Emory Named Bicycle Friendly University

Emory is one of 20 universities to be selected as a national Bicycle Friendly University by the League of American Bicyclists.

The Bicycle Friendly University program recognizes colleges and universities that create exceptional environments where bicycling can thrive and provides a roadmap and technical assistance to create great campuses for bicycling. Emory is one of only two universities to be selected in the Southeast.

“This award demonstrates, on a national level, that Emory is committed to supporting cycling as a healthy transportation choice,” says Jamie Smith, director of the Bike Emory program. In 2007 Emory launched the program to encourage students and staff to choose bicycles as their primary form or transportation.

The League noted that the “programs for students and staff to ride at Emory University” among other accomplishments are what made Emory stand out.  


Some incentives noted in Emory’s winning application for the award include:

Students, faculty and staff are eligible to buy new bicycles and accessories at a discount (10-15 percent off).
During orientation students can pre-order new bicycles from Bike Emory at a deeper discount with a free helmet, u-lock, in-room delivery and 90 days of free maintenance.
Bicycle commuters are eligible for a parking pass that allows them to park a car 20 days a year and are eligible for the Guaranteed Ride Home program: a reliable ride home if an unexpected event occurs during work hours.
A “mobile” repair center to campus twice a week. The repair center is staffed by professional mechanics, provides discounted bicycle repairs and free deliveries of parts and accessories.
Bike Emory was created to create an exceptional environment for cycling at Emory and the surrounding community. Bike Emory is the charter school of the Fuji University program, a partnership between Emory University, national partner Fuji Bikes and local partner Bicycle South. This partnership allows Emory to provide its cyclists with extraordinary incentives and advocacy support. To learn more visit www.bike.emory.edu.

The League of American Bicyclists promotes bicycling for fun, fitness and transportation, and works through advocacy and education for a bicycle-friendly America. The league represents the interests of America's 57 million bicyclists, including its 300,000 members and affiliates. For more information or to support the League, visit www.bikeleague.org.

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Title I Distinguished Schools and Districts Awarded

 State School Superintendent Dr. John Barge officially named 868 Georgia Title I Distinguished Schools and four Title I Distinguished Districts at today's State Board of Education meeting.

"These schools have shown that high expectations, hard work and collaboration do improve student achievement," Superintendent Barge said. "I'm so pleased to recognize the educators, students and parents in these schools and school districts."

Title I schools have a significant population of students who are economically disadvantaged. These schools receive federal money to assist with the education of their students. There are two National Title I Distinguished Schools among the total 868 Georgia Title I Distinguished Schools. Title I Distinguished Schools have made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) at least three years in a row.

"These 868 schools could make excuses, but they don't," Superintendent Barge said. "The teachers and students are focused and the consistent results prove it."

Title I Distinguished Schools that have made AYP for three consecutive years are awarded a certificate, while those who have made AYP four or more years receive a monetary award, paid for out of federal funds.

TITLE I DISTINGUISHED DISTRICTS
There are also four Title I Distinguished Districts, which is given to school systems in four different size categories -- Large District, Medium District, Small District and Very Small District. The awarded districts have closed the achievement gap the most between economically disadvantaged students and students who are not economically disadvantaged in each category. The results of the reading, English language arts and mathematics portions of the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) and the Georgia High School Graduation Test (GHSGT) are used to determine achievement.

The 2010-2011 Title I Distinguished Districts are:
- Large District: Clarke County
- Medium: Peach County
- Small District: Dublin City
- Very Small District: Glascock County

The winning districts each received $50,000 from federal funds.

NATIONAL TITLE I DISTINGUISHED SCHOOLS
The National Title I Distinguished Schools program recognizes two schools that receive Title I funding. One school is recognized for closing the achievement gap between economically disadvantaged students and students that are not economically disadvantaged. The other school is recognized for exceeding the benchmarks required to make AYP. The CRCT and GHSGT results in reading, English language arts and mathematics are used to determine the winning schools.

The two National Title I Distinguished Schools are:
- Closing the Gap: Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary - Clayton County
- Meets and Exceeds Performance: Fourth District Elementary - Appling County

Each school received $15,000 in addition to their FY11 Title I Distinguished Schools allocation.


