The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi—the nation’s oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines—today announced Texas State University as the 2020 recipient of its Excellence in Innovation Award. The $100,000 award, given biennially, recognizes Texas State for achievement in helping increase the interest of STEM careers for students in K-12 through their NASA Future Aerospace Engineers and Mathematicians Academy.

“Phi Kappa Phi is proud to recognize Texas State University for its highly innovative project in STEM education and bilingual community outreach,” said Society Executive Director Dr. Mary Todd. “The jury was impressed with the comprehensive nature of FAMA and its mission to underserved students, a fine example of the creative and groundbreaking programming our Excellence in Innovation Award was designed to honor and uplift.”

Established in 2013, FAMA is a hallmark program of the LBJ Institute for STEM Education and Research at Texas State University. The program provides integrated year-round STEM programming to economically disadvantaged and historically underrepresented student populations by engaging them in relevant STEM experiences with a focus on NASA contexts.

Since its launch the FAMA project has expanded to included four main programs: STEM Saturday and Summer Camps, the NASA Backpack Program, Technology-Rich Environments and Experiences, and Bilingual Family Community Outreach. Through these programs FAMA has served and enriched STEM experiences for more than 5,600 students.

Texas State, on behalf of its efforts through FAMA, was selected as the 2020 recipient of the Excellence in Innovation Award by a jury of emeritus university presidents during a two-part screening process. The university was first chosen as one of six semifinalists before advancing as one of three finalists. The pool of entries represented inventive, multifaceted projects at institutions across the United States. Each institution was assessed on its project’s ability to achieve meaningful, measurable outcomes to create systemic large-scale change.

“As a proud member of Phi Kappa Phi, it is a great honor to be chosen as the winner of the Excellence in Innovation Award,” said university President Denise Trauth. “We deeply value our NASA Future Aerospace Engineers and Mathematicians Academy as it advances STEM education and research. It is a great tribute to our hard-working faculty and staff that the Academy has gained this recognition.”

Since 1932, Phi Kappa Phi has awarded fellowships and grants to members and students on its chapter campuses. Nearly $1 million is awarded each year through programs that last year recognized over 350 individuals. The Excellence in Innovation Award, first awarded in 2016, is the Society’s only award for institutions.

The call for submissions for the 2022 Excellence in Innovation Award will open in the fall of 2021. For more details and to view the finalist portfolios, visit www.phikappaphi.org/innovation.

About Phi Kappa Phi
Founded in 1897, Phi Kappa Phi is the nation’s oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines. Phi Kappa Phi inducts approximately 30,000 students, faculty, professional staff and alumni annually. The Society has chapters on more than 300 select colleges and universities in the United States and the Philippines. Membership is by invitation only to the top 10 percent of seniors and graduate students and 7.5 percent of juniors. Faculty, professional staff and alumni who have achieved scholarly distinction also qualify. The Society’s mission is “To recognize and promote academic excellence in all fields of higher education and engage the community of scholars in service to others.” For more information, visit www.PhiKappaPhi.org.

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Media Contact
Alyssa Perez
Communications Director
aperez@phikappaphi.org
(225) 923-7777

For much of the time before modern human history, the center of people’s light and life was the humble campfire.  It was a place to teach, share, connect, and give thanks.  It was the hub of culture, where our ancestors gathered nightly to fight back the dark with their myths, stories, and the joy of their voices raised in song.

Stories and songs.  These basic units of shared culture remain with us, even as our source of flickering light has changed.

In 2009, The Onion famously lampooned that we spent 90% of our waking hours staring at glowing rectangles.  They weren’t wrong, but those “gleaming quadrangles”, as they described, weren’t ever merely about the light they generated, rather, they’ve always been about connections and the meaning they carried.

In times like these, when so many of us can feel like little islands, connecting with other people to share stories and songs takes on a special significance.

So it’s not surprising that many social networks and streaming services are reporting global spikes in member activity.

For example, on the “stories” side, nearly 16 million new people joined Netflix during the first part of the year, which was twice as many as they’d expected.  Other streaming services have seen rises as well, including Disney+.  And underscoring the many benefits of engaging in these libraries of ‘once-upon-a-times’, watching streaming video has quickly become the #1 leisure activity for people at home.

