Shelly Vitanza:
Welcome to the LU Moment. Thank you for listening. I’m Shelly Vitanza, the Director of Public Affairs at Lamar University. Each week, we showcase the great events, activities, programs, projects and people at Lamar University. This past week, Lamar University has mourned the passing of Dr. Kendrick Alm, a faculty member since 2001.
Alm was a professor in the College of Engineering who taught mechanical engineering and has served as interim department chair since June 2020. He was a business speaker, an exceptional mentor, and always very enthusiastic towards the students and his research. He was acclaimed in the academic world and devoted himself to his discipline completely.
He mentored many students and worked with seniors on the capstone projects and was selected by faculty for teaching awards and by students for teaching awards. He was just loved by all and we are going to miss Dr. Alm here at Lamar University. Last week, we announced the Lamar University’s president, Dr. Kenneth Evans is retiring effective June 30th, 2021.
The search committee launched this past week as announced by the Texas State University System, which Lamar University is a member of. The system office is seeking nominees for members to serve on the search committee. The advisory search committee will be chaired by LU alumnus Texas State University Regent Bill Scott. It will be comprised of faculty, academic leaders, staff, students, and LU alumni as well as community leaders.
Very, very important position here at Lamar. Lamar is such as huge asset, contributing $236 million in economic impact to the community and is directly responsible for 3,800 jobs and this is a very important position. Nominations for the search committee will be taken until February 8th. If you’re an alumnus out there, you’re interested, then serve on our search committee, that would be great.
February is Black History Month and LU is celebrating in a few unique ways. This one celebration I’m really, really excited about: The premiere Black History Month travelling exhibit is coming to Lamar University February 15th. That’s a Monday. The Black History 101 Mobile Museum. That is an award-winning collection of more than 10,000 original artifacts of black memorabilia dating back from the trans-Atlantic slave trade era to hip hop culture. The mobile museum has reached thousands across America with the truth about black history in America through exhibits centered around various themes like slavery, hip hop, civil rights, Michael Jackson, really, really, fascinating information. It’s probably an exhibit that you could never get enough of. It’s going to be so overwhelming; I think. I’m excited to see it. The exhibit includes rare artifacts in categories including, but not limited to, slavery, politics, Jim Crow, science religion, education, news, sports, and civil rights. Now, that’s going to be on display at the Setzer Student Center on Monday, February 15th from noon until 5. So, you might want to check that out. I am super excited about it.
LU’s making its own history for the first time. A Moot Court Team advanced to the elimination round of the National Moot Court Tournament. This was at the end of January and Ali Hamza, a member of the team ranked one of the best overall speakers. In fact, he ranked 8th overall the speakers. This is a huge deal. At the national event, the LU team of Katey McCall and Ali Hamza progressed to the elimination round where they were narrowing to seated two to one, so they did an amazing job and we’re so proud of them. Both McCall and Hamza are both enrolled in the Reaud Honors College here at Lamar University. Yes, we have an honors college. McCall will graduate this May and begin law school at Texas Tech University School of Law. We’re so excited and Hamza has one more year, so he’ll be at Moot Court next year before he graduates and he also plans to attend law school, so we’re super proud of our Moot Court Team and all that they do to make Lamar University renowned in this area of practice, so congratulations to them. What else is happening at LU? Is that it’s not quiet around here. We’ve got volleyball going in. We’ve got golf and tennis. Typically, these are fall sports, but they’ve been postponed because of COVID-19. I look forward to a time when I don’t have to use the caveat: “due to COVID-19.” Volleyball, baseball, is cranking up, basketball is ongoing. On February 20th, Lamar University will play football at Provost Umphrey Stadium. I’m so excited. I can’t wait. I am thinking, though, we might like spring football. We’ve never played football when it wasn’t a hundred degrees right? We’ve never played in the Spring, so what if we like it? I mean, we could see a long-lasting, something we can do to promote the community for those of us who don’t want to be out there when it’s a hundred degrees. So, looking forward to that.
February 20th, Provost Umphrey Stadium. Blaine Morgan will make a debut as LU’s head football coach. Since he’s hired to December 2019. I can’t imagine the anticipation he feels. Get more information about all of Lamar’s cardinal sports at lamarcardinals.com. All the schedules are there, everything you need to know, so go and check that out. Last week, we visited with Dr. Andrew Victores. He is an LU alumni and now, an ear, nose and throat doctor here in Beaumont. You know, Lamar University just loves it’s alumni and since we’re in the month of love now, we thought we would continue to feature our graduates. This week, local business owner Erica Edgerly joins us. Erica, thank you so much for being with us.
Erica Edgerly: Yes ma’am. Thank you, I’m so excited! So, talk to us, when did you graduate from Lamar? Are you from the area, give us a little background about you? Yeah, so I am from the area. I graduated high school from Bridge Field high school in 2012 and started my freshman year at Lamar University in the Fall of 2012. I graduated from Lamar in the Fall of 2016 and became a business owner in March of 2017. So, I kind of just jumped right in after graduation with no idea of what I was getting myself into.
Shelly Vitanza:
Wow, so what classes did you take? What did you major in? How did Lamar University prepare you to just jump right in? I mean, that’s brave!
