One of its largest events of the year, The University of North Texas at Dallas (UNT Dallas) will host its annual True Blue Preview Day for high school juniors and seniors and college transfer students on Saturday, Nov. 2, from 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

The open house event provides an opportunity for prospective students and their families to visit the campus for an exploratory look at everything UNT Dallas has to offer. UNT Dallas is the only public, accredited four-year university in the city of Dallas, offering dozens of undergraduate programs and majors in four schools: Business, Education, Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Behavioral Health and Human Services.

The university also boasts the city’s only public law school and a new STEM building that will expand pathways to healthcare careers when it opens in late 2025 for the Spring 2026 semester.

True Blue Preview Day invites prospective students and their families to tour the campus and interact with current students, alumni, academic advisors, career counselors, financial aid experts, and student success advocates. Tours will cover classrooms, study and collaborative spaces, athletic areas, the residence hall and cafeteria as well as the Student Center. 

Also on hand will be UNT Dallas faculty and staff committed to academic success, experiential education, and ensuring today’s students are career-ready for high-demand jobs in a competitive workforce and inspired to become tomorrow’s leaders.

Students attending will be entered into a drawing to be one of 10 students to receive a book credit award valued up to $750. The award can be redeemed at the UNT Dallas Bookstore for books and classroom materials for one semester. Recipients must be present to receive bookstore credit and be enrolled in a UNT Dallas degree program.

With a focus on supporting first-generation and other first-time college students, university staff will help students design the next steps of their educational journey, customizing a path to success that best fits their career interests, budget, and life on and off campus.

Because of its academic rigor, educational and financial value, and commitment to improving students' socioeconomic mobility, UNT Dallas continues to rise in national rankings. 

U.S. News & World Report’s annual “Best Colleges” publication ranked UNT Dallas #35 in Regional Universities West, higher than the previous year. This puts the university in the top tier of all the regional colleges and universities evaluated, which includes 118 public and private institutions from 14 states. UNT Dallas also moved up in the Washington Monthly's annual rankings of universities and colleges. The 2024 annual list names UNT Dallas in its “Best Bang for Your Buck” category in the South region.

UNT Dallas is located at 7300 University Hills Blvd. in southern Dallas. Parking is free. To find the schedule and register, go to untdallas.edu. For questions, please email visit@untdallas.edu.

About UNT Dallas
The newest member of the UNT System, the University of North Texas at Dallas (UNT Dallas) is the city's only public four-year university. Located in southern Dallas and serving more than 3,400 students, UNT Dallas offers students a world-class, innovative education focused on career readiness and socioeconomic mobility. UNT Dallas is passionately committed to developing, nurturing and empowering the next generation of servant leaders in North Texas. For more information about the University of North Texas at Dallas, visit untdallas.edu.

Dallas-area nonprofits can now apply to be considered for a grant from the annual Chi Omega Christmas Market, which was started by the Dallas-area alumnae in 1978 to live out its mission to serve others. In its 46-year history, COCM has donated more than $10.4 million to support more than 146 different worthy Dallas-area nonprofits that serve our community in the categories of arts, civic, education, and health and welfare.

“Each year Chi Omega Christmas Market supports a diverse array of nonprofit organizations that represent some of the most critical needs in the Dallas community, as well as collegiate scholarships,” said Emily Thorsen Blair, 2024- 2025 Beneficiary Chairperson. “We are so grateful to our community, shoppers, patrons and sponsors who support the Market and allow us to donate essential funds each year to these deserving beneficiaries.” 

Chi Omega Christmas Market will only consider applications from nonprofit organizations that address specific needs in our community in areas including the Arts, Civic, Education, Health, and Welfare. To be considered for Chi Omega Christmas Market grant funding, organizations MUST: 

• Have a minimum request of $50,000 

• Be tax-exempt for a minimum of three (3) years under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. 

• The services or project for which funding is sought must be performed or located in Dallas County, Texas.  If an organization’s services benefit areas outside of Dallas County, Dallas County recipients of such services must represent more than 75 percent of the total.  The seat of the organization must be located in the Dallas metroplex.

• Organizations who have received funds from COCM 2022, 2023 or 2024 are not eligible to apply. We invite applications for Chi Omega Christmas funding three years after receiving funds.

Nonprofit organizations that meet the criteria listed above, may complete the Google Form at this link: https://www.chiomegachristmasmarket.org/beneficiary-application. The application deadline is December 6, 2024. Please reach out to cocmbeneficiaryfiles@gmail.com with any questions.

Tough Trail Home

by

Marie W. Watts

Welcome to Green Acres Texas-style.

Tough Trail Home by Marie W. Watts is a new contemporary women’s fiction novel about the Dunwhitty family and their struggle to overcome the upending of their previously privileged lives. With sympathetic characters that can’t seem to catch a break and an unrelenting flood of mishaps, I couldn’t put this book down. 

