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Scholarships
Gaston County students who are college juniors or seniors planning to become a teacher are invited to apply for the Hardin Education Fund Scholarship.
The $750 scholarship is based on character, scholastic achievement and financial need. The Community Foundation of Gaston County manages the scholarship fund.
The fund is named in memory of William and Hazel Vuncannon Hardin. Hazel Hardin was a longtime Gaston County teacher.
Application deadline is March 2. Details: 704-864-0927 or ewelsch@cfgaston.org.
Belmont Abbey College
Anne Carson Daly, vice president of academic affairs and dean of faculty at Belmont Abbey College, was recently elected to the board of directors of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars.
Started more than 30 years ago, the organization is a group of Catholic scholars that seeks to advance knowledge and serve the church through scholarship in many different disciplines. The group has included novelists, philosophers, theologians, moralists, physicians, sociologists and historians, among others.
"Carson is a well-known Catholic intellectual who has published and spoken on many different topics, and all of us at the fellowship admire the caliber of the academics whom Belmont Abbey College has attracted under her leadership," said the Rev. Joseph Koterski, fellowship president.
Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute
CCC&TI recently named 41 local sixth-graders as dream scholars. The honor guarantees a scholarship covering the cost of tuition at CCC&TI upon graduation from high school.
Selection is based on academic achievement, civic involvement and potential to succeed. Dream Scholar awards are open to youngsters in Caldwell and Watauga counties.
Several past recipients who went on to study at CCC&TI spoke about how the scholarship made a difference in their lives.
Tyler Bryant of Hudson Middle was named the Tony Deal Dream Scholar. Journey Curtis was named the James and Dorothy Moore Dream Scholar.
Caldwell County recipients were: Anteeniya Raemarie Bell, Gamewell Middle; Tyler Dean Bryant, Hudson Middle; Madison Cheyenne Bumgarner, Granite Falls Middle; Amanda Renae Chafin, Hudson Middle; Journey Elizabeth Curtis, Granite Falls Middle; Elba Noreyda Euceda, William Lenoir Middle; Ashley Katelyn Gosselin, Hudson Middle; Clarecia G'Neice Hood, Gamewell Middle; Maria Guadalupe Lopez, William Lenoir Middle; Nikol Papa, Granite Falls Middle; Whitney Blake Plumley, Gamewell Middle; Stephanie Lorraine Rodriguez, Gamewell Middle; Michalea Nicole Rupard, Collettsville Elementary; Tristan Joseph Schreiber, William Lenoir Middle; Hailey Jordan Shell, Hudson Middle; Christian Wayne Tufts, Collettsville Elementary; Kayla Gabrielle White, Hudson Middle; Molly Lanea Wilson, Granite Falls Middle; Antonio Zambrano, Gamewell Middle.
Catawba Valley Community College
The Kontras Quartet will perform at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the CVCC auditorium.
The quartet is the second of four groups auditioning to become the Western Piedmont Symphony's future string quartet in residence.
The free concert is open to the public.
Casey Hayes of Boone and Sarah Childres of Connelly Springs were recently named Rotary students for the fall 2009 semester by CVCC. Selection is based on academic achievements, leadership and community involvement.
Hayes is a second-year student in the dental hygiene program and president of her class. She was elected president of the Student Government Association this year. In that role, she serves as a nonvoting member of the college's board of trustees and sits on the building and grounds committee.
Childres is in her second year of college and is applying to the dental hygiene program. She serves as secretary of the Student Government Association and is a member of the Biology Club. She also holds a part-time job.
Gaston College
Gaston College students recently elected new officers to lead the Student Government Association for 2009-10.
Officers are Shelia Burris, president; Dean Llewellyn, vice president; and Elena Gann, secretary. Ernie Charles is the club adviser and student activities coordinator.
SGA meetings are held at 4p.m. Wednesdays in Room 218 of Myers Center. All Gaston College students are welcome. Details: 704-922-6472.
