NAU News

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At Northern Arizona University, Aug. 26 not only brings the start of classes for the Fall 2019 semester, but also the Second Annual Community Welcome—an event to foster a sense of community amongst students and long-term Flagstaff residents.

Volunteer teams made up of NAU students, faculty and staff, city employees and Flagstaff and NAU police go door-to-door visiting homes in neighborhoods close to campus, and distribute valuable educational materials on being a good neighbor and city ordinances, and spend time getting to know and hearing from the neighbors.

In order to knock on more than 450 doors, NAU is asking for your help. Considering volunteering from 4:30-8 p.m. on Aug. 26 to help connect NAU to Flagstaff.

More information can be found on the Community Welcome website.

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Aug. 23, 2019

Get your fruits and vegetables here!

Faculty and staff at Northern Arizona University can soon be “prescribed” a healthier diet and fill their prescription with bags of free groceries.

According to the 2018 wellness survey conducted as part of the Healthy U program, though NAU employees ranked strong in wellness, they believed they should be eating more fruits and vegetables. In an effort to help, NAU’s Employee Assistance and Wellness (EAW) is partnering with Campus Health Services, Student Health Promotion and Campus Dining to implement a produce prescription program called Fruits/Veggies Rx.

“Students have been taking advantage of this program for a couple of years,” said Heather Nash, director of EAW. “After seeing the survey results, we thought extending this program to faculty and staff would be a great way to elevate their concerns of not getting enough nutrition in their diets.”

The program works like this: If an employee feels they are not getting enough produce in their diets, they can visit a provider, physician, nurse or counselor to get a “prescription” of increasing their fruit and veggie intake. Then, the employee can take that prescription to the EAW office, room 2601 in the Health and Learning Center, to pick up a voucher for one free bag of fruits and vegetables per week, for six weeks, redeemable at the Open-Air Market on NAU’s pedway starting in September.

“Once they’ve picked up the voucher, they can swing by the EAW table at the market and we’ll talk about nutrition, provide some fun recipes and preparation ideas, then send them on their way with a bag of produce.”

Nash said a lot of the produce provided is locally sourced and introduces people to different varieties of fruits and vegetables that they may have otherwise not tried.

“We wanted to provide a jumping-off point for people to access fruits and vegetables, learn how easy it is to prepare them and just how tasty they can be. Our hope is that once they realize how easy it is, more produce can be incorporated into their diets to create a healthier lifestyle.”

Those who do not qualify for the prescription can use dining dollars, cash or credit card to purchase produce and other goods at the Open-Air Market, which runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Wednesday in September and October.

More information, including other EAW offerings, can be found online.

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Aug. 22, 2019

President Rita Cheng and other administrators will don aprons and serve lunch at a free picnic for students, faculty and staff as part of Welcome Week.

The picnic is planned for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 28, in the central quad area between Aspen Crossing and Wilson Hall. Stop by for a free hamburger, hot dog or veggie burger with all the trimmings.

When you’ve finished, look nearby for the Alumni Association’s ice cream giveaway.

Welcome Week is a great way for students to get acquainted with all that NAU has to offer. Open houses, concerts, games, movies, meetings and plenty more fill the calendar through Aug. 30.

A complete list of Welcome Week activities is available online.

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Aug. 15, 2019

Each spring, Northern Arizona University students have the opportunity to develop skills and experience the legislative process firsthand while working alongside professionals at the state capitol through the Arizona State Legislative Internship Program.

Interns practice research, writing and public speaking, while participating in the democratic process during the legislative session. The program is open to students of all majors, and previous knowledge of the legislative process is not required to apply.

Faculty and staff are encouraged to remind students about this opportunity as the application deadlines for Spring 2020 are quickly approaching.

Interns are selected for positions with the Arizona State Senate, the Arizona State House of Representatives, the Arizona State Governor’s Office and the Arizona State Supreme Court. Selected broadcast interns join the Arizona Capitol Television team.

Those selected for the legislative and broadcast internships work full-time in Phoenix during the legislative session from January through May.

