“A chance meeting at a conference in October 2016 with author and climate activist Jeff Biggers, who for years has been sounding the call for more climate storytellers, inspired me to establish and co-lead the Climate Stories Collaborative.” — Laura England.

Taking a break from his math professor duties at Appalachian State University, Witold Kosmala traded calculus lessons for a violin to join three generations of his family to play with the Millennial Choirs and Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in New York City earlier this month.

As you approach the entrance of Lexington Health Care Center on Cornelia Street, you will be greeted with the sight of bright flowers and comfortable benches that would make you want to sit down and chat for a while with residents of the nursing home. This welcoming environment is thanks to the center’s administrator, Appalachian State University alumna Heather McGroarty ‘18.

Dr. Andrew Koricich, assistant professor in the Department of Leadership and Educational Studies, is quoted on the increasing partisanship of education. He says the political idea that taxes shouldn’t be raised for something that benefits individuals fails to recognize how society benefits from teachers, doctors, lawyers and other jobs that require a college education.

Thanks to a team from Appalachian State University, visitors at Moses H. Cone Memorial Park, located off the Blue Ridge Parkway, will have the opportunity to learn more about the history of the park’s Flat Top Manor.

The youngest student at Appalachian State University last year was 5 years old. She’s not a prodigy — at least, not as far as anyone knows so far. She’s not even working on her bachelor’s degree. She’s a kindergartner who became a Mountaineer by way of her lab school: Appalachian State University Academy at Middle Fork.

Dr. Baker Perry, a professor in Appalachian’s Department of Geography and Planning, and Dr. Tom Matthews, a lecturer at Loughborough University, talk about the challenges they faced installing a weather station on Mount Everest.

The Appalachian State University Academy at Middle Fork — serving kindergarten through fifth grades — is a collaboration between the university’s Reich College of Education and the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools. Serving as the school’s principal for one year before it was adopted as a lab school, Tasha Hall-Powell said the academy has seen significant improvements in attendance, behavior as well as areas in academics.

Poet Adrian Rice, in a thick Irish brogue, paints a scene in the imaginations of the third-graders who sit before him in Walkertown. A small group of 8- and 9-year-olds are spellbound, their notebooks open, pages scrawled across their desks. Several children shove their hands into the air to ask questions or make comments before clutching pencils to scratch out new poems — verses that say a great deal about their lives, their struggles, and their school.