In Alabama, College Students Take On Challenge of Health Insurance Sign-Up
New York Times – March 12
Students at the University of Alabama Honors College here are encouraged to do volunteer work in the community and on campus. For Marlan Golden, a senior, that has included being a Big Brother; running an education project for local Latinos; serving as president of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity; and, most recently, signing up people for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. For that last one, Mr. Golden, 21, has not had to leave the fraternity house. He and several other student volunteers have been spending recent afternoons signing up the kitchen help and housekeepers of Alpha Tau Omega, as well as those at other campus fraternities and sororities. “These are people who feed us and clean up after us but have no health care,” Mr. Golden said as he and a cook sat at his laptop filling out an application … Mr. Golden is one of about 600 student volunteers from a dozen colleges around Alabama who have been trained to help enroll people for insurance under President Obama’s signature law. They have canvassed churches, job fairs, barber shops in black neighborhoods, libraries — wherever people unlikely to have health care gather. The all-volunteer organization, known as Bama Covered, is believed to be the only group doing enrollment that is made up solely of college students. The effort has the feel of student activism from an earlier time, like the push to register blacks to vote during the civil-rights era. By the end of February, Alabama reached 84 percent of its projected enrollment goal, ahead of the national figure of 75 percent.
Santa Fe New Mexican – March 12
UA researchers to map food insecurity
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – March 12
Eating healthy means you need access to healthy foods, but that’s not always the case. Researchers at UA are starting a new project to figure out which communities in West Alabama need better access to wholesome choices. Neal Posey has more … It’s a tool they originally used for crisis mapping in Africa. Now this app is a tool to help journalism students in a yearlong project at UA called “Feed Alabama.” Ushiedi, which is an open source crowd mapping platform, a great tool for gathering data from a lot of different sources. It helped Chip Brantley and Scott Parrott secure an $8,000 grant through Knight Journalism. “The project is really about using digital tools to crowd source data and report stories.”
UA PR students help to fight childhood obesity
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – March 12
Alabama has the fourth highest childhood obesity rate in the nation. Daniel Sparkman joins us with more on how one group in Tuscaloosa is helping fight the problem … March is National Nutrition Month and a new campaign hopes to educate local school children and their parents on healthy living. The Brown Bag PR Agency kicked off their “You’re It” campaign this morning at Arcadia Elementary School with a pep rally to get students motivated to live a healthier life. “You’re It” was developed by a group of University of Alabama public relations students. The program’s goal is to educate parents and students about the importance of having a wellness plan. Organizers say the campaign plants the idea “you’re the only one that can make a healthy and positive difference in your own life.”
Preface: An Introduction To Artists’ Books Exhibition Opens At Hunter Museum
The Chattanoogan (Tenn.) – March 12
Preface: an Introduction to Artists’ Books exhibition, opening to the public March 28-June 15, will offer a small sampling of how contemporary artists are transforming books. The Anxiety Alphabet by Emily Martin looks like a regular book, but the artist has placed pins into the cover of the book to embody a sense of dread. The book narrative lists anxiety inducing activities for each letter of the alphabet. Nicole Eiland abandoned paper for part of her book, Ordinary Discovery. While some pages are photographs of fruit, other pages are the fruit themselves, pressed into a flat paper-like form, so the book has a scent as well as visual appeal. Ms. Eiland’s goal was to bring attention to the unnoticed beauty in ordinary things … The works in this exhibition are drawn from the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library at the University of Alabama. This collection supports the university’s MFA Program in the Book Arts, one of the leading centers for book arts in the country.
Geologist to speak on Aegean volcanic activity
Tuscaloosa News – March 12
A Greek geologist will present a free public lecture on volcanic activity in the southern Aegean Sea at the University of Alabama on March 21. Spyros Pavlides, geologist and dean of the faculty of sciences at Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, Greece, will present his lecture “The Southern Aegean Volcanic Arc, The Volcano of Santorini and the Minoan Civilization” at 3 p.m. March 21 in Room 205 of Smith Hall as part of a weeklong visit to UA. Pavlides will also tour the Dauphin Island Sea Lab and Moundville Archaeological Park and meet with UA faculty during his time at UA. The visit is part of the Alabama Greece Initiative, a collaborative relationship with Aristotle University, one of Greece’s major research institutions.