In addition to the experience, interns receive a stipend of $5,000, a tuition or fee waiver and earn 12 hours of undergraduate upper division credit or 9 hours of graduate credit upon successful completion of the internship.

“In week one, 13 interns and myself were seated in a white room and given more information than I expected to learn throughout the semester. I imagined grabbing coffee for higher-ups, making copies and not much else. I could not have been more mistaken,” said Adrienne Austill, international affairs major and former House of Representatives intern. “This internship allowed me to gain skills such as public speaking, research, writing, patience and a true understanding of the legislative branch.”

Descriptions of the different positions within each office or agency as well as a link to the application can be found online.

Application materials for the legislative and broadcast internships must be submitted via Handshake. This includes a completed application, personal statement, unofficial transcript, two signed letters of recommendation and a current resume.

Legislative internship applications are due by 5 p.m. Sept. 25. Broadcast internship applications for Arizona Capitol Television are due mid-October.

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Kudos to these students

Do you have a spotlight item to share with the NAU community?

E-mail your announcements to Inside@nau.edu, or use our online submission form.

  • Northern Arizona University senior quarterback Case Cookus has been named to the 40-player watch list for the 2019 College Football Performance Awards (CFPA) FCS National Performer of the Year Trophy. Cookus, who claimed the honor in 2015, is one of seven Big Sky representatives on the list. The senior signal-caller enters the 2019 campaign boasting 7,968 passing yards and 74 touchdown passes in his career. 

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Kudos to these faculty, staff and programs

Do you have a spotlight item to share with the NAU community?

E-mail your announcements to Inside@nau.edu, or use our online submission form.

  • Jerry Anderfuren, producer for NAU-TV, Josh Biggs, photography manager for University Marketing, and composer Alexander Thomas received Emmy nominations for their work on several promotional videos for NAU. “Chocolate Falls,” an NAU Outdoors promo, earned the trio nominations in the Photographer (Short Form) and Promotional Program (Single Spot or Image) categories, while “The One With the Mountain,” NAU’s Giving Day video, earned Anderfuren a nomination in the Writer (Short Form) category. The winners will be announced at the 42nd Annual Rocky Mountain Emmy Awards in September.
  • Criminology and criminal justice professor Marianne Nielsen co-authored a forthcoming project that is expected to be released this year. The book, “Colonialism Is Crime,” presents an analysis of the relationship between colonial crimes and their continuing criminal and social consequences that exist today. The authors focus primarily on countries colonized by Britain, especially the United States.
  • Communication professor Zhan Xu recently published a study that appeared in two journals. “The Easier the Better? Comparing the Readability and Engagement of Online Pro- and Anti-Vaccination Articles,” was published in the Health, Education and Behavior journal, and “Personal stories matter: topic evolution and popularity among pro- and anti-vaccine online articles,” was published in the Journal of Computational Social Science. In the study, Xu examines how pro- and anti-vaccine topics and public interests have changed from 2007 to 2017.
  • NAU alumni Brooke Andersen and Lopez Lomong recently earned awards. Andersen took home the silver medal in the Women’s Hammer Throw competition at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru. Just a few weeks prior, Lomong won the Men’s 5000-meter and 10,000-meter races at the 2019 U.S. Track & Field Outdoor National Championships in Des Moines, Iowa. Both athletes are striving for a spot on the podium in their respective events in Tokyo for the 2020 Summer Olympics.
  • Criminology and criminal justice professor Nancy Wonders recently had several works published, including an article in a special issue of the Theoretical Criminology journal. The article, “Transforming Boarders from Below: Theory and Research from across the Globe” investigates places and context where migrants have made social, economic and political strides. 
  • Northern Arizona University has been recognized in LendEDU’s fourth annual Student Loan Debt by School by State Report for having one of the lowest average student loan debt per borrower figures in the state and country. Northern Arizona University’s average debt per borrower figure for the Class of 2018 was $23,685, which ranked No. 1 in Arizona as one of the lowest, and No. 95 amongst all public schools in the U.S. 
  • NAU Social continues to rake in the awards. Northern Arizona University ranked No. 7 on Rival IQ’s list of Top 10 Universities Instagram for engagement and also made the Consistently Crushing It list.