Editor’s note: Higher Ed Footnotes is a weekly roundup of news about higher education and developments at colleges and universities in Tarrant County. It is published on Tuesdays.
Fifty high school students and science teachers attended the national program Quantum for All at the University of Texas at Arlington in June. The program was started by a UTA faculty member, Karen Jo Matsler.
“Just the word ‘quantum’ scares most people, including many science teachers,” said Matsler, an assistant professor of practice and a master teacher in the university’s UTeach Arlington program. “I created ‘Quantum for All’ to give teachers the tools and language they need to easily integrate these concepts into secondary school STEM classrooms.”
It’s a weeklong summer program, where high school teachers learn some hands-on ways to teach quantum concepts, and later in the week they use these tools on high school students who attend the camp.
Quantum concepts power everything from smartphones to MRI machines to cybersecurity systems. Giving students these skills early on could put them on track for some high-paying careers — quantum engineers, developers and researchers — where there is a labor shortage. There is one qualified candidate for around every three job openings, a UTA press release stated.
Amanda Benson, who now teaches physics at Martin High School in Arlington, graduated in 2015 from UTA, where she majored in physics and graduated from the UTeach Arlington program.
“Quantum is very abstract. But this program gave me simple, doable things so I can show students how quantum is used in everyday life,” said Benson. “It’s really awesome.”
Former Horned Frogs play in Wimbledon
Former TCU student and famed tennis player Cameron Norrie is advancing in this year’s Wimbledon Championships. Norrie, possibly the Fort Worth university’s most famed tennis player, left TCU in 2017 to turn pro.
He’s won three rounds so far, and beat out U.S. player Frances Tiafoe in the second round.
Norrie is not the only Horned Frog to play on the English lawn. Jack Pinnington Jones, who skipped his final year at TCU and turned professional this year, advanced too. His former teammate Jacob Fearnley, who graduated from TCU in 2024, played too. Both represented the United Kingdom.
The men are part of the legacy of the TCU men’s tennis team, where over the years, they have racked up wins: four national championships, four NCAA semifinals, eight Big 12 titles, and 10 sets of All-American honors.
Pinnington Jones won his first round on July 1, but lost in the second round on July 3. Fearnley lost his first round on June 30.
“Cam recruited me even before I was looking at colleges,” Pinnington Jones told Yahoo news. “He’s always been great to the younger guys in British tennis.
Pinnington Jones said that he was excited to see Fearnley’s rise once he turned pro. He said both Norrie and Fearnley have given him confidence on the court.
“Those guys are big inspirations and I want to be up there with them and have a little TCU core,” Pinnington Jones told Yahoo News.
Enrollment grows at Texas A&M-Fort Worth
Over 5,200 students are expected to be enrolled in the Texas A&M University System campus in Fort Worth, according to Fort Worth Inc.
The system campus, Texas A&M-Fort Worth, includes students from Texas A&M University, Tarleton State University and Texas A&M School of Law — all universities in the Texas A&M System.
That enrollment increase is up more than 360 from the prior year and over 1,500 from five years ago, according to the business publication.
“We’re not trying to get to a particular number,” said Robert Ahdieh, dean of the Texas A&M School of Law and chief operating officer of Texas A&M-Fort Worth. “We’re saying, ‘Is there a need out there that we can potentially meet?’ Let’s go and try to do that.”
Ahdieh said it was community engagement efforts and strategic programming that has led to the growth. One example: the Texas A&M Engineering Academy at Tarrant County College. It allows students to pursue a bachelor’s in engineering by enrolling at TCC and Texas A&M University at the same time.
The downtown campus will include academic programs in law, engineering, agriculture and health sciences. It will also be a research hub for industry and research.
Shomial Ahmad is a higher education reporter for the Fort Worth Report, in partnership with Open Campus. Contact her at shomial.ahmad@fortworthreport.org.
The Report’s higher education coverage is supported in part by major higher education institutions in Tarrant County, including Tarleton State University, Tarrant County College, Texas A&M-Fort Worth, Texas Christian University, Texas Wesleyan University, the University of Texas at Arlington and UNT Health Science Center.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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