When Michael Dunwhitty’s career suddenly evaporates, his young family has just relocated to Houston, Texas. His wife, Lisa, who had relinquished a steady, if not fulfilling, job as an accountant to follow her husband to his new situation, was slated to work at the same firm and is also left high and dry. As Michael encounters rejection after rejection and their family’s future starts to feel desperate, Lisa receives the news that her Great-Uncle Joe has left her a 4,000+ acre ranch in central Texas. The legacy, however, comes with some strings. In order to receive the gift, the family must live there, the property cannot be sold, and there is a sizeable tax bill that is past due. While it would provide an immediate and stable home for the once-affluent family, Michael is a city boy with an absolute aversion to rural or even small-town living. Welcome to Green Acres Texas-style, however, nobody’s laughing. 

The narrative unfolds from Lisa’s and Michael’s points of view, so readers are privy to their actions, thoughts, and inner monologues. Lisa is an engaging young woman who loves her husband and family, as does Michael. He is used to career success with a lucrative paycheck, driven to act by childhood memories of his father working his life away as a mechanic and never being there for events that were important in young Michael’s life. Ironically, his single-minded desperation to duplicate his former success means he’s not there when his family needs him. Worried and fearful, both husband and wife carry a load of resentment toward the other and say things they shouldn’t, failing to come to an agreed-upon plan of action for the future. 

The story is full of twists and turns, catastrophes and near-misses. Lisa, at the ranch and on her own with the two children, must weather the hard knocks without the one person she relies on most – Michael. Thankfully, she finds support in Michael’s parents, who arrive for an extended visit, and Carl, a godsend of a neighbor, as well as a close-knit group of local women friends who bring her into their fold. As these people open their arms and hearts to Lisa and the children, their beliefs about what is truly important in life change. They just need to convince Michael of the same thing before it is too late. 

After their son Andrew has a brush with the law, Michael experiences a sudden revelation that his family needs him to be present. I felt both his turnaround and the ending immediately after happened too quickly and easily. This made me wish for a sequel about the reunited Dunwhitty family living on the ranch and making a go of their miniature cow operation. 

I recommend TOUGH TRAIL HOME to readers of contemporary women’s fiction and family dramas. 

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy from the author through Lone Star Book Blog Tours.

The Chemical Detective

Jac Silver Thriller, #1

by

Fiona Erskine

Intrigue galore with plenty of twists and turns to keep readers guessing.

The Chemical Detective is the first book in the Jaq Silver Thriller series by Fiona Erskine and features a female chemical engineer who specializes in the research of explosives. When a pallet of a suspicious powdered substance is mistakenly delivered to her research facility with the regular order of explosive components and the samples she takes suddenly disappear, Dr. Jaq Silver starts asking for an explanation. But her inquiries are dismissed, and she is told to look the other way and forget about it; she can’t help but probe deeper. Her suspicions about what’s going on at the facility skyrocket when a scientist from the supplier surreptitiously contacts her, asking her own questions and hinting that something illicit and dangerous is going on behind the scenes. When the explosives warehouse is broken into, a security guard is injured, and an explosion occurs, Jaq’s boss does all he can to blame her for being negligent. However, when people go missing and there’s a suspicious death, the police start asking their very own pointed questions.  

The main character is Dr. Jacqueline ‘Jaq’ Silver, a chemical engineer working in Kranjskabel, Slovenia, for Snow Science, a company researching the means to reduce the number and severity of avalanches in areas devoted to the skiing tourist industry. She’s got a complicated backstory that the author subtly weaves into the current narrative that includes an unpleasant history with the Zagrovyl company, one of Snow Science’s suppliers and a critical player in the shady goings-on that Jaq inadvertently uncovers. Jaq is an outlier in the latest trend of more mature detectives in that she legitimately has the chops to investigate what she’s discovered, and technically, while she is a grandmother, she’s younger, more youthful, and in peak physical condition than what we normally expect of these older female amateur sleuths. She’s immediately determined to find out what Snow Science and Zagrovyl are involved in despite being gaslighted from all sides, and that’s before she becomes a person of interest to the police in a murder investigation. 

The story unfolds from multiple viewpoints as shady characters scramble across Europe to hide what they’re doing with one determined woman on their trail. After establishing the scenario, the plot moves quickly as characters pursue their plans across Europe, with Jaq on their heels. I loved that there was more than one set of bad actors out to stop her, which really threw a wrench into Jaq’s efforts at figuring out what was going on. The action is tight and suspenseful, keeping me completely engaged; some interesting twists really took me by surprise, adding another layer of complications. The descriptions of the settings are often just enough to give a sense of place, but the author chooses what is highlighted well, and there is always an evocative feeling of recognition. 

This title was originally published in 2019, but the edition I read for this review is a recent re-release, so three subsequent books in this series are already available to continue Jaq’s journeys. I recommend THE CHEMICAL DETECTIVE to readers of action and adventure, thrillers, mystery, and suspense who are looking for a strong, capable, and intelligent female protagonist.

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