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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
- And then I again, just wanted, wanted to find my community, wanted to find my Bobcat family, aka my clutter.
- Yeah, your clutter.
- That's a group of bobcats. That's a group of bobcats. You didn't know.
- There is a clutter and there's three good words. Clutter, kindle, and embarrassment. And embarrassment of bobcats is a bunch of little bobcat kittens.
- Wow.
- I don't use that very often because I don't wanna like make fun of anybody, but. so I'm really excited about having two of my friends here. So, Kaison Ward and Raven Griffin are here. Thank you guys for joining me on the podcast here. Learn more about you guys before we get to into what you're doing here. So Kaison, why don't you just tell us a little bit about like where you're from and why you came to Texas State.
- Well, KDamp, thank you for having me.
- KDamp, you're the first one to say KDamp in the whole, the whole podcast. That's awesome.
- I love that. I'm from Galveston County, so Galveston, Texas.
- Okay.
- You know, I love my city. Shout out to the 409.
- I did my honeymoon there.
- I know, you told me.
- Yeah.
- What brought me to Texas State.
- Yeah.
- Man, just the community. I came here for Bobcat Day. I seen how tight everybody was. Everybody was so big on once a Bobcat, always a Bobcat.
- Yeah.
- You know, coming from a big, I'm a big family guy myself, so, you know, I wanted to come to where, where I felt that connection as well so.
- Are you oldest? Youngest?
- I'm the oldest in my family.
- Okay. Well done. All right, Raven, what about you?
- I'm from a very tiny town south of Houston called Engleton, Texas. It's like not far from Galveston County, actually.
- Okay.
- Went to high school there. I did a little bit of community college there also. And then-
- Which community college was that?
- I went to Brazosport Community College.
- Okay.
- And I was trying to, you know, just rack up as many classes as I could before transitioning to a four year.
- Were you doing that in high school or after high school?
- Yes, I started my, the summer before going into my sophomore year of high school.
- That early?
- Yes, it starts early.
- I mean, you must have been like 14 years old.
- Yeah, I, yeah, I was super young. I might have been 15, 16 maybe but I mean.
- I'm not very good at math.
- Yeah, whatever age you are, whenever you're a sophomore.
- When you get to be like, I'm 62, like everything under 60 is like really young. So, yeah.
- My parents were very big on, wanting the kids going to college.
- Did they go to college?
- No.
- Okay.
- I'm a first generation student. I'm the youngest of four siblings and none of them went to college. It wasn't really for them. And so college was very important to my parents. So figuring out where I wanted to go was really nerve-racking.
- Yeah.
- Especially with no prior experience.
- Yeah.
- Of like a big major college. So I toured and Texas State really caught my eye. It's honestly the campus, like the campus I feel like takes everyone's breath away. It really truly is one of the prettiest ones I've ever been to.
- I agree. I've been around the world literally. And it is one of the most beautiful campuses here. And also what's interesting, tell me if you feel this way, but sometimes people say, I'm glad my daughter goes to a small school like Texas State 'cause it kind of feels small.
- Right.
- Like interaction wise. Like people feel like, you hear people talk about the Bobcat family or whatever. It's huge, right? You got, if you're walking from one side of the campus to the other, it can wear you out. Right.
- It's a trek. Yeah.
- And a lot of hills.
- Lot of hills, Hill Country.
- Oh yeah.
- It is the Hill Country. But it kind of has a, like a small feel to it because especially if you get outta your room your freshman year and you get to know people and so on. Yeah.
- Right.
- What are you majoring in?
- I'm a business marketing major.
- Okay, what year are you?
- I'm a senior.
- Oh, it's almost here.
- Yes.
- When are you graduating?
- I graduate in August.
- Oh, okay.
- So I'm graduating a year early, but, and I'm actually not ready to leave.
- Yeah, I know.
- Don't want to.
- I get it. I don't wanna leave either. What about you Kaison?
- I'm digital media innovation major and I graduate in summer '26.
- Okay, you've still got some time then.
- Got some time.
- To relax.
