Tag: Nicholls State

B&G Restaurateurs Donate to Nicholls State University Athletics

A sizable donation from two Morgan City restaurateurs is set to benefit over 350 student-athletes at Nicholls State University, according to a news release from the school.

Brenda and Gregory Hamer Sr, owners and operators of B&G Food Enterprises, have donated $100,000 to Nicholls State University Athletics. The Hamer family has a history within the Thibodaux and Houma region and with Nicholls State University itself, as their grandson, Garret LeBlanc, is a former Nicholls Football player.

Hillary Charpentier, director of the Colonel Athletic Association, said of the Hammers’ donation, “as the lowest funded school in the Southland Conference, donor dollars allow Nicholls Athletics to compete on the same or higher level than our peer institutions. Support like this has a direct impact on all student-athletes here at Nicholls. Our student-athletes must receive the support they need to compete and succeed at the highest level both on and off the field.”

Previously in 2021, the Hamers had donated $50,000 to the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute so that state-of-the-art kitchen and cooking equipment could be purchased and maintained for Nicholls Students. As a result, the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute’s student lounge and culinary library was named the Gregory and Brenda Hamer Family/Taco Bell Student Lounge and Research Center. Gregory Hamer Jr, the couple’s son, was in the first graduation class of the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute.

Gregory Hamer Sr. remarked to Nicholls press that he and his wife had plenty of reasons to support the university in saying, “we have one grandson who played for the football team, and we have another who plays for them now. We also have businesses in Morgan City, Thibodaux, Houma, and Matthews. It just makes sense for us to support Nicholls. We’ve been proud to support this university for years, and we’re happy to be able to help them with this incredible facility.”

As a sign of their appreciation, Nicholls Athletics has proposed that the Tight Ends Meeting Room be named after the Hamer’s grandson and former Nicholls Football player, Garret LeBlanc, and their business, B&G Enterprises, pending approval from the University of Louisiana System Board of Supervisors.

The naming within the Boucvalt Family Athletic Complex is a part of a naming campaign that began in 2020 to raise money for current and future needs within Nicholls Athletics. The campaign’s initial goal was to name all areas within the facility, and each may be named after an individual, family, or business as per the guidelines set forth by the state of Louisiana, Nicholls State University, and the Donor Gifts Agreement. Funds accumulated from the naming campaign are used as both an endowment and for upkeep and maintenance within the athletic department.

Nicholls Athletic Director, Jonathan Terrell, commented on the recent donation by saying, “every student-athlete benefits from this. For them to be able to give from the heart is incredible because of how many people it’s going to help. We have this excellent new building, and with these dollars will be able to keep it in the best shape possible.”

B&G Food Enterprises, which was initially created in 1982 by the Hamers when they opened their first Taco Bell location in Morgan City, now operates over 150 Taco Bell locations across Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas and is the largest Taco Bell franchise in Louisiana. Gregory Hamer Sr. is a Trustee of the National Restaurant Associationand the past chairman of the National Restaurant Association Education Foundation. Hamer Sr. also served as the president of the Louisiana Restaurant Association and was elected to the association’s Hall of Fame in 2002.

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Nicholls Received Donation to House Displaced Students

After Hurricane Ida struck the southeastern portion of Louisiana, hundreds of college students who had just started their 2021 Fall semesters were, unfortunately, displaced. Luckily, many colleges and universities across the state had opened their classrooms, dormitories, and facilities to these displaced college students, including Houma’s Nicholls State University. In fact, in order to provide living spaces for three dozen of their displaced students, Nicholls has been renovating their South Babington Hall thanks to a $125,000 donation from the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, according to a press release from the school

The Baton Rouge Area Foundation, or the BRAF, was initially created in 1964 as a philanthropic organization offering relief and service projects across South Louisiana by working with local governments, partnering with nonprofit organizations, and issuing grants. The BRAF’s donation will be used to restore 18 dorm rooms that are located on the first floor of the building in order to provide living spaces to 36 Nicholls students. These students had previously lived off-campus, having been displaced by Hurricane Ida, but once the dorms are renovated they will have a place to call their home-away-from-home.

Lois Smyth spoke on behalf of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation as the director of their Donor Services, saying, “We understand that Nicholls State University received significant damages from Hurricane Ida, leaving many students homeless. The Baton Rouge Area Foundation is pleased to support the work taking place in the Bayou region and it is our hope that this grant will assist with accommodating displaced students.”

