BLINN’S WEBB SOCIETY COLLECTING ORAL STORIES FROM BRAZOS VALLEY VETERANS
Many Blinn College students pass through Bryan-College Station for a short time, but one student group is pausing to make a lasting investment in the community.
The Blinn College chapter of the Walter Prescott Webb Historical Society—a statewide organization that works through college and university history departments to encourage students to discover, research, write and publish Texas history as they find it—was established last fall by history professors Ken Howell and Chuck Swanlund to give students an opportunity to engage in Texas history outside the classroom.
“We invite all Blinn students to join, whether they plan to study history or not,” Howell said. “This is the students’ club and they get to steer it. We hope that more students will begin to realize all of the opportunities that are at their fingertips when they join a club like the Webb Society.”
In less than three months, the organization has expanded its roots on the Blinn College—Bryan campus with an ongoing project that will connect current and future Webb Society members with veterans in the Brazos Valley.
“Webb Society is about much more than checking out historical sites,” said club President Austin Knorpp, a second-year student from Keller. “We want to get our hands on the history right here in Bryan-College Station.”
Members are reaching out to former servicemen and local veterans groups to collect oral accounts from Brazos Valley veterans. Students will record interviews for a digital audio collection to be archived at the Blinn-Bryan campus library. The collection will be available to students and employees at each of the College’s four campuses.
“This is something the next generation of students can continue to undertake,” Knorpp said. “It’s going to be a tremendous experience educating ourselves about different wars and connecting with the men and women who have made it possible for us to go to college and have this historical society.”
Webb Society students recently got a behind-the-scenes look at Blinn’s Star of the Republic Museum at Washington-on-the-Brazos-State Historic Site and recently volunteered at the museum’s Regional History Fair. The students plan to visit the Bullock Texas State History Museum in April and will have opportunities throughout the semester to hear about their state’s history from an array of speakers.
If you are a veteran interested in sharing your story please, contact Kenneth Howell at khowell@blinn.edu.
Story Courtesy of Blinn College