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Each month, Texas State University President Dr. Kelly Damphousse sits down with faculty members, staff, students, alumni, and community members for a conversation about all things TXST — the past, the present, and the bright future of the university.
Part of the TXST Podcast Network: https://www.txst.edu/podcast-network.html
- Are there, is there more than one NUTmobile or is it just one?
- There's one and only NUTmobile.
- Yeah. But that's it, you're it.
- So yeah. We like to say if you see us, you're one lucky nut.
- You're one lucky nut. I love it.
- Yeah. And we have also Mr. Peanut mascot as well.
- Do you have people writing these one liners for you? No? There's something similar, doesn't Oscar Mayer I think have like a-
- Yes.
- The hot dog mobile or something like that?
- We like to say they're a bunch of baloney, but...
- Yeah.
- Look at all the puns, I love the puns.
- I have a lot of nut puns for sure.
- Today I am really excited about having one of our alumni come back and she actually was a senior on my first year on campus and graduated in May of 2023, at the end of my first year here. Katie Krupinski, thank you for coming to join us today. Really excited to have you here.
- I'm so excited to be here.
- Yeah.
- Thank you for having us.
- So tell me about your back life, where you came from and why you came to Texas State and your time here.
- Yeah, for sure. So my name's Katie, as we mentioned. I grew up outside of Chicago, my family was moving to Texas, so I kind of had the opportunity to tour some schools and fell in love with Texas State. I actually applied the day of the deadline and I got in right away and I was pretty set on going there. And-
- What was it, when you... Did you come and fall in love with it or?
- Yeah, I-
- So it was a visit to campus?
- Yeah. I visited a couple schools in Texas. I did a tour of Texas State, I just thought it was absolutely beautiful. All the buildings and everything were just so pretty on campus and-
- Yeah. The architecture's unbelievable, isn't it?
- Yes.
- It feels a real Spanish feel, a lot of consistency among the buildings and so...
- Yeah.
- And it's hilly.
- Yes.
- I dunno if you know that, it's hilly here. Yeah.
- Mm, yes. I had all my classes in Old Main so I had the luxury of going up all the hills.
- That's awesome.
- Super fun. But I did really like how everything was more condensed in an area. I don't really love a college campus where all the buildings are all sprawled out over the place.
- Yeah. You can really, you can park in one place or bus to one place and then walk from class to class, right?
- Yes.
- Do you have like a favorite professor when you were here?
- Oh, that's so hard to pick. Everyone's so amazing.
- Yeah.
- Especially, I feel like in SJMC, School of Journalism and Mass Communications, I do really love Professor Price.
- Yeah, there you go.
- She's amazing. And-
- Faculty love to hear that by the way. 'Cause you know, you kind of toil in anonymity in your teaching and there's nothing like getting a note from a student after and going, "Hey, you really had an impact on my life," and so on, so. Yeah.
- Yeah, no, truly. And I spent a lot of time with Dr. Devlin, 'cause I was in a national student advertising competition my senior year. So I spent a lot of time working on that. We won second place the year that-
- Yeah.
- We were in it too, which was awesome. And Dan Schumacher from the radio station.
- Yeah. He's fantastic.
- I was in KTSW for three years, so, have to shout him out and-
- Dan's fantastic. Yeah.
- Jennifer Scharlach as well. Yeah, love all of them.
- That's awesome.
- No, totally, that's-
- Where'd you live your freshman year?
- I lived in Tower.
- Okay.
- So, yeah-
- Very good, sort of in the middle then.
- I lived in Tower and I loved it. I mean I was during the year of COVID so I only had like a year and a half of my freshman year before-
- Oh, you're of the COVID kids? Yeah.
- Yes. So I had my freshman year the first semester in the dorm and then the second semester in March we went back home and did everything online. So only had a year and a half in the dorm. But I really enjoyed it, I was in a living learning community at Tower too, so I made friends pretty easily, which was awesome.
- Yeah. Now in spite of having like an interrupted freshman year, you were pretty involved in campus, and so you were involved in-
- Yes.
- The Diamond Sweethearts.
- I was.
- And tell us a little bit about the Diamond Sweethearts. I see them all the time, so I know, but maybe our listeners don't.
