Author Terry Tempest Williams believes national parks are under siege, and on March 24 – in front of a crowd that included UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol L. Folt — she urged people to become informed about what’s happening.

“Pick a park and fight for it,” said Williams, an environmentalist, naturalist and activist who is the 2015 Distinguished Writer-in-Residence in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “I’m 59 years old, I’ve been raised around the parks, but they are now absolute islands that are being whittled away by development.

“Volunteer, find out what the issues are and decide how you feel about it. Engage literally in the open space of democracy.”

Folt, who introduced Williams at the event, first met the author in 2003 when Williams spoke at Dartmouth College.

“I heard her say some memorable words that night,” Folt said. “‘Each of us can find our own path of passion, how we can be of use — to serve community in the name of a reverence for life.’ That is such a powerful feeling, and I felt very close to it at that moment. That’s also the way I feel about our community in Chapel Hill.”

While at Dartmouth, Folt assigned her class of first-year students to read Williams’ book “Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place.”

“It was particularly meaningful because it managed, in a single book, to take things that mattered to me … my love of science, and in particular water and nature, woven together with a story of family and breast cancer,” Folt said. “It talked about all the aspects of the human condition in that book.”

During the talk at the Genome Sciences Building, Williams discussed her upcoming book, which focuses on 10 national parks, from Grand Teton to Gettysburg to Gates of the Arctic.

She called it her most challenging book yet.

“Displaced people, lands taken, complexity. How do we write out of complexity?” she asked. “The truth is: I love these lands. I’ve spent most of my life walking in them, living in them, defending them. This book has in fact become the most personal for me. It’s about my love for these American lands.”

On March 23, Williams and other Carolina faculty panelists discussed “Nor Any Drop to Drink” at an event highlighting UNC-Chapel Hill’s academic water theme.

A westerner by birth, Williams grew up in Utah near the Great Salt Lake — a site that has become central to her writing.

“The largest mass of inland water west of the Mississippi is now shrinking,” she said. “Islands have become peninsulas, the salinity is rising and endangering biodiversity. Wildlife habitats and clean air are at stake. It’s a landscape I hardly recognize.”

Williams visited the Rio Grande and Big Bend National Park while researching for her book. She said people are now calling the Rio Grande “the Rio sand.” Still, she stressed, we don’t need to focus on what’s happening individually in these endangered waters but rather “what this means collectively.”

“I have so much respect for what’s going on at UNC-Chapel Hill, where you are not averting your gaze from these hard issues,” she said.

Williams will participate in a panel discussion March 25 at 3:30 p.m. in Greenlaw Hall’s Donovan Lounge on “Memoir and the Natural World.”

The author’s visit is sponsored by the Hanes and Hibbits families, the Office of the Chancellor and the department of English and comparative literature.

By Kim Spurr, College of Arts and Sciences

Published March 25, 2015.

The Board of Governors of the 17-campus University of North Carolina has selected UNC-Chapel Hill’s Terry Sullivan, an associate professor in the Department of Political Science, for a 2015 Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Sullivan is one of 17 recipients, nominated by special committees on their home campuses and selected by the Board of Governors’ Committee on Personnel and Tenure.

“Terry Sullivan’s commitment to excellence in the classroom exemplifies Carolina’s leadership in research, scholarship and creativity,” said Chancellor Carol L. Folt. “Students and faculty consider him a great story teller, provocateur, and a breath of fresh air. I agree and congratulate him on bringing this recognition to Chapel Hill.”

Sullivan earned his B.A. and Ph.D. in Government from the University of Texas and completed his postdoctoral studies at Carnegie-Mellon University Graduate School of Industrial Administration. A UNC-Chapel Hill Department of Political Science faculty member for 26 years, he is being recognized for his passion, commitment to students, consistently high standards and for bringing research to life for undergraduates.

Students also attest to the learning environment that Sullivan creates, which challenges them to be their very best. One student wrote: “Professor Sullivan creates a dynamic, intellectual environment, which allows his students to think critically about politics.”

A faculty colleague noted that “he devotes considerable attention to writing and gives students hands-on opportunities to engage in research design.”

Sullivan will receive his award during UNC-Chapel Hill’s spring commencement ceremony.

Posted March 24, 2015

Ten people or groups received 2015 University Diversity Awards recognizing their significant contributions to the enhancement, support and furtherance of diversity on the Carolina campus and in the community.