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McIntosh's Lane Named Georgia’s Assistant Principal of the Year

Dan Lane (left) with GASSP President-Elect Dr. Mark Wilson

The best assistant principal in Georgia, and possibly the nation, is at McIntosh High in Peachtree City.

Dan Lane has been selected as Georgia’s Assistant Principal of the Year by the Georgia Association of Secondary School Principals (GASSP), and has been chosen to represent the state in the National Assistant Principal of the Year competition.

Each year GASSP selects an Assistant Principal of the Year at the middle and high school level, and chooses one to compete for the national title sponsored by the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP).

The Assistant Principal of the Year program recognizes outstanding middle level and high school assistant principals who have demonstrated success in leadership, curriculum and personalization. These school leaders have succeeded in providing high quality learning opportunities for students, and are acknowledged by their peers for the exemplary contributions they have made to the profession.

Lane says being Georgia’s Assistant Principal of the Year is not an award for him, but one that belongs to all of the McIntosh faculty and staff. He says the academic excellence for which McIntosh is known is due to a dedicated team of teachers and staff that work together to help all students achieve to the best of their abilities.

“Though we have outstanding test scores, when you dig down deep into our data, you will see that we have students who struggle just like everyone else. McIntosh is being proactive in helping those students now, before we see long-term ramifications in the future. It would be easy to sit on our laurels touting our excellent test scores, but that does not happen here. At McIntosh, we are committed to building up all students regardless of where they started,” says Lane.

Assistant Principals of the Year from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the Department of Defense Education Activity will compete for the national title. Three finalists will be announced January 2011 with the winner being named during the NASSP National Convention on February 26, 2011.

As Georgia’s Assistant Principal of the Year, Lane will be honored at the State Assistant Principals of the Year Forum and Awards Gala in Washington, DC March 30-April 2, 2011.

Photo Source:  Fayette County Board of Education

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GaDOE and GPB Partnership Wins National Award

The Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE), in partnership with Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB), received a My Source Education Innovation Award recently from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in Washington, D.C. The award recognizes the use of pioneering methods and emerging digital technologies to serve the educational needs of communities. The $3,000 grant award was presented to State Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox and GPB President Teya Ryan at the Council of Chief State School Officers/Public Media Executive Summit.

The GaDOE and GPB received the award for incorporating digital media to illustrate learning objectives for Project ExPreSS (Exam Preparation for Science and Social Studies). The ExPreSS program was offered last summer throughout the state to any high school students that were interested in receiving remediation for the science and social studies sections of the Georgia High School Graduation Test (GHSGT). Students in the program had an overall retest pass rate of 68 percent; more than double the previous year’s pass rate on GHSGT retests in science and social studies.

“The partnership we have with GPB truly helped make Project ExPreSS a tremendous success,” said Superintendent Cox. “The digital resources they provided us helped bring the performance standards to life for all of the students and teachers involved in the program.”

“Project ExPreSS is a great example of how GPB is using its resources to help improve student achievement in Georgia,” said Ryan. “We’re proud to partner with the GaDOE and look forward to finding more ways to enrich the classroom learning environment through the development of high-quality digital resources.”

The success with the summer ExPreSS program showed that there was a greater need to offer it again and make an online version available to reach even more students.

FreeOnline ExPreSS creates an online opportunity designed to help students prepare for the science and social studies GHSGT. Science and social studies are the two sections of the GHSGT that Georgia students fail most often. The program offers self-paced units based on the instructional plans created for the summer Project ExPreSS.

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Seeking Nominations for Nation's First Online K-12 Teacher of Year Award

/PRNewswire/ -- The International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) and the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) are seeking nominations for the first Online K-12 Teacher of the Year Award. The National Online Teacher of the Year Award is a new program that will recognize an outstanding online teacher for exceptional dedication and contributions to online K-12 education. A superintendent, principal, program director/manager, department chair, or any other supervisor of the teacher may nominate an online educator in any public school or state virtual school for the honor.

"Teachers are the real unsung heroes in online learning. Online teachers provide the gold standard in enabling 21st century models of student learning. Students spend more time online learning, writing, creating, playing, researching and working - and teachers are connecting and interacting with students in online courses to provide high-quality instruction, personalized learning and unprecedented access to world-class educational opportunities," said Susan Patrick, the President and CEO of iNACOL.

