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WCU Stories

Alumni award winners

WCU honors four prominent alumni at Homecoming 2024

Western Carolina University paused Saturday, Nov. 2, to honor four prominent alumni – a former automotive industry executive who has supported Catamount athletics for decades, an accounting professional with extensive family ties to WCU, an award-winning educator and an up-and-coming public relations practitioner.   

Daniel J. Watts

Tony and Emmy-nominated multidisciplinary artist to perform at WCU as part of Fall Speaker Series

A Tony-nominated actor and spoken word artist will be making his way to Western Carolina University.  

RGB Portrait, a painting by Zack Schneider

Family establishes memorial scholarship fund to assist nontraditional art students at WCU

Nontraditional students working to earn a degree in an art-related major at Western Carolina University soon will have financial assistance to help them pursue their passion, thanks to a memorial scholarship fund established by the family of a recent WCU graduate who earned his degree after the age of 30.  

Noyce Scholars at WCU

NSF grant totaling more than $1.4 million helps jumpstart WCU Smoky Mountain Noyce Scholars Program

The past three years have been busy for Sloan Despeaux, professor in Western Carolina University’s Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, and her colleagues.  

Alumni tower in Fall

WCU waives app fee for those impacted by recent hurricanes, will assist with travel costs for Nov. 23 open house attendees

It has been more than a month since Hurricane Helene tore through Western North Carolina and the surrounding Appalachian Mountains, but the effects of the historic storm will be felt for months and years to come. Western Carolina University is working to lessen some of the burden of impacted students and families visiting and applying to college by streamlining processes and helping to offset travel costs for those attending the Nov. 23 open house.   

Spark of the Eagle Dancer collection at WCU

WCU Fine Art Museum exhibition wins Bronze Award

Denise Drury Homewood, executive director of the Bardo Arts Center at Western Carolina University, believed "Spark of the Eagle Dancer: The Collecting Legacy of Lambert Wilson" exhibition was an award winner from the start.  

Hungarian Fulbright trip

WCU faculty, staff visit Hungary through Fulbright Commission

Earlier this summer, Ingrid Bego, director of International Studies at Western Carolina University, and Wes Milner, executive director of WCU Global, were invited by the Fulbright Commission to attend a week-long visit in Hungary to strengthen the partnership between universities in Appalachia and Hungarian higher education institutions.   

Photo of Munene Mwaniki

Munene Mwaniki named WCU interim Global Black Studies director

Mwaniki, an associate professor of anthropology and sociology for the College of Arts and Sciences, was named the interim Global Black Studies director at WCU.  

Lisa Briggs (right) works with a HRD K-9 and handler at a WCU training.

WCU human remains detection expert Lisa Briggs debunks false HRD K-9 information surrounding Hurricane Helene recovery efforts

Lisa Briggs, director of Western Carolina University’s Human Remains Detection K-9 training program and Emergency Disaster Management program, and Edwin Grant, an HRD K-9 program instructor and long-time law enforcement officer, have been deployed with their HRD K-9s since the start of the recovery process for missing persons in Western North Carolina following Hurricane Helene's devastation.   

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