- Yeah. Me and one of my best friends, who was actually my roommate in college, we both joined Diamond Sweethearts right away. I was in it for my first two years of college, so I basically lived at Bobcat Ballpark, I would say.
- Yeah.
- And I love sports, so it really helped me get involved with the athletic department. And then also sophomore year I joined KTSW and I was a part of their sports team, as well as community relations. So I was just always out and about on campus working events all the time, which was amazing.
- And then you did something that I think is really interesting, and I tell students this all the time, sometimes people say, "Well I looked at all the organizations and I don't really see one that is perfect for me." And you found one, I mean, also two actually. But then you said, "You know what, I wanna do this other thing," and so you founded an organization, which I love, I've had a little interaction with them as well. Tell us a little about The Sirens.
- Yes, of course. So me and a couple of my friends, ending sophomore year going into junior year, we co-founded Texas State Sirens together. It's a women empowerment organization at Texas State. And our first semester we had over a hundred members, which we did not expect. But me and one of the main girls that co-founded it, as I mentioned before, we both grew up in Illinois and we didn't know a single person going to Texas State, so we really wanted to offer an organization where students and undergraduate women could find connections and build resources on campus, whether it's just making a community of people, study groups, getting safety resources, transportation resources. Not saying that we weren't offered those things at Texas State, 'cause I think they do a really amazing job. But we just wanted to make an organization where everything would be easily accessible for women that are under collegiates at Texas State.
- Yeah. And it's going strong. It's one of those great things that you start something and you worry, I think, like, "If I leave, will this thing continue?" And it's actually continuing strong now, that, and they're a great bunch of young ladies for sure.
- Oh, that's nice of you.
- So my wife and I went and did a talk one evening with them and they were super sweet and so what you started is kind of a legacy for you.
- Oh that's so amazing to hear.
- Yeah.
- I'm really glad it's up and going strong.
- You know, sometimes people will say, "I work for peanuts," and they're talking about, I don't make very much money, but you literally work for Peanuts.
- I do.
- And let's talk a little bit about your job now. You graduated in May of '23 and then what happened after that and how'd you get to where you are now?
- So I graduated in May 2023 with my degree in public relations and a minor in business admin. And I moved to San Antonio, I worked as an event coordinator for a Hyatt Resort, so I was basically just working a ton of conventions, business conferences, but also any type of event, birthdays, quinceaneras, and I just found a love and passion for events. And I've always wanted an opportunity where I can have a job where I can travel and I heard about the Planters NUTmobile program, it's a yearlong program where you get to travel around the country, working events all throughout the nation and planning them, executing, also running their social medias, planning media interviews, so I thought it was a perfect fit for me. So I applied, actually, this time last year and I started in June 2024. So I've been doing it for about eight months, just traveling around in a giant peanut.
- In a giant peanut, you know... And there's something similar, doesn't Oscar Mayer, I think, have like a-
- Yes.
- The hot dog mobile or something like that.
- We like to say they're a bunch of baloney, but...
- Yeah. Look at all the puns, the love the puns.
- I have a lot of nut puns, for sure.
- Yeah.
- We used to be the same program and affiliated with them.
- Oh really?
- We're no longer affiliated because Planters got bought up by Hormel Foods in 2021. But we say that they're our salty sisters on the street. We see them around throughout the country, so we always meet up with them.
- Now, so we have mascots at the football games and little... I'm not sure everyone knows this, but there's actually like three or four people that can trade out because all, you know, four or five hours in a mascot uniform is, or costume is really, can be exhausting 'cause the heat and so on, so they swap out. And so different people in the same costume, which is also kind of awkward too because you're wearing a costume someone else just wore. But is there more than one NUTmobile or is there just one?
- There's one and only NUTmobile.
- Yeah. But that's it, you're it.
- So yeah. We like to say if you see us, you're one lucky nut.
- You're one lucky nut. I love it.
- Yeah. And we have also our Mr. Peanut mascot as well.
- Do you have people writing these one liners for you? No? That's good. So-
- I ab-shell-utely do. I'm joking.
- That's right. I can tell it's very professional. So I guess you must have a team with you, right?
- Yeah, we have a team. So three people, including myself, travel full-time on the road. We're called Peanutters. But more like Peanutter Marketing, so we're the ones planning the events, running the socials and doing media interviews, and then also driving and operating the vehicle as well. And then-
- Do you drive it on the freeway or do you tow it until you get there?
