The University of Alabama

Twenty University of Alabama undergraduates were contracted into UA's Air Force ROTC detachment on Thursday, Sept. 21 at "Bama Salute," a UA Athletics-sponsored event that honors active duty military members and veterans at various UA sporting events throughout the year. The UA cadets were sworn in during halftime of a UA soccer game in front of nearly 700 people, an atypical but celebrated venue and audience, as contracting ceremonies are typically low-key, with family and other cadets and ROTC cadre present.

The University of Alabama awarded approximately 1,300 degrees during summer commencement Aug. 5. With a beautiful campus, hundreds of rigorous academic programs, world-renowned faculty and numerous opportunities for service and growth, The University of Alabama is a place where legends are made. UA offers its students a premier educational, cultural and social experience with more than 200 undergraduate, graduate and professional programs. The campus gives students the opportunity to interact with nationally renowned faculty performing cutting-edge research. In addition, UA offers students more than 500 student organizations, and UA students perform more than 1 million hours of service for the community.

A total of 417 students enrolled during the 2017 summer semester at The University of Alabama were named to the Dean's List with an academic record of 3.5 (or above) or the President's List with an academic record of 4.0 (all A's). The UA Dean's and President's lists recognize full-time undergraduate students. The lists do not apply to graduate students or undergraduate students who take less than a full course load.

Close to 300 University of Alabama students are receiving a hands-on educational experience at more than 60 companies and organizations through UA's Cooperative Education Program during summer 2017. In the Cooperative Education Program, students alternate periods of full-time study with periods of full-time employment. This program offers work related to the academic major or career interests of each student. The experience enhances the students' employment prospects after graduation. While in school, students carry regular course schedules. While on co-op, they work with professionals in their fields who supervise their training and work. At work, co-op students earn competitive salaries and may receive benefit packages in addition to valuable on-the-job experience. Students maintain their full-time student status while at work and have priority registration status each semester through graduation.

Twenty-four incoming freshmen have been selected for the University Fellows Experience in the Honors College at UA. This elite program provides opportunities for undergraduate research and prepares outstanding students to become leaders and agents of change.

Forty-four incoming freshmen from across the country have been selected for the Computer-Based Honors Program in the Honors College at The University of Alabama.

A total of 11,101 students enrolled during the 2017 spring semester at The University of Alabama were named to the Dean's List with an academic record of 3.5 (or above) or the President's List with an academic record of 4.0 (all A's). The UA Dean's and President's lists recognize full-time undergraduate students. The lists do not apply to graduate students or undergraduate students who take less than a full course load.

UA Away scholarships, including the Sara J. Finley Global Leadership Endowed Scholarship and the Ann and A. F. Delchamps Jr. Endowed Scholarship, provide financial support for undergraduate students who wish to participate in learning opportunities away from The University of Alabama campus. UA Away supports three distinct opportunities: Study Away: Students travel to another country, city or university to study in their academic fields. The Study Abroad Program and National Student Exchange offer these opportunities. Serve Away: Students volunteer for service projects, often related to their fields of study or career goals, which expose them to issues related to poverty, hunger, and lack of educational resources, and expose them to new cultures and regions. Opportunities for service are available through the Center for Service and Leadership. Work Away: Students receive first-hand work experience, related to academic and career goals, that increases their marketability to future employers.

Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges, founded by The University of Alabama alumnus H. Pettus Randall Jr., is published annually and recognizes outstanding college students from across the United States.

The University of Alabama awarded approximately 5,000 degrees during spring commencement May 5-7. With a beautiful campus, hundreds of rigorous academic programs, world-renowned faculty and numerous opportunities for service and growth, The University of Alabama is a place where legends are made. UA offers its students a premier educational, cultural and social experience with more than 310 undergraduate, graduate and professional programs. The campus gives students the opportunity to interact with nationally renowned faculty performing cutting-edge research. In addition, UA offers students more than 500 student organizations, and UA students perform more than 1 million hours of service for the community.

The Alabama Space Grant Consortium has given seven University of Alabama engineering students $42,000 in graduate fellowship and undergraduate scholarship money. The graduate fellowships are funded jointly through the ASGC and the UA Office for Research and Economic Development. The UA office provided fellowship matching for a total of $37,000. In addition to the fellowships, the ASGC gave away five merit-based undergraduate scholarships worth $1,000 each. Undergraduate applicants were selected based on their academic qualifications, career goals and an assessment of their motivation toward an aerospace or space science career.

