Reese Institute for Conservation of Natural Resources

Photo Credit: LRU

The application deadline has been extended until November 8! 

In an effort to emulate multidisciplinary development/research teams found in industry and business, the Donald and Helen Schort School of Mathematics /Computing Sciences and the Reese Institute for Conservation of Natural Resources have teamed up to offer a course during the Spring Semester of 2011. Weekly class meetings culminate in a trip to the British Virgin Islands (BVI) over Spring Break with data analysis and interpretation to follow.

There are currently three research projects: 1) beach erosion quantification 2) water quality assessment and 3) a Queen Conch (Strombus gigas) population survey in Turtle Grass (Thalassia testudinum) beds. Each of these projects will assist the BVI government (Conservation and Fisheries Department) with critical conservation issues facing the islands.

Students are expected to write a manuscript with publication in a peer reviewed journal in mind, and present their findings at SOURCE in April. Students must be Juniors or Seniors, hold a GPA above a 3.0, have completed one science (lab) course and a statistics course (with a B or higher in each), be interested in multidisciplinary research, and be able to live without air conditioning (on a boat) in the tropics for 10 days. Please provide the name of a faculty member that is willing to speak on your behalf.

Students are expected to pay $300.00 for the trip. Those who are unable to pay this amount and can document financial need can work through LR financial aid to pay for an offset of the fee. LR financial aid will evaluate your financial and arrangements will be made to provide some support. A $100 deposit will be required by Dec. 8th, with the balance due on the first day of classes in January. Refunds will only be given due to illness (that results in a student’s inability to go on the trip).

NOTE: Although most people consider a trip to the Caribbean to be a vacation, realize that we will be living on a boat in close quarters with fellow students and professors without air conditioning . Although we can take daily swims, fresh water showers are very limited. We encourage students willing to live “in the field” for 10 days to apply. If you have never gone camping and expect creature comforts, this may not be the course for you. Temperatures during March normally range from 78-85F for the high of the day, and 73-77F for the low.

To complete an application click HERE! 

Students Attend National College Media Convention

Six students had the opportunity to attend the National College Media Convention in Louisville, Kentucky October 27-31, and will be sharing their experiences in a newspaper article in the Lenoir-Rhynean to appear next month. 


The students were able to travel to the convention thanks to funding provided from SGA as well as through fundraising of their own. The convention focused on journalism as well as career planning tips. Attendees were able to speak with representatives from CNN, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Associated Press.  


Check out some pictures from their trip! 

Our view of the Ohio River 

Jamie Frye hard at work!

Fourth Street Live! in downtown Louisville, Kentucky

Alyssa Carlson and Amanda Parmelee pose with Captain Jack Sparrow at Fourth Street Live!

Kate Coleman taking a break from dinner conversation

Nation’s Poet Laureate to Speak in Hickory at Visiting Writers Series

Pulitzer prize-winning poet, William Stanley Merwin, will be the guest author at the Lenoir-Rhyne University Visiting Writers Series on Tuesday, Nov. 2 at 7:00 p.m. in the Belk Centrum on campus.

At 82, Merwin has written more than 30 books of poetry, translation and prose over the course of six decades. He attended Princeton University on a scholarship, where he was a classmate of Galway Kinnell, and studied poetry with the critic R. P. Blackmur, and his teaching assistant, John Berryman. After graduating in 1948, he spent an additional year at Princeton studying Romance language.

Merwin's first collection, Mask for Janus (1952), was selected by W. H. Auden for the Yale Series of Younger Poets. Green with Beasts (1956) and The Drunk in the Furnace (1960), both demonstrate the beginning of a significant shift in style and perspective, which intensified in his later work. In 1967, Merwin published the critically acclaimed volume, The Lice, followed by The Carrier of Ladders in 1970, both of which remain his most influential collections. Both books use classical legends as a means to explore personal and political themes, including his opposition to the Vietnam War.

In 1971, Merwin received the Pulitzer Prize for The Carrier of Ladders. The rigorous practice of Buddhism and passionate dedication to environmentalism that Merwin devoted himself to in Hawaii has profoundly influenced his later work, including his evocative renderings of the natural world in The Compass Flower (1977), Opening the Hand (1983), and The Rain in the Trees (1988), as well as The Folding Cliffs, a novel-in-verse drawing on the history and legends of Hawaii.

Over the course of his long career, Merwin has published over twenty books of poetry. His recent collections include Present Company (Copper Canyon, 2007); Migration: New & Selected Poems (2005) which won the 2005 National Book Award; The Pupil (2002); The River Sound (1999), which was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; Flower and Hand: Poems 1977-1983 (1997); The Vixen (1996); Travels (1993), which received the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize; and The Shadow of Sirius, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2009.

Earlier this year, Merwin was selected by the Librarian of Congress to serve as the national poet laureate. The Librarian consults with the current laureate, former appointees, distinguished poetry critics and staff in the Library’s Poetry and Literature Center in making the appointment. Merwin will be in Washington D.C. Oct. 25 to open the library’s annual literary series with a reading.

He currently lives on a former pineapple plantation built atop a dormant volcano in Maui, Hawaii.

Congratulations to the L-R Nursing Program!