- Oh, we drive it everywhere.
- Everywhere?
- I drove it over to San Marcos earlier today.
- Now I got a know, can I get a ride in it?
- Yes.
- Oh my goodness gracious.
- Anytime.
- After this let's go, let's go after this.
- Let's go.
- Is it like a, it's like a car that's got a big peanut built around it, is that how it...?
- So it actually it was an Isuzu box truck.
- Okay.
- Have you seen those box trucks on the highway?
- Oh, yeah, yeah.
- Yeah, it was a 2017 Isuzu box truck, got converted into the shape of a peanut. Takes a little over a year to convert it into its shape and then it's been traveling full time, only one in the country, all throughout the U.S.
- So it's gotta be, and I've seen this before and sometimes you're driving along and you see like a 1932 Chevy there and you go by and you're kinda looking at it and you're waving and the people in there are waving back and they know they're odd, but you must get the same thing, even more so. Yeah.
- Oh all the time, I mean. And people are constantly honking at us on the highway, but we always say, "Any honk is a good honk," 'cause people are just so excited to see us. And I feel like a lot of people don't hear about the NUTmobile prior, so they just see a giant peanut on wheels on the highway and they're like, "What is this thing? Like this is nuts." No pun intended.
- Yeah.
- But we get a ton-
- No pun, you're intending the puns, don't kid me Katie, you've been working on this for a year now, so. Oh, I'm like, I'm always shelling out those puns.
- Yeah. Shelling out the puns. Oh my gosh.
- But yeah, I mean-
- I gotta keep up with you somehow.
- But yeah, we sleep in hotels, anytime we pull up to the hotel, you know, the hotel staff are always like, "What is this thing?" And pumping gas at a gas station.
- Oh yeah.
- Anywhere we go is essentially an event because people are gonna ask questions.
- Yeah.
- But it's amazing because we travel full time for the span of a year and we never have to find people, people always want to come and talk to us. And we always have positive interactions, no one's mad at a giant peanut truck, people are always, they're like, "Oh my gosh, what is this thing?" and want it talk to us, so it's really amazing.
- It's really interesting, but do you set up events, like you're going, "I'm going to Dallas and we're gonna go to the county fair or whatever"?
- Yeah. So we do a little bit of event research in advance. We have our corporate team with our two managers that plan events months to a year in advance. And we have a corporate event every three to five weeks. And then in that span that we don't have a corporate event, me and my team that are currently traveling on the road, we'll just maneuver our way to the next city for our corporate event. And then we plan smaller things in between. So we do a lot of college campuses, a lot of fairs and festivals like you mentioned. We do breweries 'cause beer and nuts pair well.
- I've heard that.
- But we really try to partner up with just a ton of local businesses and events in any city we go to.
- So where were you before you came here and where are you going next?
- Oh yeah, great question. We were just in San Antonio. We had an event this morning at a children's Methodist hospital, which is awesome.
- Oh interesting.
- Yeah.
- So the patients come out or are parents with them?
- Yeah, so my sister's a pediatric oncology nurse, we have very different professions, obviously. So yes she works with kids with cancer. We went to her hospital unit and we just brought our Mr. Peanut mascot out and we're able to pass out peanuts and stickers and-
- Oh so you've got a mascot in addition to the car.
- Oh yes.
- You're not the mascot, you're the car driver? Or sometimes you're the mascot.
- A little bit of everything. We all kind of rotate.
- So when I mentioned the mascot, you're used to that.
- I'm supposed to say Mr. Peanut's my boss, but..
- Yeah, that's funny.
- But I'm really close to him, so.
- Yeah.
- We all are.
- Okay. I got it, I get it. It's actually funny when you talk to the mascots, like no one's supposed to know who's the mascot is, and so at graduation sometimes they'll walk across stage with like the mascot feet on or something like that and go, "Oh you're one of the people, right." And so...
- Oh that's awesome.
- Yeah. So yeah, so you went in San Antonio children's hospital?
- Yeah, we went to San Antonio. My family lives there actually, so we did a hometown event and then just a couple local events in the area. And then we're going to Austin after this. But before Texas we were in New Orleans for the Super Bowl, which was really awesome.