One top winner will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to the Virtual School Symposium (VSS) hosted by iNACOL, November 14-16, 2010 in Glendale, Arizona. VSS will bring together more than 1,600 participants from national, state, district, private and other virtual school programs to explore trends and best practices in e-learning. Considered the nation's leading event in online education, experts in K-12 virtual education have robust networking opportunities, learn about the latest trends, challenges and opportunities in e-learning; interact in session presentations; and gain access to the latest research and best practices reports. The winner will be recognized at the iNACOL Annual Meeting on November 14 in Glendale and will be featured on the SREB and iNACOL websites.

Nominations for the Award must be submitted to SREB by April 16, 2010. Forms and complete rules are online at http://www.inacol.org/events/awards.php.

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GREENGUARD Environmental Institute Awards $2,000 Grant to "Green" Start-Up Company Founded by Georgia Tech Students

/PRNewswire/ -- The GREENGUARD Environmental Institute (GEI) is proud to award $2,000 in prize money to "Waste to Watts (W2W): Solution-Based Recycling," an Atlanta-based start-up company with a mission to end energy poverty in third-world countries and reduce environmentally hazardous electronic waste.

GEI awarded the prize as part of the 2010 Georgia Tech Business Plan Competition, which promotes entrepreneurship among Georgia Tech students and alumni by encouraging them to launch cutting-edge, high-value businesses. GEI has proudly sponsored the GREENGUARD Sustainability Award for the past three years.

"We are thrilled to support to the Waste to Watts team in their efforts to tackle this very important health and environmental crisis," said Dr. Marilyn Black, founder of GEI. "These talented young entrepreneurs are trailblazers in both the green space and the health space, and we wish them the best of luck as they continue developing their prototype technology."

Founded by two Georgia Tech seniors, a Duke University sophomore, and a Duke University alumnus, W2W aims to repurpose electronic waste--like computer equipment and discarded lead acid batteries--to create an inexpensive, uninterruptible power supply (UPS) for developing nations. This is important because in developing nations, frequent power surges, daily blackouts, and other electricity failures damage the computers and medical equipment used in hospitals, which results in poor and unreliable health care. Moreover, dead lead acid batteries--which contain hazardous heavy metals--are often disposed of improperly and contribute significantly to environmental pollution.

"Through the generosity of the GREENGUARD Environmental Institute, we are able to recognize student entrepreneurs who apply creative engineering and business solutions to address critical environmental problems," said Alan Flury, director of BPC. "I can easily envision a day when every student venture competing in the BPC will be environmentally sustainable. When that occurs, it will be largely attributable to our partnership with the GREENGUARD Environmental Institute."

W2W's founders say they plan to use their prize money to help pay for a new Web site and the continued development of their prototype.

About GREENGUARD Environmental Institute (GEI)

The GREENGUARD Environmental Institute is an industry-independent, third-party, not-for-profit organization that aims to improve human health through programs that reduce people's exposure to chemicals and other pollutants. The GREENGUARD Certification Programs certify products for low chemical emissions and provide consumers with a resource for choosing healthier products and materials for indoor environments. All certified products must meet stringent standards for low chemical emissions based on established criteria from key public health agencies. GREENGUARD Certification is broadly recognized and accepted by sustainable building programs and building codes worldwide. For more information and a complete listing of certified products, visit www.greenguard.org.

About Georgia Tech Business Plan Competition (BPC)

The Georgia Tech BPC strives to create an integrated learning experience that promotes academic excellence in the development of entrepreneurial concepts and business plans; to encourage the founding of high-value, leading-edge enterprises and support student teams who choose to move forward with the startup of their businesses; and to inspire students to consider entrepreneurship as a career choice. Since its inception in 2001, BPC has awarded over $500,000 in prizes to over 550 students and alumni. Participants compete to win best business plan, most fundable business plan, most innovative intellectual property, and most environmentally sustainable business plan, among others. Panels of topical experts and entrepreneurs participate as judges and determine the winner in each category. For more information, visit http://mgt.gatech.edu/.

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TMA Offers $5,000 Cash Prize to Outstanding Teacher

/PRNewswire/ -- The Turnaround Management Association, the premier nonprofit organization representing the corporate restructuring industry, is accepting applications for the 2010 Butler-Cooley Excellence in Teaching Award.