Erica Edgerly:
Yeah, it’s crazy, I was 23 years old when I became a business owner and an at-home business owner, two stores, multiple employees, tons of inventory, figuring out how to do all that. I graduated from Lamar with my bachelor’s degree in fashion merchandising and a minor in business. So, I took a ton of business courses, obviously and a ton of retail courses and had no idea what my life had in store for me. I graduated not really knowing what I was going to do. Just applying for jobs here and there. No real idea of what my path would be and then God just kind of laid this right in front of me. Like, here you go, this is what I have planned for you. I just trusted in Him. I dove right into the deep end. I worked at the businesses that I owned. I own two Merle Norman Cosmetic studios, one in Bridge City and one in Orange and I worked here all throughout college. I worked here four years part time while I was attending Lamar and loved my job and became a kind of well-known make-up artist in the area for events, high school events, proms, photographers, and everything and my boss at the time, I was graduating Lamar and she had come to me and my parents and told me that she was selling the studios and she wanted me to buy them. I thought she was crazy at the time. I was 22 years old, I was like, what business do I have owning a business? I have no idea what I’m doing. For some reason, I trusted her faith in me and my parents’ faith in me and we went in headfirst and purchased the studios in March of 2017, so it’ll be four years next month that we’ve owned the stores and we have gone through some incredible ups and really, really tough downs but we are still making it. We don’t really know what could have prepared me for this because I’ve felt like I was not prepared at all, but we have managed to do it and managed to still be up and running even through a pandemic, so we’re excited to still be here.
Shelly Vitanza:
Yeah, congratulations. That’s an amazing story and it sounds like opportunities just opened up to you, but you also are an incredibly talented person. So, fashion merchandising, I don’t think a lot of people realize that Lamar has this degree.
Erica Edgerly:
Yeah, I had no idea when I started here. I was a nursing major my freshman year at Lamar. So, I had no clue. My mom was a nurse and I always thought that that’s what I wanted to do. After my first semester, I hated it. I did not want anything to do with being a nurse I actually. I kind of had an odd story with Lamar because I had no plans of going to Lamar University. When I graduated high school. My brother went to Lamar he was very involved, and he was an ambassador and I think he worked in the office of student engagement, so he was very much like all around campus all the time. He loved Lamar, loved everything about it and I just wanted no part in staying in Southeast Texas. I was ready to get out of here, when you grow up, you’re like, what else is there to offer.
Shelly Vitanza:
You were probably wanting to do something different than you brother did, right?
Erica Edgerly:
Exactly, right. I didn’t want to have to live in his shadows in college, right. So, I was actually planning on going to Texas State University. I got accepted and then my senior year of high school, my uncle was diagnosed with brain cancer and he was only given a few months to live and it didn’t feel right to me to leave my family during this really tough time. So, I decided to stay here, go to Lamar my freshman year and okay, after my freshman year, I’m going to transfer and after my first semester, I could not have been more ready to transfer because I hated the nursing program. It was not for me. It was very much, obviously not my path. My mom convinced me to stay one more semester and finish out my freshman year and start at a new university my sophomore year so I could start fresh. One thing led to another and my brother got me really involved on campus and I ended up joining a sorority, Beta Ki Alpha, and I made my place at Lamar and never looked back.
Shelly Vitanza:
Strawberries and crowns forever, I got to tell you. You know, people don’t realize that there are more than 100 programs here at Lamar University, many of them some of the best in the country, and there’s a lot of activities. There’s Greek life, there’s more than 100 student organizations and that makes a big difference right? You plugged in and you got to know the people that would make a big difference.
Erica Edgerly:
That was the only difference. My freshman year, all I did was go to class and I would eat lunch by myself in the bookstore before we had that big set that we have now. We didn’t have that. I had lunch by myself in the bookstore, maybe with a couple friends who were from high school who went to Lamar and then after I was done with class I went to work, and I never really stayed on campus for any reason and as soon as my brother convinced to start getting involved, everything changed for me and I made the connections and then I found out like you were saying that there was a fashion merchandising degree that I could get. I was working, I’ve always worked in retail and boutiques and I loved retail my whole life. I just love making different connections with people like that. It always came really easy for me, so when I worked at a boutique in Beaumont, one of my coworkers was a fashion merchandising major at Lamar and I was like, I didn’t know that was a thing. I had no idea. So, I told my parents I was transferring my major, and they were like, “We never saw you as a nurse anyway.” They knew that that wasn’t the path for me, and I guess they just wanted me to figure it out for myself. Once I made those connections, and then, I mean everything just snowballed from there. It’s a great story because if you had gone off, you would not be able to work for the local business owner and you would not have the job you have now. We’re going to run out of time. I want to find out really quick, maybe give us one challenge and one thing that you’ve overcome in your business.
Erica Edgerly:
I would say, the biggest challenge for me was learning how to be a boss. I always felt myself to be a leader. I’ve never really had trouble with being a leader in certain organizations and scenarios. I learned that through my sorority as well and through different organizations in high school, but I never really understood what it meant to be a boss and have all the responsibility that I have and to do that so young, to start that at twenty-three and for my coworkers at the time to then become my employees, that was a really hard challenge for me. We figured out how to overcome it and we do part time work here. People come and go and that is what it is, but I’ve managed to hire some incredible employees who are probably the only reason that I’m still here today, because a business is only as good as their employees. But learning how to be a boss was so tough for me at so young. It made me grow up so fast to have all that responsibility at such a young age.
Shelly Vitanza:
Great story! I can’t even imagine being a boss at 23. You make Lamar University proud! We’re thankful that you are out there, you’re an alumni and your business is big and red every day, and I think that’s great. Thank you so much for sharing your story.
Erica Edgerly:
Yes ma’am. Thank you!
Shelly Vitanza:
We thank you for listening to the LU Moment. I’m Shelly Vitanza, the Director of Public Affairs at Lamar University.