- I'm like, I'm soaking it all in.
- Yeah.
- Oh yeah.
- So we talked about your majors, but you know, I think a lot of people think if you haven't gone to college, you think about professors, teachers, students and buildings and chalkboards, whatever. And you don't realize there's a whole lot of other things happening there as well. Things outside of the classroom that actually, I always tell people, you probably take more away from the university of things that happen outside the classroom than happen inside the classroom. So what are you members of any organizations or anything?
- A good, a good bunch.
- Yeah.
- I say I'll start off, I'm a student coordinator for Student Involvement and Engagement.
- Okay.
- So I'm a part of the street team for that.
- The street team. What does that mean?
- Yes. So we're all of Student Involvement and Engagement's events. You're gonna see us in the Quad, in LBJ Mall, on Sewell Park promoting those, you know, making sure they're catered towards students.
- Okay.
- I also am a part of Black Student Alliance, the Black Presidents' Council, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated, and National Pan-Hellenic Council.
- Okay. What about you, Raven?
- So I-
- That's a lot by the way.
- Yeah, mine's not that much. Just one. I'm the president of Texas State Bobcat Belles.
- Okay. Yep, that's right. Did, were you involved in Greek life at all when you came?
- No, I was interested. I think I knew I wanted to be a part of something.
- Yeah.
- I just didn't know where. And Texas State has so many great organizations and I think it's amazing that you can be involved in so many, but I don't know, Bobcat Belles they caught my attention and it stuck.
- There's, you know, and there's a lot of ways of doing this. There are some people who don't do anything. Like they just go to school. And that was kind of me. Like, I didn't know, 'cause I was a first-generation student like you. And I didn't know you should do things and there was no Greek life at all. So I wasn't really, I wasn't tempted by any of that, but, but there's some people who say, I'm gonna do this one thing and that's gonna be my thing. And there's someone like Kaison who's like, I'm involved in like 50 different things because that's your extroverted personality, right? So what attracted you to the Belles? Well, first off, what is the Belles?
- So Bobcat Belles is a spirit organization at Texas State and we work hand in hand with the football program just to ensure that there's a successful game day and that the faculty has everything that they need. And so we do different things on game days where we check in the recruits, walk them to the field. We also babysit the coaches' kids. There's a lot of them.
- Yeah.
- But they're all amazing. They're all really sweet kids. And the wives are very kind and the coaches are very kind.
- We've got a young staff and so a lot of them have kids that are under five years old.
- A lot, a lot of them. And I think it's just very important that we're doing the best that we can for them 'cause it just makes everything run so much smoother. And then beyond the football program, we do things in the organization as well for the girls. So they do, they have things like date party, and banquet. And it's kind of slowly, it does seem as though there's a lot of similarities in Belles that are similar to sororities.
- Sure.
- It's the same structure kind of. And so the girls have a really strong sisterhood outside of the football program also.
- Because you're not just there to do stuff. You're there to create opportunities for leadership and for professional and personal development and so on.
- Right.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- Yeah. So did you do it from your freshman year?
- Yes.
- Because you're like the boss now, right? But I think you all up there.
- I am. Yeah, somehow I'm the president. I don't know. They, I-
- Somebody had to do it.
- Yeah, I don't know how I got here, but I actually have a really, really great officer line. Our vice president is my best friend. And then the rest of the girls are absolutely amazing. I started my freshman year, my fall semester. You know, you have to submit your application. And then go through the, it's like a three day interview process and it's nerve-racking, but the girls make it so welcoming that you kind of forget you're interviewing when you're in there. And then I was in it my freshman year, my second year I ran for the public relations chair. And then I did that for a year. And then now I'm in the president spot.
- And actually it is in some ways like a sorority like Beth and I went to like the-
- Oh yeah, a reveal.
- The reveal. And so it, it felt like a, like a bid day kind of.
- It does, it does. I mean, on that day, like the girls find out that they made it and so they have no idea. I think we had told them like, you need to come, we try to do a different every year. Some years, you know, last semester you were there whenever you surprised them. They had no idea.
