News Releases

For the second consecutive year, Elon University students who took part in the annual springtime ELONTHON dance marathon raised more than $100,000 to benefit young patients and their families with the nonprofit Children’s Miracle Network and Duke Children’s Hospital.

Three of North Carolina’s most influential voices in higher education gathered Wednesday, Feb. 9, for a panel discussion at a civic engagement conference on Elon University’s campus. Their message was simple: state and federal lawmakers should preserve financial aid for students in the ongoing recession, and to stay competitive in a global economy, schools must widen access for those who want to pursue college degrees.

Enjoy one of the final cultural events of the spring semester this weekend when the Department of Performing Arts presents On That Note... An Evening of Dance and Music, which opens Thursday night in McCrary Theatre.

Mary Gowan, who has been dean of Elon University’s Martha and Spencer Love School of Business since 2007, will step down as dean at the conclusion of the 2010-11 academic year. She will remain as a faculty member in the Love School of Business, teaching courses as a professor of management.

Tyronna Hooker G'09, an exceptional children’s teacher at Graham Middle School in Graham, N.C., and a 2009 graduate of Elon University's Master of Education program, has been named the 2011-12 North Carolina Teacher of the Year.

Elon University junior Amber Mathis has received a Newman Civic Fellows Award from Campus Compact, a national organization that aims to improve community life and to educate college students on civic and social responsibility. She is one of 135 students from 30 states to receive the award.

The Haw River has been key to the region’s growth and development over the centuries, and as associate professor emerita Anne Cassebaum writes in her new book, Down Along the Haw: The History of a North Carolina River, its importance can’t be ignored as efforts continue to preserve one of the region’s vital waterways.

Historically, North Carolina has voted Republican in presidential elections, but many political observers were surprised two years ago when President Barack Obama won the Tar Heel State. Elon University senior McKenzie Young investigated the factors behind the state’s recent voting behavior, and her work is the latest to be featured in a series of E-net profiles on Lumen Scholars in the Class of 2011.

Since the arrival of the Spanish to Ecuador, indigenous peoples have struggled against political and economic elites trying to introduce Western norms that undermine cultural identities. Elon senior Chris Jarrett is examining how groups interact with Ecuadorian society through political activity and development projects, and his research on the Amazonian Kichwa people is the latest work to be featured in a series of E-net profiles on Lumen Scholars in the Class of 2011.

They are common stereotypes of Africa often portrayed in media: poverty, AIDS, a “primitiveness” of people who live there. As Elon University senior Maggie Pahos prepared for a semester abroad in Ghana, she wanted to find ways to dispel those stereotypes through her own research, photography and creative writing, and her project is the latest to be featured in a series of E-net profiles on Lumen Scholars in the Class of 2011.