The seventh annual diversity awards, sponsored by the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, were presented March 23 during a reception at the Pleasants Family Assembly Room in Wilson Library.

Chancellor Carol L. Folt observed that the people receiving these awards were the kind of selfless individuals that don’t expect to be recognized for what they do.

“These are not the things that people do to gather awards. These are the things that people do because it comes up from the heart,” Folt said. “Every one of these is a choice, a decision made from the heart in a way to reach out to other people.”

Said Taffye Benson Clayton, associate vice chancellor and chief diversity officer: “Today is an important indication of how UNC continues to support the work of promoting diversity, both on our campus and in our surrounding community.”

For the first time, two people received the faculty award. Rumay Alexander, clinical professor and director of multicultural affairs in the School of Nursing, was one of them. Her nominator said she “treats all with respect and dignity and is often the conscience of the School of Nursing.” Alexander’s influence is national as well as local with her service with the American Hospital Association, the National League for Nursing and the American Organization of Nurse Executives. At Carolina, she initiated the School of Nursing’s “Courageous Dialogues” in which faculty and staff come together to discuss their responses to books, film and other media. She also serves on the Faculty Governance Committee on Community and Diversity and as a diversity champion for the School of Dentistry and Gillings School of Global Public Health.

The other faculty member to be honored was Brian Hogan, research assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry. “The greatest significance of his work comes from increasing the number of students that are traditionally excluded from careers in chemistry,” said his nominator. Hogan co-directs the Trans-Atlantic Science Student Exchange Program and is academic director of Scholars’ Latino Initiative, which increases access for Latina/o high school students. A Faculty Engaged Scholar, Hogan worked on the creation of the UPLIFT PLUS curriculum for high school students and led a student group that provides surplus science materials to under-resourced middle schools. He is also founder and president of a nonprofit in Guatemala focused on women’s literacy and the building of schools.

Fostering diversity is a foundational principle of the Friday Center, winner of the department/unit member award. Examples of its mission to expand access include part-time studies, correctional education, adult learner scholarships and a wide range of conferences, programs and performances.

Two students received undergraduate student awards. Frank Brady Gilliam of Charlotte, a first-year comparative literature major, spent his gap year volunteering as an English tutor and interning in small medical clinics in Thailand, Madagascar, Bolivia and Peru. At Carolina, Gilliam has been a Campus Y intern with global interests, including connecting Duke and UNC students involved in international projects. An LGBTQ activist, he has been a member of the LGBTQ Housing Community Board and conducted research in oral history and queer anthropology. Looking at all Gilliam has accomplished in just his first semester, his nominator said that, in “25 years of teaching college students, it is hard for me to imagine (or even remember) a more deserving candidate for the Diversity awards.”

The co-recipient of the undergraduate student award was Trey Mangum, a senior from Roxboro majoring in journalism and mass communication. As president of the Black Student Movement and diversity columnist for the Daily Tar Heel, Mangum has worked to bridge the gap between black faculty and students and to raise awareness of various issues faced by underrepresented students. “Trey takes the approach of educating rather than persecuting,” said his nominator.

Blessing Aghaulor, a second-year medical student from Nairobi, Kenya, received this year’s graduate and professional student award. As an undergraduate at Yale, she found her passion for public health and Chinese culture. This interest led her to design and implement a Medical Mandarin course for Carolina’s School of Medicine, as a pilot in fall 2014. The course teaches useful phrases for medical students and offers them a chance to build relationships with Chinese seniors in the community. Aghaulor said her course “offers interested students the tools and skills to become culturally and linguistically competent physicians in the future.”

Staff award winner Amy Burtaine is director of Interactive Theatre Carolina in Student Wellness, which uses theater to address the intersections of health and social identity. “Amy works to ensure the efforts of ITC affords Carolina students the ability to find and have a voice…to tell their story,” said her nominator. Trained as a social justice educator, Burtaine has worked nationally and internationally in theatre and education for over 20 years, including training with Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed in Brazil.

The campus organization award went to the Carolina Indian Circle, which creates cultural and learning opportunities for the entire campus and provides more insight into the Native citizens of the state and of the nation. Founded in 1974, the Carolina Indian Circle is a registered student organization that provides a positive atmosphere and a sense of community to Native students. It also advocates for the recognition and respect of Native American cultural heritage through cultural events, education and the awareness campaign “My Culture is Not a Costume.”

