SPC Welcomes Margot Lee Shetterly

THE SEPT. 20 ST. PHILIP'S COLLEGE 2018 PRESIDENT'S LECTURE SERIES EVENT WITH THE HIDDEN FIGURES AUTHOR MARGOT LEE SHETTERLY

All are invited to attend the 2018 St. Philip's College President’s Lecture Series presentation of the Hidden Figures author Margot Lee Shetterly Sept. 20 at 11 a.m. in the college’s 600-seat Watson Fine Arts Center at 1801 Martin Luther King Drive. 

Guests hear from and ask important questions of the author currently working on numerous projects as she expands the beloved Hidden Figures empire she created from startup-to-red-carpet status with such events for the intellect as her San Antonio appearance in mind.

One off-stage highlight of Shetterly’s business trip to San Antonio is her observation of and conversation with STEM students at the college during two 20-minute classroom visits just before her lecture. After students engage with Shetterly in the genetics class of college faculty member and researcher Dr. Mary Kelaita in the Dr. William Conan Davis Natural Science Building, Shetterly will engage with students in the organic chemistry class of faculty member and researcher Dr. Carmen Nava-Fischer in the same scientifically historic property. If they happen to be enrolled in both classes, one or two students may have the opportunity of engaging with Shetterly twice. It’s more likely these students will also attend the lecture and will have submitted lecture audience questions online with the rest of her sizable San Antonio following.

When Shetterly observes and engages, she will do so in the newest site of the first and the only STEM education program of its kind funded by the National Science Foundation at a community college to increase the completion rates of minority STEM students by pairing promising Alamo Colleges District member college scholars with college faculty mentors and their projects. When the college joined the grid of citywide locations for proprietary lab research with the foundation’s CIMA research program that has matured since originating at St. Philip’s College on behalf of Alamo Colleges District in 2014, five of the college's students and one student who attends another college in the area lived the lives of scholars in research diversely ranging from primates to DNA under the leadership of college researchers Kelaita and Dr. Shane Kendall, new chair of the natural sciences department at the college.

Lecture admission and parking are both free, and lecture seating is available on a first-arrived, first-seated basis. That said, lecture seating reservations requests for large school, government and corporate groups are recommended and are accepted online now. Audience questions for Shetterly are being accepted online now and up to 48 hours prior to the lecture.

About the St. Philip’s College President’s Lecture Series: From La Var Burton (2016) to four original 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders (2011) and FUBU founder and Shark Tank cast member Daymond John (2014), The Honorable Dr. Richard Carmona, 17th Surgeon General of the United States (2014) to The Honorable Julian Bond (2015) and Margot Lee Shetterly (2018), the St. Philip’s College President’s Lecture Series provides live, in-depth opportunities for the college and community to hear noted speakers’ perspectives on local and global issues. Each guest traditionally provides two classroom seminars for college students and meetings with host St. Philip’s College President Dr. Adena Williams Loston and her leadership team, followed by a public seminar in the college’s Watson Fine Arts Center. The forum is free and educates students, faculty and staff from the college in addition to community members. Call lecture series committee chair Beautrice Butler at (210) 486-2670 for details on the lecture series. Place seating reservations and ask questions of upcoming speakers online, on demand now.