News

A new collection of seven sculptures has been unveiled on App State’s campus as part of the university’s Arts Corridor. The artworks — installed in mid-August and created by artists from across North Carolina — will be displayed on campus for two years.

Five winning entries have been selected for the 2022 Chancellor’s Innovation Scholars Program at App State. Each faculty team will earn awards of up to $10,000 to fund projects that include new curricula, experiential learning opportunities and education about immigration issues.

As a dancer and choreographer, an artist and a social justice advocate, App State’s Juliet Irving ’19 has a blended perspective in her work as a freelance multimedia designer.

Jamie Parson, App State's newly appointed chief diversity officer and an associate professor in the Walker College of Business, has been active in working to support diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) on college campuses. On this Find Your Sustain Ability, Parson relates her journey to this position, as well as her goals and foreseen challenges in DEI work.

Air Force veteran, App State staff member and Boone native Mike Waters continued the university's longstanding practice of placing a commemorative wreath at the campus Veterans Memorial, which honors members of the App State community who died while in military service.

Jamie Parson has been named chief diversity officer at Appalachian State University, effective immediately. Parson is the second cabinet-level chief diversity officer to hold the position at App State.

App State’s Dr. Vicky Klima has been recognized with the Southeastern Section 2022 Distinguished Teaching Award, conferred by the Mathematical Association of America. Klima is the first App State faculty member to receive this award.

App State has been selected as an Institute Partner for the 2022 Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders. As part of the Fellowship, App State will host 25 emerging Civic Engagement leaders from Africa for a six-week, on-campus Leadership Institute this summer.

App State music therapy student Renee Yong was one of five students worldwide to win a scholarship in the fall 2021 Make Your Mark International Scholarship Contest, for her song “Cold Mountain Shadow.” Post-graduation, she aims to research music therapy treatments for depression.

App State’s Scholars with Diverse Abilities Program (SDAP) — an inclusive college experience designed for students with intellectual disabilities — celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. It will expand to a four-year program option in fall 2023.

Inspired by his daughter’s positive experience at a speech therapy camp, alumnus Dr. Ed Rankin ’79, along with his wife, Thuy Le, donated funding to App State to support a similar program at the university — it will be the first summer camp of its kind in North Carolina.

“Roots and Routes: Stories of Migration in the High Country” — an App State project supported by the N.C. Humanities Council — is providing Hmong refugee and Latinx migrant families an opportunity to share their stories, histories and contributions to Western North Carolina.