The Teaching Fellows, all rising sophomores, will be on the final leg of a six-day bus trip that is taking them to sites of economic, educational and cultural interest across the state. The group includes students from all 17 North Carolina colleges and universities that host the Teaching Fellows program, including WCU. Fifty-nine WCU Teaching Fellows are participating in the trip.

The North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program was created in 1986 by the North Carolina General Assembly to recruit talented high school graduates into the teaching profession. The program offers a scholarship valued at $26,000 to students who agree to teach for four years in North Carolina schools after their college graduations.

The program’s Discovery Bus Trip began Sunday, May 13, on the campus of East Carolina University in Greenville. As they travel across the state, the Teaching Fellows are visiting various sites ranging from farms and high-tech businesses to schools and centers for the arts, said Jacqueline Smith, director of WCU’s Teaching Fellows Program.

The Teaching Fellows are scheduled to arrive at WCU between 3:30 and 5:30 p.m. Thursday. They will gather for a Thursday night “Road Show” that showcases the talents of the students, and Friday activities will include breakfast in Courtyard Dining Hall and a closing session from 9:30 to 11 a.m. in the John W. Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center.

Under current legislation, the state’s Teaching Fellows Program is scheduled to be phased out over the next three years as state funding is reduced. However, discussions about the possibility of restoring funding have been taking place in the General Assembly in recent months, Smith said.

For more information about the Teaching Fellows Program at WCU, contact Jacqueline Smith at 828-227-3371 or jsmith@wcu.edu.

Classes will be held from 12:10 to 12:55 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Participants will engage in a variety of aqua exercises designed to increase cardiovascular endurance. Equipment such as water buoys will be utilized at times.

Exercise experts tout the benefits of aqua fitness activities because they allow individuals of all ages to exercise all parts of the body, but because the water causes a body to be buoyant, there is less strain on the muscles and joints. Participants also remain more comfortable because of the cooling effect of the water.

Registration for the class is ongoing. Participants who do not preregister or who register at the first class meeting must present a paid receipt to the lifeguard to be admitted after the first class.

To register or for more information, call 828-227-7397 or go online to http://learn.wcu.edu and click on “Conferences and Community Classes.”

The Cats will battle their archrivals from the north in games scheduled for 5 p.m. Thursday and Friday and at 1 p.m. Saturday at Hennon Stadium.

ASU will enter the series trying to wrap up its first Southern Conference baseball championship in 25 years. The Mountaineers are in a close race with the College of Charleston to see which team wins the regular-season championship and the No. 1 seed at next week’s Southern Conference Tournament in Greenville, S.C.

Baseball Schedule

Classes will be held from 6 until 9:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays in Room 143 of WCU’s Cordelia Camp Building.

The comprehensive 50-hour course will prepare students to enter the pharmacy field and to take the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board exam. A high school diploma or GED is required to sit for the exam.

Course content will include medical terminology specific to the pharmacy, reading and interpreting prescriptions, defining drugs by generic and brand names, and other topics. The WCU program includes a graded final exam to help students prepare for the certification board exam.

The program is being offered in collaboration with Condensed Curriculum International Inc. Cost of the program, including textbooks, is $999.

For more information or to register, call 828-227-7397 or go online to http://learn.wcu.edu and click on “professional development programs.”

Parker is filling a vacancy created by the departure of Ronald A. Johnson, who stepped down from the position in 2010. The appointment is effective July 1.

Darrell Franklin Parker

A native of Buncombe County, Parker is no stranger to Western North Carolina. He grew up in Weaverville and graduated from North Buncombe High School. He received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and economics at the University of North Carolina Asheville before going on to earn his master’s and doctoral degrees in economics from Purdue University.

He also is no stranger to WCU’s increasing emphasis on community engagement and partnership, said Beth Tyson Lofquist, interim provost, in announcing the appointment Monday, May 14.

“Among Darrell Parker’s strengths are his understanding of the importance of connections with the external community and his ability to make and solidify those connections,” Lofquist said. “He also has a proven track record of excellence in teaching as well as outstanding internal communication skills and leadership, both within the college that he leads and across the entire campus.”

Parker said he is looking forward to returning to WNC and taking a leadership role in a university he has watched from afar.

“I have had a natural interest in Western Carolina and have known about its commitment to community engagement throughout the region for years,” he said. “The entrepreneurship programs that WCU offers online at the bachelor’s and master’s levels are great examples of a continuing commitment by the College of Business to regional economic development. These high-quality programs can help adults who are working in or starting a small business finish their degrees or start the next one.”

Another example of that commitment is WCU’s master’s degree program in project management, which is top-ranked among accredited online business programs, he said.

“I have had a great season as dean in the Upstate of South Carolina,” Parker said. “The opportunities at WCU give me a chance to continue to serve the region and expand to the next level.”