The program recognizes K-12 classroom teachers who have changed students' lives and the communities where they teach. Established in 2004 with a grant from the John Wm. Butler Foundation, Inc., the award is named in honor of Leslie Bender Butler and Cindy Butler Cooley, relatives of a former TMA chairman and teachers who collectively have spent more than 50 years influencing children's lives.

TMA will award a $5,000 cash stipend and cover travel and lodging expenses for one teacher to attend the TMA 2010 Spring Conference, April 20-22, at the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers in New York, NY. Entries are due February 1.

Nominees must:
-- Be licensed and active elementary or secondary (K-12) school teachers
-- Teach at an accredited public or private school
-- Have at least five years of teaching experience
-- Have taught the equivalent of 20 hours per week (based on at least a
nine-month academic calendar year) for at least five of the prior
seven years

Guidelines, entry forms and lists of previous winners are available at http://www.turnaround.org/About/Awards.aspx.

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Fayette County Ranked Top Ten of Tech-Savvy School Boards

The Fayette County Public School System placed eighth in the nation among large-sized school districts in the sixth annual Digital School Districts Survey, sponsored by the Center for Digital Education, National School Boards Association and “Converge Online” magazine.

The purpose of the survey is to showcase exemplary school boards and districts’ use of technology to govern the district, communicate with students, parents and the community and to improve district operations.

"We are honored to receive this award. It is a team effort on the part of our technology department, the staff at the schools, county level and our students and parents," says Superintendent John DeCotis.

All U.S. public school boards/districts were invited to participate in the survey. Schools were placed in three categories based on size of enrollment.

The study examined and documented school boards and districts’ online presence; technology applications that allow the public to interact with school board members, administrators and teachers; as well as their access to information such as school board calendars, district policies, and technology use in the district and classrooms.

Winners reflected those school districts with the fullest implementation of technology standards in the evolution of digital education. A full list of winners can be viewed at www.centerdigitaled.com.

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Georgia Tech Wins NSF Award for Next-Gen Supercomputing

The Georgia Institute of Technology today announced its receipt of a five-year, $12 million Track 2 award from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Office of Cyberinfrastructure to lead a partnership of academic, industry and government experts in the development and deployment of an innovative and experimental high-performance computing (HPC) system. The award provides for the creation of two heterogeneous, HPC systems that will expand the range of research projects that scientists and engineers can tackle, including computational biology, combustion, materials science, and massive visual analytics. The project brings together leading expertise and technology resources from Georgia Tech’s College of Computing, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), University of Tennessee, National Institute for Computational Sciences, HP and NVIDIA.

NSF’s Track 2 program is an activity designed to fund the deployment and operation of several leading-edge computing systems operating at or near the petascale. An underlying goal is to advance U.S. computing capability in order to support computational scientists and engineers in the pursuit of scientific discovery. The award announced today is the part of the fourth round of awards in the Track 2 program.

“Our goal is to develop and deploy a novel, next-generation system for the computational science community that demonstrates unprecedented performance on computational science and data-intensive applications, while also addressing the new challenges of energy-efficiency,” said Jeffrey Vetter, joint professor of computational science and engineering at Georgia Tech and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

“The user community is very excited about this strategy,” Vetter continued. For example, James Phillips, senior research programmer at the University of Illinois who leads development of the widely-used NAMD application, says “Our experiences with graphics processors over the past two years have been very positive and we can’t wait to explore the new Fermi architecture; this new NSF resource will provide an ideal platform for our large biomolecular simulations.”

Georgia Tech’s Vetter will lead the five-year project as principal investigator. The project team is comprised of luminaries in the HPC field, including a Gordon Bell Prize winner and previous recipients of the NSF Track 2B award. Co-principal investigators on the project are Prof. Jack Dongarra (University of Tennessee and ORNL), Prof. Karsten Schwan (Georgia Tech), Prof. Richard Fujimoto (Georgia Tech), and Prof. Thomas Schulthess (Swiss National Supercomputing Centre and ORNL).

The platforms will be developed and deployed in two phases, with initial system delivery planned for deployment in early 2010. This system’s innovations in performance and power will be achieved through heterogeneous processing based on widely-available NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs). As industry partners, HP and NVIDIA will be providing the computational systems, platforms and processors needed to develop the system.

“Research institutions are looking for energy-efficient, high-performance computing architectures that can speed time to solution,” said Ed Turkel, manager of business development in the Scalable Computing and Infrastructure business unit at HP. “The combination of HP’s industry-standard HPC server technology with NVIDIA processors delivers increased performance and faster application development, accelerating higher education research projects.”

