WVU’s largest freshman class in history started a Mountaineer journey Sunday at the 2008 University Welcome. It was truly a great day to be(come) a Mountaineer. Current students, faculty, and members of the entire WVU community gathered in the WVU Coliseum to share advice, inspiration, encouragement, and pride.

Studying abroad has its perks, like getting to see famous sites and showing Mountaineer pride all over the world! Molly Casto and Steven Brooks visited Stonehenge while studying British politics in London, where they participated in an American Institute for Foreign Study program that paired them with a member of Parliament.

Students around the world are benefiting from a two-week school chemistry professor Kenneth Showalter helped to organize in India. Hands-on Research in Complex Systems, supported by the United Nations and the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, drew young scientists from 21 nations to learn new techniques to take back to their home countries.

The National Science Foundation awarded professors Brent McCusker (geography) and Joseph Hodge (history) a $135,000 grant to examine poverty and climate change issues. Additional support from the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences made it possible for undergraduates to assist them with field research in Malawi over the summer.

A team of WVU engineering students experienced something most people never will: weightlessness. The Microgravity Research Team was chosen to conduct an experiment on NASA’s C-9 “Weightless Wonder” at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Of the hundreds of universities that submitted proposals, WVU was among the 57 chosen to fly.