Three professionals with strong ties to Afghanistan will provide insights and perspectives on Catawba College's 2006 common reading selection, "The Kite Runner," when they visit campus on Tuesday, September 5th. Nilufar Shuja, an Afghan-American business woman from Manteca, Calif., Tahir Porjosh, a teacher in Alexandria, Va., and Seddiq Behrooz, a Salisbury asset engineer born in Herat, will serve as commentators during BookRevue scheduled at 7:30 p.m. September 5 in Crystal Lounge.

Catawba College Writer-In-Residence Dr. Janice Fuller has had several of her poems accepted for inclusion in different publications. Fuller's "Séance: On the Road from Stradone" will be published in an upcoming issue of the London literary magazine "Magma." The issue is being showcased at the Aldeburgh International Poetry Festival in November and then will be launched in London in early December.

Although Catawba College students cleared out in May, the campus was anything but empty this summer. Children of all ages flocked to the school for a slew of different camps. "It's a very busy summer," sighs Conferences and Events Coordinator Paula Davis. "Camps basically start late May and run all summer until late July. We try to accommodate as many as we can." According to Davis, a lot of the camps were athletic in nature.

For the first time in the school's history, a men's swim team will make a splash in Catawba College's pool. The sport has been cut from numerous colleges, but Catawba Athletics Director Dennis Davidson believes that it's due time for the addition.

Catawba College offers students an outstanding undergraduate education, according to The Princeton Review. The New York-based education services company features the college in the new 2007 edition of its annual book, "The Best 361 Colleges" (Random House / Princeton Review, August 22, 2006, $21.95).

Catawba College is one of the nation's 320 best comprehensive colleges according to the 2007 edition of "America's Best Colleges," published by U.S.News & World Report. These comprehensive colleges are ranked according to geographic region (North, South, East, West) with Catawba ranked 23rd in the South. Catawba inched up in the rankings from 25th in 2006 to 23rd this year.

The eldest daughter in a family ready to begin her senior year, a recently crowned beauty queen, and a set of Internet-savvy twin brothers were among the Catawba College students who moved into residence halls on Saturday, August 19. The date marked the institution's official move-in day before the start of fall semester classes on Thursday, August 24.

Catawba College faculty and students traveled all the way to Estonia and the Baltic Sea this summer to collaborate on a theater project. Professors Dr. Janice Moore Fuller (English) and Dr. Elizabeth Homan (Theatre Arts) and ten Theatre Arts students spent a two-week collaborative residency in June at the Polli Talu Arts Center developing Fuller's original dramatic text, Machine Play, or I'm Not Nadine. Joining the company there were Polly Boersig, a professional costume designer and LSU faculty

If the old saying about dogs is true, Dr. Jason Hunt has 11 best friends. But Zip, Fly, Sweep, Spot, Nova, Craig, and the others are more than just pets. In fact, Dr. Hunt warns that border collies in general do not make good pets. So why get one ... much less 11? Dr. Hunt, an assistant professor of mathematics at Catawba College, spends time training them for sheep herding competitions when he is not training college students in mathematics skills.

A pinch of humor, a measure of firm honesty and a healthy dollop of integrity—those are the essential ingredients that yielded a lifetime of success for Mary Emma Knox at Catawba College. Knox, a 1940 graduate, returned to her alma mater in 1942 after two years as a teacher in the public schools of Whitakers, N.C. She then dedicated her impressive career of 42 years to the betterment of the College and its many constituents.

The last time Catawba College played football under the lights in Shuford Stadium was 1974, but the institution will break its 32-year hiatus on Saturday, August 26. At 7 p.m. that day, Catawba will play its season opener against Winston-Salem State University under the lights.

This fall, Catawba will offer a new program, Leadership Catawba, tailored specifically to academically talented and highly motivated students. Students who are recipients of the prestigious First Family and Presidential Scholarships are automatically eligible to participate, while others may apply to participate.

When Catawba College's first-year students arrive on campus next week, they'll have read Khaled Hosseini's "Kite Runner" and be prepared to discuss this text in their first-year seminar classes. Hosseini's best-selling first novel about coming of age in Afghanistan is Catawba's common reading selection this year for all new students.