College of Fine and Applied Arts

Dennis Scanlin has received the Small Wind Advocate of the Year Award for the Southeast region from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Wind Powering America program. He was honored for his leadership in small-scale wind energy activities in Western North Carolina.

Scanlin is a professor and coordinator of the appropriate technology program in Appalachian State University’s Department of Technology.

The national award was presented June 5 at the annual Wind Powering America State Summit which followed the American Wind Energy Association’s (AWEA) annual WINDPOWER Conference and Exhibition held in Houston.

Scanlin has coordinated Appalachian’s appropriate technology program for 24 years. He also directs the small wind activities as part of Appalachian’s Energy Center, including the ongoing North Carolina Small Wind Initiative, a collaborative project supported by Appalachian and the N.C. State Energy Office, Tennessee Valley Authority and U.S. Department of Energy to raise awareness about the benefits and feasibility of wind power in the southern Appalachian region.

Scanlin received Wind Powering America’s Regional Wind Advocacy Award for the Southeast Region in 2005.

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080617/NEWS/80617061

Michael Hugh Owings

Joel Valente

Katherine Watts

Three Appalachian State University students will receive full tuition, room, board, books and fees for the 2008-09 academic year.

Michael Hugh Owings of Murphy, Joel Valente of Faber, Virginia, and Katherine Watts of Garner join Chris Brooten of Gladstone, New Jersey as recipients of Celia Moh Scholarships. The Celia Moh Scholarship was established in October 2001 by furniture industry entrepreneur Laurence Moh to honor his wife, Celia. The scholarship program, funded by Mr. Moh’s initial gift of $3 million, was established to provide full tuition scholarships for students whose academic endeavors would lead to careers in the home furnishings industry.

Owings, a senior, and Valente, a junior, are studying industrial design; Watts, a junior, is majoring in interior design.

The application process requires candidates to complete an extensive questionnaire, write a personal essay, obtain instructors’ recommendations, and provide a college transcript illustrating exceptional academic achievement. A scholarship committee comprised of notable home furnishings industry executives selected the students from a highly competitive field of candidates. Forty-eight full scholarships have been awarded in the program’s seven-year existence.

For more information about the Celia Moh Scholarship program, please visit www.mohscholarship.org. For more information about Appalachian’s programs in industrial design and interior design, visit www.tec.appstate.edu.

http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/06/05/waste-not-lamp-made-from-recycled-plastic-utensils/

Manya Brachear, a 1996 graduate of Appalachian’s Department of Communication, won the 2008 American Academy of Religion Awards for Best In-Depth Reporting on Religion.

Brachear, religion reporter for the Chicago Tribune, won the contest for journalists at news outlets with more than 100,000 circulation or on the Web.

The annual awards, given out since 2000, recognize “well-researched newswriting that enhances the public understanding of religion,” said John R. Fitzmier, Executive Director of the AAR. Founded in 1909, the AAR is the world’s largest association of academics who research or teach topics related to religion, with more than 10,000 members in some 1,500 colleges, universities, seminaries and schools in North America and abroad.

Brachear submitted articles on the Jewish New Year and interpretations of the story of Abraham; the potential political challenges for Barack Obama as a member of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ; debate over a revised edition of the Reform Jewish prayer book; a Catholic man’s pilgrimage to 365 churches in 365 days; and megachurch Willow Creek Community Church and its business model for surveying member satisfaction. “Newsy, ambitious, diverse. And it almost called the biggest issue (so far) of the Democratic presidential primaries with an early profile of Trinity UCC,” said a judge. “A well-written and well-researched entry,” added another judge.

Each contestant submitted articles published in North America during 2007. Names of contestants and their news outlets were removed from submissions prior to judging. Each of the first-place winners receives $1,000.