University of Alabama community service event seeks to build goodwill
Tuscaloosa News – March 12
The University of Alabama Community Service Center will have its first SERVE Better Together event at 9 a.m. Saturday. The event seeks to improve intercultural relationships within the UA student body and to promote unity on campus and in the community. Organizers from the interfaith student group Better Together will organize students into three teams that will spend the day working on home repairs and wheelchair ramps for needy families. This is a joint effort between UA and local nonprofit organizations Authentic Renovations Ministries and Love Inc. Students will return to the Bloom Hillel House on campus for an interfaith dinner and reflection on how the student body can work better together. For information about SERVE Better Together, contact the Crossroads Community Center at 205-348-6930. For information on participating in future community service events, go to www.volunteer.ua.edu.
Conference addresses Latino options
Crimson White – March 13
The University of Alabama School of Library and Information Studies will hold their biennial National Latino Children’s Literature Conference in Gorgas Library on Thursday and Friday. The conference will include teachers, librarians, children’s authors, illustrators, educators, graduate students and other college students who will participate in speeches and learning sessions. “For the attendees that are teachers and librarians, it gives them information that they need on how to serve Latino and Spanish-speaking populations, and how to select the best literature for those populations,” associate professor and conference chair Jamie Naidoo said … He said the conference is meant to share information about the best practices for educating Latino and Spanish-speaking children in their area, something many attendees have not needed to know until now.
Family medicine program selects chief residents
Crimson White – March 13
The College of Community Health Sciences’ three-year family medicine residency program has selected three 2014-15 chief residents. Leslie Zganjar, director of communications for CCHS, said the program is unique because it has no competing residencies and utilizes a single community hospital for most rotations, increasing convenience and quality. “[The residency gives] residents ample opportunity to directly care for patients and develop procedural skills,” Zganjar said. “It has a highly skilled, committed, diverse program of 50 faculty in the core medical disciplines who teach only family medicine residents along with medical students on their clerkships.” The residents will work at the University Medical Center’s Family Medicine Center and DCH Regional Medical Center.
Students help with Secret Meals program, aid schools
Crimson White – March 13
From Lakeside Dining to Bryant Hall, and all the vending machines in between, food is readily available all over the University of Alabama campus. Freshman and anyone else with an unlimited meal plan have access to all the food they can eat at almost any time of day. For many children in Alabama, this is not the case. Secret Meals For Hungry Children provides weekend meals for around 2,000 children across Alabama. Many of these children are on free or reduced-price lunches, and they only get food when their school provides it. The West Alabama Food Bank started the program under the name “Backpack Buddies” and fed 18 students in Tuscaloosa. The Alabama Credit Union took over the program and renamed it to avoid confusion with school supply drives. On Friday afternoons while students are at recess, volunteers deliver 3 1/2 pound food packs to schools, and teachers put them in the backpacks of children in the program. The packages contain two breakfasts, two lunches and two snacks for the weekend. Michelle McClinton, a marketing assistant at Alabama Credit Union, said teachers and counselors see the impact of the organization. “They say children feel rewarded when they get their food,” McClinton said.
College offers degree program, development help
Crimson White – March 13
Students in The University of Alabama College of Continuing Studies do not fit the mold of the typical UA student. “Our average student is over 30 years old, they’re working and they have children. They can’t come here and walk around or live on campus, so they do it through us,” Bill Elrod, director of business development and college relations, said. “Often people start school and for whatever reason are unable to finish. It could be that they are out of money, or a countless number of reasons. Next thing they know, they are just out of time. They get to a certain point in their life or career where they need to advance, and the only way they can advance or change jobs is to have a degree of some sort, or a certificate. Those are the people that come to us,” Elrod said … Although the College of Continuing Studies’ degree program may be the most well-known, the college also offers a variety of other programs, including professional development and environmental and occupational health and safety. Nina Smith, program manager of the student services division, said the college offers programs for both adult students who want to pursue degrees and those who don’t.
Holly Hollis earns doctorate
Eatonton Register (Ga.) – March 12
Col. and Ms. Don A. Hollis (U.S. Army, retired) of Forest Lake Village in Putnam County have announced their daughter, Holly Nicole Hollis, has been awarded a doctorate degree in nursing education from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. Dr. Rick Howser, UA Capstone School of Nursing, made the award presentation Dec. 16, after Hollis successfully completed the final defense of her dissertation. She received her BSN and MSN from Georgia College, graduating magna cum laude in her master’s class. She will graduate summa cum laude at her official graduation ceremony at Bryant Denny Stadium May 3.