The initial system will pair hundreds of HP high-performance Intel processors with NVIDIA’s new next-generation CUDA architecture, codenamed Fermi, designed specifically for high-performance computing. This project will be the first of the Track 2 awards to realize the vast potential of GPUs for HPC.

“Computational science is a key area driving the worldwide application of GPUs for high-performance computing,” said Bill Dally, chief scientist at NVIDIA. “GPUs working in concert with CPUs is the architecture of choice for future demanding applications.”

A critical component of the program is a focus on education, outreach and training to expand the knowledge and understanding of HPC among a broader audience. The Georgia Tech team will conduct workshops to attract and train new users for the system, engage historically underrepresented groups such as women and minorities, and educate future generations on the vast potential of high-performance computing as a career field.

More information on the project and its resources is available at http://keeneland.gatech.edu.

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Top Southern High Schools Receive Prestigious College Counseling Award

/24-7/ -- The 2009/2010 Standards Medal has been awarded to The Baylor School (http://www.baylorschool.org/) of Chattanooga, Tennessee and Northview High School (http://www.northviewhigh.com/) of Johns Creek, Georgia. This award for online excellence in secondary school college counseling is given annually to the top public and private high school in the southeast regional United States. Award sponsor Southern College Tour's VP and Director of Communications Shelley Conklin stated, "We are pleased to announce The Baylor School (Private) and Northview High School (Public) as our 2009/2010 winners. Well over one-thousand school websites were analyzed and evaluated AND as The Standards Medal description states, 'The selection process identified superior content, organization and programs contained within the college counseling section of a school's website. These criteria strongly reflect the overall quality of a school's commitment to assisting college-bound students with college planning, selection, and application.'."

To see a detailed description of The Standards Medal, the Finalists and Honorable Mentions, visit http://www.southerncollegetours.com/community.php. Southern College Tours is a leading educational consulting firm providing schools, students and their families all-inclusive southern region college tours and college preparation expertise.

Private Finalists: Ravenscroft School (NC), Forsyth Country Day (NC), The Walker School (GA), St Joseph's Catholic School (SC), and The Westminster Schools (GA). Public Finalists: Pope High School (GA), Kennesaw Mountain High School (GA), Riverside High School (NC), Spain Park High School (AL), and Green Hope High School (NC). There were ten honorable mentions per category. Private Honorable Mentions: Greater Atlanta Christian (GA), Charlotte Latin School (NC), Marist School (GA), Randolph School (AL), Pinewood Preparatory School (SC), Memphis University School (TN), Girls Preparatory School (TN), Providence Day School (NC), McCallie School (TN), and Lausanne Collegiate School (TN). Public Honorable Mentions: East Chapel H.S. (NC), Alpharetta H.S. (GA), Bearden H.S. (TN), Kell H.S. (GA), Virgil Grissom H.S. (AL), Crescent H.S. (SC), Spring Valley H.S. (SC), North Forsyth H.S. (NC), Scotts Hill H.S. (TN), and Maryville H.S. (TN).

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WordpressURL NASA Announces Georgia Aeronautics Education Award

/PRNewswire/ -- NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate has awarded $377,497 to a team led by the Georgia Institute of Technology for work described in its response to a research opportunity calling for innovation in aeronautics instruction.

Narayanan Komerath is the principal investigator for the project "Extrovert: Learning to Innovate Across Disciplines."

The project proposes a web-based cross-disciplinary learning environment suited to students' learning styles on matters related to flight. It includes a variety of case studies introduced in aerospace engineering courses that will enhance initiative, sharpen analytical skills and provide some real-life experience.

The award is for the first year of a three-year agreement. NASA anticipates awarding a total of $1,132,491 for the work, based on annual progress reviews. Georgia Institute of Technology's partner is the Florida Center for Engineering Education in Gainesville.

The award will foster close collaboration with and facilitate the exchange of ideas and information among researchers at NASA, industry, academia and other government agencies to benefit the nation's aeronautics community.

NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate conducts cutting-edge, fundamental research in traditional and emerging disciplines to help transform the nation's air transportation system, and to support future air and space vehicles. The goals are to improve airspace capacity and mobility, improve aviation safety, and improve aircraft performance while reducing noise, emissions and fuel burn.