Prior to becoming dean at USC Upstate in 2006, Parker held the William Freeman Distinguished Chair of Free Enterprise and served as director of the School of Economic Development at Georgia Southern University.

He previously was a professor of economics at Winthrop University, where he was named Winthrop University Distinguished Professor in 1999; awarded the First Union Excellence in Teaching prize in 1991; and received the 1988-89 Phi Kappa Phi award for Excellence in Teaching.

From 1990 until 2001, he served as director of the Winthrop Economic Development Center, which he founded. His areas of specialization include general economics and business, regulatory economics, labor economics, public economics and international business.

The College of Business at WCU, which is fully accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, has more than 50 full-time faculty members and offers undergraduate and graduate degrees. The college consists of programs in accounting, finance, information systems, economics, business administration and law, sport management, global management and strategy, entrepreneurship, sales and marketing, and hospitality and tourism.

The college also houses the Center for Professional Selling and Marketing and the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and is home to one of the 17 regional offices of the North Carolina Small Business and Technology Development Center.

Louis Buck Jr., who holds the Wesley Elingburg Distinguished Professorship of Business Innovation at WCU, has been serving as interim dean since 2010. Formerly chief financial officer for the competitive businesses of Consolidated Edison in New York, Buck is retiring this summer.

For more information about WCU’s College of Business, visit the website business.wcu.edu.

WCU student David Russell works in the forensic science laboratory.

The acquisition of two additional state-of-the-art pieces of DNA sequencing instruments positions Western Carolina University’s Forensic Science Program to establish a DNA sequencing core facility on campus.

“We will be able to offer a multitude of DNA sequencing services to institutions across the state and enhance research and educational opportunities for students, particularly in areas such as forensic genetics, cellular and molecular biology, environmental health sciences and biochemistry,” said Brittania Bintz, a forensic research scientist at WCU.

A $175,000 grant from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center enabled WCU to purchase a fourth DNA sequencing instrument, an Applied Biosystems 3500 HID Genetic Analyzer, for the program’s laboratory. Then a new research collaboration with Illumina Inc., a manufacturer of next-generation DNA sequencing instrumentation, helped WCU to acquire a fifth sequencer, an Illumina MiSeq, for evaluation and use. This new instrument will augment the utility of the existing Illumina IIx instrument on the WCU campus by providing important preliminary data that can then be scaled up to the higher capacity Illumina IIx, which is capable of supporting regional users in a wide variety of genome projects.

The new equipment enables WCU to increase the number of samples that can be processed and supports research collaborations for faculty members across forensic science, biology, and health and human sciences disciplines and researchers at Highlands Biological Station.

Currently, students and faculty use the laboratory to not only gain hands-on experience with sample preparation, genotyping, sequencing and analysis, but also research the newest sequencing instruments to develop methods that may be employed in crime laboratories in the future.

In addition, faculty members are involved in collaborative, multidisciplinary research projects. Patricia A Foley, associate professor and forensic scientist-in-residence, is working on research with Brian Byrd, assistant professor of environmental health, and Ron Davis, assistant professor of natural resource conservation and management. They are working to develop methods for ecosystem analysis that are less-invasive and biased than traditional methods by incorporating sequencing DNA from blood consumed by mosquitoes, said Foley.

Specifically, the researchers are examining the effects on biodiversity caused by forest fragmentation that results from partitioning land for urban development as well as the shift in population dynamics and feeding behaviors of mosquitoes, said Foley.

“Forest fragmentation increases human and wildlife interaction, decreases the quality and quantity of habitat for native species, and increases the habitat for invasive species such as mosquitoes,” said Foley.

Their experimental design will involve using mosquitoes as “natural” samplers – collecting and identifying mosquitoes, and using the insects’ blood meal to determine what types of animals they are feeding on within fragmented and nonfragmented areas in Western North Carolina. In addition, the group will explore the potential for transmission of La Crosse encephalitis, a disease spread by three species of mosquitoes found in WNC as a result of urbanization.

Western Carolina University students from the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resources, the School of Health Sciences and the Forensic Science Program will be involved in every step of this research, said Foley.

“We are excited to provide these students with the opportunity to development critical thinking and problem-solving skills and obtain better self-awareness of connections made between personal interests and abilities combined with research education,” she said.

For more information, contact Bintz at bbintz@wcu.edu or 828-227-3680.

Angela Laird Brenton speaks to a WCU audience during a recent visit.

Angela Laird Brenton, dean of the College of Professional Studies at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, has been appointed provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at Western Carolina University, effective Aug. 1.

The selection of Brenton, dean at UALR since 2001, concludes a national search by a 16-member campus committee to fill a vacancy created by the departure of Kyle R. Carter, who was named chancellor at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke in April 2010.