Nicholls President Dr. Jay Clune said of the donation, “While many of us are rebuilding our homes after Hurricane Ida, there are many more who do not have a home to return to. We are incredibly grateful for the generosity of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation. Because of this gift, students will no longer have to worry about having a roof over their heads or where they are going to sleep. This is what it means to be Louisiana Strong.”

These renovations will consist of the installation of refreshed and refurbished lighting, the application of new coats of paint to the bottom floor, and repairs made to the various ceilings, flooring, and furniture in the various dorm rooms. While these renovations are expected to make up a large sum of the total $125,000 donation, the school reports that any additional funds will be used to update the building’s heating and cooling systems. Luckily, the renovations are only expected to last under a month, so students will be able to move in and enjoy the newly refreshed rooms before the semester is over.

Jeremy Becker, the Executive Director of The Nicholls Foundation, referred to these renovations as the “first step” to be made in helping students return to the campus, but there are still plenty more who could use the help as well. He had reportedly said, “This is a tremendous gift from BRAF and it will assist many students, but unfortunately the need is still great. We learn every day of more students needing not just assistance to attend Nicholls, but simply to have a place to call home. We will continue our fundraising efforts to meet that need as best it can be met.”

Recently, the Nicholls Foundation created the Campus Emergency and Hurricane Relief Fund in order to help students, faculty, and staff who have been impacted by storms like Hurricane Ida. The money collected from donations made to the fund will be used to help the community of Nicholls State University recover from the storm and get back on its feet. Donations to the Nicholls Foundation’s relief fund can be made here.

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Nicholls Awarded Grant to Install Bayou Region Incubator

Thanks to a recently-announced $3.5 million grant, Nicholls State University will soon be the home to the Bayou Region Incubator according to a press release from the school.

This multimillion-dollar grant comes from the Louisiana Office of Community Development, as it is a part of their Block Grant CARES Act Program (CDBG-CV). The awarded funds will be put towards a Bayou Region Incubator that will give local entrepreneurs access to business consultations, various training opportunities, technical assistance, and funding opportunities. The incubator will also bring in multiple guest speakers to Nicholls’ campus, organize entrepreneurial pitch competitions, provide professional development opportunities, and host a variety of entrepreneurial workshops.

Executive director of the Bayou Region Incubator, Kevin Pitts, commented on the vital need for such an establishment for growing businesses, saying “as these businesses grow, they will create more jobs and contribute their fair share of taxes. All of this will help the local economy. While some businesses will focus on coastal dynamics, we will work with a diverse variety of businesses. These will be businesses that the Bayou Region can be proud of.”

The incubator identifies some of its primary objectives as enhancing a sense of resilience for entrepreneurs in a post-COVID-19 landscape by diversifying the surrounding, local economy and developing multiple strategies for businesses to adapt to. Some of these strategies will be used to respond to new economic trends that may emerge and other imaginable, unexpected challenges. In addition to these pragmatic objectives, the incubator also plans to organize several programs for minority-owned and women-owned businesses and to generally support business development and the creation of jobs in communities with low and moderate levels of income.

When the funding for the project was initially announced, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards emphasized the focus on economic recovery in the wake of a worldwide pandemic as a reason as to why the state is supporting such an initiative. Out of the total $3.5 million, $2.6 million will be used to construct the nearly 8,000 square foot facility this fall, and the remaining $900,000 will contribute to operating expenses.

Nicholls President Dr. Jay Clune said of the grant, “this grant will cement Nicholls State University as the economic heart of the Bayou Region. We expect the Bayou Region Incubator will produce everything from coastal solutions to innovative ideas in technology, healthcare, and more. Rebuilding our coast is more than physical land. It’s rebuilding the quality of life. And the Bayou Region Incubator will sprout businesses and generate jobs that will only augment the unique character of South Louisiana.”

The building, which will be located on the same “footprint” as Nicholls’ future Coastal Center on the corner of Acadia and Ardoyne Drive, will house collaborative workspaces, private offices, and a multifunctional conference room. All of the facilities within the incubator will be accessible by participating small businesses. At the conclusion of this 2-year grant, the Bayou Region Incubator will transition into a self-managed nonprofit.

The dean of Nicholls’ College of Business Administration, Dr. Marilyn Macik-Frey, said of the future facility, “this facility will be a place for entrepreneurs to access training, mentoring and space to make their dreams of a successful business come true. Helping ideas grow into viable businesses benefits the entire region through economic diversification and job creation. We are especially excited that the incubator will be on the campus. Students and faculty will have a resource in their backyard that allows them to transition research and creative ideas into viable businesses.”