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Emory Receives Presidential Award for Community Service

Emory University has been honored with the 2008 Presidential Award for General Community Service -- the highest federal recognition a college or university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service-learning and civic engagement. Emory is one of only three colleges and universities to earn this annual distinction from the Corporation for National and Community Service.

"We are humbled and energized by this recognition of our efforts," says Emory University President James W. Wagner. "Receiving this honor affirms Emory as a destination university for students who seek an education beyond the traditional classroom setting. We know that bright young scholars want to make a difference today, and trust that in the future they will continue to be drawn to educational settings like Emory. In turn, Emory is committed to providing our students with a world class education and the sense of responsibility to become scholar-citizens addressing opportunities to improve the human condition in myriad ways."

Emory -- one of the first schools to receive the Carnegie Foundation's "Engaged Institution" designation -- has made major investments in recent years to better prepare students to be engaged scholars with the critical thinking, hands-on experience and ethical leadership development to make a difference in the world.

The Presidential Award for General Community Service recognizes "the breadth and quality of an institution’s community service, service learning and civic engagement programs.” Three other colleges and universities received recognition for individual programs. View a full list of the 2008 Honor Roll, which includes several Atlanta-area schools.

Doing Well by Doing Good

In 2008, Emory students completed nearly 150,000 hours of service with more than 200 community partners on projects related to poverty, homelessness, chronic disease, medical services and environmental conservation throughout Atlanta and beyond.

Emory's Office of University-Community Partnerships (OUCP) helps coordinate these efforts and is establishing a continuum of engaged scholarship and service for all students. A capstone program is the yearlong Community Building and Social Change Fellowship, a national model for advanced service learning.

"Emory has made a significant commitment to enhance community-engaged scholarship, learning and service as part of its strategic plan. We are delighted that the vision, aspirations and initial successes of that effort along with Emory's longstanding tradition of civic engagement have earned the university this national recognition," says Michael Rich, OUCP co-founder and director.

In particular at Emory, students at all levels, from undergraduates to graduate students in law, medicine, humanities and theology, engage in service and research that provides direct and tangible benefits to metro Atlanta communities, Rich says.

Highlights of Emory's engaged scholarship and service in 2008, compiled by OUCP, include:

A full third of all students across Emory’s nine schools took part in academic service learning, including law students who provided 26,076 hours of pro bono work for local clinics and agencies.

More than 80 percent of Emory seniors reported serving as volunteers while in college.
In metro-Atlanta and statewide, Emory programs, mentors and tutors enrich the learning of K-12 students in more than 120 public schools, with a particular emphasis on science education.

Emory's outreach also includes hundreds of new immigrants now on the path to U.S. citizenship thanks to students who devoted 2,500 hours coaching English language learners of all ages.
Ninety-two percent of Oxford College students engage in community service, contributing nearly 10,000 hours of service in just one year.

Nearly all students in nursing and theology are required to complete community-based service work as part of their degree program.

National Trends Point to More Service

Recent studies have underlined the importance of service learning and volunteering to college students. In 2006, 2.8 million college students gave more than 297 million hours of volunteer service, according to the corporation’s Volunteering in America 2007 study. Using Independent Sector’s estimates of the value of volunteer time, college student volunteering was worth more than $5.6 billion last year. The U.S. Department of Education found a growing service-learning trend, with more schools offering service learning as part of their curriculum.

The Corporation for National and Community Service is a federal agency that improves lives, strengthens communities, and fosters civic engagement through service and volunteering. The corporation administers Senior Corps, AmeriCorps and Learn and Serve America, a program that supports service-learning in schools, institutions of higher education and community-based organizations. For more information, visit www.nationalservice.gov.

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Fayette County PR Department Earns State Recognition

The Fayette County School System’s public relations department has received five awards from the Georgia School Public Relations Association (GSPRA) for distinguished achievement in writing, graphic design and electronic communications.

Entries are judged on content, use of graphics/special effects and color, layout and usefulness to the intended audience. A press release on the Starr’s Mill High Child Care Center and the teacher recruitment brochure each received a Gold Award of Excellence; the financial summary and a Channel 24 video on the Starr’s Mill High Child Care Center each received a Silver Award of Merit and a press release on the Holocaust Memorial at Rising Starr Middle received a Bronze Award of Merit.

