Purchase tickets online at sfasu.edu/stonefort, or call the museum at (936) 468-2408 for more payment options.

SFA’s College of Sciences and Mathematics will hold a kick-off celebration for JacksTeach, a new STEM teacher preparation program, from 5 to 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 14, in the JacksTeach Center, Bush Mathematical Sciences Building, Room 103.

A replication site of UTeach Institute, a nationally recognized program, JacksTeach lets students earn a four-year degree and a secondary teaching certification without adding additional semesters of coursework.

Representatives from the Greater Texas Foundation, the T.L.L. Temple Foundation and the James I. Perkins Family Foundation will be in attendance. Faculty and staff, as well as anyone interested in teacher preparation or STEM education, are invited to attend. The event is come and go.

For more information, call (936) 468-3960, or email jacksteach@sfasu.edu.

SFA’s International Film Festival will continue next week with a screening of “Camila’s Awakening” (El Despertar de Camila) planned for Monday, Oct. 14, with a pre- and post-discussion led by Dr. Dianne Dentice, associate professor in the Department of Anthropology, Geography and Sociology.

Closing this year’s festival is “I Girl” (Yo Niña) scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 16, with a pre- and post-discussion led by Dr. Anne Smith, professor of philosophy in the Division of Multidisciplinary Programs.

Both events are scheduled for 7 p.m. in Dugas Liberal Arts North, Room 142.

The screenings are free and open to the public.

Foreign film standards vary from those in the United States, and topics may address controversial subject matter. Use your discretion in deciding whether to view these films. Each film will feature English subtitles.

In honor of National Coming Out Day, the Office of Multicultural Affairs will host a “celebration to promote LGBTQ+ diversity and inclusion and raise awareness about the community to SFA and Nacogdoches residents,” according to Tegan Mingo, OMA student ambassador.

In partnership with the Lumberjack Cultural Association, SFA’s Residence Life Department and Pride Nac, OMA’s celebration will provide food and entertainment while educating the community about accessible health services, safe spaces and more.

The free, public event will be from 1 to 4 p.m. today at SFA’s Ag Pond.

The Early Childhood Laboratory is sponsoring a Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center blood drive from 1 to 5:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 14, in the Janice A. Pattillo Early Childhood Research Center.

Participants must present a valid driver license to gain entry into the secure area of the building. Those donating will receive a free T-shirt and snacks.

Sign up in the ECL office, located in the ECRC, Room 101, or call (936) 468-4006.

Faculty and staff are invited to join the SFA Alumni Association and fellow Lumberjacks to kick off Homecoming with a music festival-themed celebration from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 15, at the Pearman Alumni Center.

The celebration will include complimentary appetizers, beverages, live music, giveaways and the start of the Homecoming online auction. There will be a cash bar, and life members will receive two free drink tickets.

The event is free to attend. For more information, call (936) 468-3407, or email alumni@sfasu.edu.

Volleyball:

SFA - 3 vs. University of New Orleans - 0

The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House will partner with the Nacogdoches Public Library and its National Endowment for the Arts Big Read Nacogdoches project to present a screening of Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 masterpiece, “Seven Samurai.”

A free, one-night screening of the Oscar-nominated film is scheduled for 7 p.m. tonight at Cole Art Center. Refreshments will be provided.

The story takes place in 1586 during the Sengoku period of Japanese history. A veteran samurai, who has fallen on hard times, answers a village's request for protection from bandits. He gathers six other samurai to help him. They teach the townspeople how to defend themselves, and they supply the samurai with three small meals a day. The film culminates in a giant battle when 40 bandits attack the village.

A fun evening of jazz featuring the Swingin’ Axes, Swingin’ Aces and the Faculty Jazz Combo from SFA will be presented from 7 to 10 p.m. tonight at LugNutz Bar & Grill.

The Axes will perform a variety of music, including big band favorites from the 1940s and ’50s, such as Glenn Miller’s “American Patrol” and Count Basie’s “Fly Me to the Moon.” More modern jazz styles will include Gordon Goodwin’s energetic Latin-style “Mueva los Huesos” (Shake Your Bones) and Tower of Power’s funky “What Is Hip.”