A team of students from The University of Alabama's College of Communication and Information Sciences won a Bronze Pencil in the One Club's Young Ones College Competition and were selected for Honorable Mention in the Young Ones Client Pitch Competition. This is UA's first Pencil award. The Young Ones College Competition highlights great student work from around the world, awarding Gold, Silver and Bronze pencils to the top student work in advertising, design and interactive. Of the Young Ones competition's 70 finalists from 16 countries, only 24 finalists won pencils. The students' work is for Flight Plan, a fictional 501(c)3 organization that would work in partnership with the United Nations and Partners Global to turn the estimated 9.7 trillion unused frequent flier miles into physical, donatable items that could aid refugees around the world.

Kaitlyn Krejci, a junior at The University of Alabama from St. Louis, has been chosen to participate in the Henry Clay Center for Statesmanship National Student Congress. The Henry Clay Center is an innovative non-profit dedicated to educating a new generation of leaders in negotiation, dialogue and compromise. The Student Congress program is free of cost (travel and lodging included) to those selected from the competitive application process. Current college juniors and high school juniors with records of exceptional academic and extracurricular achievement were chosen for this once-in-a-lifetime academic and personal development course. The college program will be June 11 to June 17. During that week, participants will have the opportunity to meet with lawmakers, academics, journalists, and civic leaders to discuss the practical importance of compromise and constructive engagement and dialogue to resolve conflict and competing interests in a democracy. For more information about the program, or how to contribute, visit: www.henryclaycenter.org or on Twitter @henryclaycenter, Facebook @henryclaycenter, Instagram @henryclaycenter

Erin Behland, a junior at The University of Alabama, has been awarded a U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship to study Chinese in Dalian, China, during the summer of 2017.

Kaylee O'Connor, a junior chemical and biological engineering student from Fort Worth, Texas, won first place in the Institute of Biological Engineering bioethics essay competition. O'Connor's submission, titled "The Cost of Compassion," was initially chosen as one of the top five essays written on an ethical dilemma regarding biological engineering. The five semifinalists were invited to the 2017 IBE Conference in Salt Lake City from March 30 through April 1. The students were given complementary registration and $500 for travel expenses.

The University of Alabama has inducted 41 students into its chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. UA recently inducted 43 College of Arts and Sciences students into its chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. Founded on December 5, 1776, The Phi Beta Kappa Society is the nation's most prestigious academic honor society. It has chapters at 286 colleges and universities in the United States, 50 alumni associations, and more than half a million members worldwide. Noteworthy members include 17 U.S. Presidents, 39 Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States and more than 130 Nobel Laureates. The mission of The Phi Beta Kappa Society is to champion education in the liberal arts and sciences, foster freedom of thought, and recognize academic excellence. UA's chapter was founded in 1851. Students are elected to membership on the basis of outstanding academic achievement in the liberal arts and sciences.

The University of Alabama department of art and art history announces the student exhibitors who were selected for the 2017 Annual BFA Juried Exhibition during April at the Harrison Galleries in Tuscaloosa. "From works on paper and canvas to experiments in digital animation, sculpture, printmaking and ceramics, the 2017 Annual BFA Juried Exhibition represents a broad cross-section of creative production from students in the BFA program at The University of Alabama," said Pete Schulte, UA assistant professor of drawing, who coordinated the annual exhibition. "This annual event provides the viewing public with a unique opportunity to see firsthand a variety of contemporary art practices, as well as the work of some most dynamic and creative students the university has to offer." The exhibition featured Bachelor of Fine Arts candidates whose work has been selected by UA studio faculty jurors. All UA undergraduate art majors who passed the review for the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree were eligible to enter the competition. The Bachelor of Fine Arts degree is the professional degree for the artist; it is also the foundation for the masters program in studio art at UA. The annual juried event seeks to give BFA students the chance to compete and exhibit their work while still in school, rather than at the end of their tenure, providing art students more opportunities to exhibit and participate in art events before graduation. For more information about the BFA degree and other degree programs in the department of art and art history, go to http://art.ua.edu/academics/undergraduate-programs/babfa-in-studio-art/ or contact the department at (205) 348-5967.

Five University of Alabama computer science seniors and members of the Association for Computing Machinery UA student chapter started a hacking competition this semester that they hope will become a yearly event. CrimsonHacks is a hackathon, or a weekend-long invention challenge. The 24-hour event took place on the third floor of the Ferguson Center, starting at 1 p.m. March 25 and ending at 1 p.m. March 26.

Xuyang "Rhett" Zhou, a Ph.D. student in materials science from Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China, was selected to receive a Microscopy & Microanalysis Student Scholar Award given by the Microscopy Society of America and the Microanalysis Society. As an award recipient, Zhou will receive complimentary student registration for the 2017 M&M Meeting and financial support of up to $1,000 to cover any expenses to attend the meeting.

