UA celebrates 8 years of Coca-Cola First Generation Scholars Program
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – April 10
The University of Alabama honored students who are the first ones in their family to attend college. It’s part of an effort to celebrate the Coca-Cola Scholars and their families. Coca-Cola established the scholarship in 1993. This morning, dozens of students who benefitted from it attended a luncheon at the north end zone of Bryant Denny Stadium. The company has spent more than $36 million to send 2,800 kids to school nationwide. One recent Alabama graduate says the scholarship meant the world to her parents. “And for them, it was a big deal because of course they knew I was going to college. But to be able to attend the University of Alabama and on a scholarship meant so much to them.” Each Coca-Cola scholar gets a $5,000 scholarship each year for four years.
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – April 10
WVUA at 6 (Tuscaloosa) – April 10
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – April 10
AIME Day designed to tout new technology by University of Alabama teams
Tuscaloosa News – April 10
The University of Alabama’s center devoted to helping staff and students take their ideas to market will have its annual event today featuring new technologies and the UA teams behind them. UA’s Alabama Innovation and Mentoring of Entrepreneurs center will host AIME Day at the AIME building on campus from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Friday. The 17 teams composed of UA faculty and students are scheduled to present or compete in the annual event. Some are competing for cash prizes or support to develop prototypes. Others will gain valuable experience and feedback as they practice using their prototypes to sell their ideas to investors. “We are going to be highlighting university technologies and entrepreneurial students,” said Rachel Frazier, AIME research engineer. The teams, whose ideas range from software to technology with medical applications, will each give presentations that are about 10 minutes long, according to a release from UA. Seven outside entrepreneurial experts serving as judges will select winners and offer professional insight into commercial viability of the team’s pitches.
UA to Build Storm Shelter
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – April 10
New construction on the University of Alabama campus could make it a safe place. They are approving a plan to build the storm shelter. It will be large enough to protect more than 700 people from inclement weather. It will be located between The Rise School and the UA Child Development Center. Two FEMA grants should cover about half of the costs. Elizabeth Burson, graduate student: “I would enjoy having a storm cellar nearby. Even during therapy or classes, may not have a chance to leave to get to a safe place and time.”
University of Alabama’s Sonic Frontiers hosts Dawn of Midi
Tuscaloosa News – April 10
Tuscaloosa’s experimental music series Sonic Frontiers will close out its third season at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in Bryant-Jordan Hall with a performance from New York-based acoustic jazz trio Dawn of Midi. “We wanted to end our third season with a band who confounds ideas of what makes something experimental,” said Sonic Frontiers director Andrew Dewar. “This trio’s music will be interesting to fans of electronic dance music as much as fans of jazz, experimental classical music and indie rock.” The season finale for Sonic Frontiers will serve dually as Dawn of Midi’s first performance in a tour for its second album “Dysnomia,” that will take them from Chicago to Switzerland and many places in between. “Dysnomia” was listed among the “Best Albums of 2013” in The New Yorker, NPR Music’s “50 Favorite Albums of 2013,” and BBC 3’s “Best of 2013.”
Black Warrior Film Festival screening ‘Hooper,’ 82 other Southern films
Tuscaloosa News – April 10
In a frigid January 1978, the climactic scenes of the movie “Hooper,” starring Academy Award-winning actress Sally Field and nationally acclaimed actor Burt Reynolds, was being shot right here in Tuscaloosa. In the comedy, Reynolds played an aging stuntman performing death-defying stunts, ending in a series of crashing towers and building detonations on the old Northington campus, which was being demolished to make way for what would become University Mall, followed by a jet-car-propelled bridge leap, filmed some miles south of town. In reality, the man behind much of that action was Hollywood stuntman Glenn Wilder. Now, 36 years after being in the center of that explosive action, Wilder will return to Tuscaloosa to present a screening of “Hooper” and speak at the second annual Black Warrior Film Festiva, a student film festival put on by Creative Campus through partnerships with multiple departments and organizations at the University of Alabama. “We had a great time filming ‘Hooper’ in Tuscaloosa,” Wilder said. “The local people were all very welcoming, and I had a great experience.” Wilder, whose twin daughters now attend the university, said he thinks the festival provides a great opportunity for students to showcase their talents and that he is happy to take part in the weekend.
LOCAL Q&A: Sherry Nichols
Tuscaloosa News – April 10
This week we chatted with Sherry Nichols, an associate professor at the University of Alabama who loves all things outdoors and is trying to bring a Makerspace to an area near you. Q: What do you do? Tell us about your job and how you became involved in it. A: I’m an associate professor of science teacher education in the College of Education at UA. I teach people how to teach science to kids. Q: Where are you from? What brought you to or keeps you in Tuscaloosa? A: I grew up in Clearwater, Fla. I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to visit many places around the world and had brief times of living in South Korea, Australia and the Philippines. I came to work at UA because I was interested in issues of the Deep South and science education. I’ve remained in this area because I think there are many interesting folks wanting to address issues of race, privilege, identity and using creative ways to encourage community conversations about these matters — such as film features at the Bama Theatre.
Free Schools Exhibition to open at j fergeson gallery April 10
Southside Messenger (Va.) – April 10
Works related to the collaborative effort between Longwood University and the Moton Museum to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Prince Edward County Free Schools will be on exhibit April 10-26 at the j fergeson gallery in Farmville. One item on display will be a limited-edition artist book featuring the stories of students affected by the closing of the Prince Edward County schools from 1959-64. … Titled Unbound, the book is being created by two book artists, Longwood art faculty member Kerri Cushman and visiting artist Jessica Peterson, and a group of Longwood students … “The book is a history of that period from the student perspective,” said visiting artist Jessica Peterson, a letterpress printing specialist who lives in Tuscaloosa, Ala. “Much of my work deals with race, civil rights and the American narrative, and the story of Moton and the Free Schools is an interesting and overlooked American story.” Peterson, an adjunct instructor in the University of Alabama’s book art program and co-owner of Southern Letterpress, has been working on the project with Kerri Cushman, associate professor of art at Longwood, and with students in the class they are teaching jointly this spring.