East Rowan students brighten Nazareth Child and Family Connection campus

Students from the East Rowan school district visited Nazareth Child and Family Connection’s Rockwell campus on April 1 to help brighten the grounds for spring.

The effort was part of the school district’s first East Area Service Day, with a focus on community volunteerism that put classroom lessons into practice in the real world.

The students spent their time at Nazareth planting flowers, freshening flower beds and painting ceiling tiles in a game room.

University of Alabama students participate in Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Conference

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Nearly 500 students at the University of Alabama highlighted their research and creative projects during the Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Conference on March 27.

Among the participants and presentations were:

• Robert Bergstone of Salisbury, who presented “Rapid Layer-Specific Annealing Enabled by Ultraviolet LED With Estimation of Crystallization Energy for High Performance Perovskite Solar Cells” in the engineering, transportation and energy category.

• Erin Blaney of Concord, who presented “Make-a-Wish Alabama Volunteer Services Internship” in the health sciences category.

The 12th annual conference was hosted by the university’s Office for Undergraduate Research and the Office for Research and Economic Development.

Poster presentations are grouped by research areas — instead of by academic colleges or departments — to align with national trends of using interdisciplinary approaches to problem-solving.

The conference spurs interest in research among undergraduate students and helps students polish their communication skills, said Kim Bissell, director of the Office for Undergraduate Research.

“We have got some pretty phenomenal students who are truly doing great things,” she said.