With this new Incubator being housed on the campus of Nicholls, small businesses in the Bayou Region will be set up with the facilities, resources, and expertise needed to be successful and innovative in the competitive entrepreneurial landscape of not just South Louisiana, but the world at large.

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Nicholls to Partner with Michigan State to Research the Spotted Gar

A grant offered by the National Science Foundation has recently awarded two professors from Nicholls State University $1.6 million to partner with Michigan State to study the spotted gar fish in an effort to better understand the evolution of vertebrates, a Nicholls press release indicates.

This grant, offered by the NSF has been awarded to a trio of researchers, inducing Nicholls’ own Dr. Allyse Ferrara, distinguished service professor and co-principal investigator of the Bayousphere Research Lab as well as Dr. Solomon David, assistant professor of biological sciences and principal investigator of the Gar Lab, who is also expected to take the lead on the garfish spawning efforts. The team will produce spotted gar embryos for genomics research and help increase the availability of gar embryos for use by the greater scientific community at large.

The Enabling Discovery through Genomics grant offered by the NSF is set to fund advancements in the captive spawning (or observed birth) of the spotted gar, a species with ancient ties dating back 150 millions years. Many believe that garfish have the potential to play a highly significant role in the understanding of vertebrate evolution due to the genome of the garfish being so similar to that of land vertebrates, such as humans. Garfish are colloquially known to be a possible “Rosetta Stone” in the eventual connecting and translating of genetic information from more commonly used fish for various applications in the biomedical research community.

The Nicholls’ professors chosen to study the spotted gar will be working in collaboration with a third researcher, Dr. Ingo Braasch, Michigan State University assistant professor of integrative biology and principal investigator at the Braash Fish Evo-Devo Geno lab.  He will conduct the genomic research using CRISPR techniques.

Nicholls’ Dr. Ferrara, who is also the Ledet Foundation Endowed Professor of Environmental Biology, remarked, “we have worked on the ecology and production of spotted gar and other gar species for many years and with colleagues from multiple institutions including the University of Oregon and Michigan State. Together, we have discovered that gar are genetically more similar to us – humans – than are other fishes that are more commonly used as biomedical models. We are lucky to have the opportunity to continue working with these ecologically important and unique native fishes.”

Out of the various goals set forth by the researchers, one project aim is to refine garfish husbandry as well as spawning techniques and to develop a variety of models to test gar gene functions while making the spotted gar embryos and research outcomes available to vertebrate biologists worldwide. For, by making the findings widely usable and available, the team hopes to greatly improve biomedical understanding of vertebrates.

In addition to these project aims, the project is set to train both undergraduates and graduates from Nicholls State University and Michigan State University to take the lead as the next generation of vertebrate evolutionary biologists and fish conversationalists and to raise awareness about the ecological and biological significance of the spotted gar, thus placing a much-needed investment in our collective, scientific future.

Nicholls’ Dr. Solomon David spoke of the project by saying, “we are using an abundant natural resource, right out of our local bayous, for cutting edge science, while also providing our students with valuable opportunities to work onNSF-funded research,” said Dr. David. “ Through continued conservation and biological research at Nicholls and evolutionary developmental studies at Michigan State, we can highlight the value of a fish that has long had an undeserved negative reputation.”

The project is set to begin in 2021 and the implications of the efforts of the research trio cannot be understated in the scope of vertebrate advancement and understanding worldwide.

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Former Nicholls’ Football Player Named Athletic Director

The Athletics Department at Nicholls State University just announced their newest Athletic Director, former Colonel football player and coach Jonathan Terrell (BA ‘98), as reported by a NSU press release. 

Terell played quarterback and wide receiver for the Colonels from 1993-1996, and he returns to his Alma Mater as its new Athletic Director, aiming to take over the program that has continued to achieve new heights both on and off the field.

Other than his experience as a student athlete, Terrell has more than two decades of proven sales and coaching success, making him the school’s first Black athletic director in Nicholls history.

“I am grateful to Dr. Clune and the committee for giving me the opportunity to work at a place that I love,” Terrell said in a recent statement posted on the school’s website. “I am honored to be able to lead this department and continue the climb. Whether it’s in the classroom, on the field of play or in the community, we will be one team with one goal in mind, winning.”

