By Melanie Escalante
On May 13 and May 14 at the United Supermarkets Arena graduating students will walk the stage, closing one door and opening another.
Bradley Hewlett, a third-year graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in playwriting, said after graduating he will continue the teaching career he started before he entered the graduate program. He accepted a position as a high school theater director in Houston and will continue to work on his craft by submitting and developing plays through different opportunities.
“The experience of sort of developing brand new plays with my students kind of got me hooked on how special that process is in theater, that we get to have a brand new piece of literature that then we try to figure out how to bring to life on the stage but of course, that’s always what we’re doing in theater but experiencing it from the side of being the playwright was a new sort of theater experience for me,” Hewlett said.
Bradley Hewlett. Photo Courtesy of Bradley Hewlett.
Hewlett said the collaboration between the School of Theatre and Dance and the Burkhart Center for Autism Education and Research has encouraged him in his career pursuits.
“You’ve got this opportunity to explore what we really mean by producing diverse theater and in this case neurodiverse theater so that’s another great opportunity I would say that Tech’s had that’s kind of filled that impulse for me as an educator of ‘how can we break more people into the arts that don’t always have access to them?’ and do work in combination with those studying theater and those that may be outside of something,” Hewlett said.
Hewlett said he encourages students to take advantage of all of the opportunities that circle around in the university setting.
“What I mean by that is things like lectures that are hosted by different groups, people in areas outside of your field, performances by all kinds of different groups that are here, lots of student organizations — I’m the current president of a student organization that’s an improv team — so all those kind of things I think are really important that gives you, not just extra resume things but extra like human experiences that are harder to find once you leave the university,” Hewlett said.
Haleigh Albrecht, senior psychology major from Grapevine, Texas, said after graduating she will continue her education at Abilene Christian University where she will participate in a two year program to earn a master’s degree in counseling psychology.
Haleigh Albrecht. Photo Courtesy of Haleigh Albrecht.
“I wanted to make the most of my degree and in psychology you really need to go further and get your master’s for it to be able to really mean anything out in the job force and I really wanted to do therapy or the personality disorder route, kind of focus on that so I really wanted to just learn more about my major more in depth at Abilene,” Albrecht said.
Albrecht said she plans on becoming a certified psychologist after graduating from ACU and will either work in therapy or with prison inmates with personality disorders.
“I kind of just want to help people who if they don’t really realize it at the moment, personality disorders can really fracture a person’s way of thinking and behaving so kind of just helping them out with it and helping them guide into their new I guess diagnosis of their personality,” Albrecht said.
Albrecht said she came to Tech as a geoscience major, changed her major to early childhood education and ultimately decided to pursue a degree in psychology. As a result, she has taken a multitude of classes that have helped her writing skills and professionalism.
“I can only imagine my parents crying when I cross the stage on May 13 but it’s very special, it’s a sense of accomplishment, it’s a sense of making your parents proud which I know almost every kid enjoys that more than their own excitement and their proudness,” Albrecht said. “Making your parents proud is what you’ve been wanting to do since you were a kid so it’s like the ultimatum of making your parents proud.”
Donovan Satchell, senior global studies and general studies major from Plano, Texas, said he has a fellowship with the U.S. Department of State called the Pickering Fellowship that will pay for his graduate program at Georgetown University where he will pursue a master’s of science degree in foreign service with a concentration in global politics and security. After graduating from Georgetown University in 2024, Satchell said he will enter the U.S. Foreign Service as a diplomat.
Donovan Satchell. Photo Courtesy of Donovan Satchell.
Satchell said as a first generation college student, not having much direction on what the next steps were became his driving force to pursue different opportunities and utilize the first generation office on campus.
“It makes it easier to navigate something that’s so complex as attempting to complete a college degree so I definitely felt lost when I first got here but I found it important to find community and by finding community I found my place among 40,000 students.”
Satchell said being an ambassador for the College of Arts and Sciences has also helped him in his college experience.
“By surrounding myself with likeminded people that are also ambitious helps drive me to be successful so although another ambassador may be wanting to go to medical school, seeing their work ethic and seeing how hard they’re working to pursue their career would push me to pursue my career to the fullest extent that I could,” Satchell said.
Satchell said he would advise students to balance social life and the work ethic necessary to achieve your career goals. He also recommends that students go to office hours since you never know what you’ll gain from those interactions.
“Your professors want to help you, they want to see you succeed but they don’t know what you want or what you need until you go and talk to them about that via office hours so that’s definitely something I would push,” Satchell said. “That’s how I’ve gotten all my letters of rec but also had someone to talk to that’s older than me and beneficial for me too.”
Satchell said even if he didn’t graduate his family would still be proud of everything he has accomplished and he’s fortunate enough to have them as his support system.
“They’ve sacrificed so much for me to be able to even be here, to have these conversations, to pursue this degree means the world to me and just knowing that I’m not stopping here, I’m going to be that trailblazer for my family,” Satchell said. “They took it one step up and I’m taking it a step higher and hope that future generations in my family can go and do things even bigger and better than what I’m doing.”
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