On the “songs” side, social singing network Smule has also seen a significant rise in new users joining in from all over the world since people began staying home. Smule is a global online community of music lovers where millions of people from all over come together each day to sing along with millions of popular songs, often with other people – and sometimes with the stars themselves- plus make new friends, cheer each other on, and simply have fun. Regardless of skill level, the thing all Smule members have in common is a love for singing, and a love for connecting with other people through the shared experience of performing songs together.

Playing with the Smule app lies somewhere between SnapChat and YouTube, mashed up with an automated sound and video recording and effects studio.  People can sing or record songs on video with new friends, karaoke by themselves, or acapella with others.  Members of Smule communities include people from all walks of life, including real-life superstars, such as Lewis Capaldi, who upload recorded versions of their top hits for other members to sing along with and repost to the network and other social media platforms. Fans can even sing along with Disney characters like Moana to the hits from popular Disney films.

Thousands of independent singing communities and teams have sprung up around the world, using Smule as the platform to showcase their singalongs.

One such community, Apex Team, is a group of 46 young, talented and dynamic voices from all parts of the world who came together as a virtual choir that inspires online audiences with their enjoyable musical performances. Apex produces more than a hundred group collaborations a year, and most recently, a phenomenal performance of Fight Song, by Rachel Platten and Dave Bassett – edited into a “Thank You” to front line professionals in the fight against COVID-19.

Back to the historical notion of giving thanks.

So, what are the lessons in all this?  What’s the advice from our modern storytellers and singers?  And what was the message from our ancestors?  Is it that we’re not so different from them, or each other, after all?  That we’re still people?  Still communities?  Or is it that we might want to sing a little more?  That we need to reach out to those around us – even if the definition of “around” might now include the other side of the world?  Or that it’s important to let others know how important they are to us?  The answers are probably as varied as people, and the communities they create.

Over untold millennia, some things have changed.  For the average person, it used to be that there was only one light they could gather around; now, there are billions.  And they’re made of us.

Meanwhile, other things remain the same.  Shared light is better together, stories and songs still matter, and the darkness and silence never last.

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Smule.com members can sing with some of their favorite Disney characters.

Apex Team released a version of Fight Song honoring first responders on Smule.com.

The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi—the nation’s oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines—today announced the three finalists for its 2020 Excellence in Innovation Award. The $100,000 award, given once per biennium, recognizes one institution of higher learning for achievement in finding powerful answers to important local, regional, national or global challenges.

The finalists, selected by a jury of emeritus presidents and provosts, were chosen from a pool of six semifinalists representing multifaceted projects at institutions across the nation. Each institution was assessed on the project’s ability to achieve meaningful, measurable outcomes to create systemic large-scale change.

The three institutions chosen as finalists are:

• Nazareth College
• Texas State University
• Widener University

“The projects presented by the semifinalists in the Phi Kappa Phi Excellence in Innovation Award posed a challenge to the jury, as each represents a fine example of the innovation for which higher education is known. We are so pleased to recognize all six of these fine institutions and celebrate their excellence,” said Society Executive Director Dr. Mary Todd.

The 2020 recipient will be announced Tuesday, May 26, and will receive $100,000 in tangible recognition of its best practice in response to the changes and challenges facing higher education in the 21st century.

The three semifinalist institutions receiving honorable mention are Moravian College, the University of Houston-Downtown, and the University of Memphis.

The Phi Kappa Phi Excellence in Innovation award is part of the Society’s robust awards program, which gives nearly $1 million each year to outstanding members and students on chapter campuses through study abroad grants, dissertation fellowships, funding for post-baccalaureate development, member and chapter awards, and grants for local, national and international literacy initiatives. The Excellence in Innovation Award, first awarded in 2016 to Tulane University, is the Society’s only award for institutions.

For more information about the award, visit www.phikappaphi.org/innovation.

About Phi Kappa Phi
Founded in 1897, Phi Kappa Phi is the nation’s oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines. Phi Kappa Phi inducts approximately 30,000 students, faculty, professional staff and alumni annually. The Society has chapters on more than 300 select colleges and universities in the United States and the Philippines. Membership is by invitation only to the top 10 percent of seniors and graduate students and 7.5 percent of juniors. Faculty, professional staff and alumni who have achieved scholarly distinction also qualify. The Society’s mission is “To recognize and promote academic excellence in all fields of higher education and engage the community of scholars in service to others.” For more information, visit www.PhiKappaPhi.org.

