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Our graduates carry our values and our vision into the world. They are the pioneering researchers, the heart-driven leaders, the inspired artists and the unstoppable entrepreneurs who stand out on a national stage. Their lives tell our story — one of hard work, eager discovery and the life-changing opportunities that spring from our supportive community. Every day. Since 1899.

International studies major and polyglot Leona Osinga has a global perspective, one that reaches from her home — a family farm in East Texas — to points as far as Europe and New Zealand. With the support of Texas State faculty, she’s made the world her classroom, seeking its lessons one language at a time.

Karen Chisum’s impressive record as the sixth-winningest active coach in NCAA Division I volleyball — and as a recipient of the university’s Distinguished Alumni Award — cements her place in Texas State lore even as she continues to build upon it.

Priscilla Davis was just 12 years old when her father, policeman Clinton Davis, was killed in the collapse of the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001. Today, she is a senior criminal justice major at Texas State, following her father’s footsteps and bearing a permanent memorial to him.

In 2012, the Texas State Bobcats will move from the Southland Conference to the Western Athletic Conference, advancing for the first time to the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision. With the same fatherly ethos in his voice, Franchione says he expects nothing less than excellence from the Bobcats.

Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) is a student organization that creates business projects to empower entrepreneurs and people in need. Through their endeavors — which in the 2010-11 academic year ranged from remodeling and furnishing housing for migrant workers to fill labor shortages on West Texas farms to helping local high school students fund rain barrels for their class gardens — Texas State’s team, one of the largest in the nation, implements real-world solutions for real-world problems.

Dr. Washington García has performed at prestigious venues all over the world, but the thing he finds most rewarding is teaching in Texas State’s School of Music and working with children from across the globe at Texas State’s International Piano Festival.

Dawson Muñoz knows what he wanted to do with his life — become an international entrepreneur — and with the help of a mentor at Texas State, he has stuck with his plan through junior college, a tour of duty in Iraq and four years in San Marcos. In September, the quest continues, as he heads to Spain to teach and research business issues with a Fulbright grant.

From his youth in drought-stricken West Texas in the 1950s to his work unearthing the richest archaeological dig of its kind in the world, Michael Collins has forged a body of work few can match.

Public school teachers of the 21st century face perplexing issues, from curricula that fail to fit all students, to diverse classrooms of students with different learning styles, to standardized tests that drive lesson plans. Texas State’s doctoral program in school improvement addresses these issues — and more.

Growing up in a disadvantaged community herself, LeKisha McKinley became determined to help youngsters in similar situations thrive in life and in the classroom. She started a community-based program to promote self-sustainability and economic independence.

Whether it’s going on a run with her dog Naya or staying busy around the Student Recreation Center, Graciela Sandoval has found ways to put her enthusiasm and energy to work. In addition to her job at the Student Recreation Center and her work on a master’s degree, she volunteers on campus, teaches exercise classes and encourages students to get involved.

Communication design students Gram Garner and John Yum told Professor Claudia Röschmann their dream jobs – to work in the much-revered world of Dutch design. With determination and the help of dedicated Texas State faculty, both men got the opportunity to see those dreams come true.

Discipline, drive, teamwork and focus are all terms that could be used to describe success on the basketball court, and they also describe Gordon Taylor’s way of life. He’s never without his notepad, where he records ideas and things to do. When he finds inspiration or hears something that he thinks is a good idea — no matter who said it or where it came from — he jots it down. One idea he filed away was inspired by the 2008 broadcast “Black in America,” a CNN series that chronicled the struggles and successes of present-day African Americans. Taylor watched the program, and an idea came him to found a nonprofit organization.

In a class about baseball’s role in American culture, Ben Sullivan found a vehicle to write about his mother’s experience with Lou Gehrig’s disease, and inspiration for his other creative work. In fact, the paper accomplished more than he ever expected. It provided some catharsis from a tumultuous adolescence. And it sent two very different people, student and professor, on a journey through heartbreak and pain and will take them both to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Born to acting, producing and playwriting parents, Texas State’s new musical theatre director Kaitlin Hopkins was a show business baby. The art of acting, the songs of the stage and the business of Broadway run through her veins. And it’s that familial connection with the world of musical theatre that helped her give birth to one of the most innovative, challenging and relevant musical theatre programs in the country.

Christina Conlee’s interest in the ancient people of the Nasca region of Peru wasn’t spurred by the series of huge lines and figures built in the desert. She wanted to understand the culture of the people who created them, their rituals and their motivations, and her work has been chronicled in a documentary for the National Geographic Channel and National Geographic magazine.

Few members of the class had any experience with recording or editing video, but Oskam managed to find enough experienced students to create several teams, who set out for Fort Hood and other sites around Central Texas, armed with cameras and microphones. The students, many of them with full-time jobs and some with families, made time on nights and weekends to get to know the families and shoot both video and still images. Oskam and the student teams attended everything from a parade in nearby Taylor to a layette party for dozens of young parents.