Documentary filmmaker Barb Lee received the alumni award. As founder and president of Point Made Films, Lee has been able to work on several documentaries that aim to promote the varying aspects of American identity, such as “Adopted,” a feature length documentary that explores the grit rather than glamour of international adoption, and “The Prep School Negro,” about the complicated issues that arise when African American students are given scholarships to attend elite prep schools. Lee is a past Board of Visitors member, a current member of the J-School Board of Advisors, and a founding member and past chair of the Alumni Committee on Racial & Ethnic Diversity.

The community award went to Kara Stewart, a member of the Sappony tribe and Tribal Council and literacy coach with the Chapel Hill- Carrboro City Schools. As chair of the Culturally Responsive Instruction Committee with the State Advisory Council on Indian Education, Stewart has been instrumental in developing online resources for accurate teaching to and about American Indians. “Kara believes that it is vital for Native people to be reflected in an accurate, contemporary and non- stereotypical way,” her nominator said. Stewart is also a photographer, poet and award-winning fiction writer published in “Rich Fabric – An Anthology: The Symbolism, Culture & Tradition of Quilting.”

In addition, the Harvey Beech Scholarship goes to students who exemplify a commitment to service and academics. The scholarship bears the name of one of the first four African-American students admitted to UNC who was the first to graduate in 1952. This year’s recipients were Kendall Atkins, a sophomore journalism and mass communication major; Nashara Moore, a junior management and society and sociology major; and Geovanni Parroquin, a junior political science major.

By Susan Hudson, University Gazette

Published March 23, 2015

 

Three people were honored at the Campus Y on March 23 with the University Award for the Advancement of Women.

The awards, created in 2006, honor individuals who have mentored or supported women on campus, elevated the status of women or improved campus policies for them, promoted women’s recruitment and retention, or promoted professional development for women.

“I am so proud to be here today to recognize those who have advanced the status of women, and by extension, the broader community,” said Chancellor Carol L. Folt, who spoke during the ceremony.

The three winners – one faculty member, one staff member and one student, graduate student or postdoctoral scholar are eligible – receive a monetary award ($5,000 for faculty and staff winners, $2,500 for the student scholar).

This year’s honorees are senior Maegan Clawges; Terri Phoenix, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Center; and Carmen Samuel-Hodge, a research assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition at the Gillings School of Global Public Health and School of Medicine.

Clawges

Clawges, a journalism and computer science major, founded Pearl Hacks, an innovative technical competition hosted by

the UNC Department of Computer Science and the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication to help address the gender gap in computer science.

More than 500 women from 15 states attended this year’s hackathon, which was held March 21-22. One nominator said Clawges, “on her own initiative and effort,” organized the event that was described as a “slumber party-cum-jamboree of computer programmers and app (application) designers.”

According to the National Science Foundation, the percentage of female computer science majors has been decreasing since the mid-1980s despite increases in the percentage of women in medical schools, law schools and physical science fields.

Clawges said Pearl Hacks aims to help more women engage with computer science by building community and self-esteem among students and debunking some of the misconceptions about what it means to be a computer scientist.

“I chose to study computer science because I wanted to learn a skill that would be relevant no matter what type of work I ended up doing,” Clawges said. “And I stayed in the field because of the amazing community that I developed through hackathons, conferences and internships that I was fortunate to have.”

Phoenix

One nominator said Phoenix has been dedicated to “ending interpersonal violence, especially violence that impacts women and marginalized individuals [at Carolina].”

In 10 years as director of the LGBTQ Center, Phoenix has approached the work from a social justice framework to free the campus of heterosexism, a system of attitudes, bias and discrimination in favor of opposite-sex sexuality and relationships.

“Our mission is to provide and foster a welcoming and inclusive environment for people of all orientations and identities and gender expressions,” Phoenix said.

The work requires changing not only the attitudes of individuals, but the policies and practices of the institution itself.

This is something Phoenix understands – and experiences – firsthand. Identifying as transmasculine, Phoenix has close-cropped hair, wears suits and ties, and prefers gender non-specific pronouns.

“When people say to me ‘Miss Phoenix’ rather than ‘Dr. Phoenix’ or ‘Mr. Phoenix,’ they are not seeing me,” Phoenix said. “So imagine you are walking through your day and everyone is referring to you by a pronoun that doesn’t fit you.”

