Students from Western Carolina University's Nutrition and Dietetics Program have been working with faculty and staff at Cullowhee Valley School to educate elementary students on the connection between local food and healthy eating. Olivia Jacobs, a senior in the Nutrition and Dietetics Program at WCU, is working with Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project to pioneer the farm-to-school program at Cullowhee Valley School.
Inspired by a Global Poverty Project presentation on campus, the president of Western Carolina University's Student Government Association and the wife of Chancellor David O. Belcher will eat off of $1.50 per day for five days. To help raise awareness of global poverty, student TJ Eaves and Susan Brummell Belcher will participate in the Live Below the Line campaign beginning Monday, Oct. 24.
On a yearly basis at WCU, students who have a hard time finding a parking spot at one time or another question where their money goes after purchasing a parking permit. For those unlucky to have received a parking fine, even more questions are pondered.
Tony "T.J." Eaves, president of the Student Government Association at Western Carolina University, took the oath of office Friday, June 3, as the newest member of the university's Board of Trustees. Eaves, a senior from Hamlet, was elected 2011-12 WCU student body president during the spring semester, a position that also entails serving as an ex-officio member of the trustees.
Taking part in a surgical mission trip to Honduras so moved a Western Carolina University student nurse anesthetist that she and a classmate have centered their graduate research project on involving more students in international clinical rotations.
Kefyn Catley has a thing about spiders – studying and appreciating them, not smashing them with newspapers or shoes. But while Catley, associate professor of biology and coordinator of the secondary science education program, has seen his share of arthropods, not even he was prepared for the specimen he recently encountered.
Western Carolina University student Lauren Gray was elected vice president of the Public Relations Student Society of America's national committee at the organization's recent meeting in Seattle. As vice president for 2011-12, the senior public relations major from New London will assist with publishing the organization's annual report, managing chapter news, assisting with PRSSA's social media activity, and issuing press releases and updates.
Twenty Western Carolina University students recently were inducted into Theta Sigma chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, an international English honor society. Sigma Tau Delta recognizes outstanding students with a major or minor in English who have a grade-point average of 3.
Western Carolina University has been honored with a national award from the American Society of Safety Engineers for best student chapter of the year, which comes with a $6,000 prize to be used for scholarships and student research. WCU's chapter was selected from a record 17 submissions for the 2011 Mine Safety Appliance Co.
Western Carolina University student Casey Icenhour will attend the international Student Technology Conference at Yale University in June on the Senti-Merriman Scholarship, which is awarded to one student across the country each year. Icenhour, a junior from Lenoir majoring in electrical engineering, works with the student computing team at WCU and will assist his colleagues with two WCU presentations at the conference.
A Western Carolina University business student claimed second place among 122 competitors in a prestigious national collegiate sales competition, while he and his WCU teammate placed seventh out of 61 schools in team competition. Nathan Hunzaker, a senior majoring in sales and marketing and computer information systems, finished second in individual competition at the 12th Annual National Collegiate Sales Competition (NCSC) hosted by Kennesaw State University on March 4-7.
A student robotic team from Western Carolina University's Kimmel School of Construction Management and Technology recently participated in a competition at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' (IEEE) Southeastern Conference and won a third place award.
Western Carolina University students working to raise $50,000 to build a school in Pakistan are hosting a fundraising dinner and silent auction at Chef's Table in Waynesville on Tuesday, April 5. Tickets to the event are $50 for a three-course meal, which includes soup or salad, a choice of entrée and dessert.
Western Carolina University students once again rank among the nation's leaders in the number of their research projects that have been accepted for presentation at the country's most prestigious undergraduate research conference. WCU students had a total of 69 project abstracts accepted by the National Conference on Undergraduate Research, an annual springtime gathering where students from across the nation present their best research.
A new fundraising effort, the Catamount Legacy Walk, is in high gear on Western Carolina University's campus in order to raise money for a student emergency fund. The Catamount Legacy Walk initiative was launched last fall after two years of planning, which involved tasks ranging from researching fundraising brick projects at other institutions to counting bricks in sections around the Alumni Tower, said Jane Adams-Dunford, assistant vice chancellor for student affairs.
Students in Western Carolina University's School of Stage and Screen recently worked with a multiple Emmy Award-winning television writer and producer on the first reading of a play about a newly discovered work possibly written by William Shakespeare.
Scenic shop assistants and students in a scenic technology class taught by Luther Jones, technical director for Western Carolina University's School of Stage and Screen, recently traveled to Vonore, Tenn., where the movie "Alone, Yet Not Alone" was being filmed and met with the film's producer.
Wading into muddy creeks to measure stream velocity or going out in the rain to gather water samples was about more than just completing a project for the 11 members of last year's geology senior seminar research class. Their student-designed analysis of creeks in the Cullowhee community and how groundwater and streamwater interact was about applying everything they had learned in their courses; designing—and then revising—an effective research project; working in teams; writing and creating graphs for a professional research report; gaining an invitation to present at a national conference; interacting with professionals in the field; getting exposed to fields within their field that gave them ideas for their careers; and, most of all, being part of an effort that continues today at WCU that could help improve water quality.
A Western Carolina University student who is making service to the deaf community her life's work will be honored Saturday, Nov. 6, at the state level for her efforts and achievements. Shaneé Sullivan will receive a Community Impact Student Award from North Carolina Campus Compact, a statewide coalition of college and university leaders dedicated to promoting community service, service learning and civic engagement in higher education.
is a member of the 
Official Music Sponsor: 
