- Campaign: Endowment Started for Study Abroad
- WCU to present "Sounds of the Season" concert Dec. 2 at arts center
- English professor's book wins state poetry award
- FCC awards first of $417 million in grants to WCU, Cherokee health care project
- Old-time, bluegrass jam series to begin Dec. 6 at Heritage Center
- WCU's Small Business Center offers free financial analysis
- Gastle is new associate dean of graduate school
- Dec. 4 program at Heritage Center to feature music scholar Betty Smith
- Children's crafts program set for Dec. 2 at Mountain Heritage Center
- WCU Wind Ensemble to perform Dec. 4
The American Democracy Project, operated through the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, seeks to develop in young adults a strong commitment to civic engagement. Each of the project’s regional divisions hold an annual conference for universities to showcase American Democracy Project activities held on their campuses the previous year. This was the first year students from Western were represented at the regional event.
The 2007 conference also marked the launch of a “Think Tank” competition, in which a small group of students from one university was paired with small groups from two other universities. Students were given two hours to create an event about diversity awareness and the need for intercommunications between diverse groups on college campuses, with the intent that whatever was designed would be put into action at their campuses, said Bart Andrus, associate director for leadership at Western.
The team that included freshman leadership students Brandon Ward of Charlotte and Joseph DeLong of Wilmington won first place in the Think Tank competition.
Ward was elected the American Democracy Project undergraduate male representative for the region and will attend the project’s national conference in June 2008 in Snowbird, Utah. Freshman leadership student Marley Cunningham of Bryson City was elected the alternate undergraduate female representative and also will attend the national conference.
Other students who represented Western at the conference include sophomore leadership students Michael Frixen of Matthews and Dustin Wheeler of Bat Cave, and freshman leadership students Kayla Rufty of Rockwell and Claire Karricker of Salisbury. Faculty members who attended the conference were Charli Lehman, program coordinator at Western’s Center for Service Learning, and Marie Cochran, visiting instructor of art.
“Our students were prepared and created good dialogue within workshop and training sessions,” said Andrus. “All of them did outstanding and creative work in the Think Tank competition. We are very proud of this group of freshman and sophomore leadership students.”
For more information about student leadership at WCU, contact Andrus at (828) 227-3623 or via e-mail at bandrus@wcu.edu.
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Last modified: Friday, Nov. 16, 2007