Phoenix is currently part of a task force that is reviewing “student-on-student” complaints of harassment, including sexual misconduct and discrimination.

“I want an institution that treats everyone equitably and where every individual who comes on this campus, whether they are here as a student or a member of the faculty or staff, has the same opportunity to take advantage of all the University has to give,” Phoenix said.

“That can only happen when people like me are able to walk through their day without having to encounter any extra barriers because of how they dress or who they love.”

Samuel-Hodge

Samuel-Hodge was recognized for her work as a mentor to women of color who hold or are pursuing doctoral degrees. She built an informal group called “Sistah-docs” that holds weekly check-in meetings in which members are encouraged to share their concerns and celebrate their accomplishments to help keep everyone on track.

Reflecting on Samuel-Hodge’s impact on her life, one Sistah-doc member wrote: “Without Carmen’s guidance and unyielding support, I would not have pushed through to complete my dissertation. She provided me with the consistent structure I needed to persevere. Carmen is the epitome of kindness and continues to “pay it forward” through her research and mentorship.”

One nominator wrote, “The remarkable thing about Carmen was that she did this outsider of her responsibilities as a faculty member, on her own time. Her devotion and continual guidance exceeded that of any mentor.”

Samuel-Hodge, who is from the U.S. Virgin Islands, has worked extensively with maternal and child health issues among minority and underserved populations.

She is currently the principal investigator of research projects funded by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).

With the CDC-funded project, she is conducting translational research with six health departments in North Carolina to evaluate the process of implementation and test the effectiveness of an evidence-based behavioral weight loss intervention implemented by public health practitioners.

Her NIDDK grant focuses on developing and testing the effectiveness of a family-based weight loss and diabetes self-management intervention among adult African Americans with type 2 diabetes and their family members.

By Gary Moss, University Gazette

Published March 23, 2015

Author Terry Tempest Williams will speak March 24 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

As the 2015 Distinguished Writer-in-Residence in the College of Arts and Sciences, Williams will present a free public reading at 7:30 p.m. in the Genome Sciences Building auditorium.

Williams has been called “a citizen writer,” a writer who speaks eloquently on behalf of an ethical stance toward life. Through her writing, which has altered the way many readers think about the natural world, she addresses the fundamental questions of humanity and justice.

A westerner by birth, Williams grew up in Utah, very near the Great Salt Lake, a site that has become central to her writing. Her works include “When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice,” “Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place,” “An Unspoken Hunger: Stories from the Field,” “Desert Quartet: An Erotic Landscape,” “Leap” and many others. 

In 2006, Williams received the Robert Marshall Award from The Wilderness Society, their highest honor given to an American citizen. She currently serves as the Annie Clark Tanner Scholar in Environmental Humanities at the University of Utah.

Williams will participate as a panelist in additional free events:

• March 23, 3:30 p.m., Hyde Hall: “Nor any drop to drink.” Featuring moderator Bland Simpson (Kenan Distinguished Professor of English and Creative Writing), Lawrence Band (director, Institute for the Environment) and Bernie Herman (George B. Tindall Distinguished Professor of American Studies and Folklore). Co-sponsored by the Water in our World program.

• March 25, 3:30 p.m., Donovan Lounge, Greenlaw Hall: “Memoir and the natural world.” Featuring moderator Stephanie Elizondo Griest (assistant professor and Margaret Shuping Fellow of Creative Nonfiction), Jan DeBlieu (author, naturalist and environmentalist) and Philip Gerard (author, naturalist and UNC-Wilmington creative writing faculty member).

Her visit is sponsored by the Hanes and Hibbits families, the Office of the Chancellor and the department of English and comparative literature. For more information, visit http://englishcomplit.unc.edu/distinguishedwriter and http://www.coyoteclan.com.

Published March 20, 2015

Dear Carolina Community:

We are writing to update you on Carolina’s ongoing efforts to improve the way we address sexual assault and violence, and to share information about the new documentary film “The Hunting Ground” being discussed widely in the media and on campuses across the country. The film will debut locally in Chapel Hill on March 20 and is already in theaters around the country.