Brittney Blaskowitz Prichard, poet and author of "Lessons in Disaster," will read from her work and sign books at 7 p.m. Nov. 10 in Morris Library on the Dallas Campus of Gaston College.
An English and American literature instructor at Gaston College and CPCC, Prichard recently won People's Choice and third place in the 2009 S.C. Poetry Initiative single poem contest. The program is free. She holds a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from Queens University of Charlotte.
Her program, which is free, is part of the Gaston College visiting writers series.
Author and poet Kenneth Gilliard Jr. will appear at 11a.m. and 5 p.m. Nov. 18 in Morris Library on the Dallas Campus of Gaston College.
Gilliard will read from his book, "To God be the Glory: The Poet Transformed," a collection of Christian poems. His message is that we should be thankful for everything, for each new day and for the gift of life.
Gilliard's program is free and open to the public. For details, visit www.xlibris.com/togodbetheglory.
A staged adaptation of "Piece Work," Barbara Presnell's collection of narrative poems about N.C. textile mill workers, will be presented at 11 a.m. Thursday in the Myers Center Auditorium at Gaston College.
The Gaston College show will be one of 10 performances at North Carolina community colleges affected by mill layoffs and closures. Presnell will hold a question-and-answer session after the performance, and teachers will work selected poems into class lectures.
Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Alicia McCullough at 704-922-6459 or mccullough.alicia@gaston.edu.
Lenoir-Rhyne University
Michael Dugan, retired president and CEO of Henredon Furniture Industries, will present "Leadership in the Furniture Industry," at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Snipes Lecture Hall within Mauney Hall at Lenoir-Rhyne University.
Admission is free, but seating is limited. To make a reservation, contact Leeanne Kale at 828-328-7321.
Visiting writer Jeannette Walls will be interviewed before a live audience by Mike Collins at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Lenoir-Rhyne University Belk Centrum.
The discussion will be taped and broadcast later on WFAE's "Charlotte Talks."
Walls also will sign books from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Patrick Beaver Memorial Library and will answer questions at 9:20 a.m. Friday in the Belk Centrum.
All three events are free and open to the public. Seating is limited.
Walls' 2005 memoir, "A Glass Castle," tells the story of her childhood, which included frequent moves and periods of homelessness. In 1984, she graduated with honors from Barnard College. The book is this year's Freshmen Read at Lenoir-Rhyne.
The best-seller sold more than 1.5 million copies and received several awards. It is now being developed as a film by Paramount.
A journalist who has written for New York magazine, Esquire and USA Today, Walls recently released her second novel, "Half Broke Horses: A True Life Novel" about the story of her grandmother, Lily Casey Smith.
Details: visitingwriters.lr.edu, 828-328-7077.
Lenoir-Rhyne University freshmen donated a total of 753 school supply items to the Hickory Public Schools to help students in need.
Lenoir-Rhyne University is participating in a new program that provides financial aid for veterans or their dependents.
The Yellow Ribbon Program is designed for eligible veterans who want to attend private colleges or universities, out-of-state public colleges or graduate school. Participating colleges provide matching funds.
The program brings new opportunities to students such as Bryan McNees, an Army veteran who served in the 82nd Airborne Division and was seriously injured in Iraq.
McNees spent two months in Walter Reed Army Medical Center for burns and injuries to his feet, legs, hand and neck after a mortar round exploded during a 2006 mission. The soldier sitting next to McNees was killed. It took a year of treatment and surgeries for McNees to be able to walk again.
McNees, now 27, plans to earn a bachelor's degree in economics and hopes to attend law school to help military families struggling with some of the same issues he has faced.
The Post-911 GI Bill and Yellow Ribbon Program made it possible for McNees to attend Lenoir-Rhyne nearly free of charge.
The program is open to veterans who served active duty for at least 36 months after Sept. 10, 2001, and those who served at least 30 continuous days after Sept. 10, 2001 and were honorably discharged for a service-connected disability. Some dependents of these veterans also may be eligible.
To learn more, call 800-277-5721. Compiled by Leigh Pressley
