‘I Am WT’ Podcast Wraps Second Season with Men’s Basketball Coach, Fulbright Scholar

Copy by Chip Chandler, 806-651-2124, cchandler@wtamu.edu

New hosts named for Season 3

CANYON, Texas — West Texas A&M University’s student-run podcast ends Season 2 with a pair of episodes spotlighting the WT’s successful men’s basketball coach and its most recent student body president.

 “I Am WT” hosts Myka Bailey, a junior PR/advertising/applied communication major from Abernathy, and Thomas Rodriguez, a junior digital media and communication major from Katy, are joined by Coach Tom Brown in Episode 15 and Filiberto Avila in Episode 16.

The episodes are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and SoundCloud, as well as at wtamu.edu/IAmWTPodcast. New episodes will drop weekly through June.

Season 3 will launch in the fall, led by two new hosts: Brooke Nemeth, a senior digital media and communication major from Levelland; and Hunter Sparling, a sophomore digital media and communication major from McLean.

Brown recently completed his 10th season at the helm of the University’s men’s basketball program, having built the Buffs into one of NCAA Division II’s elite programs. The Buffs won their first-ever national championship in 2021 and ranked at the top of the division throughout the 2023-24 season, ultimately advancing to the Final Four.

Avila, who was named WT Man of the Year in April, won a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship Program award for the 2024-2025 academic year from the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

Avila, who will leave in September, will work on the Madrid and Segovia campuses of Spain’s IE University as an English teaching assistant in the IE University Language Center and Writing Center. A Spearman native, he graduated in May with a bachelor’s in digital media and communication.

The “I Am WT” podcast embodies WT’s commitment to people first, one of the key principles of the University’s long-range plan, WT 125: From the Panhandle to the World.

That plan is fueled by the historic One West comprehensive fundraising campaign, which reached its initial $125 million goal 18 months after publicly launching in September 2021. The campaign’s new goal is to reach $175 million by 2025; currently, it has raised nearly $160 million.

In episodes of “I Am WT,” student hosts interview WT faculty, staff, students and alumni about what WT means to them.

Audiences hear stories about how attending or working at WT changed the lives of the guests, and how they’re making a difference in their community.

About West Texas A&M University

WT is located in Canyon, Texas, on a 342-acre residential campus. Established in 1910, the University has been part of The Texas A&M University System since 1990. WT, a Hispanic Serving Institution since 2016, boasts an enrollment of about 10,000 and offers 59 undergraduate degree programs and more than 40 graduate degrees, including two doctoral degrees. The University is also home to the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, the largest history museum in the state and the home of one of the Southwest’s finest art collections. The Buffaloes are a member of the NCAA Division II Lone Star Conference and offers 14 men’s and women’s athletics programs.

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