The documentary shows how the activism and courage of students across the nation, including two of Carolina’s former students, have helped drive change in the way colleges and universities respond to reports of sexual violence, as well as federal law. It is spurring important, passionate conversation about this topic, and we want Carolina and the progress we continue to make to be a part of that discussion. Campus organizations are working to bring the documentary to Carolina later this spring, and we will keep you informed about those plans.

We also want to share with you how much has been done at Carolina over the past two years, including expanding our resources for sexual assault survivors, improving reporting options and increasing awareness about counseling. We thank you for being a big part of that change. With your help, we’ve comprehensively revised the policy that covers sexual violence to more clearly define consent and improve adjudication procedures. We’ve added required prevention and awareness trainings for all students, faculty, and staff, and more than 34,000 of you have already taken part. If you haven’t participated in an online training and need assistance, please email eoctraining@unc.edu or call (919) 966-3676. We also encourage you to visit the redesigned Safe at UNC website, which streamlines key information, including facts about about the revised policy, where to receive support and how to report violations. Your feedback this year will be used to improve all of these initiatives in future years.

We also continue to listen and learn about sexual assault at every available opportunity. Last month, for example, we attended a national conference on sexual assault at UC Berkeley, where we shared what we’re doing at Carolina and learned from other leaders. One of us participated in a similar ACE sponsored event for university presidents over the weekend in Washington, D.C. Next month, all students will be asked to participate in the Association of American Universities’ national sexual assault climate survey. The results of the survey will help inform our prevention and response efforts moving forward. We are proud of the progress we’ve made working together at Carolina, but we also know there is always more to do.

Your safety is our highest priority, and everything we’re working on — from prevention and training to counseling and support — is done with you in mind.

There will be many events in April to mark Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and we will keep you updated on those plans. Until then, please keep talking about these issues, and reach out any time you need us.

Sincerely,

Carol L. Folt
Chancellor

Felicia A. Washington
Vice Chancellor for Workforce Strategy, Equity, and Engagement

Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, a unit of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, held a dedication ceremony for a new NC Highway Historical Marker on March 18.

The marker commemorates Morehead’s history as a center for NASA astronaut training in the 1960s and early 1970s. Sixty-two astronauts, including 11 men who walked on the moon, came to Morehead to learn about celestial navigation as they prepared for their space missions.

Morehead served astronauts who flew in Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Skylab missions, said Todd Boyette, planetarium director.

“The astronaut training program is really a fascinating part of Morehead’s legacy to North Carolina,” Boyette said. “When you walk into our planetarium, you’re walking in the footsteps of men who walked on the moon.”

The astronaut training program was developed by the late Anthony “Tony” Jenzano, who served as Morehead’s director from 1959 to 1981.

Jenzano and his staff developed training modules and tools to help prepare the astronauts in case they needed to navigate through space using visible space objects as “skymarks” to pinpoint their position. The astronauts encountered emergency situations that required their Morehead training on three missions — Mercury-Atlas 9, Apollo 12 and Apollo 13.

Morehead displayed memorabilia from the astronaut training program at a reception following the dedication ceremony. The NC Highway Historical Marker program is administered by the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources.

Published March 18, 2015.

Dear Carolina Community,

Over the past year our nation has engaged in a rising level of discourse about race, intellectual diversity, religion, identity and culture. These issues also speak to Carolina’s mission. Over the course of the year, you have made it clear how firmly you believe that our community must continue to champion equality for all of us, no matter our race, culture, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, or political belief. We are proud of the way our students, staff, faculty and alumni have engaged with conviction around these issues. It is our deep seated determination to see every member of our community treated fairly and with respect, and we want to work with you to make sure conversations about such important issues take place routinely on our campus.

In December, we sent you a message promising to create opportunities for more dialogue, and we began reaching out to you for ideas. You responded with passion and creativity, and today, we are announcing a broad initiative building from these ideas. We are calling this Carolina Conversations. It is a set of interconnected activities designed to support, help facilitate and encourage these critical conversations. The initiative will be hosted by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, and the intent is to include all students (undergraduate, graduate and professional), and all staff and faculty from all schools.

To kick off this initiative we are sponsoring the following activities this semester:

• My Carolina Voice: Large-scale gatherings scheduled on a regular basis, to provide opportunities for students, faculty, and staff to share their experiences on campus and within the community with each other and University administrators. The forums will offer facilitated space for participants to promote interaction, understanding, and respect.

