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WCU Stories

WCU students attending a firstgen event on campus

OSR, OAR each earn $1.4 million TRIO Student Support Services grants

Ìð¹ÏÊÓƵapp is home to students from many different backgrounds, boasting a high percentage of first-generation students and a number of learners with disabilities. Thanks to a pair of federal TRIO Student Support Services grants, WCU is now better set up to support them.  

Sara Snyder Hopkins

WCU's ECHT project receives $450K grant from NEH

Unearthing history is nothing new to Cherokee Language Program director and associate professor Sara Snyder Hopkins. Thanks to a federal grant, she and a group of colleagues will continue to do so.  

WCU students demonstrate machine during Capstone presentations

WCU launches mechanical engineering degree, industrial engineering concentration

Ìð¹ÏÊÓƵapp’s College of Engineering and Technology is expanding its engineering programs again this fall with the launch of a new bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a new industrial engineering concentration.   

Heidi Von Dohlen (right) and Jess Weiler (left)

NC Principal Fellows program expands with supplemental funding

Heidi Von Dohlen was an educator and school principal for 27 years before becoming the director of the Principal Fellows program at Ìð¹ÏÊÓƵapp. During her time as an administrator, she worked to turn her school district into a place where students loved to learn, and teachers loved to teach.   

Patricia Bricker

Bricker gets new WNC Community of Practice off the ground

An ice storm shifted the first Western North Carolina Elementary STEM Community of Practice meeting to Zoom last minute, but Patricia Bricker’s project didn’t freeze up.  

The Hodges

Alumnus divides gift to create scholarship honoring educator wife, support athletics upgrades

Ìð¹ÏÊÓƵapp alumnus and Asheville resident Stephen Hodge had a bit of difficulty deciding whether to direct a recent financial contribution for his alma mater to support academics or athletics. So, the banking executive who grew up in Rutherfordton reached the conclusion to do both.  

Kathy Jaqua with WCU students and faculty

Kathy Jaqua earns prestigious W.W. Rankin Award

Ìð¹ÏÊÓƵapp College of Arts and Sciences professor Kathy Jaqua noticed a look on her former student’s face.   

WCU students learning how to dance

Donors to Fund for WCU support ASP student trip to Central Europe

Ìð¹ÏÊÓƵapp’s Academic Success Program took 21 students to Central Europe in March 2024 for an 11-day international learning experience for conditionally admitted students who successfully completed ASP requirements.  

WCU students at a MAPS event on campus

WCU recognized for commitment to advancing first-generation student success

Ìð¹ÏÊÓƵapp was recently selected as one of twenty new higher education institutions to advance to the network leader phase of the FirstGen Forward Network.