The Holle Award for Excellence in Public Speaking is awarded to UA's Will Sansoucie, whose persuasive speech on the importance of preparing for retirement displayed excellent talent in speech writing and delivery. The award is accompanied by a $10,000 cash prize. The awards are designed to celebrate and reward student achievement in the areas of creative transformation, filmmaking, media writing, public speaking and screenwriting. The Holle Awards are named for Brig. Gen. Everette Holle, a1950 graduate of The University of Alabama, who served as an announcer, director, writer and producer during his 40-year career at NBC 13.

The National Board for Certified Counselors Minority Fellowship Program's Foundation recently selected Kenya G. Bledsoe, a UA doctoral student in the counselor education and supervision program, for its Minority Fellowship Program.

The Order of Omega chapter at The University of Alabama presented awards at its recent annual banquet. Order of Omega is a leadership honor society for members of fraternity and sorority organizations. Order of Omega recognizes juniors and seniors who have exemplified high standards in the areas of scholarship, leadership and involvement within their respective organizations, the campus and the community.

Michael R. Dunn, a senior at The University of Alabama, recently received the 2017 Capstone Engineering Society Outstanding Senior Award. Along with the award, Dunn was given a $500 stipend to honor his achievements. A graduate of Merritt Island High School in Merritt Island, Florida, Dunn is set to graduate this spring from UA with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering.

Five University of Alabama students have received Boren Scholarships for the study of languages in world regions critical to U.S. interests and underrepresented in study abroad. Boren Scholarships, an initiative of the National Security Education Program, provide funding opportunities for U.S. undergraduate students to study less commonly taught language in such regions as Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. Boren Scholarship recipients represent a vital pool of highly motivated individuals who wish to work in the federal national security arena. In exchange for funding, Boren Scholarship recipients commit to working in the federal government for at least one year after graduation. Amounts range from $8,000 for a summer program to $20,000 for six-to-12 months of study.

The University of Alabama has welcomed the 11th cohort of Coca-Cola First Generation Scholars to campus. The Coca-Cola First Generation Scholarship program was established at UA in 2006. Since then, the Coca-Cola Foundation has donated $3 million to support first-generation scholars at UA. The scholarship provides $5,000 a year, renewable for four years, provided that recipients maintain a 3.0 GPA. The program also provides a strong support structure for the scholars. Since 2006, the Coca-Cola First Generation Scholarship Program boasts a freshman-to-sophomore retention rate of 100 percent and a graduation rate of 90.1 percent. Graduates of the program have gone on to medical school, law school and graduate school and have found employment in their chosen fields. Each year, scholars participate in individual meetings with the program coordinator, attend cultural and academic enrichment activities and participate in service projects.

Rising senior Sommer Hallquist, a double major in art history and anthropology with a minor in French, has been offered one of eight highly competitive summer internships at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Cloisters Museum in New York.

Photographs by UA graduate student Celestia Morgan are featured in the new exhibition, "Contemporary Alabama Photography," at the Mobile Museum of Art. Curated by Richard McCabe, curator of photography at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, the exhibition shows the work of 11 emerging, mid-career and established Alabama photographers who interpret Alabama's identity, culture and history in their images. Images from Morgan's MA exhibition, "Passage," were chosen by McCabe to be in the show. Morgan said that she is honored to have her work featured among such great photographers, who include Pinky Bass, April Dobbins, Michael Meads and Jerry Siegel. "It's a unique experience, and I say this because I know so many another artists who could have represented Contemporary Alabama Photography in this exhibition," Morgan said.

The National Alumni Association of The University of Alabama recognizes and honors one male and one female in the senior class to receive the Alumni Student Award. The association also recognizes and honors students in the senior class. The students have excelled in academics and extracurricular activities, shown strength of character and maturity, and displayed exceptional hospitality.

For the 2017-2018 competition period, 14 University of Alabama students have been selected for Fulbright Awards. This year's total sets a record number of awardees for UA in the prestigious international exchange program. Five University of Alabama students and alumni received Fulbright Awards for research and study during the 2017-2018 academic year. Nine 2017 graduates received Fulbright Awards to serve as English teaching assistants overseas for the 2017-2018 academic year.

The Omicron Delta Kappa Society is the national leadership honor society for college students, faculty, staff, administrators and alumni that recognizes and encourages superior scholarship, leadership, and exemplary character. Membership in ODK is a mark of the highest distinction and honor. Omicron Delta Kappa recognizes and encourages achievement in scholarship; athletics; campus or community service, social and religious activities, and campus government; journalism, speech, and the mass media; and creative and performing arts.