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TSU Welcomes the Class of 2030 with Historic New Student Pinning Ceremony

By CNN

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    July 21, 2026 (Houston Style Magazine) — Texas Southern University’s newest ‘Tigers’ are about to receive more than a pin. They are receiving a public promise that they belong to a proud academic family built to educate leaders, strengthen communities and change history.

On Saturday, August 15, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Texas Southern University will welcome the Class of 2030 during its New Student Pinning Ceremony at Sawyer Auditorium. TSU alumni are invited to volunteer and personally pin incoming freshmen, creating a memorable bridge between those beginning their Tiger journey and those already carrying the university’s legacy into the world.

That bridge matters. Founded in 1927, Texas Southern University grew from Houston Colored Junior College into one of America’s leading historically Black universities. Today, TSU remains deeply rooted in Houston’s historic Third Ward while preparing students to become engaged citizens, professionals and creative leaders locally, nationally and globally. In other words, the pin may be small, but the history behind it is heavyweight.

TSU’s alumni roll reads like a Houston history lesson with extra swagger. Its graduates include trailblazing public servants such as Barbara Jordan and Mickey Leland, along with leaders across business, education, entertainment and civic life. The pinning ceremony places the Class of 2030 into that continuing story—not as spectators waiting in the wings, but as the next generation expected to study hard, serve boldly and leave the institution stronger.

Adding even more Tiger pride to the ceremony will be keynote speaker Teneshia Hudspeth, Harris County Clerk and the county’s chief election official. Hudspeth is a TSU communications alumna and the first African American woman to serve as Harris County Clerk. She leads an office serving the state’s largest county, which surpassed 5 million residents in the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2025 population estimate.

Hudspeth’s story is especially fitting for a ceremony centered on beginnings. Her public-service journey started as a Mickey Leland Congressional intern before she joined the Harris County Clerk’s Office. During nearly two decades there, she advanced through numerous responsibilities, including public affairs, voter outreach, communications and chief deputy, before voters elected her county clerk in 2020.

Her climb was not a quick elevator ride; it was the staircase—one responsibility, one lesson and one earned opportunity at a time. That is a timely message for freshmen who may arrive at TSU with enormous dreams but without every detail mapped out.

Hudspeth’s career demonstrates that preparation, persistence and service can turn an entry-level opportunity into historic leadership.

As chief election official, Hudspeth carries responsibilities tied to public trust, access and the orderly administration of democracy. Her presence also reflects TSU’s long-standing role in producing graduates who do more than earn credentials. Tigers enter courtrooms, classrooms, boardrooms, newsrooms, laboratories and public office ready to make their communities stronger.

The alumni volunteers will be equally important. By placing a pin on a new student, graduates are saying: “We see you. We welcome you. We expect you to succeed.” For first-generation students, students arriving from outside Houston or anyone feeling those familiar first-day butterflies, that personal welcome can transform a large campus into a genuine community.

Houston Style Magazine readers and Houston-area TSU alumni are encouraged to show up in maroon-and-gray spirit and help the Class of 2030 begin boldly. The ceremony offers a meaningful opportunity to give back without writing a speech, chairing a committee or sitting through a three-hour meeting. Sometimes service is as simple—and as powerful—as placing a pin, offering encouragement and reminding a young Tiger that generations are cheering them forward.

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More information on Texas Southern University: TSU.edu

Event Details
Saturday, August 15, 2026 • 11 a.m.–1 p.m.
Sawyer Auditorium • Texas Southern University
3100 Cleburne Street • Houston, Texas 77004

Volunteer registration: Register to help pin the Class of 2030

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

Kierra Lee
KIELEESTYLE@GMAIL.COM
4096658446

JD Vance and the Trump team keep moving the goalposts on Iran

By CNN
(CNN) — One of the Trump administration’s biggest problems in extracting itself from the Iran war is the list of very absolutist goals that President Donald Trump and his team laid out.The goals have included complete Iranian surrender, regime change, Iran never getting a nuclear weapon and ending Tehran’s support for its Middle East proxy groups like Hezbollah.As the war — now in its sixth month — has dragged on, this list of goals has conspicuously shifted and been pared back. And Vice President JD Vance appears to have pared it back recently in a remarkable way, offering the latest indication that the administration might be preparing to settle for less — maybe even a lot less.Appearing on Fox News on Thursday, Vance was asked how the war might end. And he laid out two goals.“It’s ensuring that the Gulf countries continue to send oil and gas to the world economy so that we have energy price stability,” he said, adding: “That’s goal number one: Keep oil and gas cheap for Americans all over our country.“And then, obviously, goal number two is ensure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon.”This is not the administration’s old list of goals — and the order Vance placed them in is striking.When asked about Vance’s comments on Friday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt maintained that “both goals are equally as important to the president.”The administration has almost always characterized Iran never getting a nuclear weapon as the overriding concern.And even if the goals are truly equal in the administration’s mind, including oil and gas prices at all — and not other items — is a notable shift.In fact, Trump explicitly rejected this as a goal back in May. When asked if he considered Americans’ financial situation when trying to resolve the war, Trump responded, “Not even a little bit.” He signaled that denuclearization was so important that he didn’t factor in anything else.(Trump echoed that line on Friday, saying he would “never apologize” for Americans paying a little more for gas, given the stakes in Iran.)I wrote in March about how the administration frequently listed four goals for the war — but how the four goals frequently differed depending upon who was speaking.Some lists included ending funding for proxy groups, for example, while others did not. Some mentioned destroying Iran’s missile infrastructure, while others omitted that. Some mentioned getting rid of Iran’s air force and navy, but others only mentioned the navy.It was like the administration was workshopping the list in real time.But the key point here is that none of those lists included keeping oil and gas prices low in the United States.And given the Strait of Hormuz was open before the war started, that particular goal could just be read as a return to the pre-war status quo — with denuclearization being the only goal that would represent a new achievement.Indeed, the new emphasis on low gas prices from some in the administration seems like the latest sign of relaxing the goals to prepare for a conclusion to the war that comes up well shy of Trump’s initial aims.By May, it became clear the administration was no longer going to emphasize certain goals.By June, the Trump administration entered into a memorandum of understanding with Iran that barely mentioned previously central US goals.And for the last two-plus months, Trump has been saying things that sounded a lot like he might scale back his nuclear demands.While the administration previously emphasized Iran turning over its enriched uranium, Trump’s spoken about how perhaps enough damage was done to its nuclear program and its nuclear materials are buried too far underground to be accessed. The president has also talked about how the US government could simply monitor from space to make sure Iran didn’t try to retrieve them.He’s even claimed that Iran was already denuclearized.In other words, Trump sounded a lot like a guy who knew he might not be able to cow Iran into accepting a really restrictive nuclear deal.His administration talking about energy prices as “goal number one” — even if Trump isn’t — would fit neatly with this progression away from the hard-and-fast goals that the administration set out to achieve.If a return to the pre-war status quo really is “goal number one” right now, that says a lot about how little this war has accomplished.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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