Dr. Seema Nanda - Faculty Advisor, Turning Point UH Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh, little classic send cook. Change is going to come.
Maybe that's maybe this is apropos for Charlie Kirk. Maybe
as a result of his assassination, a change is going
to come to our college campuses. It won't be fast,
it won't be easy. But the fact that there is
so much interest now in having Turning Point chapters at
other universities that didn't have them at this point says

(00:22):
a lot that maybe kids are waking up a little
bit to some of the propaganda that they're being preached
to and are willing to at least have a debate.
We should all be willing to have a debate. Doctor
Sima Nandez a faculty advisor to Turning Point University of Houston.
She joins us this morning, I have to ask you this,
doctor Nanda. First, your fellow professors and instructors at UH,

(00:45):
what kind of reaction did you get when they found
out that you were faculty advising for Turning Point USA
or Turning Point Houston.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
You know, that's interesting. Thank you so much for having
me on. Actually, I'm an eye doctor and I teach
student you know, to be doctors, and so political discourse
doesn't really come in the conversation. So we're just there,
or at least I'm there just to help the next
generation learn. And when I found out that they couldn't

(01:13):
get an advisor on campus, and they kind of approached
me and said, would you like to help us? And
I said, well, sure, do you just want me to
sign a paper? Do you want me to help you
guide you through whatever we have to go through in
these next few years. And that was a few years ago.
And I even got lucky to speak at the Turning
Point Student Action Summit in Tampa and I got to

(01:35):
meet Charlie Kirk and who knew that that would be
one of the few times that now that doesn't happen.
And my students were looking forward to America as Sets,
which is coming up in December, and they were like, oh,
we're going to get to meet him, and it's exciting.
And then you know, this happens. But I look at
it as something else. I look at it. You know,

(01:56):
this tragedy has brought this spark, This spark has been ignited.
The flames are going and what started out to only
be nine hundred chapters in the United States in the
college campuses has exploded, and there's over five hundred and
fifty requests per hour. Now, wow, on getting chapter growth
in the US just five fifty per hours. Over forty

(02:18):
thousand chapters inquiries have now occurred in the last seventy
two hours, and that myself is mind blowing. It is
completely mind blowing to me.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
Has it increased membership on the University Houston campus at
this point or is it too early to say?

Speaker 2 (02:32):
Well, that's a great question, because what happened was we
were having a nine to eleven tribute that we were
just going to do plant the flags for each fallen
victim at nine to eleven, and then when I got
the phone calls and the text messages the day before, Hey,
Charlie was shot, and I was like, what what are
you talking about? And I was praying it was just
something like what happened with Trump, that maybe it was

(02:55):
great his life was safe, but that didn't happen. So
we debated whether or not to have that tribute the
next day, and then I said, you know what, I'm
not going to make any of you come, but I
think we should stand up. I think we should just
show that we're there. And what turned out to be
was only going to be a few of us, three four,

(03:16):
five of us. All of a sudden was the gathering
and more and more. We have a nine to eleven
tribute in front of the Student Center, the student it's
called the Student Center South, but the building, and we
were planning flags and then more and more people and
it wasn't even students, it was community and they just
said we found you on Instagram at uh TPUSA, and

(03:38):
you can direct message to the students and say, hey,
I'm interested, I'm on the campus and i want to
be a part and as yeah as that keeps growing,
and I'm so happy. Unfortunately at the circumstances, but because
of it, something good can happen from it, and that
that in itself is amazing.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
I have to ask you quickly because we're all over
our time littmit here, but how for those who maybe
have a uh student that they would like to find
out more about your organization, how do they contact Turning
Point University of Houston.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah, go to the Instagram direct message UHTPUSA. That's the
University of Houston Turning Point the United States of America u
HTPUSA direct message and you will get immuniate response. And
that's the best way, and I think also it's sad though.
But where he is going to be the funeral which

(04:33):
is in me at Cardinal Stadium, which is near Phoenix
and Glendelle, but it's near Phoenix, Arizona. And I just
came up with this this morning. It's the Phoenix is
rising from the ashes. Yeah, so that's what's happening.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Very true. And doctor Nanda, thank you for what you're
doing as the faculty advisor, for taking that on when
nobody else would. All right, thank you very much. Six
twenty eight is our time