Věstník (West, Tex.), Vol. 62, No. 46, Ed. 1 Wednesday, November 20, 1974 Page: 3 of 32
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Texas Digital Newspaper Program and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Slovanska Podporujici Jednota Statu Texas.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
MĚ
:5
Wednesday, November 20, 1974
VĚSTNÍK
FEATURES
Czech class at Hill Junior College, taken Tuesday evening, Oct. 29th. SL President Nick Morris is shown
kneeling in front, with James Mendl, the instructor, to his left, and Alden B. Smith to the left of Mr. Mendl.
Dr. O. B. Bailey, HJC President, is shown on the extreme right, and Eugene Maroul, who was instrumenta!,
along with Alden Smith, in bringing Czech to HJC, is shown standing second from the left. The studénťs
shown here are listed at the end of the aceompanying article. (Photos courtesy HJC Publicity Dept., William
Hélms, photographer).
CZECH AT HILL JR. COLLEGE
MEETS WITH GOOD RESPONSE
Forty-nine initial enrollees in a
Czech language course — tlíe ma-
jority for credit!
The fall of 1974 marked the be-
ginning aínd thefirst time that ae-
credited Czech is being taught at
Hill Junior College at Hillsboro.
The initial enrollment of 49 stu-
dents must be something of a
record for a number taking a be-
ginning course in the Czech lan-
iguage. After registration was fin-
ally completed earlier this fall,
there were 49 a ctive and enthus-
iastic students enrolled, with some
26 taking it for college credit. Col-
lege officials were and are over-
whelmed with the response and are
already making plans for the
spring program.
The lion’s share of the credit for
getting the Czech course into Hill
Junior College belongs to Alden
Blanar Smith, aided and eneourag-
ed by a fellow instructor at HJC,
Eugene Maroul. Alden Smith is a
member of SPJST Lodge No. 54,
West, and Brother Maroul is a
member of SPJST Lodge No.. 112,
Guy. They convinced the board of
regents and the administration, led
by President Dr. O. B. Bailey, that
Czech would be received well at
the college. It was then agreed to
offer Czech as a part of the reg-
ular curriculum. as a credit course
in the fall enrollment program.
The college was fortunate in
securing the Services of 'Mr. James
Mendl, a graduate of the Czech
courses of instruction at Texas
A&M University under the latě
Dr. John M. Skřivanek and, more
recently, Professor Joseph J. Skři-
vanek. I first met James when he
was -teaching Czech at El Campo
High School in 1972. He had also
taught Czech the previous year,
1971, which means that he had
taught Czech at El Campo High
School for two years. He was suc-
eeeded by Mr. Clifton Wehglar,
who has also been teaching Czech
at E'l Campo High School now for
two years, making a total of four
years that Czech has been offered
at El Campo HS. Einrollment at El
Campo hais also been sizable and
has been persistently high. James
was (and is) enrolled for graduate
work in Slavic languages at the
University of Texas when Hill Jun-
ior College tapped him for the in-
structor position earlier this fall.
He commutes from Austin every
Tuesday evening. The class is held
every Tuesday for three hours.
It was my privilege to visit
the school, the class, Mr. Mendl,
and Dr.' Bailey on Tuesday eve-
ning, October 29th. It was also m.y
pleasure to present, on behalf of
the SPJST, our annual contribu-
tion to Hill Junior College. I was
also privileged to speak to the class
for a few moments1 and enjoyed
some pleasant repartee with the
students and instructor. When
asked how many of the students
were members of the SPJST, ap-
proximately half of the hands in
the class were raised. A number of
the students are from the West
area and are former friends and
acquaintances. The class also • in-
cludes students from the imme-
diate Hillsboro area, Waco, Grand
Prairie, Penelope, Mt. Calm, Itasca,
and other communities within a
rádius of 30-40 miles. Of the, origin-
ál 49 enrollees, the present en-
rollment stands at 43, which is ai
very good persistency standard,
and 3 of those' 6 were from one
family who had previously com-
muted all the way from Ennis ev-
ery week. The enthusiasm and
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Sefcik, R. J. Věstník (West, Tex.), Vol. 62, No. 46, Ed. 1 Wednesday, November 20, 1974, newspaper, November 20, 1974; West, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth626005/m1/3/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Slovanska Podporujici Jednota Statu Texas.