Recently the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE), our Nursing program’s accrediting body, completed its review and has re-accredited our program for ten years, the maximum number of years a program may receive.

In addition, our Nursing graduates who took their boards first time in 2010 achieved a 100% pass rate on their first endeavors. There were 31 eligible students who all tested and all passed! Of the 70 nursing programs in the state of North Carolina, only eights schools reported a 100% passing rate; the average score was 88%.

October Also Recognized As National Domestic Violence Awareness Month

Submitted by: Dr. Sarah Gareau

Between the pink Facebook profile pictures, Race for the Cure, and pink ribbons on merchandise, many of you may have noticed that October is breast cancer awareness month.What you may not have known is that it is also National Domestic Violence Awareness month. The chance of a woman having invasive breast cancer some time during her lifetime is a little less than 1 in 8. The chance of a woman being physically or sexually assaulted by a partner at some point in her lifetime is 1 in 4. In fact, according to Clotheslineproject.org, almost as many women died during the Vietnam War from domestic violence as soldiers died. While there have been critical achievements in reducing domestic violence through such measures as the Violence Against Women Act, domestic violence continues to be a ‘devastating public health crisis.

According to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, domestic violence can be defined as a pattern of behavior in any relationship that is used to gain or maintain power and control over an intimate partner, including behaviors that frighten, intimidate, terrorize, manipulate, hurt, humiliate, blame, injure or wound someone.Although you might think of domestic violence as an issue that only impacts poor women or women of color, it can happen to anyone regardless of race, socioeconomic background, educational level, age, sexual orientation, religion, or gender. Yes, even men can be the victims of abuse.

If you are interested in reducing domestic violence, there are several things you can do:

• Get educated on the facts.
• Help a friend or family member who is being abused
• Volunteer for your local domestic violence shelter or rape crisis center.
• Share your story if you are a survivor to reduce stigma and encourage those experiencing domestic violence to seek help
• Take action and become an advocate.
• Educate others by becoming a community health educator.

If you are in a domestic violence relationship, there is help. Contact the National Domestic Violence hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or contact Jenny Smith, MSW, LCSW, EdS at 828-328-7252 to make an on campus appointment for one-on-one counseling.

Dr. Sarah Gareau is the Director of the new L-R Master of Public Health program. Dr. Gareau has planned public health programming at the state and national levels related to women’s health and rights and will soon be serving on the Rape Crisis Center of Catawba County’s Board of Directors.

Martin Arrives on Campus!

The statue of Martin Luther arrived this morning on campus. The statue will be erected this week and will be dedicated officially during this weekend's Homecoming Celebration!

Luther Statue to Arrive on Monday!

Lenoir-Rhyne University will soon be home to one of the world’s largest statues of Martin Luther, whose teaching launched the Protestant Reformation and created the Lutheran Church. This 12-foot granite statue is expected to be delivered to campus and erected on Monday morning, Oct. 4 with a dedication to follow on Saturday, Oct. 9 during Homecoming festivities.


The statue is a gift from Charlotte philanthropist Irwin Belk, who previously donated nine bronze statues of athletes playing different sports to Lenoir-Rhyne. His generosity also helped fund the LRU Irwin Belk Track.

Nursing Student Receives Scholarship

Sarah Estridge, a senior Lenoir-Rhyne University Nursing student, has been selected to receive a scholarship from the Great 100, Inc., RN Nursing Excellence Organization of North Carolina for the year 2010-2011.

Ms. Estridge was chosen by the School of Nursing faculty to receive the scholarship from The Great 100. Ms. Estridge was honored at a black-tie Gala at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex in Greensboro, NC on September 18, 2010.

Concert Series Presents Heinavanker October 3rd

The concert series plays host to Heinavanker as its opening event for the 2010-2011 season, a celebration of ten years of concert excellence.  Heinavanker (the Haywagon) is a seven member a cappella vocal ensemble from Estonia, in the midst of a United States tour.  We have hosted them before and they were one of our audience’s favorites, so we are happy to have them return for this 10th anniversary year.

Their program will include Estonian folk music, and sacred music:  Middle Ages and Renaissance polyphony, and modern compositions inspired by the same.

The event is Sunday, October 3 at 3:00 p.m. in the P.E. Monroe Auditorium.  Free admission to all. For more information, visit the ensemble’s website at http://www.heinavanker.ee/ or the L-R Music Program's website has information about the group, along with a polished looking poster, available for printing and sharing, at http://mus.lr.edu/Heinavanker

L-R Alums To Be Presented As Church Musicians-in-Residence

Robert and Ada Smith

University’s Sacred Music Program will present L-R alums, Ada ‘75 and Robert ‘79 Smith, as Church Musicians-in-Residence from October 4 – 6. Public events include a choral reading session, “Choral Gems.... remember these?” on Monday, Oct. 4, at 7:15pm, in the Mauney Music Recital Hall. The public is also invited to a chapel service, also in Mauney Recital Hall, on Wednesday, Oct. 6, at 9:20 am, where the Smiths will lead a service based on The Lord’s Prayer.

While in residence, they will teach a class on children in worship (Tuesday, 8:00 am and the public is invited – Mauney Music Bldg.), give instruction to the organ majors, and work with the Chapel Choir in preparation for the service on Wednesday. There is no cost for any of these events.