Reunions
■ The Lafayette Class of 1989 20th reunion will be Oct. 24 at Crowne Plaza Hotel Lexington-The Campbell House on Harrodsburg Road. Visit www.lafayetteclassof89.myevent.com for weekend details. E-mail Christy at cmtus@insightbb.com or Alison at raadams@insightbb.com with questions.
Awards/recognition
■ Twenty-eight students at Sayre School have earned AP Scholar Awards in recognition of their exceptional achievement on Advanced Placement exams.
The College Board's Advanced Placement Program provides motivated and academically prepared students with the opportunity to take college-level courses while still in high school and to earn college credit, advanced placement or both for successful performance on the AP Exams. About 18 percent of the 1.7 million students worldwide who took AP Exams performed at a sufficiently high level to also earn an AP Scholar Award.
At Sayre, six students qualified for the AP Scholar with Distinction Award by earning an average grade of at least 3.5 on all AP Exams taken and grades of 3 or higher on five or more of the exams. The students are Ben Colclough, son of Elizabeth and George Colclough; Wesley Field, son of Kim and David Field; Caroline Gray, daughter of Anne and Roy Gray; Mary Hood Paulson, daughter of Jean Ellen and Wyn Paulson; Pallavi Podapati, daughter of Devi and Rao Podapati; and Caitlin Truitt, daughter of Martha Post and Robert Truitt.
Three students qualified for the AP Scholar with Honor Award by earning an average grade of at least 3.25 on all AP Exams taken and grades of 3 or higher on four or more of the exams. The students are Chloe Irwin, daughter of Becky Irwin and Barry Irwin; Don Morgan, son of Gail Reynolds; and Thomas Spears, son of Kathleen Spears.
Nineteen students qualified for the AP Scholar Award by completing three or more AP Exams, with grades of 3 or higher. The AP Scholars are Tebo Barnett, son of Gay and Michael Barnett; Thomas Bowers, son of Barbara Bowers and Richard Bowers; Devon Bradley, daughter of Jennifer and Peter Bradley; Ryan Brady, son of Rebecca and Robert Brady; Emily Colclough, daughter of Elizabeth and George Colclough; Hallie Decker, daughter of Catherine Decker and Derek Decker; Tyler Gamble, son of Linda and John Gamble; Rebekah Hamblin, daughter of Sandra and Pierce Hamblin; Khalid Hanieh, son of Ronda Safi and Abu Hanieh; Olivia Jacobs, daughter of Elizabeth and Andrew Jacobs; Nick Klus, son of Dawn Jenkins Klus and John Klus; Libby Li, daughter of Zhicheng Tang and Liyong Li; Josh Moscow, son of Lynn Campbell and Jeffrey Moscow; Rebecca Price, daughter of Patricia and Steven Price; Kelsey Ryan, daughter John Ryan; Adam Suhl, son of Sylvia Cerel-Suhl and Jeremiah Suhl; Erin Turner, daughter of Jeannie and Charles Turner; Lisa Wang, daughter of Ming Zheng and Meng-Guang Wang; and Maggie Wilson, daughter of Bookie and Judge Wilson.
■ Bluegrass Community and Technical College was named the 2009 winner of Republic Bank's We CARE Award in the Education and Public Works category. The award was presented to the college on Sept. 22 at the Griffin Gate Marriott Resort in Lexington.
The award recognized BCTC as a top organization who has demonstrated what CARE represents: Community Activity Recognition Enterprise. At BCTC, many faculty members incorporate community service participation in their academic curriculum or host community events at the college. Faculty and staff volunteer their time to operate the Peace Meal Gardens, a community garden on the Leestown Campus. During the holiday season, faculty and staff donate gifts and items for children in need through the Circle of Love and Santa's Kids programs, and volunteer at more than 40 local non-profits through the rest of the year. BCTC Chief Information Officer Vern Kennedy thanked college employees for donating their time and talents in behalf of the college.
Display of The We CARE Award will rotate among the regional campuses in the coming months.
■ The Lindbergh Foundation recently announced that Larry Williams of BRS Aerospace was elected as the foundation's chairman, president and chief executive officer. Williams has a degree in fire and safety engineering technology from Eastern Kentucky University and is a graduate of the aviation safety program at the University of Southern California. He is also a 1975 graduate of Garrard County High School.