- Yeah.
- And then this semester we did tell them that they made it.
- Special guest might be coming.
- But we were like, we might have somebody coming to see you.
- Yeah, that's funny. And Beth loved it because she never, she didn't do anything like, like she had a job. She worked at Pizza Hut and she played piano at the church and never was really involved in this. And so now as an older person who's, you know, the chief volunteer at the university, she gets to kind of see a different side of this and be supportive of as well. So she loved that evening, it was a lot of fun for her. So yeah.
- I'm glad she enjoyed it.
- Yeah. So what about you Kaison? So you're pretty active in National Pan-Hellenic. Let's talk about that a little bit.
- So I currently serve as the president of the National Pan-Hellenic Council. We are made up of nine black Greek letter organizations promoting academic excellence, service, and then just brotherhood, sisterhood, just camaraderie and unity across campus.
- And there are nine organizations, right? So it seems like when I came here we had I think maybe six or something like that and so we-
- Yes, we're sitting at seven.
- Seven.
- Seven or eight. So actually we're the first non-historically Black college or university with all nine in Texas.
- In Texas, yeah.
- So, you know, we're, you know, as just adding on to legacy of Texas State, just continuing to make history. Our council is growing and as the school grows, we hope to grow our community as well.
- Yeah, so did you join your fraternity as a freshman?
- I joined as a sophomore.
- So sophomore.
- So first semester of sophomore right there.
- Yeah, so what'd you do your freshman year at that?
- Freshman year, I was a part of Black Student Alliance.
- Okay.
- I was a freshman coordinator for them. And that just got me, you know, skyrocket to me into all of my leadership positions.
- Were were you that way in high school or did you say, I'm gonna do something new when I get to Texas State, I'm gonna turn it on, I'm gonna like.
- You know, not really. In high school I was, I did theater and that was my lane, you know that.
- Yeah.
- That your thing, that was my thing. That's all I wanted to do. I was at theater rehearsal after school, you know, theater classes and things of that nature.
- Were you a singer?
- No, I was, I was an actor.
- An actor.
- You know.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, yeah.
- I was about to ask you to give us a few bars.
- I could not, not right now.
- What was your favorite role?
- Ooh. Okay, we did "Matilda the Musical" and I was Rodolfo.
- Okay, I thought you was gonna say like a tree or something like that.
- No, no, I was Rodolfo her, Matilda's dance teacher.
- Okay.
- Man, I enjoyed it. I loved it.
- And so did you want to do theater when you came here or?
- I did. I definitely heard Texas has a top theater program in the nation so.
- Like top 25 in the world.
- Yeah.
- And top three or four in the country. Yeah.
- Very true.
- Yeah, unbelievable. Do you go to productions here?
- I do.
- Okay.
- I think the last one I seen was "Romeo and Juliet".
- Yeah, "Romeo and Juliet". Really good, yeah. I think "Guys and Dolls" is coming up.
- Yes.
- So it'd be a really good one. What made you think about joining fraternity in your sophomore year? 'Cause a lot of people do it the freshman year.
- Personally it was service. It was a service for me. It was literally everything I was already doing with my organization. Alpha Phi Alpha was already, they were implementing that on campus as well.
- Yeah.
- And then I again just wanted to find my community, wanted to find my Bobcat family aka my clutter.
- Yeah, your clutter.
- That's a group of bobcats.
- That's a group of bobcats.
- You didn't know.
- There is a clutter and there's three good words, clutter, kindle, and embarrassment. And embarrassment of bobcats is a bunch of little bobcat kittens.
- Wow.
- I don't use that very often because I don't wanna like, make fun of anybody, but.
- Yeah.
- Look it up. It's real.
- Huh, okay.
- You can say next time you say instead of clutter say I was looking for my own embarrassment.
- So I like, let's do it.
- Yeah, it might be appropriate at some point so.
- It might be.
- So you kinda look at were, did you like have, did you go to like a session where you found out in like their presentations? Or you just like knew somebody and said, I'm gonna go with that group?
- Yeah, so every semester, so fall and spring semester we do a Meet the Greeks.
