Achievers
Sean Allen, a resident of Pleasant Garden and a student at Bob Jones University, competed in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers SoutheastCon 2024 in Atlanta, Ga., held March 20-24. SoutheastCon hosts competitors from colleges and universities in 10 states and the country of Jamaica.
Competition categories included circuit design, ethics, hardware design networking, outreach, presentation, promotional design and software.
The BJU team designed and built an autonomous robot able to navigate a specified track and perform tasks. They tied for third place with Virginia Tech in the robotics and design category. More than 50 teams competed including Florida State University, High Point University, Mississippi State University, University of North Carolina at Asheville, UNC-Charlotte, etc.
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Activities
Thousands of High Point University students, faculty and staff gathered today outside the Wanek School of Natural Sciences to view the solar eclipse using projection telescopes and purple, HPU-branded eclipse glasses.
The crowd began congregating on the Order of the Lighted Lamp Plaza shortly before the eclipse started just before 2 p.m. HPU’s Department of Physics and Astronomy set up telescopes for people to get a closer look at the partially blocked sun.
Students were treated to eclipse-themed snacks as the event occurred, including Moon Pies, star-shaped Rice Krispie treats, Starburst candy and Sunny D orange drinks. A short film about eclipses was also shown inside HPU’s Culp Planetarium.
A crowd of 3,000 people gathered on HPU’s Kester International Promenade to view the last total solar eclipse on Aug. 21, 2017.
Announcements
UNCG’s Science Everywhere returns for 2024 with an exciting line up of events encouraging the exploration of Science, Technology, Esports, Arts and Math.
Dozens of organizations, topics, experiments and hands on activities will be on display all over UNCG’s campus from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday. Visit with local scientists and learn what research is going on in their labs. Connect with local groups and discover ways to get involved as a citizen scientist in the Triad.
The event is hosted by RISE (Research and Instruction in STEM Education) at UNCG, a coalition of educators and researchers involved in STEM. Science Everywhere is also one of the statewide NC Science Festival events. Admission and parking is free with parking available in the McIver Deck, the Walker Deck, and Lot 7S behind Weatherspoon Art Museum.
For information, visit https://rise.uncg.edu/science-everywhere-2024/.
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GTCC will host a Career and Technical Expo featuring Ford ASSET at its Center for Advanced Manufacturing campus from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 20 at 6012 W. Gate City Blvd. in Greensboro.
The free event will showcase the college’s class offerings in the 200,000 square-foot advanced manufacturing facility used to train students in: Computer-integrated machining, transportation technology, welding technology along with the GTCC Apprenticeship Program and North Carolina Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education.
In addition, representatives will be on hand from the Ford ASSET program, which provides on-the-job, paid training, at sponsoring Ford and Lincoln dealerships while earning an associate degree in automotive systems technology. GTCC is one of two community colleges in the state to offer this program.
Prospective students and their families can engage with faculty, staff, partnering companies, and students from each program, view live demonstrations and tour instruction labs, shop spaces, classrooms and more.
There will also be a chance for prospective students to enter to win scholarships including a $1,000 scholarship toward educational expenses in the Ford ASSET program.
Registration is suggested but not required. To register or for more information on the GTCC career and technical expo, visit: gtcc.edu/events/2024/04/career-technical-education-expo-ft-ford-asset.php.
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On April 10, Greensboro Day School Head of School Tracie Catlett announced the public phase of the $27 Million Be BOLD Comprehensive Campaign. The campaign will raise $25 million for a new Preschool Center, a new Center for Student Life, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, a new maintenance facility and new restroom facilities at the tennis center. An additional $2 million will go towards the school’s endowment to fund the maintenance of these new facilities.
As of April 9, the school has raised $24.4 million of its $27 million goal, making the Be BOLD Campaign the largest fundraising initiative in the school’s history.
On March 25, the GDS Board of Trustees approved the construction of the SLEI building and selected Samet Corporation as general contractor. The school will break ground on the SLEI building this summer, with projected completion during the 2025–26 school year.
The school has been in the leadership phase of fundraising since September of 2022. The two largest gifts to the campaign have come from the estate of Fred M. Kirby III ($7.8 million) and from Jackie and Steve Bell, who recently gave an additional $1 million to the campaign, bringing their total contribution to $6 million.
Grants
UNCG has received a $100,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation. The grant is awarded to the African American and African Diaspora Studies Department and is the largest grant ever received by the department.
The award is earmarked for equity-focused curriculum development. UNCG faculty and students are planning forums for discussion of how to teach African American subject matter at the high school level, and development of lesson plans that are inclusive and give students a more complete understanding of where they live. Curriculum developed through this work will be an example for school systems across the state.
Inspired by the university’s role in Greensboro’s civil rights movement dating back to the Woolworth’s lunch counter sit-ins in 1960, AADS was founded in 1982. The department strives to maintain education and public discourse between UNCG and the broader Greensboro community on matters of equity and recognition of complete historical narratives about race in America.
Noelle Morrisette, AADS director and professor emphasizes that programs created by this grant will reflect student voices in “growing the world we want,” from the same soil that witnessed racial atrocities like the lynching of Eugene Hairston in 1887, which is estimated to have occurred at the intersection of Mendenhall and Spring Garden Street, on the eastern edge of UNCG’s campus today.
The grant will fund eight internships, which will be offered to undergraduate students with AADS majors. Interns will support the high school forums, curriculum development, document the effort through photography and multimedia projects, and engage AADS alumni with the department’s current students.
Honors
The following people recently were initiated into The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the nation’s oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines: Amber Esters of Greensboro, UNC-Charlotte; Ashley Burroughs of High Point, UNC-Wilmington; and Blake Kessel of Elon, Elon University.
Scholarships
UNCG has announced that third-year chemistry student, Marcos Tapia, has been awarded the prestigious Barry Goldwater Scholarship.
Tapia, a first-generation college student from Forsyth County, was among only 438 students chosen nationwide for the Goldwater honor. This year, the scholars were chosen from 1,353 science, engineering and mathematics undergraduate students nominated by 446 institutions to compete for the award. Each scholarship is awarded $7,500 a year, to cover up to two years of tuition expenses.
The scholarship is intended to support students with aspirations for research careers in natural sciences, mathematics and engineering to ensure that the U.S. produces professionals in these critical fields. Many Goldwater Scholars have already published research findings in journals and presented at professional conferences, including Tapia.
Tapia joined the research team of Shabnam Hematian in his very first year at UNCG and began studying electrochemical properties of substances found in nature to develop environmentally friendly technologies.
In his second year at UNCG, Tapia was named a U-RISE Fellow by the National Institutes of Health. This fellowship, which prepares high-achieving science students from underrepresented groups for doctoral training, gave Tapia further opportunities to present his work and opened doors for his Goldwater Scholar appointment.