4/24/23

By FHSU University Communications

HAYS, Kan. - Daniel Huantes has an unbridled enthusiasm for the small-town feel of Fort Hays State University. That enthusiasm is contagious, both inside the classroom and throughout campus. Huantes, a native of San Antonio, Tex., will graduate with dual bachelor’s degrees in physics and mathematics in May.

It was through his father, who works at a lab in San Antonio, that Huantes first heard of FHSU. He remembers his father frequently telling him that students from FHSU who interned at his San Antonio lab consistently outperformed interns from more prominent universities.

Huantes was just a seventh grader when Dr. Gavin Buffington, chair of FHSU’s physics department, began sending him departmental recruiting mailers.

“It was kind of a joke in my house. Oh, yeah, I’ll go to this little school in Kansas,” Huantes said. “But as I got closer to applying to colleges, it was on my list.”

“My dad’s advice was to take it seriously and look into it because of how competent the interns had been over the years. So, Fort Hays State became more of a real possibility. And once I visited, it was set.”

FHSU wasn’t the first university Huantes visited. The most significant difference he saw between FHSU and universities such as Texas A&M, Georgia Tech, and the University of Washington was the distance between students and faculty. But, after he met Dr. C.D. Clark and Buffington and visited the Hays community, he was sold on FHSU.

“The physics department is so relaxed,” he said. “There is an open-door policy. There is a personal touch.”

“The more I visited, the more I thought I wanted a small-town feel. I felt much more comfortable driving around Hays than in any of the other college towns I visited. Hays just felt like somewhere I could see myself.”

Huantes found many ways to give back to the FHSU community, such as tutoring and mentoring. He has been a tutor for the past three years and is currently a mentor with the honors college.

“Mentors can support students and give them suggestions and empathy,” he said. “In tutoring, you have to convince students to disillusion themselves of the idea that asking a question is revealing that you don’t know anything.”

“That’s not how college works. Sometimes you have to pull the handbrake. Ask questions. Let the professor know that you need to back up a bit.”

He said he has benefited from the experience of his instructors, such as Clark, who also serves as Huantes’ advisor. Huantes has developed friendships and comradery with his professors that go beyond the classroom, sometimes to the soccer field and track. On a challenge, he once competed in a 200-meter race with Dr. Eric Deyo.

Deyo said his own undergraduate experience at a smaller university helped him see the benefit of interacting on a personal level with students.

“You need to put a human face on physics because it is a very intimidating subject in many ways,” Deyo said. “If you open a physics book as an undergrad, it looks like a foreign language, and it’s hard to see that you can learn it if you just keep at it.”

One of Huantes’ undergraduate services has been to help recruit KAMS students for the physics department by visiting high schools throughout the state. Through “physics road shows,” Huantes and other physics department members have attempted to demonstrate the near-magical properties of physics.

“At a certain age, children don’t exactly know what physics is,” Huantes said. “Showing them the cool things you can do with physics is a bit like a magic show, which is the point of physics. Things that might seem like magic happen in the world, and physics is behind the scenes. So we show them the trick and explain why it happens.”

It’s Huantes’ drive to be of service that helps set him apart from other students, according to Deyo.

“He has taken other students under his wing to try to help them along, Deyo said. “As good of a physics student as he is, he is really quite social and helpful to people. He’s a special student. We will miss him.”

Complex physics equations and in-depth research can be overwhelming to some students. Huantes has found a way to refresh his mind through music. A piano student since age six, Huantes has studied under Dr. Irena Ravitskaya for the past three years.

“I get to keep music in my life and have someone knowledgeable and skilled at pedagogy as a professor,” he said. “I’m glad I found physics. I love it. But I might study until I have a headache. Then I go practice piano, even if it’s just scales. I’m a little fresher after that and can come back with a new perspective.”

Ravitskaya said she enjoyed the curiosity about different musical styles and composers that Huantes exhibited during his years of taking lessons from her. From classical and romantic era music to modern and jazz, Huantes always enjoyed learning new techniques and musical nuances.

“It was a joy to work with him,” Ravitskaya said. “He was always interested in the expressive aspect of compositions.”

Rarely does she see a non-music major invest the hours and effort required for piano proficiency.

“It’s really amazing how much time he spent in the music building instead of doing what other young people his age do for relaxation or free time. In this respect, he is an exceptional young man.”

After graduation, Huantes plans to pursue his master’s degree at a larger institution. He has applied to several graduate programs and hopes to study solid-state physics. For Huantes, solid-state physics meets at the interface of several different kinds of physics, so pursuing that discipline will enable him to keep his interests broad.

He admitted that there have been things he has missed about his urban roots during his time at FHSU. For instance, 24-hour restaurants such as Whataburger are lacking in the Hays landscape.

“But I know that the second I leave Hays, I’ll say, ‘Why did I leave?’ In the city, there’s so much traffic, and people are less laid back, less friendly,” he said. “There are so many things I really appreciate about Hays, and I know I’m going to miss it.”