- Oh, okay.
- So each organization has their own table slash room and you kind of get to tour each table, each room to figure out, you know, just what organization fits the best for you. Hear their spiel, you know, just basing information that's, you know, available to everybody online, just about your organization.
- So Raven, let's come back to you. So you said you kinda like accidentally became the president. It doesn't happen by accident, right? Tell us like what has been like the best part of being a Belle?
- A lot of, I think what my, my greatest takeaways from Belles surround with is it's honestly the girls.
- Yeah.
- At first I think I gained a lot of maturity in myself throughout my first year or so of Bobcat Belles because you're learning, you're establishing yourself in a new environment, in a new town at a new school. And then once I stayed and then moved up to the PR position, I very quickly, you know, you grew in yourself and then you also are now seeing other people grow. So you're putting in a different perspective.
- Because you're being nurtured and all of a sudden and you get into leadership, you're the nurturer.
- Yes, you switch.
- Yeah.
- And that, that was really, really different for me to see 'cause I had never, I just never thought that I would look at it that way. But then honestly, I think I get the most, I feel the most proud whenever I see the girls experiencing growth and when I see them find their friends amongst the other girls and I see them hanging out one-on-one. I think that brings me so much joy 'cause it feels like I'm doing something right.
- Yeah.
- And also, you know, when we take the girls in like that amount of excitement and they're just so happy to be here. It's just nothing but positive energy. You don't get that very often.
- Yeah.
- You know.
- Part of both you guys' experiences, you're trying to create a subset of the Bobcat community. Like it can feel, I mentioned earlier, like it can feel kind of small in a big place. And the reason it feels small is 'cause you find your people, right? You find like how many people are in your fraternity?
- My fraternity we have 13.
- 13.
- Yes.
- So like, you'll never be closer to 13 other men than you'll be with that group, right?
- Yes.
- How many Belles are there?
- We have 80.
- 80.
- 80.
- So that's a lot, right? That's pretty.
- Yeah.
- But there's a group of people that were in your freshman class that-
- Oh yeah.
- Like best friends forever, right?
- Even the group of 80, I mean, and during meetings we usually have roughly around 30 to 40 girls that are active members. And those girls are so tight knit. Like they, everyone talks to everyone. Like it's a really beautiful thing to see.
- Yeah.
- 'Cause it's kind of hard, I think in college sometimes finding your people and finding where you belong. And it's nice that they have a warm spot to go to.
- I think it's part of your personality as well. Because I, again, being a first-generation college student, I didn't even know what I didn't know. And I didn't know that there were groups to join so I just didn't. I'm sure there were groups, I just didn't even know about 'em so.
- Well you don't, you have no idea that, that there's these things that are out there for you if you've never had any experience in it.
- Now in high school, were you like part of a cool group like the Belles or?
- I wasn't actually, shockingly so I was very big into acting and modeling whenever I was in high school.
- Look you get the two actors here.
- I know.
- Yeah.
- Wow.
- And then I, you know, I think I-
- You said modeling too?
- Yes.
- Yeah, me too. I did a lot of modeling.
- Did you I did you?
- I didn't do any modeling. No.
- Everyone can. I did a lot of that.
- I've been like, I'm in a lot of the before fit photos. Like, this is what you look like before and then this is what you looked like after.
- After.
- So yeah, modeling, acting, acting.
- Yeah, I did, I was involved in Girl Scouts, but not really anything major like any group in school. I didn't really step into that until college.
- Let's talk about academics for a little bit because sometimes students are balancing work and a student organization. Any, do you do have to go to class at some point? Do you, do you struggle sometimes with trying to balance all that?
- Honestly, I think it's about developing your time management skills.
- Yeah.
- You know, I think it, it was very hard for me.
- It's another super skill, another superpower, right?
- Yes, and it's something that you don't know that you have to learn until all of a sudden you've gotta learn it and then you're like, okay, I gotta get together. And I think I figured it out by trying to just dedicate like one day that I have the least amount of classes, like that day is gonna be for Belles. So anything that needs to get done, anything that I need to do, I'll get that all done that day. And I kind of just have to set out like, okay, this amount of time for this, this amount of time for this 'cause if not, you're gonna lose it.