■ Several students from Betsy Layne High School were selected by Big Sandy Community and Technical College to participate in the local-level competition of Big Sandy Idol at SCHS.
Big Sandy Idol is a talent and scholarship competition that offers two winners from each school a recording with producer Timothy Cooley and a chance to compete in the Regional Big Sandy Idol for a demo CD recording, a full-album recording, a full-paid vocal scholarship to attend BSCTC, along with a spot with the Big Sandy Singers, who are directed by Laura Ford Hall. The competition is organized by the BSCTC music department in partnership with the Mountain Arts Center and is sponsored by Jennifer Reynolds' State Farm Insurance in Pikeville.
The Regional Big Sandy Idol Competition will be March 13 and 14 at the Mountain Arts Center. Tickets are $7 for adults and $5 for students and will go on sale at the center Feb. 8 by calling 1-888-MAC-ARTS.
■ Dawn Jackson, Eastern Kentucky University associate professor and program director of Health Services Administration, has been recognized as a Fellow of the American Health Information Management Association.
The fellowship program, established in October 1999, honors AHIMA members who make significant and sustained contributions to the profession. The fellowship status is a lifetime recognition subject to continuing AHIMA membership and compliance with the association's code of ethics. Less than 1 percent of the AHIMA's membership are fellows.
Accreditations
■ Eastern Kentucky University's Fire and Safety Engineering Technology Program received accreditation from the International Fire Service Accreditation Congress.
The unanimous accreditation for a five-year period followed a self-study and site visit.
Grants/scholarships
■ The University of Kentucky recently received a $2 million grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to combat teen dating violence. UK researchers will work with Kentucky teenagers to combat and prevent dating violence through the "Green Dot" prevention program, a model pioneered on the UK campus. The "Green Dot" research project will be conducted by principal investigator Ann Coker, Verizon Wireless Endowed Chair of Study on Violence Against Women in the Center for Research on Violence Against Women and professor in the UK Colleges of Medicine and Public Health, and co-principal investigator Patty Cook-Craig, assistant professor in the UK College of Social Work.
■ William Edward Derenge, a graduate of Episcopal High School, recently enrolled at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia as a Patrick Henry Scholar. He is the son of Stanley Cox and Barbara Baldwin of Lexington, and Larry and Jeannie Derenge of Paris.
Recipients are recognized for leadership in their secondary schools and communities and for strong academic achievement in a competitive college preparatory curriculum.
■ Eastern Kentucky University recently received a $300,000 federal grant to enhance campus safety, particularly for women.
The grant, from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Violence against Women, will fund ESCAPES — Empowering Students on Campus through Advocacy, Prevention, Education and Services — a collaborative effort within EKU and with local non-profits and organizations, including the Bluegrass Domestic Violence Program, the Bluegrass Rape Crisis Center, Hope's Wings Domestic Violence Program and the Richmond Police Department.
The initiative will be led by principal investigator Caroline Reid, assistant professor of social work, and co-principal investigator Marta Miranda, associate professor of social work and director of the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs and the Women and Gender Studies Program.
■ Big Sandy Community and Technical College Mayo Adult Education Program was recently notified that it had exceeded enrollment and academic performance goals for the 2008-09 fiscal years.
The Johnson County program is one of 29 counties in the excellence category. Programs in the excellence category meet or exceed enrollment and academic performance goals, thus prompting program performance and student performance funding. To qualify, a county must achieve 90 percent or more of set enrollment goals and 53 percent or more of completion of educational endeavors. As a result, the BSCTC Mayo Adult Education Program will receive $19,037 in funding, which will supplement the current year contract budget.
■ Morehead State University's Douglas Dennis, chair of the Department of Biology and Chemistry, has been awarded an administrative supplement grant from the National Institutes of Health.
The $37,000 award, which is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will allow Dennis to buy additional equipment and supplies for his existing NIH grant, "Analysis of Polyhydroxyalkanoate Inclusion Biogenesis."
The research grant is to elucidate the mechanism of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), bacterial polymers that are synthesized in inclusions when carbon levels are high and another essential nutrient, such as nitrogen, is limited. PHAs are made by bacteria when the bacteria sense they are running out of nutrients. These chemicals can be made into biodegradable plastic. His research grant will be used to try to determine how PHAs are made inside the bacterial cell.