“This recognition is truly an honor. The competition is very rigorous with entries competing against each other without the size of the school system or public relations department taken into consideration. Knowing that our projects went up against those from bigger systems with more resources and larger public relations departments makes these awards even more meaningful,” says Melinda Berry-Dreisbach, public information specialist.

The public relations department has received both national and state awards for its communication materials since the office opened in 2001. All totaled, the department has been awarded 61 national and state honors.

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Emory Fellow Wins Whiting Writers' Award

Laleh Khadivi, a fellow in Emory University's Creative Writing Program, has received a 2008 Whiting Writers' Award. The $50,000 award, which annually recognizes 10 young writers, was presented to Khadivi yesterday in New York City. (http://www.whitingfoundation.org/whiting_2008.html)

Khadivi was honored for her first book, "The Age of Orphans," a historical novel set in Iran during the first Shah's ascent to power. Born in Esfahan, Iran, Khadivi is of Kurdish and Persian heritage.

"The Age of Orphans" follows the life of a Kurdish boy whose family is killed by the armies of the Shah as part of a "modernizing effort." The boy is then adopted into those same armies and taught to kill his own people.

This first book is part of a trilogy that follows the lives of three generations of Kurdish men and will be published by Bloomsbury in March. "The award gives me more time to work on the triology," says Khadivi, adding that when her teaching stint at Emory ends, she is considering taking a year off to work on the next book.

Khadivi, who has lived in a variety of countries, is a graduate of Atlanta International School and now calls the United States home. Previously, she was a documentary filmmaker and directed "900 Women," a film about incarcerated women in Louisiana. She has produced a number of other films that focus on the criminal justice system.

She holds an undergraduate degree from Reed College and an MFA degree from Mills College. Khadivi is currently the Fellow in Fiction at Emory, a two-year appointment for those holding a graduate degree in creative writing and who have a manuscript underway.

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Braelinn Elementary School in Fayette County Earns Award from "PTO Today"

It was all smiles recently at Braelinn Elementary School in Peachtree City when the announcement came from PTO Today Magazine. The Editor's Choice Award for Outstanding Major Project was presented to the Braelinn Elementary School PTO for the completion of a major renovation of the outdated gym floor.

Much of the capital for the project was provided through a string of ingenious fundraising activities spearheaded by the PTO. These activities included sales at a movie night, and an envelope drive, and matching contributions by a Braelinn family. Congratulations to PTO President Rebecca Bankey, Principal Wenonah Bell, and Coach Jill Collins for their dedication to this project.

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Furlong and McFarlane Win MicrobeLibrary Curriculum Resource Editor’s Choice Award

The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) has honored Clayton State University’s Dr. Michelle Furlong and Renee McFarlane with the 2008 MicrobeLibrary Curriculum Resource Editor’s Choice Award for their article, “Immunity and the Spread of Influenza Within a Population Department of Natural Sciences.”

The MicrobeLibrary Editor’s Choice Awards were created by ASM to spotlight excellence and raise the status and visibility of research into teaching and learning in microbiology education and allied disciplines. Selected by ASM’s Curriculum Resources Editorial Committee, the Curriculum Resource Award is given to one curriculum resource published in the past year that exemplifies the criteria for publication in MicrobeLibrary. Furlong and McFarlane’s article was selected above all of those published in the MicrobeLibrary Curriculum Collection in 2007.

Furlong is interim department head of Natural Sciences and an associate professor of Biology in the Clayton State College of Arts & Sciences. McFarlane is an instructor of Biology. Together, they created a classroom activity that teaches about the influenza virus – a particularly timely subject given the still-relevant issues of a possible Avian Flu epidemic.

“Renee and I created a new activity for the microbiology classroom that teaches students about the influenza virus, immunity and the spread of influenza in a population,” explains Furlong about their award-winning activity. “In our publication we explained how to conduct the activity in the classroom and we presented data that showed that the activity enhanced our students’ understanding of immunity, spread of disease and the influenza vaccine.”

MicrobeLibrary is a founding partner of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s BiosciEdNet Collaborative (www.biosciednet.org), a portal sponsored by the National Science Foundation’s National Science Digital Library (www.nsdl.org). MicrobeLibrary, which has won many citations and media accolades, is the first service of its kind and continues to be recognized as one of the best resources for science information.