Terrell rejoins the program while Nicholls is in the midst of historic academic and athletic success:

  • This past spring the combined Colonel athletic programs held a school-record 3.31 GPA and 10th year in a row of successful NCAA Academic Progress Rate scores.
  • The NSU Football Program has won back-to-back Southland Conference Championships and participated in the NCAA Playoffs three years in a row.
  • Nicholls’ Softball team won the 2018 regular season conference championship and played in back-to-back Southland Conference Tournament finals.
  • Nicholls’ men’s basketball team won the 2017-2018 regular-season conference championship.
  • Nicholls’ womens’ basketball team won the 2018 Southland Conference and participated in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in the school’s long athletic history. In 2018, the team was invited to the Women’s Basketball Invitational postseason tournament.

Over the past decade, due to its successful sports teams, Colonel Athletics have been growing largely in popularity with season ticket sales on the continual rise. In addition to increased sales, the athletic department received the largest single gift in Nicholls history to renovate and expand Baker Hall.

“An athletic director doesn’t win a single game,” said Nicholls President Dr. Jay Clune. “You need someone of superior judgment to put the right team of coaches in place to be successful. Jonathan Terrell has that judgment. Going into the search, I was looking for someone of unquestionable integrity and character who could raise money. I couldn’t be happier with our selection.”

“Jonathan Terrell set himself apart early in the process because of his love and passion for Nicholls. He is the right person to keep the momentum we have going and built upon it,” Lindsey McKaskle, interim athletic director and chair of the search committee said.

Terrell had returned to the Colonels once before in 2004 to coach quarterbacks during the 2004 season under coach Darrell Daye. This is about a decade after his time as a quarterback and wide receiver for the 1993-1996 Colonels with head football coach Tim Rebowe.

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Culinary Medicine Partnership

In partnership with LSU Health New Orleans, Nicholls State University proudly announced its latest offering– a two-week course in culinary medicine beginning in the summer session of 2019. The program began July 1st. Nine third-year LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine students are enrolled. They are currently studying the possible preventative effects that nutrition can have in treating chronic diseases, as well as the crucial, fundamental culinary skills and recipes to promote good nutrition. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, eating patterns and specific foods have proven to be effective treatments in some cases of epilepsy, rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular disease, colon cancer, type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension, metabolic syndrome, and acute cough.

Dr. John La Puma, the founder of ChefMD and Chef Clinic, defined culinary medicine as: an evidence-based field that blends the art of cooking with the science of nutrition. It is multidisciplinary in its way of blending art and science, which are arguably very similar in that they both take time, craft, and attention. Culinary medicine promotes the teamwork of physicians and nutrition professionals to prevent and treat patients’ illnesses by learning more about the food we eat.

“The Office of Undergraduate Medical Education is excited to offer this career planning elective to the Class of 2021. While students are taught the science of nutrition during their first and second years of medical school, the Culinary Medicine CPE gives them the opportunity to translate this into practical knowledge,” Dr. Catherine Hebert, the associate professor of clinical medicine and co-director of clinical sciences curriculum at LSU Health New Orleans stated. She continued, “It is not just about telling a patient to cut out salt and fat. It is about teaching them how to do this in a way that is realistic given the time and money constraints that we all face.”

During the course, students begin the day in the classroom. Here, they learn nutrition theory through lectures, case studies, and simulations that focus on such ailments as diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, heart disease, and obesity. In the afternoon, the third-year will move from classroom to kitchen in order to learn fundamental culinary skills and related recipes from chefs and other culinary professionals. What is learned in the morning is then created in the afternoon, meaning that the nutrition content learned at the head of the day is used in relevant recipes in the afternoon. The Culinary Department Head Chef John Kozar gave the example, “Let’s say they learn about diabetes in the morning, we will work on dishes appropriate for the diabetic patient in the afternoon.”

The learning does not stop at the walls of the classroom or kitchen. Students will also take field trips to Rouses Supermarket with a Registered Dietician (RD), tour the kitchen at Thibodaux Regional Medical Center, and test their new nutritional knowledge at local restaurants.

“This is an exciting opportunity for both Dietetics and the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute to have an even bigger impact on the community,” expressed Dr. Brigett Scott, associate dean of the College of Science and Technology and associate professor of dietetics. “What people eat has one of the biggest impacts on their health. Ultimately, the goal is that these future doctors will practice in Louisiana and promote the nutrition and culinary skills they learned to make an impact on the health of our community.”

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