Charlotte Observer
The 13 public buses in Boone will soon be running on biodiesel fuel after students at Appalachian State University led an initiative calling for the use of cleaner fuel. Read the full article

Winston-Salem Journal
Charles Scott watched recently as teachers at the Communication Disorders Clinic at Appalachian State University worked with a group of children, including a 2-year-old who had never spoken. Scott was touched by how the teachers tried to help. Scott and his wife, Geneva, have helped the clinic for decades. It has now been named in their honor, after the Winston-Salem couple made a gift of real estate valued at $307,000 to the N.C. Scottish Rite Masonic Foundation, which financially supports the clinic. Read the full article

Classroom and hands-on experience is invaluable if you want to join the ranks of renewable energy professionals.

Renewable Energy Access.com
If you want more than just PV training, an undergraduate degree in Appropriate Technology at Appalachian State University (ASU) in North Carolina provides curricula in energy conversion systems, waste and water management, community and shelter design, technology assessment, small-scale production systems, and technology transfer. Read the full article

Inside Higher Ed
A couple dozen of the nation’s elite private institutions and flagship publics have steadily committed over the past few years to pick up the tuition tab in packaged “promise” programs targeted for the neediest students. But, as some commentators have pointed out, the typically wealthy institutions that have committed to cover tuition costs for low-income students also generally have high admission standards and limited low-income enrollment – meaning that their actions, however well-intentioned, still fall far short of reaching the vast majority of students from low-income families. Just three of the 16 institutions in North Carolina’s system – including Appalachian State University, which just this week announced a new, privately funded program to cover tuition, fees, room, board and books, plus a $1,000 stipend, for students at up to 100 percent of the poverty level – offer similar initiatives. Read the full article

Winston-Salem Journal
Gus Pena badly wanted Alejandro Gonzalez to come to Appalachian State University, or to at least consider it. Trying to get Hispanics interested in a predominantly white college tucked in a mountain valley can be an uphill battle. But Pena, 26, a soft-spoken administrator in ASU’s diversity office, can be persuasive and persistent. Read the full article

Program would cut debt for the poorest students

Winston-Salem Journal
Officials at Appalachian State University are working on a program that will offer low-income students the chance to graduate from college with little or no debt.
Appalachian ACCESS would be open to financially needy, in-state students who come from families who live at no more than 100 percent of the federal poverty level. Read the full article

Hot market in higher education promises benefits on both sides

Raleigh News and Observer
Partnerships in China are hot among U.S. universities. Schools are looking to expand their reach, collaborate on research, broaden their students’ horizons and recruit top Chinese scholars. In some cases, they want to cash in on an enormous market for education in the most populous nation on the planet. One program that has lasted is at Appalachian State University in Boone, which had ties to China before it was fashionable. Ten years ago, ASU’s Walker College of Business kicked off an exchange with Fudan University in Shanghai — a program that is still going strong. Read the full article

From the editors of Fitness magazine

Hattiesburg American
Worried you’ll spend the winter in bed with a box of tissues? Fitness got top researchers to reveal the only scientifically proven ways to stay sniffle and cough-free. Research at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., shows that while moderate activity, such as brisk walking for 45 minutes a day, helps boost your immune system, intense training, say, for a marathon, can suppress it. Read the full article

Here’s a breakdown of truths and myths on staying sniffle- and cough-free.

News Leader (Missouri)
Want to know the worst way to beat a cold? Overdoing it at the gym. Yes, exercise helps protect you against colds, but too much of a good thing can make you sick. Research at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., shows that while moderate activity, such as brisk walking for 45 minutes a day, helps boost your immune system, intense training, say, for a marathon, can suppress it. Read the full article

Building boom is changing Alleghany

Winston-Salem Journal
The vacation home market is booming in Alleghany County, increasing tax revenues and creating jobs for local residents. “It’s a fairly easy way to import money from outside your economy,” says Richard Crepeau, an Appalachian State University geographer and a member of Boone’s board of adjustment. Read the full article

 As oil company settlement fund runs out, officials are scrambling to find funding

Charlotte Observer
Officials are searching for money to fund the State Energy Office as funding from an oil company settlement ends. Those funds have helped finance the Appalachian State University Energy Center’s work promoting wind power and zero-energy houses, and recruiting renewable-energy industry to the state.   Read the full story

PR Newswire
Donald Corey, principal of The Other Edge Inc. and an assistant professor of industrial design at Appalachian State University, is about to debut his first self-generated product – the Hold-N-One ® golf bag holder. Read the full article

Asheville Citizen-Times
Appalachian State University has established a Center for Entrepreneurship to help expand educational opportunities and interactions with successful entrepreneurs in the region and around the world. Read the full article

Watauga Democrat
Graphic novelist James Sturm told the audience at a recent Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series program that when he was a junior in college he wondered how he could make a living when he realized he wanted to draw cartoons. Read the full article

Science says there is no clear link between marathoning and skin cancer (especially the really bad ones)  

Runner’s World
Professor David Nieman weighs in on research regarding marathon runners and skin cancer.   Read the full article

Winston-Salem Journal
A history professor at Appalachian State University has been named the liaison between the university and the Blue Ridge Parkway. Neva Specht, an associate professor in the department of history, will provide a central contact for research and project partnerships between the organizations. Read the full article

Goldsboro News Argus
A fourth-grader at Grantham School is the 14th minority student in Wayne County to be awarded a $20,000 scholarship to attend Appalachian State University upon graduation from high school. Read the full article

It has lowest turnover in state

Winston Salem Journal
Mountain counties in the state tend to have the lowest teacher turnover rates, according to the N.C. Department of Public Instruction. Appalachian’s Reich College of Education Dean Charlie Duke says teachers tend to leave urban schools because of a lack of support or fear for their safety. Read the full article

Winston-Salem Journal
Harry Davis from Appalachian’s Walker College of Business will be a speaker at the N.C. Bankers Association’s Economic Forecast Forum at 11 a.m. Jan. 2 at the Sheraton Imperial RTP hotel in Durham. The keynote speaker will be Knight Kiplinger, the editor-in-chief of the Kiplinger Letter. Read the full article