The Swingin’ Aces will perform several standards from the library of the Count Basie and Stan Kenton jazz orchestras, including “Put It Right Here,” “Just Friends” and “My Romance.” They also will perform a fun jazz rendition of “Take Me Out to The Ballgame.”

Concert tickets may be purchased ahead of time at the SFA Fine Arts Box Office for $10. Tickets at the door will be $15. For tickets or more information, visit finearts.sfasu.edu.

SFA’s School of Theatre will present scenes from the student-directed play “These Shining Lives” at 7:30 p.m. tonight, and at 2 and 7:30 p.m. tomorrow in the Downstage Theatre.

The play chronicles the strength and determination of four women, considered expendable in their day, who worked in a factory in the 1920s. Catherine and her friends are dying, but their story is one of survival in its most transcendent sense, as they refuse to allow the company that stole their health to steal their spirits or endanger the lives of those who follow them.

Tickets are $4. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407, or visit theatre.sfasu.edu.

Emily Brebach, English horn with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, will perform a guest oboe and English horn recital at 4 p.m. tomorrow in Cole Concert Hall.

The recital is part of the School of Music’s Friends of Music Concert Series and will showcase works by Eugène Bozza, Charles Koechlin, Maurice Ravel and Alyssa Morris, among others.

Brebach also will join SFA’s Dr. Abby Y. Held, faculty oboe in the School of Music, in presenting Oboe Etude Workshop Day from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 13, in the Music Recital Hall. In addition to working with SFA student oboe musicians, the presenters invite high school oboe students for a free workshop designed to help them master their All-State oboe etudes.

The SFA Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra of the Pines) will perform under the baton of its new conductor, Dr. Gregory Grabowski, at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 14, in Cole Concert Hall.

Among the selections on the program are Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy” and Leonard Bernstein’s “Symphonic Dances” from “West Side Story.” The concert also features a performance by Alina Nebzhidovskaia, one of the three winners of the School of Music’s recent concerto competition, on Alexander Glazunov’s Violin Concerto.

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.

A reception for the exhibition “Denali: Artists Respond to Music Inspired by Wilderness” is slated for 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17, in Griffith Fine Arts Gallery.

SFA’s School of Art hosts the exhibition through Nov. 21. Two languages – music and visual art – combine to create works of art made in response to chamber music composed in Denali National Park. The exhibition is a collaboration between the Elements Artist Group and composers from the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival’s Composing in the Wilderness Program, directed by Dr. Stephen Lias, composing professor.

In 2017, Lias led nine experienced composers into the backcountry of Denali National Park where they composed original chamber music inspired by their wilderness experiences and shared recordings of their compositions, musical scores, ideas and inspiration with the Elements' artists. The artists worked in a variety of media, including fiber art, ceramic tiles, painting, poetry and artist books to create 18 works of visual art, each one a personal response to a musical composition.

Admission is free. For more information, call (936) 468-1131.

SFA's A Cappella Choir will present “When the Poet Sings” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 18, at Sacred Heart Catholic Church.

Conducted by Dr. Michael Murphy, director of choral activities for the School of Music, the A Cappella Choir will perform works by Petr Eben, Norman Dello Joio, Giuseppe Verdi, Ivo Antognini, Elaine Hagenberg, Brandon Waddles, Felix Mendelssohn and more.

The concert also will feature the world premiere of Andrew Smith’s “Inspiration.” Dr. Ron Petti, director of collaborative piano, will accompany. The Colony graduate student Jacob Rivas will be featured as graduate conductor.

Sacred Heart Catholic Church is located at 2508 Appleby Sand Road. Admission is free, but donations will be accepted. For more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407, or visit finearts.sfasu.edu.

With the use of satellite and aerial photography, we get a view of the world we would otherwise not see.

The city of Brøndby Haveby, located just outside Copenhagen, Denmark, with its circular arrangements of neighborhoods, wouldn't be fully appreciated without seeing this view from above.

To see more, click here.