• The Carolina Pulse: Smaller gatherings scheduled on a regular basis, and at special times as needed, to discuss current events and their impact on our community. These gatherings will offer diverse groups of individuals the chance to come together in facilitated discussions.

• My Chance: Funding and assistance also will be made available to encourage grassroots interactions between individuals or groups of differing cultures, beliefs and experiences, including student organizations (both undergraduate and graduate/professional), as well as unaffiliated students, faculty and staff. Resources may include funding for food and supplies, logistical assistance and provision of space and facilitation. There will be an application process.

On Friday, March 20, we will launch the Carolina Conversations web portal. This portal will provide more detailed information about the Carolina Conversations initiative, including a calendar where you can submit related events. To access the portal, please visit carolinaconversations.unc.edu.

In the coming weeks, other important activities related to these issues also will be taking place, including addressing the naming of campus buildings, auditing campus public art and imagery, and working with Student Government as they seek to create new processes to identify and diversify speakers that are brought to campus each year.

Carolina is our home, a home where all must be safe, welcome, heard and valued. We have big dreams and high expectations for Carolina, and our best is still ahead.

Sincerely,

Carol L. Folt

Chancellor

 

James W. Dean, Jr.

Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost

 

Felicia A. Washington

Vice Chancellor for Workforce Strategy, Equity, and Engagement

 

Winston B. Crisp

Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs

Published March 17, 2015.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is joining forces with two of the world’s premier universities to advance research, education and practice in pharmacy and the pharmaceutical sciences.

The newly minted Pharmacy Alliance brings together the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and the pharmacy programs at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and University College London in England. The partners will work together to transform education, pursue new research ventures and enhance professional practice in pharmacy and the pharmaceutical sciences.

“These are the premier programs of their kind on three continents,” said Robert Blouin, dean of the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. “This strategic partnership gives our three institutions access to resources, talents, and opportunities that no one school in one country could possess alone.”

Each school will contribute up to $500,000 initially to fund proposals for collaborations between faculty, staff and students at the three universities.

Partners in Discovery

The schools expect new research collaborations to enable scientists to more effectively and rapidly address major international issues in the fields of drug discovery, nanomedicine development and nanotechnology. These partnerships will have the opportunity to tap research funds in each nation reserved for international partnerships.

Bill Charman, dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Monash University, said the alliance would specifically address the big issues in the field, those that cannot be addressed by one institution alone.

“The three partners have similar philosophies and ambitions for our field, and we see collaboration as the best means to rapidly and effectively address them in a global context,” Charman said.

Opportunities for Exchange

UNC, Monash and UCL will work to inspire and train the future leaders and practitioners of the profession on a global stage. The exchange of students, faculty, and staff is one element of the partnership that is expected to lead to a sharing of ideas that will benefit all parties, said Duncan Craig, director of the UCL School of Pharmacy.

“A global perspective can present a solution to a local challenge and vice versa,” Craig said. “The opportunities afforded by a partnership such as this one are unprecedented, and we are very excited to begin exploring the possibilities.”

Two UNC pharmacy students are already visiting Melbourne during the month of March with additional visits planned for the following months.

Published March 11, 2015.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill tied for 3rd among public research universities with the most students and recent graduates receiving Fulbright awards for 2014-2015. UNC is ranked 10th nationally among all research universities on the Fulbright U.S. Student Program list. Reported recently in The Chronicle of Higher Education, UNC and Rutgers University at New Brunswick both had 19 student recipients for the year.

Universities ranked ahead of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill include Harvard, Princeton and Yale. In all, 600 colleges and universities accounted for 1,700 student Fulbright recipients.

The grants, which cover travel and monthly stipends, send students abroad to help improve U.S. relations with other countries at the grassroots level. The students and recent graduates, chosen for academic merit and leadership potential, study, teach or conduct research while abroad and look for solutions to international concerns.

UNC-Chapel Hill issued an announcement in Fall 2014 about the 19 students awarded Fulbright U.S. Student Program grants for the academic year—the highest number awarded to UNC students and recent alumni.

The Fulbright Program, the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program, is sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State and is administered at UNC by the Center for Global Initiatives. Since its inception in 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided more than 300,000 participants with the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns.

Applications for 2015-2016 are currently under review, and the competition for 2016-2017 will open later this spring with a Fall 2015 deadline. Interested students should check cgi.unc.edu/Fulbright for the most current information.

Published March 9, 2015.