LSU Alumni Association Blog

The dry climate of Sin City is a far cry from the thick humidity of the Louisiana bayous. While the altitude and temperatures may be different, there is one thing Las Vegas and Louisiana have in common – the love for a good party.

If you have a connection to Louisiana or Las Vegas, the Sin City Tigers Crawfish Boil is Christmas, Mardi Gras, and Saturday Night in Death Valley all rolled into one. This year is a special one for the Las Vegas LSU Alumni Chapter as they are celebrating 15 years of hosting their crawfish boil. In honor of this monumental occasion, we have created 15 reasons for you to attend this year’s Sin City Tigers Crawfish Boil this Saturday under the canopy at the Freemont Street Experience.

LSU fans will likely never forget the 2003 football season as it marked the first national championship for the Tigers since 1958. This 45-year drought of national prominence left the Tiger Nation salivating for a taste of the ultimate prize in college football. The game that served as an appetizer of this ultimate prize took place in Tucson, Arizona on September 6, 2003, versus the Arizona Wildcats. The Tigers, coached by Nick Saban, dominated the game in every single category and buried the Wildcats 59 to 13. The performance by the Tigers left an impression on Tiger fans across the globe as it served as a sweet suggestion of things to come. Jon Streva, a current LSU student from Las Vegas, is the perfect example of the vast influence the game had on the lives of people across the country.

Louisiana People, Louisiana Product

1. What path did your career take after graduating from LSU?

I graduated from LSU in 2012 with bachelor’s degrees in Petroleum Engineering and International Trade and Finance and a minor in Chinese Culture and Commerce. I interned three summers during college with Chevron in Bakersfield and Houston, then went to work full-time as a Production Engineer for Chevron’s Carthage field in East Texas. I held multiple other Petroleum Engineering positions in Chevron’s Mid-Continent Business Unit during my 4 years with the company. Then in August 2016, I moved to Austin, Texas to pursue a Budget and Planning position with Permian-focused E&P company Parsley Energy. It was then that I really began to make strides in the development of Hot Stuff Safetywear and ultimately launch the company. I left Parsley in October 2017 to focus full-time on growing Hot Stuff Safetywear.

2. How did Hot Stuff Safetywear come to fruition?

No. 18 for 2018

Laura Hobson Herlihy (1990 MAST H&SS) is a big fish in a small pond. A lecturer in Latin American & Caribbean Studies at the University of Kansas (KU), Herlihy is one of a small number of North Americans who speak, and an even smaller number who teach, the language of the indigenous Central American Miskitu people. Through her work with the Miskitu in Nicaragua, Herlihy has become the star of a thrice-weekly radio show in the region and the writer and impresario of a Miskitu operetta that drew 5,000 people to a performance on the beach in Puerto Cabezas over Easter weekend.

To hear Kirk Bovill (1987 MAST MCOM) tell it, he fell into LSU’s golden years of women’s track and field, a career in promoting fiber optics and, then, movies and television. He wouldn’t mind falling into movie making and teaching at LSU, a place the Nebraska native remembers fondly and visits every chance he gets. “My first acting job was a total fluke,” said Bovill.

The books Lance Person’s Belle Lutte Press has published get reviews that include the words “captivating” and “compelling.” The reviews he likes best say Belle Lutte’s books are “well-written.”

Courtney Farnet is a recent LSU grad who has accomplished much in her young age but she doesn’t plan on stopping any time soon.  She graduated summa cum laude in May 2016 with a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology.  She was heavily involved in her sorority, Delta Zeta, having served as Fundraising Director and Executive Director for the chapter’s philanthropy - St. Jude Up 'til Dawn - during her junior and senior years. She also had the distinct honor of serving on the St. Jude Up ’til Dawn National Vision Committee in Memphis for over two years.  During that time she was the first person ever to receive the prestigious "Be Like Danny" Award named in honor of St. Jude founder, Danny Thomas.