“Angi Brenton’s long history and vast experience in higher education leadership roles and her remarkable skill set make her a perfect fit for Western Carolina University, especially within the context of the vision that is evolving for the institution through our strategic planning process,” WCU Chancellor David O. Belcher said in announcing the appointment Friday, May 11.

“Angi is one of the most passionate people I know in terms of the importance of a university focus on engagement with the external community,” Belcher said. “She is a strong advocate for the academic affairs of her institution, and she is one of the best communicators I have ever met in my life. She is a respected member of her community, and she is loved and adored by her faculty and staff.”

The selection of Brenton represents a reunion of sorts, as Belcher served as provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at UALR prior to his appointment as Western Carolina chancellor last year.

“I am honored and thrilled to be chosen as the next provost of Western Carolina,” Brenton said. “I am grateful to the search committee and to Dr. Belcher for the confidence they have shown in me. WCU is a campus with tremendous opportunities and potential. During my time on campus last week, I felt completely at home with the wonderful students, staff and faculty I interacted with. I can’t wait to don the purple and cheer on the Catamounts!”

As dean of the College of Professional Studies at UALR, Brenton is responsible for the departments of audiology and speech pathology, criminal justice, and speech communication; the School of Social Work; the School of Mass Communication; Institute of Government; public radio stations KLRE-KUAR; and the Mid-South Center, which is responsible for all child welfare training in the state of Arkansas. She oversees 150 faculty and staff in a college with an annual budget of $12 million.

She has been awarded $7.7 million in annual grants and contracts for UALR, with a grant-writing success rate of 84 percent, and has helped raise approximately $7.2 million in endowments and external support for scholarships, research equipment, clinical programs and faculty development. Under her leadership, UALR developed three new doctoral programs and graduate certificate programs in conflict mediation and nonprofit management.

Brenton spearheaded the creation of a Leadership Academy to nurture future faculty and staff leaders and led several initiatives aimed at improving race relations within the community. She developed six centers within the college to serve as a focus for research and community outreach, including the Center for Environmental Criminology, the Center for Senior Justice, the Center for Juvenile Justice, the Center for Stuttering Treatment and Research, the Center for Public Collaboration and the Center for Nonprofit Organizations.

“Both the search committee and the campus community were very impressed with Dr. Brenton’s broad experience, her open communications style, and her experience with community and regional engagement,” said Richard Starnes, head of WCU’s history department who chaired the search committee. “What impressed us most was the degree to which she knew Western and our mission. She is the right provost for us in this pivotal time in our history.”

Prior to joining the administration at UALR, Brenton was dean of the Graduate School and associate provost for research and service at Abilene Christian University and head of the department of communication and mass media at Southwest Missouri State University (now Missouri State).

She holds a doctorate in communication studies from the University of Kansas, master’s degree in communication from the University of Oklahoma and bachelor’s degrees in mass communication and speech communication from Oklahoma Christian College. She earned a management and leadership in higher education certificate from the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University.

Classes will meet in the south lobby of the Cordelia Camp Building from 6 to 9 p.m.

The Tiffany method of stained glass involves each piece of glass being wrapped in copper foil and soldered. The class will cover topics such as safety, proper cutting techniques, foiling techniques and simple metal framing, as well as types of glass, solders and copper foils.

Each student will complete an individualized project in colored glass by the end of the course. Advanced students also will be able to work on their personal projects. Students will need to purchase their solder, foil and glass, and some products may be purchased in class. All other tools will be provided.

The instructor for the course, Moya O’Neal, has been working in stained glass more than 20 years. She is an active member of the International Guild of Glass Artists.

The cost of the course is $85. Registration will continue after the first class.

To register or for more information, call 828-227-7397 or visit http://learn.wcu.edu and click on “Conferences and Community Classes.”

David Wagoner, recognized as the leading poet of the Pacific Northwest and recipient of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, two Pushcart Prizes and the Academy of Arts and Letters Award, judged the contest, named for poet William Matthews.

Carter coordinates WCU’s English Education Program. Her first full-length collection, “The Memory of Gills, published by LSU in 2006, received the 2007 Roanoke-Chowan Award from the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association, and her poem “Toast” won the 2009 North Carolina Writer’s Network Randall Jarrell award. Her work has appeared in Asheville Poetry Review, “Best American Poetry 2009,” North Carolina Literary Review, Orion, Poetry, and Ploughshares, among others. Her new book, published earlier this year, is “The Swamp Monster at Home.”

She lives in Cullowhee.

Retired judge Lacy H. Thornburg (center) is congratulated by WCU Chancellor David O. Belcher (left) and interim Provost Beth Tyson Lofquist after Thornburg was awarded his honorary doctorate.

PHOTO GALLERY

Undergraduate students in Western Carolina University’s spring graduating class were recognized for their academic accomplishments Saturday (May 5) as the university held a pair of commencement exercises at Ramsey Regional Activity Center.

