Education briefs

Published 12:00 am Thursday, October 2, 2014

The Department of History and Political Science at Livingstone College is hosting a public forum for discussion and debate among the candidates for the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education Thursday from 6 p.m. until 7:30 p.m.
The purpose of the event is to educate Livingstone students on the role of the school board in the community and to encourage them to participate in the electoral process. A 10-minute documentary on the history of voting in North Carolina will be presented at 5:45 p.m.
Members of the West End Community associations have also been invited to participate in this event.
The event will be held in the Hilliard Room of the Hood Building on the main campus. The public is invited, and light refreshments will be served.
Horizons Unlimited will hold a community outreach day Oct. 11.
From 3 p.m. until 4:30 p.m., the facility will hold a free showing of “Hotel Transylvania” in the planetarium.
From 5 p.m. until 6 p.m. and again from 6:30 p.m. until 7:30 p.m., Horizons will hold a Halloween-themed laser show set to popular music by artists such as Pink Floyd, Michael Jackson, Charlie Daniels Band, Oingo Boingo, Alice Cooper and others. They will also hold a presentation of “Live Salisbury Skies,” where they will explore the constellations of the season.
The front entrance for Horizons Unlimited is located at 1636 Parkview Circle, but programs will begin at the back entrance to the building and the front door will be locked. Attendees should park and enter at the rear of the building, which is accessible from Lilly Ave.
All events are open to the public.
The Catawba College Chamber Choir was one of seven choirs from across North Carolina selected to perform at the annual state conference of the American Choral Directors Association. The two-day conference was held September 19 and 20 on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and drew attendees from colleges, universities, schools, churches and civic organizations.
Catawba College was the only private college in the state that was selected to perform at the conference. Other choirs performing were from East Carolina University, Western Carolina University, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, a high school, a church and a state treble choir.
Members of America Choral Directors Association are dedicated to the highest standards of the choral arts and seek to promote the best in choral music.
Catawba’s chamber choir is directed by Dr. Phillip E. Burgess, director of choral activities, and accompanied by Susan Trivette, pianist.
On Oct. 23, Burgess will direct the High School Honors Chorus division of Moore County’s All-County Chorus. Burgess was selected following the Catawba Singers’ tour to Moore County last spring, one of several to visit various high schools in the state.
Catawba College’s Ketner Center for International Studies announced a new exchange partnership with the University of Applied Sciences in Osnabrück, Germany. The program is intended primarily for students in the Ketner School of Business, but non-business majors may also participate. The exchange permits students to pay Catawba tuition as usual, and then study tuition-free in Osnabrück. The program offers several options.
Students may attend an intensive three-week seminar in Osnabrück during the summer. The seminar is conducted in English.
Students may also attend Osnabrück for a semester or an entire year. For longer-term study, some prior training in the German language is recommended, although not required because many courses at the university are offered in English.
Instruction in German language is available while attending Osnabrück, and the Center for International Studies highly recommends that students take advantage of that instruction. Learning to speak at least some German greatly enhances a student’s ability to learn, experience and enjoy the local culture.
For more information and application instructions, contact Dr. Eric Hake, chairman of the Ketner School of Business. His mailing address is 2300 W. Innes St. in Salisbury. He can be reached via email at erhake@catawba.edu, or telephone at 704-637-4293.
The Rowan-Salisbury School System will begin deploying iPads to the district’s middle school students in November as a part of the school system’s one-to-one digital conversion.
The dates for deployment are as follows: Nov. 5, North Rowan Middle School; Nov. 7, Knox Middle School; Nov. 13, China Grove Middle School; Nov. 14, Corriher-Lipe Middle School; Nov. 17, Erwin Middle School; Nov. 19, Southeast Middle School; Nov. 21, West Rowan Middle School.
Food for Thought will hold an Oktoberfest Block Party Oct. 17 at 7 p.m. at the Lee Street Theatre and adjoining Rail Walk.