- Yeah.
- Like it's very easy to get jumbled up and everything.
- Kaison, now you're in National Pan-Hellenic, but you're also in a fraternity. And then is there something else you're part of as well that's still part of the alliance?
- Yes.
- So that's three groups right there?
- Yes, yes.
- And classes, do you work somewhere?
- I, yeah, I work for Student Involvement.
- Yeah, that's hard. So that's four things now.
- Yes.
- And do you ever, do you ever go to class?
- I do go to class every day. Monday through Friday I have class.
- Thank you for answering the right way. Yeah, even if it's not true. That's right answer. How many hours are you taking?
- I'm taking 13 at the moment.
- 13 hours, that's a lot.
- Wow.
- What about you Raven?
- 15.
- Wow, 15, that's a lot. That's good. That's why you're graduating so quickly. Yeah.
- Yes.
- Yeah. So how do you balance all that Kaison?
- Personally going ahead what Raven said just time management, but specifically for me, I started writing things down. I have a physical calendar and then my virtual calendar in my phone. So anytime I get an event or a meeting, throw it in my calendar when I get home write it down.
- Yeah.
- Emphasis on write it down 'cause our brains we forget really easily. And so making sure we write something down is really key.
- It gets worse. You know, sometimes, I saw this story the other day. Someone said they were back in their bedroom and someone coughed in the living room, they went out there, they, the pizza guy was there still waiting to get paid. Like they went back to the bedroom looking for the wallet and they forgot the guy was there. Then when you get old, stuff like that happens to you. So I was never a calendar guy until I got as a faculty member. I just kind of remembered stuff and I had post-it notes all over the place. Super disorganized. But having your phone and having the calendar there, like I, if I miss something it's because it didn't get in my calendar somewhere. Because I just kinda live off that and I go like minute by minute I know where I'm supposed to be and sometimes I have to build in like, like I gotta eat lunch at some point, right, so.
- You're like 30 minute nap.
- Yeah or nap. Yeah, I put naps in there. It's a great idea. One of the things though, and you actually said something pretty interesting that you have, like, you look like the day you have the least number of classes is when you do your volunteer stuff, at some point I have to like schedule like no meetings on a certain day so I can just get stuff done. Like, so Thursdays are kind of like my day where I don't really schedule things and now everyone's all, well the only time they can meet is a Thursday and so I'll put that in there. But if I don't, all I do is just meet and meet and meet and I don't get things done. So you guys will figure that out. But so tell me about what's your favorite experience that it doesn't have to do with your organization here at Texas State?
- Oh, it has to be, it has to be Sewell.
- Sewell, yeah, okay.
- It's gotta be Sewell.
- You know, it's funny, I get to drive by there all the time on the way home from work or going somewhere and it seems like this spring is like supercharged there.
- Oh yeah.
- It's like in February, one day it was like 85 degrees I went up there must have been three, 4,000 people there.
- Oh yeah.
- It gets to the point where like people, I mean you're laying your towel down right next to someone else.
- Yeah, you're taking control of the spot, right?
- Yeah, you're gonna create a friendship with this person. You're so close to them.
- That's funny.
- Yeah. It has been pretty packed. It's just so beautiful.
- Yeah.
- And I mean the river is the same temperature all year round and it's absolutely gorgeous. We keep it clean. Like I think it's great that we get to enjoy it.
- What about you? You can't say Sewell Park now.
- You can't say Sewell Park. I think my favorite would either be New Student Orientation or Welcome Week. Just, you know, meeting new faces and finding new people. I'm really big on helping people find their clutter or their embarrassment. Just, you know, just helping 'em find their people. I promise you, look that up. It's embarrassment, it's a real thing.
- I will. But yeah, just, you know, helping those people find their community. It's really big. And that's a big experience Texas State brings to me every single year.
