Features

• Creating tomorrow’s entrepreneurs
  The U.S. Small Business Administration stated in its 2013 newsletter that small businesses “significantly impact North Carolina’s economy.” They represent 98 percent of all employers and employ 47.8 percent of the private-sector labor force.
  
  Student interest in entrepreneurship has been growing at Appalachian. Nearly half of all students taking entrepreneurship courses and attending related activities in the Walker College of Business are non-business majors. [ more . . . ]

• Planting trees of hope: the gift that keeps on giving
  Completing a service-learning project at the Hospitality House of Boone, AIM High participants planted 24 pear and apple trees and constructed two raised garden beds for the shelter’s community garden. [ more . . . ]

• A winning tradition in audio production
  Four students continue Appalachian’s winning tradition at the Broadcast Education Association Festival of Media Arts. [ more . . . ]

• Student awarded prestigious grant for undergraduate research
  One student works toward his life goals by researching solutions for a better world. [ more . . . ]

• Country singer sums up recent success as 'almost surreal'
  Alumnus Eric Church '00 won the Country Music Association's album of the year in 2012, but before he got his break, he could be found studying between gigs at Waffle House in Lenoir. [ more . . . ]

• Appalachian Perspective: North Carolina Poet Laureate Joseph Bathanti
  Through 2014 award-winning poet and novelist Joseph Bathanti will tour the state as North Carolina's leading ambassador of literature. The creative writing professor at Appalachian is North Carolina's newest Poet Laureate. It's a fitting role for this gentleman. For the past 35 years, Joseph Bathanti has helped people find their voice through writing, from prison inmates, to college students, to combat Veterans. [ more . . . ]

• New student union addition reflects values of togetherness and sustainability
  Togetherness and sustainability are important values at Appalachian, and “our values are reflected in what we build,” Vice Chancellor for Student Development Cindy Wallace said at a recent dedication ceremony for Plemmons Student Union’s new addition. [ more . . . ]

• Preserving community heritage through art
  Three years ago, the Elk Knob Community Heritage Organization (EKCHO) partnered with the Watauga Arts Council to create a public art plan for the Elk Knob Community. Their goal was to promote sustainable development of the communities surrounding the Elk Knob State Park and stimulate people’s curiosity related to the culture, history and natural world on and around Elk Knob.
  
  In fall 2012, twelve Appalachian State University Honors College students began to make this art plan a reality. [ more . . . ]

• Creativity. Expression. Art.
  The arts are an important aspect of Appalachian State University’s campus. The university hosts diverse and vibrant arts programs that enrich and preserve the cultural and intellectual climate of the campus and region – expanding students’ minds, deepening their understanding of the world and encouraging creative thinking. [ more . . . ]

• A dark moment in history inspires beautiful work
  Artists draw their inspiration from many sources—the environment, geometric shapes or angles, and even family history. Roy Strassberg's inspiration for his sculptures and pottery comes from these categories and more, and leads to beautiful work based on one of the world's darkest moments in history—the Holocaust. [ more . . . ]