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Media Contact
Alyssa Perez
Communications Director
aperez@phikappaphi.org
(225) 923-7777

Texas.StateRecords.org brings reports of government-generated statistics and important news relating to the COVID-19 virus that was first discovered in China in late 2019, instead of using statistics generated by the World Health Organization or from privately-funded universities as is done by other news outlets.

As COVID-19 cases in America have seen a steep rise, seeking out information from privately funded bodies and academic institutions has become highly risky. This is because the stats that these bodies put together are potentially inconsistent and tinged with political bias, resulting in a rise in anxiety among the people. The StateRecords site, therefore, chooses to use only local government records which they are sure are unbiased and accurate.

“There is a lot of uncertainty in the reporting happening for the coronavirus, and it can be difficult to know who to trust,” said a spokesperson from Texas.StateRecords.org. “We’re getting our number directly from public records from the organizations responsible for keeping their citizens safe, and their economy operational. We’re not interested in political bias or personal agendas, like a lot of other organizations seem to be. For us, the truth is in the numbers, and our numbers are from the people who know what they actually are.

The COVID-19 data page of the website was launched at the end of March and is regularly updated using figures retrieved solely from local governments within the state of Texas.StateRecords.org says its goal is to offer easily accessible public records about the coronavirus that are not subject to bias or political leanings.

Texas.StateRecords.org is a Texas-dedicated site that provides public information on the records of criminals, court results, and important statistics. They offer guidance on how to find such information, how to access them, and what methods to avoid.

Media Contact
Lauren Wilson
Texas State Records
public.relations@staterecords.org
(512) 872-5833

Annual scholarship program is open to students pursuing a culinary, food systems, or sustainability-focused education

New York, NY (May 1, 2020) – Now more than ever, we are reminded of the essential role that the food and beverage industry plays in our everyday lives and the value of shared experiences around a table. In keeping with its mission to nurture chefs and other leaders contributing to American food culture, the James Beard Foundation announced today its 2020-2021 Scholarship Program application period for aspiring and established culinary professionals.

As of 2019, the Foundation had awarded nearly $8 million in financial aid to over 2,000 recipients and will award nearly $650,000 in 2020.

While eligibility requirements vary by opportunity, in general, applicants must be enrolled or planning to enroll in a culinary program at a licensed or accredited culinary school, hospitality institution, college, or university in fall 2020. International students may qualify for many of the scholarships and are encouraged to apply.

“Since the inception of our scholarship program in 1991, the range of food-related disciplines and educational opportunities has expanded greatly,” said Clare Reichenbach, chief executive officer of the James Beard Foundation. “With a number of scholarships, tuition waivers, and grants available this year, we are proud to support the ever-increasing interests of the next generation of culinary leaders.”

In response to the impact the COVID-19 pandemic, the Foundation also recently established the Food and Beverage Industry Relief Fund to provide critical financial assistance in the form of micro-grants to independent food and beverage businesses in need.

The scholarship program is administered by International Scholarship and Tuition Services, Inc. (ISTS), an independent company that specializes in managing sponsored educational assistance programs. ISTS hosts the online application process, selects recipients and disburses awards. For more information about the program and to begin the application process, visit jamesbeard.org/scholarships. The deadline to apply is June 11, 2020.

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About The James Beard Foundation
The James Beard Foundation promotes good food for good™. For more than 30 years, the James Beard Foundation has highlighted the centrality of food culture in our daily lives. Through the James Beard Awards, unique dining experiences at the James Beard House and around the country, scholarships, hands-on learning, and a variety of industry programs that educate and empower leaders in our community, the Foundation has built a platform for chefs and asserted the power of gastronomy to drive behavior, culture, and policy change around food. To that end, the Foundation has also created signature impact-oriented initiatives that include our Women’s Leadership Programs aimed at addressing the gender imbalance in the culinary industry; advocacy training through our Chefs Boot Camp for Policy and Change; and the James Beard Foundation Leadership Awards that shine a spotlight on successful change makers. The organization is committed to giving chefs and their colleagues a voice and the tools they need to make the world more sustainable, equitable, and delicious for everyone. For more information, subscribe to the digital newsletter Beard Bites and follow @beardfoundation on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

The James Beard Foundation is a national not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization based in New York City.

To reach the James Beard Foundation for press inquiries, please contact:

Mary Blanton Ogushwitz
Magrino
212 957 3005
mary.blanton@magrinopr.com