The latest Open Doors Report on International Education Exchange has ranked American colleges and universities that sent the greatest number of students to study abroad in the 2022–23 academic year. App State ranked third among master’s level institutions, with 697 students who studied abroad during that time frame. The university also ranked first for the number of students who participated in short-term study abroad programs, and 13th for the number of students who participated in mid-length study abroad programs.

The Hickory Daily Record covers the second installment of App State’s Hickory Leadership Forum series, moderated by Dr. Melba Spooner, dean of the Reich College of Education. At the event, Spooner and other local education leaders discussed leading with compassion.

App State is set to launch a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree program in fall 2026 — the university’s first doctoral program in the field of health sciences. WFDD speaks with Dr. Tammy Haley, professor in and chair of App State’s Department of Nursing, who explains how the new program will help address the nursing shortage in rural North Carolina.

Morganton’s The Paper highlights two App State student teachers, Savannah Epley and Laiken Baker, who reflect on the challenges and joys of stepping into their first teaching roles while navigating the unexpected realities of the profession. Both Epley and Baker are senior elementary education majors from Morganton.

The Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education has announced the winners of its 2024 Zaentz Early Education Innovation Challenge. Now in its fifth year, the challenge recognizes and awards promising new ideas and strategic approaches that have the potential to transform early education. A team from App State’s Reich College of Education won an Audience Choice Award for its proposal to create a bachelor’s degree program with a concentration in child development.

Dr. Daniel Caton, professor in App State’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, speaks to WFDD about the negative effects of light pollution and the importance of preserving dark skies for educational and environmental purposes. Caton is the director of App State’s Dark Sky Observatory, a research facility equipped with multiple telescopes that is open to the public once a month.

App State alumni and country music stars Luke Combs and Eric Church ’00 hosted a Hurricane Helene relief concert at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte on Oct. 26. The night of music raised more than $24.5 million in support of Western North Carolina, with more than 82,000 fans in attendance at the event. Church graduated from App State in 2000 with a degree in marketing, and Combs attended the university from 2008 to 2012.

In this article from The Washington Post, experts say that in the days ahead of a race, runners should consume extra carbohydrates to improve endurance. Dr. David Nieman, professor in App State’s Department of Biology, offers advice on how runners can avoid “hitting the wall” in a marathon. Nieman is the director of App State’s Human Performance Lab at the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis.

App State alumnus Moss Brennan '21 talks about the challenges he faced as both a journalist and a first responder in Watauga County during Hurricane Helene. Brennan is the editor of the Watauga Democrat and volunteers with the Deep Gap Fire Department and Watauga County Rescue Squad. He graduated from App State with a degree in journalism in 2021.