Catawba College's two commencement exercises are slated for Saturday, May 14 in Keppel Auditorium of the Robertson College-Community Center. On that day, the college will award baccalaureate degrees to 196 students graduating at 10 a.m. from the traditional day program and to 104 students graduating at 2 p.m. from the School of Evening and Graduate Studies. Seating is limited for both exercises and those planning to attend will need a ticket to enter the 1,450-seat venue.

Lisa Reid of Greensboro took Professor Al Carter and Mr. Ralph Ketner's 50-question finance exam and won a meal on the two with her 48 correct answers. Reid was one of 40 individuals, including her husband and even one test-taker from Florida, who tested their personal finance knowledge by taking the exam.

Dr. J. Michael Bitzer, professor of Political Science and political expert recently spoke to the Charlotte Observer regarding the GOP proposal that would cut a week from early voting and would also end Sunday voting and so-called "same-day registration."

by Lauren Ebersole '07 - Recently I have received a flood of requests for a new update, so here is the answer to both of those requests. Fun activities for you to try: For one week, oh heck for two days, try eating rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Then let me know how many more days you want to do that. When you take a shower count how many small lizards seem to be staring at you.

Celebrate May Day with an early evening of wonderful music by the choral ensembles of Catawba College. Because of the bad weather two weeks ago and the changes in schedule that resulted, the Spring Choral Concert was rescheduled for this Sunday, May 1 at 5:00 p.m. in Keppel Auditorium on campus.

Catawba College alumnus Pat McCrory '78, the former seven-term Mayor of Charlotte, N.C. and the 2008 N.C. Republican Gubernatorial candidate, visited campus on April 7. He spoke to students in Dr. Michael Bitzer's State and Local Politics class about politics and issues he has encountered running for public office.

Again this year, Catawba College students from various disciplines shared their diverse research projects during the 2011 Interdisciplinary Research Symposium held Thursday, April 21 in the Leonard Lounge of the Cannon Student Center. Faculty, staff and students on campus dropped by during the two-hour event to listen and learn from these students.

By Susan Shinn, Catawba College News Service - Fifth-graders at Bostian Elementary School got a taste of the Bard on Tuesday, April 19, as Donna Rymer's AIG class presented a Shakespeare festival. Special guest was Dr. Bethany Sinnott, Catawba College professor of English, who retires this spring after more than 40 years of service to the institution.

The Center for the Environment at Catawba College will honor three organizations in Rowan and Cabarrus counties this spring as Champions for Clean Air. The winners are Roush Fenway Racing, the City of Concord and the Centralina Council of Governments/Centralina Clean Fuels Coalition.

By Kathy Chaffin - Renowned wilderness conservationist Dave Foreman delivered a passionate message at the Center for the Environment facility on the Catawba College campus Tuesday evening for humans to help save wild habitants and habitats.

Salisbury resident Eric Slipp has made a gift to establish a new scholarship at Catawba College. Preference for the Eric P. Slipp Endowed Scholarship will be given to a member of the Catawba baseball team who is majoring in business, environmental science or physical education.

In early April, the Catawba College Student North Carolina Association of Educators (SNCAE) became one of seven colleges and universities to be designated a blue ribbon chapter and was awarded a $150 prize for membership activities by the North Carolina Association of Educators.

Catawba College senior Joe Manser of Mooresville and faculty sponsor Dr. Bethany Sinnott represented Catawba College's North Carolina Omicron chapter of Alpha Chi at the national convention in San Diego March 31-April 2.

The Catawba College Community Music Program will host several spring semester performance events for students enrolled in the program. These performances showcase the classes and private lessons taught through Community Music, including the new classes of the year, such as Class Piano for Senior Adults, Group Guitar, and Suzuki Violin classes.

By Susan Shinn, Catawba College News Service - The next time you apply that oh-so-convenient lip balm, think of Carly Sabat. Sabat, 21, a senior chemistry major at Catawba College, researched lip balm as part of her senior project. Her research has garnered accolades for herself and for the college.

