For April Murray, making and decorating elaborate cakes for friends' celebrations was nothing more than a hobby.
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More than 1,400 students from 40 states and 32 countries filed Under the Oaks this evening for New Student Convocation, an annual ceremony welcoming the incoming freshmen and transfer students to the beginning of their time at Elon. Students and their families were met with words of greeting from Elon University administration including Jan Fuller, Chaplain and Director of Religious Life, Sam Warren, Executive President of SGA, Smith Jackson, vice president and dean of student life and President Leo Lambert. The ceremony, moved from its original time tomorrow morning due to the threat of Hurricane Irene, began with an invocation from Fuller, who drew from the recent East Coast Earthquake and hurricane in her address. "Let all thunder be an expression of your energy and a true reflection of joy," she said.
Going to college is one of those experiences that has been immortalized in TV shows, movies and songs.
The door opens to an empty, colorless dorm room. This new abode is bleak. Painting, nailing and gluing decorations on the walls are prohibited, so how can a sterile cube become a student's personal space for the upcoming year?
New Student Orientation plays a critical role each year in welcoming a class of nearly 1,400 first year students to campus.
When the last lecture had been given, the last final exam taken and the last diploma handed out last spring, many Elon students went their separate ways for the summer.
University begins process of switching to Moodle Elon University will have fully converted to the use of Moodle as the learning management system by the conclusion of the 2011-2012 academic year. Currently, about half of the returning faculty members have converted their classes to Moodle while the remainder will switch throughout the year. Courses for all new faculty members will be available through Moodle, meaning some students will have classes split between the two programs. Randy Piland, inaugural faculty fellow for technology, said he believes students will have little trouble navigating between Moodle and Blackboard for the year. Nine training sessions were held on campus over the summer hosted by the Teaching and Learning Center to prepare teachers, which Piland predicts will provide them with a strong advantage over other professors. Wife of President Emeritus died earlier this summer Verona Daniels-Danieley, wife of President Emeritus Earl Danieley, died June 24 at Moses Cone Hospital following a brief illness. Along with her husband, Danieley established the Daniels-Danieley Award for Excellence in Teaching, the highest honor for professors at Elon.
Welcome home. You're going to hear this at least once during the first few days on Elon University's campus.
The week before move-in weekend found Elon students wrapping up summer jobs, scrambling to collect last-minute dorm necessities and savoring the last free moments before coming back to the campus. At the same time, professors were on campus preparing for the upcoming school year.
At the heart of Elon University's liberal arts education is the general studies program, which dictates the courses and experiences students must participate in prior to graduation. For incoming students, four core courses are required as part of the program – College Writing, The Global Experience, Contemporary Wellness Issues and General Statistics – each of which sets the tone for the rest of a student's education at Elon, according to Jeffery Coker, director of the program. While math and writing skills are fundamental to any education, Coker said the selection of the other core classes is significant for college students. "The health course really is a recognition that our minds are attached to bodies and if you're not taking care of your body, your mind can't thrive either," he said.
Each year, Elon University's Common Reading Program selects a book for incoming freshmen and other interested students, faculty and staff that will challenge them to reflect on themselves and the local and global communities in which they live. This year's choice is Muhammad Yunus's "Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism." Selection of the Book Janet Warman, director of general studies and chair of the common reading committee, said the book was selected for its value in educating Elon's students about poverty as a critical global issue. Warman said she hopes the book will expose students to an area of the world and a topic that may be unfamiliar to them but which they can use to think about how they might make a difference. "As a winner, along with the Grameen Bank, of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, Dr. Yunus is one of the individuals who has been deemed most responsible for improving life on this planet," she said.
Students receiving their first Elon alcohol violation will no longer wake up the next morning wondering when their parents will be notified. Serving 10 restitution hours has also been dropped for first time alcohol violators and the fine lessoned from $150 to $50.
Bobby Rawlings wasn't up to much for most of the summer, but that all changed Aug.
Warmth and beauty were two of Lauren Astley's top criteria in choosing a college. "If I am in a beautiful place, I will learn," she once told her father, Malcolm Astley. In the weeks since her death on July 4, warmth and beauty are just two of the many adjectives used by friends and family to describe Lauren.
The incoming freshman class and their parents get a chance to see one of the traditions that makes Elon University unique—when upperclassmen involved with the New Student Orientation program help carry students' belongings into their dorms. The New Student Orientation team consists of 16 members of Head Staff and 101 Orientation Leaders. These upperclassmen start arriving to campus as early as August 12 to prepare for freshman orientation week. "The training week is so important for Orientation Leaders because it provides them with the tools they need to facilitate their sessions with new students," said Lauren King, head team captain of New Student Orientation. All of these students are led by Katie Hight, director of new student programs, who began the position this fall. "Orientation week is really important for the incoming students because it allows them to learn about Elon, get connected with the university and their peers and really become part of the community," Hight said. As director, Hight is responsible for helping to hire, recruit and train student leaders, manage the program's budget, coordinate evaluations, organize entertainment groups and schedules and be a point person for the students involved with the New Student Orientation program. Even though Hight is new to her position, she is not new to Elon's orientation program: she graduated from Elon University in 2007 after serving as an OL and a member of Head Staff. "I have gotten to experience Elon's orientation program in many ways now," Hight said.
The Class of 2015 at Elon University is both the largest and the most diverse in the school's history, with a total of 1,428 students in the freshmen class and 90 transfer students according to Greg Zaiser, dean of admissions. Forty states are represented in the class, with North Carolina having the most students.
Residents and students of legal drinking age in the Town of Elon may soon get to order liquor at bars and restaurants closer to home. On Nov.
