Texas A&M Kingsville - Kinesiology Faculty and Students win at Convention
Texas A&M University Kingsville
KINGSVILLE (News Release) - Two faculty members of the health and kinesiology department and two kinesiology students from Texas A&M University-Kingsville will receive honors at the 98th Annual Texas Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (TAHPERD) Convention in December.
Judy Bloomquist, senior lecturer in the health and kinesiology department, will receive the Pathfinder Award. This is the first time a faculty member from Texas A&M-Kingsville has received this award.
The Pathfinder Award is awarded to a female professional who has demonstrated continuous dedication to the advocacy, recruitment and enhancement of girls and women in sport, sport leadership and/or the health, physical education, recreation and dance professions in Texas.
This is not Bloomquist’s first award from TAHPERD as she is the past recipient of the Student Scholarship, the Emerging Professional and the College/University Physical Educator of the Year Awards. She also is a past vice president of the College Division of TAHPERD.
Dr. Nester Sherman, Regents Professor in the health and kinesiology department, will receive the Honor Award. He is the second faculty member from Texas A&M-Kingsville to win this award as it was given to Dr. Michael Daniel, professor emeritus, in 2005.
Sherman has been on the department faculty since 1994. He was the first Regents Professor from the College of Education and Human Performance. He is the past recipient of the Scholar Award for career achievement in the area of scholarly activity.
The Honor Award is given to a professional for significant contributions to health education, physical education, recreation and/or dance through one or more of the following: excellence in teaching; outstanding administrative achievement; significant contribution to researcher creative endeavors; leadership in professional organizations at state, district and national levels; or contribution to professional literature and outstanding community service.
Two Texas A&M-University kinesiology students received the TAHPERD Student Scholarship Award. Michael Gonzalez, from Robstown; and Manuel Hinojosa, from Stafford, received the 2021 award. Both are juniors in the EC-12 Physical Education program. This is a $1,000 scholarship that is given to one to three outstanding undergraduate or graduate students from Texas colleges studying health, physical education, recreation and/or dance.
Javelinas have won this particular award 15 times since 1980, more than another college in Texas. The last winner from A&M-Kingsville was in 2020 when Reagan Morreale, a senior EC-12 Physical Education major received the scholarship. This is the second time Texas A&M-Kingsville has had multiple recipient of this in the same year. The first time was in 1990.