Test your personal finance knowledge by taking this 50-question finance exam! Even if you weren't able to take the class, you can take the final exam for a chance to have a meal on Mr. Ralph Ketner and Professor Al Carter! During spring semester at Catawba College, Mr. Ralph Ketner and Professor Al Carter have been teaching a one-hour Personal Finance course, trying to develop some basic financial understanding among Catawba students.

By Staff Members of The Pioneer - The Pioneer staff, through talking with professors and students, have come up with a list of students to watch in the future. These students have excelled in their classes and their majors. We honor all of their hard work and congratulate them for being chosen as a Student to Watch for 2011.

Catawba College alumnus Grant Gibson '10 has been admitted to McMaster University's graduate program in Economics. Gibson, who majored in Sustainable Business and Community Development and was a member of the men's swimming team, intends to earn his Ph.D. in Economics at McMaster, which is a member of the "Group of Thirteen" in Canada. The G-13 is considered "top-tier" and is very research intensive.

Catawba College’s Office of Career Services will present "The Art of Networking: Creating Your Own Personal Brand for Career Success" on Tuesday, April 26 at 5:00 p.m. in Room 201 of Ketner Hall on campus. The guest speaker will be Lauren B. Scott, Employment Consultant and AVP with Branch Bank & Trust. Scott will be sharing tips on optimizing career possibilities, peer networks and professional perspective by learning the "Art of Networking."

by Devin Rodgers of Glen Burnie, Md., Class of 2011 - Comments ranging from the truly meaningful to the humorously trivial could be heard coming from the sleepy faces that gathered in front of Omwake-Dearborn Chapel early (very early!) on a recent Saturday morning. A team of 15 Catawba College students, faculty, staff, and alumni headed west for John's River Valley Camp.

Awards Convocation was held at 11 a.m. April 14 in Omwake-Dearborn Chapel and was an opportunity for the campus community to celebrate the gifts and talents of students, and the strengths and abilities of a few faculty and staff members. Video of the presentation of the awards may be viewed...

The second summer of the Catawba Conservation Camp (C3) came to a close in late March with a final follow-up science academy held at the Mary L Farm in Mt. Ulla, NC. Dr. Joe Poston, Associate Professor of Biology, shares video of the follow-up activities the campers participated in.

by Jessica Everett, '09 West Teaching Scholar - C-3 Campers began their journey with us in July 2010 with a weeklong, residential science camp experience on the Catawba campus. There could not have been a better way to conclude the 2010-2011 chapter of this second group of conservation campers than to take the young group of middle school girls to the Mary L. Farm in Mt. Ulla. This organic dairy farm gave the campers the ultimate field-trip experience.

Catawba College President Joseph Oxendine encouraged those who received awards during the annual Awards Convocation to "show off, brag modestly, throw your chest out, and feel good." But more important than the awards received, he said, was a characteristic shared by all of the recipients. "At some point, you decided you were going to excel and strive to be the very best," Oxendine told the award recipients. "You won these awards for the spirit of striving to be the very best."

Bryan Jordan '84, president and chief executive officer of First Horizon National Corporation in Memphis, Tenn., said he thought a lot about the remarks he would make as the seventh keynote speaker in the Ralph W. Ketner School of Business' Distinguished CEO Lecture Series at Catawba College on April 12. He toyed with idea of speaking about the economic recovery or change in the banking system, but, in the end, he said those topics "felt worn out to me."

Salisbury natives Gordon P. Hurley and Martha Kirkland West '59 were honored by Catawba College on Sunday, April 10 as recipients of the 2011 Adrian L. Shuford, Jr. Award for Distinguished Service. Hurley and West received the recognition in a 4 p.m. ceremony held in Hedrick Little Theatre on campus. The awards ceremony was part of the college's annual President's Circle event.