- Oh. That's cool.
- Didn't go to the game, but we drove a ton of people to the Caesars Superdome, which was really awesome.
- Were you like giving rides? Like...
- Yeah, we planned a couple influencer rides, so we were able to film some content with them and then we were kind of picking up other people on the street that wanted to ride to the game.
- So you're like texting influencers and say, "Hey we're gonna be in New Orleans, you wanna ride with us?"
- Yes.
- Because they're looking for content too, right? And for them it's like, "This is crazy."
- Yeah.
- This is nutty. Sorry, yeah.
- No I love them-
- See, I'm good at-
- I love the nut pun.
- I'm working it in, yeah.
- You're a natural at it. I love it. But yeah, we basically just messaged a ton of influencers and it honestly worked out really great, we got a ton of amazing content. And honestly, it felt like an out of body experience, that weekend was, 'cause I've never been in a town where the Super Bowl was going on, it was just mayhem all over and we had Mr. Peanut Mardi Gras beads so everyone was like throwing them out the windows when we were driving.
- So what's next for you, is this a one year deal?
- Yeah, it's like a one year deal. The company that I work for, which the partner company is Hormel Foods, so.
- Oh okay.
- They're really gracious of like having Peanutters transition-
- They make chili and a lot of canned food-
- Yes.
- And so on.
- Yes. Wow, I'm very impressed, most people-
- I'm full of food knowledge, so.
- I love it. Yeah, Hormel Foods is an amazing company. I'm really happy that Planters owns them because they do a really great transition program, if you'd like to do a sales role and kind of sell all of Hormel's products, like chili as you mentioned, but they have Spam, Holy Guacamole, a ton of different other brands.
- You know, Spam is like the number one food treat in Hawaii.
- Yes.
- Yeah. People in Hawaii love Spam.
- Yeah.
- I grew up, we grew up in a trailer court and we ate a lot of Spam, especially at the end of the month.
- Oh really?
- I'm not a big fan.
- Yeah, it's okay.
- Yeah.
- I mean, I'm more of a peanut girl, but.
- If you fry it pretty crispy, it's not too bad.
- Yeah. I went to the Spam Museum when I did my peanut prep, that was basically my training for my job because our corporate office is technically in a town called Spamtown USA, so it has the Spam Museum and all that stuff.
- You are blowing my mind.
- First time I ate it, so, you know. I'm not gonna judge you if you don't like it.
- So maybe moving into the corporate world?
- Yeah. I'm really interested in staying with the company I'm on right now. The only opportunities that I'm seeing in Texas right now, I would love to, you know, move back to the Hill Country. My degree's in PR, so-
- Yeah.
- Would be really interested in like exploring like PR and marketing jobs in Austin, San Marcos and San Antonio as well.
- You know, there's a rule that if you're from Texas and you move away, you have to move back.
- Oh.
- I dunno if you know that, it's an unwritten rule, so we'd love to have you back. Thank you so much for joining us Katie.
- Thank you for having me. This was amazing.
- It was so awesome. I do have to tell you, I mentioned my interest in peanuts, it's 'cause my father-in-law was a professor at Texas A&M and he was the peanut researcher there. And the people who made the Payday candy bar were having trouble with the shelf life, it just wasn't lasting very long. So they went to him and said, "Can you create a peanut that will have a longer shelf life?" Because most candy bars have a chocolate covering and the peanuts will last longer. And so he spent a couple years developing the peanut, and now every Payday candy bar has the peanut that he invented. And then he passed away not long after that, and so they named the peanut variety after him, which is really cool. So when you come to our house as a visitor, we have a big bowl of Payday candy bars and I brought a Payday candy bar for you.
- Aw.
- To give you. And you can certainly eat it, you don't have to keep it as a souvenir, but I thought you might've had that. That's a memory of my father-in-law, Olin Smith, who was a great guy.
- That's so nice.
- And I learned at lot from him. And whenever I see that, I think of him and it's my favorite candy bar too, so anyways.
- Thank you for the generous gift. I'd love to trade you. I have some-
- Oh, you have something for me too.
- Yeah, honey roasted and salted Planters peanuts.
- That's excellent. I love that.
- I hope you like them. Thank you so much.
