Eric Townsend

Students in a summer sociology course had an opportunity this week to learn about recovery efforts in Iraq by interacting directly with an artist living in Baghdad who answered questions from them in an online chat.

The Elon Center for Leadership, in cooperation with the Elon Center for Public Affairs, has concluded its first series of summer workshops and training events at the ISM University of Management and Economics in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Professors and staff from universities across North America will be meeting over the next two years to participate in an Elon University-sponsored seminar to develop and research methods for teaching students how to think in ways appropriate to democratic societies.

Support for community nonprofits is something many people feel is a moral imperative. Kelly King, the top executive at North Carolina-based BB&T, believes corporate and individual giving makes good business sense, too. King spoke at Elon University on July 22, offering his economic outlook and explaining why support for agencies like the United Way is crucial in the current era.

In one room on Tuesday, first and second graders place animals on a magnetic storyboard. Down the hall, older students listen to a tale of wombats. Children enrolled in a School of Education program are attending classes on campus this month for an enrichment academy that serves as an internship setting for current and future special needs teachers in Elon’s graduate education program.

DPT candidates on Tuesday said their farewells as they honored the lives of 10 men and women who donated their bodies to science and who, for the past seven months, served as “teachers” to Class of 2011 students studying anatomy as part of their doctoral program at Elon University.

Research by associate professor Harlen Makemson has been featured by Triad television stations and newspapers in recent days in the lead-up to the 40th anniversary of the first Moon landing.

If, like the famous advertisements claim, Red Bull does “give you wings,” it may not be the sugar and caffeine that makes you feel like Pegasus. New work by an Elon faculty member and his undergraduate researchers points to something else that happens when guzzling the popular energy drink – and it has more to do with your mind than anything else.

Tony Weaver, an assistant professor in the Department of Leisure and Sport Management, wrote a July 9 summary for the UltimateSportsInsider.com titled “Diversifying donor bases - A review of the research.” Weaver will be a frequent contributor to the Ultimate Sports Insider web site as the site has added a new section relating academic research to current issues in college athletics.

The National Society for Experiential Education has named Elon University President Leo M. Lambert the winner of an inaugural award for his contributions to experiential education. Lambert, one of 29 nominees for the honor, will receive the William M. Burke Presidential Award for Excellence in Experiential Education this fall at the society’s annual conference in Dallas.