Five students from Catawba College traveled to Anaheim, Calif., March 26-30 for the American Chemical Society National Conference. Four of those attending presented research, while all participated in workshops, many of which were career-oriented, and technical lectures. One Catawba student, Carly Sabat of Warren, Ohio, who was unable to attend the conference, won an award there for her research.

Dr. Paul Baker, a Catawba College professor of mathematics, attended the Mathematical Association of America's Southeastern Regional Section meeting at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa on April 1-2.

Six Catawba College students, all majoring in sociology, are attending the Southern Sociological Society conference in Jacksonville, Fla., April 6-9. Those attending include Bianca Boone of Charlotte; Terri Christy of Salisbury; Susan Fisher of Lititz, Pa.; Megan Kittel of Mooresville; Mimi Medrano of Spencer; and Roslind Wiseman of Salisbury.

Catawba College's new Chi Omega chapter of the Lambda Pi Eta communication honor society held its first induction on campus on April 7. Those on hand for the induction of nine charter members included the new chapter advisor, Cyndi Wittum; chair of Communication Arts, Dr. Tim Moreland; and dean of the Ketner School of Business, Dr. Jamie Slate.

Catawba College's Theta Phi Chapter of Kappa Delta Pi (KDP) education honor society installed new officers for the 2011-2012 year and inducted 22 new members in a ceremony held on campus Tuesday, April 5.

By Daniel Bross, Senior Director Corporate Citizenship, Microsoft for BCCCC.net - As Steve Ballmer wrote in his introduction to our FY10 Corporate Citizenship Report, "Microsoft has a long tradition of taking on tough challenges on a global scale ... it started with our original vision of a computer on every desk and in every home." The world has changed since Bill Gates articulated that vision over 30 years ago and events over the past three months bring into clear focus the growing role techno

Four new members will be inducted into the Catawba College Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday, April 30, during the festivities of the Hall of Fame's 34th anniversary. The inductees are (with graduation year): Dwayne Brewington '82 of Montgomery Village, Md.; Lonnie Chandler '63 of New London; Tony DiPaolo '59 of Smoketown, Pa.; and Monte Jackson Turner '94 of Burlington.

Former and current students, representing almost each of the 40 class years that Dr. Sanford R. Silverburg has taught at Catawba College, turned out Saturday, April 2 for a dinner to honor the professor of political science on the advent of his retirement. Silverburg, who joined Catawba faculty in 1970, will retire from the institution at the end of this academic year.

By Kathy Chaffin - The United States is lagging behind in heeding signposts to survive the 21st Century, said British urban designer David Walters during a presentation Thursday evening at the Center for the Environment building on the Catawba College campus.

Thanks to Dr. Eric Hake, associate professor of economics, a leading academic journal, "The Journal of Economic Issues" (JEI), is now being hosted by the Association For Evolutionary Economics (AFEE) with a professional address of Catawba College. Hake serves as secretary of AFEE.

A 1944 Catawba College alumna, Edith Smith Kenerly Holshouser, has created a new scholarship fund at her alma mater that will benefit students from her native Rowan County. The Kenerly Smith Family Scholarship is a way for Mrs. Holshouser to pay tribute to the fact that she, her late first husband, Harold Kenerly '47, and four of her late siblings, William Lamont Smith '33, Maxine Smith Carlton '37, Quay Thurston Smith '41 and Martha Viola Smith Adams '41, all graduated from Catawba.

Two Catawba College students who are majoring in Athletic Training were recently recognized. Senior Sydney Cox of Statesville had an article published in the March 2011 issue of the "International Journal of Athletic Therapy and Training." The article was entitled, "Case Review: Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis in a College Golfer."

By Vikki Broughton Hodges, The Dispatch - "Scarletdale," a new comedy written and directed by Lexington's own Jason Roland, will premiere next week when the Hot Flash Players perform the two-act play at Tricia's Catering.