Commencement for the colleges of Arts and Sciences, Education and Allied Professions, and Fine and Performing Arts was held at 10 a.m., and that event was followed by a 3:30 p.m. ceremony for the College of Business, College of Health and Human Sciences, and Kimmel School of Construction Management and Technology.

The morning ceremony included the presentation of an honorary doctor of laws degree to Lacy H. Thornburg, a longtime Webster resident who retired in 2009 after a distinguished career in politics and judicial affairs.

Raised on a farm in Mecklenburg County, Thornburg served in the U.S. Army before earning bachelor’s and law degrees at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He began his law practice in Sylva in 1954 and represented Jackson County in the N.C. House of Representatives from 1961 to 1966.

Over the next 43 years, Thornburg served at various times as a judge of Superior Court for the 30th Judicial District of North Carolina and as U.S. District Court judge for the Western District of North Carolina, with eight years as the state’s attorney general. He retired in 2009 after 14 years on the federal bench.

“Lacy Herman Thornburg, your name has become synonymous with integrity and honor as you have contributed more than four decades of public service on behalf of your nation, state, home county of Jackson and this university,” said WCU Chancellor David O. Belcher, reading from the degree citation.

Belcher noted in the citation Thornburg’s reputation that developed over the years as an “upholder of courtroom courtesy” and “dedicated, fair and honest keeper of the law.” Thornburg also has been an “excellent friend and supporter” of WCU in his roles at state legislator and adjunct professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Affairs, Belcher said.

Thornburg’s federal judgeship was enthusiastically supported by Democrats and Republicans alike after his 1995 nomination by President Bill Clinton, a testament to the respect he had earned from politicians on both sides of the aisle, Belcher said.

In accepting the honorary degree, Thornburg noted his family’s longtime connections to WCU, including the degrees earned by his wife and son in Cullowhee. “I wish to express my sincere gratitude for the great honor that you have given me this day,” he said.

“Western Carolina University is one of North Carolina’s premier institutions, where young men and women can receive a college education that is second to none in quality and worthy of the good name this university now enjoys,” Thornburg said. “It seems only a few years ago that the student body numbered in the hundreds, and now it’s in the thousands, but despite its fantastic and rapid growth, it has maintained its well-deserved reputation for excellence.”

Krystal King of Maiden (left) and Sandra Bley of Carthage celebrate following the afternoon ceremony.

The afternoon commencement included the presentation of the University of North Carolina system’s highest teaching honor, the Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching, to Lisa Briggs, WCU associate professor of criminology and criminal justice. One award is given annually to a faculty member on each UNC campus to recognize superior teaching. Briggs was the featured speaker at WCU’s May 4 Graduate School commencement.

Belcher delivered the chancellor’s charge to the graduating students at all the university’s ceremonies. During the Saturday morning undergraduate commencement, he told them that this is their moment to celebrate, but the moment “belongs to others as well.”

“I daresay that not one graduate here today has reached this point without support in one form or another – from parents, a spouse, children, grandparents, other family members and friends. This is their moment, too,” Belcher said. The same holds true for everyone on WCU’s campus, from the faculty members who taught the students in the classroom to the grounds crew “who make this campus a showplace,” he said.

“As you look toward your future, I charge you to hold tight to your grounding at Western Carolina University and the values for which it stands, to remain firm in your commitment to excellence and high standards, and to continue learning, whether in formal settings or on your own.

“You are a part of Western Carolina University, and Western Carolina University is a part of you,” Belcher said. “Remember your grounding here in this remarkable slice of heaven we call Cullowhee.”

During the Saturday morning ceremony, Belcher noted that WCU’s spring graduating class includes Bobby James Wilson of Glenville, who has been working toward his bachelor’s degree in natural resource conservation and management. Wilson is a great-great-great grandson of William Wilson, who was one of the legendary Noble Nine, the group of nine trustees from the late 1800s who were instrumental in the development of the school that evolved into WCU.

The ceremonies included special recognition of members of the graduating class who are active duty members of the military, veterans, or members of the National Guard and Reserves.

Two University Scholars, students who completed all their undergraduates studies at WCU with perfect 4.0 grade-point averages, were honored during the afternoon commencement. They are Rebekah Leigh Fortney, a nutrition and dietetics major from New Bern, and Casey Tyler Icenhour, an electrical engineering major from Lenoir.

The approximately 980 undergraduate students who have been completing their degrees at WCU this spring semester are part of a graduating class that includes some 1,290 students, including about 310 graduate students.

A complete list of all of WCU’s new graduates will be announced following the posting of grades from final examinations.

Two graduating students, Jessica Tallent of Morganton (left) and Katelyn Franks of Lake Toxaway, make final preparations before entering the Ramsey Center for WCU's Saturday afternoon commencement.