UA grad student earns honor for playing euphonium
Tuscaloosa News – Sept. 26
Kyohei Ando… a University of Alabama graduate student from Hokkaido, Japan, made his international debut after winning first place at one of the world’s top euphonium competitions. “The long and short of it is that it’s arguably the most prestigious competition for euphonium and tuba players in the world,” said UA music professor Demondrae Thurman, Ando’s instructor. Since 1985, the Leonard Falcone Festival has been held in honor of euphonium pioneer Leonard Falcone. The first international student from UA to compete, Ando placed first in Leonard Falcone International Artist Division Solo Competition. “As a musician, winning isn’t necessary. It’s more about having the opportunity to play,” Ando said. Before coming to school at UA, Ando struggled to find time for his music in Japan and said his acceptance to UA’s euphonium program changed everything. “I was working to live, but now I can concentrate on studying and preparing for my performances,” Ando said. “I feel better here and feel free in my music.”…
UA student creates scholarship website
Crimson White – Sept. 27
Temani Beck, a junior majoring in education…start a website, www.guidetoscholarships.org, to aid high school juniors and seniors, as well as undergraduate students in search of scholarships. “I went home recently and found my binder,” she said. “I began to think how I could use this to help someone else because the information and programs are still valid, just the dates have changed.”… “My goal for this site is that if one person can be helped, I will be happy,” she said. Stephen Black, director for the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility, said Beck made the site entirely on her own…The difference from Beck’s site “Fran’s Guide to Scholarships,” and other scholarship sites, like Fastweb, is that there is a live person on the other end to help answer questions and give advice; a component of her website is that she is acting as a resource for students who need questions answered regarding things such as scholarship applications, college applications and interviewing…
FocusFirst a finalist for national award
Crimson White – Sept. 27
FocusFirst, a nonprofit organization at the University that offers eye screenings to children, has been nominated as one of the top five finalists to receive $20,000 in a national competition that recognized non-profits across the country. “This money will allow us to expand efforts throughout the state and screen hundreds and maybe thousands more children,” said Sara Louise Smith, program coordinator for the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility. “This is the first national contest we have been a part of to seek funding, and we are certainly thankful of the support of the students and faculty here at UA for voting,” she said… “FocusFirst was the only non-profit nominated in the 41 finalists from the state of Alabama,” said Amy Buchanan, research project coordinator…
Rants and Raves: Screenings offer clearer future
Montgomery Advertiser – Sept. 25
RAVE: For the Focus First Initiative, a vision screening program for children that conducted its 100,000th screening last week. The Focus First Initiative, part of the Impact Alabama program, uses college students to make sure children in Head Start programs and low-income day-care centers statewide are screened for vision problems. University of Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy helped conduct screenings as the initiative reached the milestone. According to founder Stephen Black, about 11 percent of the children fail the screenings and receive subsidized follow-up care through Sight Savers America.
Solution for Slumping State Support
Inside Higher Ed – Sept. 27
…“Statewide community college foundations are not new,” wrote Stephen G. Katsinas, director of the Education Policy Center at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, in an e-mail. “What’s new is the severe fiscal strain all of public higher education, including community colleges, is operating under. We are right now finishing our 2010 annual report of access and funding issues in public higher education, that surveys state community college directors, and found only 11 states have a plan for the end of ARRA stimulus funds. The most common approach to state planning appears to be ‘pray and hope’ for state tax revenues to recover.”…
Tuscaloosa wise to use automotive industry
Tuscaloosa News – Sept. 26
…The county also should increase its cooperation with UA to attract more research and development, information technology, software development, engineering and knowledge-based employers that typically have high-paying jobs, great growth potential and tend to locate near major universities, which can assist in research and provide highly trained workers. Some major universities have research parks near their campuses, and while that is a possibility for Tuscaloosa, Sewell said high-tech employers will be attracted more by the intellectual capabilities of the area than the available real estate. “The University of Alabama is Tuscaloosa’s greatest asset. It’s obvious that Tuscaloosa should look to the university and its assets to create and build a diversification strategy,” Sewell said. As such, it should be a cornerstone in the county’s economic development diversification strategy. Joe Benson, UA’s vice president for research, agreed that the university needs to be a major player in the county’s economic future. The university has long been a player in the area’s economic development, and it wants “to expand the interaction that we already have.” Benson said the university and its faculty have expertise that can be tapped to help the county’s existing economy as well as new economic opportunities. “I think one of the other things we can focus on is the work of our faculty to develop intellectual property” and bring it to market, he said…
AT LARGE: U.S. attorney general speaks of impact Lee’s work had
Tuscaloosa News – Sept. 26
At first I was a bit confused by the University of Alabama School of Law celebrating the 50th anniversary of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Isn’t literature in the realm of the English department? And secondly by the choice of Attorney General Eric Holder as the keynote speaker for the event last week. Why not some big name scholar of literature or Southern culture? But it all became clear Tuesday as Holder gave the keynote speech in the Anne Campbell Bloom Lecture Series at the UA law school on “The Impact of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ ”…Seems “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which came out in 1960 as the civil rights movement was blooming, was for that generation of lawyers what “All the President’s Men,” featuring two intrepid reporters exposing the Watergate crimes, was for aspiring journalists of the 1970s…And while any time the university can get the attorney general of the United States to speak on campus is a feather in the institution’s cap, it turns out Holder, born in Brooklyn of Caribbean descent and educated at Columbia University in New York, had a strong connection to the University of Alabama. Holder is the brother-in-law of Vivian Malone Jones, the first African-American to graduate from the university and whose admission along with James Hood in 1963 prompted Gov. George Wallace’s infamous “stand in the schoolhouse door” at Foster Auditorium on the UA campus…
College News
Tuscaloosa News – Sept. 27
…Some University of Alabama students are participating in National Green Volunteer Day on Oct. 2. Green Hands USA has organized National Green Volunteer Day events across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Green Hands USA is a national volunteer movement devoted to helping local communities succeed in their community “greening” projects…
Dance Alabama! to be held this week
Crimson White – Sept. 27
Now in its eleventh season, Dance Alabama! is a student-organized and choreographed concert designed to expose audiences to the culture of dance while exhibiting the talent of UA students. The 2010 fall concert, which will be held Tuesday through Friday in Morgan Auditorium at 7:30 p.m., will strap audiences into an emotional roller coaster through 19 student performances…