- The last couple of falls we've done something called Jumpstart. So it's kinda like you're gonna jump in the river at the end, but you gotta jumpstart your freshman career, bring all the freshmen together outside of LBJ, have a big stage set up with a DJ. It was a lot of fun and a lot of student organizations are up there and it was, it's, I think for many students, it's the first time they kind of come together and go, okay, I'm in college now. And then like a couple days later we did the class photo on the football field and I think it kind of is a moment to kind of like make it real for people. Well thank you guys for sharing a bit about what's going on in your lives and what's going on at Texas State. Thank you for serving as great role models and leaders of the young people in your, you have some, you know, you're becoming a role model for people you don't even realize, but people are looking up to you and that's what your career will be like because when you leave here, you're gonna start all over again. Like you'll be at in a business and you're gonna start at the bottom again. But over time people will be looking up to you and depending on you as well. So thank you guys for sharing your story. I have under this pillow here a question and Raven, I'm gonna give it to you. I don't ever see the question and so I have no idea what's gonna say, but this is a question that came from a listener and it's for me. But you get to be like the podcast host here.
- All right, this is a good question. I'm actually curious myself. What is your go-to midnight snack?
- Oh, I'm terrible about this 'cause I make terrible decisions after midnight and I'm a night owl. So like Beth is like, she goes like, sometimes I look around and it's like she's gone, she's gone to bed and I'm watching Dateline murder mysteries and so on. And my, I can't, I'm always thinking like, what's going on today and trying to get my social media posts done and then I'll go, oh God, I'm hungry right now. And so to me it's cereal and-
- Really.
- And I'll start rummaging around, oh there's some Raisin Bran, but I like Honeycomb and Golden Crisp. When I was a kid they used to call it Sugar Crisp, but I think they've changed the Golden Crisp now. So it's terrible. Kinda sugary breakfast cereal and a bowl of milk. This is terrible. I'm embarrassed by this, but I believe there's nothing better in the world than a sandwich that somebody else made for you. Like if you make a sandwich, that's okay, but if someone else makes one for you makes it's like the best. And I like peanut butter sandwiches, but you know, Beth, it's too late, Beth's not gonna make one for me. And I discovered Uncrustables and so-
- Oh yeah.
- It's super unhealthy, right? They've have you have your head ever had Uncrustable?
- I love Uncrustable.
- They're delicious.
- So this is terrible. I did this last night, so I had some, what's it's a cinnamon, no Cinnamon Toast Crunch or it was Apple Jacks. A bowl of Apple Jacks. But while I was there I said, well lemme grab an Uncrustable here. So I had that kind of thawing out, ate my Apple Jacks and then I, and about an hour later it was kind of thawed out and so it's like three o'clock in the morning I'm eating Uncrustable, watching Dateline murder mystery. So that's, I'm embarrassed, but that's, that's a story. What about you? What's your, you have a, are you in bed already by midnight?
- No, I am night owl sometimes. Especially if I'm stressed, I'm up late.
- But I don't know, I kind of, I'm in college so like it's, I rummage through whatever I can find. Whatever's there that I have. It's usually probably I'll rummage through the freezer and pray that there's like a half eaten thing of ice cream hopefully.
- Did you say your dad sent you some brisket?
- Yes, my dad, my parents are so lovely and every time I leave home they send me with like a big bag of just-
- Stuff.
- Groceries and anything that they could pull out the pantry to give to me. So usually whatever's in there I'll eat that.
- Yeah, and that you told me, so is brisket and like a corn soft tortilla?
- Yes.
- Yeah, traditional. All right, very good. What about Kaison?
- Mine, I'm a big cookie guy.
- Yeah.
- Cookies and ice cream go hand in hand.
- With what kind of cookie?
- Chocolate chip.
- Chocolate chip.
- Classic or snickerdoodle.
- Oh snickerdoodle, that's a classic too.
- All right, very classic.
- Well thanks for sharing your late night snacks with me and thank you all for us for "The Current", it's a great opportunity for us to learn more of what's going on here at Texas State. I can't wait to have you back for the next episode. All right, States Up, everyone.