Funds raised at the event will be used to support weekend meals for hungry school children in Rowan County.
Local craft beers and German-inspired foods from Butch’s Brisket, New Sarum Brewing Co. and Foothills Brewing Co. will be featured. Wine will also be served, and live entertainment will be provided by Life Size. Tickets are $35 each and include food, drinks and entertainment.
Tickets can be purchased via the Food for Thought website www.ncfoodforthought.org or by sending a check to the Food for Thought office: 131 W. Council St., Salisbury, NC 28144. RSVP by Oct. 13.
The Salisbury Symphony continues to enroll students for its Suzuki violin class. The class, held at Landis Elementary School, offers 28 classes for $50 plus a small fee for violin rental.
The 30-minute classes are taught by Marguerite Keller, professional violinist and trained Suzuki instructor. The deadline for enrolling is Oct. 7.
For more information, contact Susan Trivette at strivett@catawba.edu or 704-637-4730.
In a world where consumers have unlimited choices, companies invest carefully to ensure their products are placed in the right stores at the right time and in the right locations. Sales and marketing organizations help many of America’s most trusted brands found in major retailers across the country do just that.
Rowan-Cabarrus Community College will offer a highly specialized space management course taught by Jim Hanson, senior vice president of space management solutions with Acosta Sales and Marketing.
The class will focus on how to analyze and place products to ensure successful sales.
Students will learn to use hi-tech, specialized software to create a planogram, which allows them to produce, modify and conduct analysis on an electronic rendering of each category in a store. Students will study the impact of product placement, traffic flow, adjacencies and out-of-stocks on sales and profitability. They will also learn how retailers use facts to decide on product placement.
This course will place students in a position to qualify for roles in space management or retail merchandising for either retailers, manufacturers or a sales and marketing agency.
“If a student is comfortable on a computer and completes this course, they will be an attractive candidate for a role as a space technologist,” said Hanson.
Rowan-Cabarrus is the only community college in the nation to offer a program of this kind. The eight-week hybrid course will be held on Mondays from 6-9 p.m. Roughly 65 percent of the class taught in a traditional classroom format and 35 percent completed via online coursework. The class will also include at least one field trip and guest speakers from the industry.
The space management class begins Oct. 20 and runs through Dec. 8, 2014. Classes will be held at the college’s North Campus in Salisbury in Building 400, Room 4126.
Kendra Joyner-Miller will be presented for ordination Friday at First United Church of Christ in Salisbury. Joyner-Miller is a 2011 graduate of Catawba College and has now finished her studies at Yale Divinity School. She is currently the associate minister for youth and families at First United Church of Christ in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.
Ordination in the United Church of Christ is the process by which an individual’s gifts for ministry are formally acknowledged and they are set apart for the ministry to which they are called through the laying on of hands. The service of ordination will be at 6 p.m. Friday at First United Church of Christ at 207 W. Horah St. A reception will follow.
The Salisbury Elks Lodge No. 699 will host the eighth annual Don Stout Memorial Scholarship Golf Tournament Oct. 4 at Crescent Golf Course in Salisbury.
The tournament is held in memory of Don Stout and is a fundraiser to provide scholarships to deserving high school seniors in Rowan County and surrounding areas. The Salisbury Elks have given a total of $16,000 in scholarships over the past seven years.
The tournament costs $60 per person, but high school and college student golfers may participate for $40. The cost includes 18 holes of golf, a cart, two mulligans, refreshments on the course, a goody bag, golf towel and a meal following play. A number of door prizes will be awarded, including a one-year membership to Crescent Golf Course and a six-month membership to the YMCA.
The tournament will be four-person captain’s choice with a shotgun start at noon.
For additional information, contact Harry Agner at 704-633-3503, Ray Paradowski at 704-638-0513 or Bob Sce at 704-798-8813.
To sign up for the tournament, call 704-636-1161 or stop by the lodge at 508 S. Main St. in Salisbury after 3 p.m. Parking is available in the rear of the building. Call ahead to be let in.