- Yeah, so-
- I love Paydays and I love that you have that background with peanuts and you know that peanuts are legume and... Well you know-
- All that history you have.
- He had these peanut plots and we had to go out there and part of my, one of my part-time jobs in graduate school was helping him pick peanuts and you know, I don't know if you know, but the branches go out and these spikes go down in the ground and the peanuts grow on the spikes, they don't grow in the roots. And so I just learned a lot about peanuts there and so yeah. Yeah.
- I love it. This is a full circle moment, right?
- It's awesome.
- And then you get to ride in a peanut, so it'll be amazing.
- Hey Katie, we've got this kind of tradition that we've started here, we ask viewers to submit questions to me and then we ask our guest to actually ask the questions. And so you are now the podcast host. And I've not seen the question, they're usually pretty good. Ask me the question and I'll do my best. I might ask you to answer it too depending what it is.
- Ooh okay. I don't know if I can answer this one.
- Okay.
- This is a little bit more personal to you, but what do you miss about Canada?
- Oh my gosh. Today's like today make me feel like I wish I was back in Canada where it was like this... Because I miss the snow and I actually miss the seasons. And I love the transition of the seasons. So my mom's birthday was September 29 and she always complained that it snowed on her birthday. So every September 29 I look and it's not snowing, in fact it's usually like 110 degrees here. And I kind of miss like the first snowfall. And you've been around snow, right?
- Yeah.
- Chicago and so on.
- Yeah.
- The first snow is awesome. And I actually think it's kind of romantic to walk around in the snow with the street lights and so on. My wife does not think that's romantic, it's too cold for her, she's from Bryan, Texas and so it's a little too cold for her. But I do miss that transition to the first snow day. Now the 20th snow day or the eighth month of snow is, it's gotten old for me. But then when spring starts to happen and the leaves start coming back to life and the grass starts to turn green, just all those transitions I like because it helps me kind of keep track of time. And if you're in a place, Texas has a little bit of seasonal change, but not too much, it goes from hot to cold pretty quickly. But I do kind of miss the season change, so.
- Yeah.
- I will say, I miss hockey 'cause I used to watch hockey all the time. But I've kind of like not been a hockey fan as much as I used to be because I've fallen in love with college sports and American college sports and I love watching our Bobcats play anything now. But we have a Bobcats hockey team and so I get to kinda live vicariously through them as well, so.
- I love that. What part of Canada are you from?
- I'm from Alberta. So if you go Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Alberta.
- Oh, okay.
- So right on the western side or the eastern side of the Rockies, so.
- And when did you... Now I'm asking you questions.
- Now you're asking me, yeah, fire away.
- And then when did you move from Canada to the States?
- So I, you know, I went to community college, got a law enforcement diploma, was a prison guard and I wanted to be a police officer, but I was prison guard. In 1984, one of my instructors talked me into going back to school and he said, "There's this place in Huntsville, Texas called Sam Houston State, and they got a big criminal justice program. I worked out a deal for you to go down there." And so in 1985, a year later after I got all my student loans together and so on, bought a motorcycle and drove down to Huntsville, Texas and got my degree and then met a girl who didn't wanna marry a cop or Canadian, and here I am some 40 years later, so.
- I love it.
- Yeah.
- Is that why you drive the motorcycle at all the football games too?
- Yeah, my athletics director knew I'd ridden a motorcycle before and so before the first game he said, "We should have you ride the bike out there," and so that's kind of what had happened. This past year was kind of fun, I don't know if you saw, my wife actually rode out there with me, so it was like our college days again riding on the bike.
- Oh, that's amazing.
- Yeah.
- I love it. I went to the Homecoming game this past November and I saw you out there and I was like, "This is awesome."
- Katie, thanks so much for joining us today.
- Thank you so much for having me, this was-
- Absolutely.
- An ab-shell-ute pleasure. And I'll cashew later tomorrow.
- Oh my goodness gracious, I can't keep up with you. Oh my God. Well we'll peek in on you periodically as well, so.
- I love it.
- Hey, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. It's always such a great opportunity for us to find out what's happening on our campus. And to the people who came here, whose lives were changed and then now who are out there changing other people's lives, like Katie has done. So thank you Katie for joining us. Thank you for joining us on the podcast as well. States Up everyone.