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Through a five-year, $625,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the Mental Health and Recovery Board of Portage County will partner with ����ֱ�� State University’s Center for Public Policy and Health in the College of Public Health to improve and support mental health in Portage County. 

Edwin Duckworth, a physics doctoral student in the College of Arts and Sciences at ����ֱ�� State University, is among 65 students from 29 states recently selected for funding by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program. The program aspires to “address societal challenges at national and international scale.”

“An American Sunrise” by Poet Laureate Joy Harjo, the first Native American poet laureate of the United States, will be the focal point as ����ֱ�� State kicks off the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Big Read Northeast Ohio community reading program. The kickoff event will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 12, beginning promptly at 7 p.m. in the Kiva. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is appreciated.

The Rainbow Run is one of most important fundraising events of the year for the university's LGBTQ+ Emergency Fund, available to assist any LGBTQ+ identifying ����ֱ�� State student in financial crisis. The sixth annual Rainbow Run “fun run” will take place on Friday, Oct. 8, at 7 p.m. on Risman Plaza. Find out more about why Ken Ditlevson, director of the ����ֱ�� State’s LGBTQ+ Center, describes the fund as a vital safety net and a lifeline for students who are struggling financially. 

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, students have decided to come back to campus and in-person learning, a trend that is evident in the newest class of Golden Flashes, up 4% from last year’s incoming class. As incoming freshmen fill the campus, fellow Flashes can get to know their new classmates.

����ֱ�� State University has been recognized in Newsweek's 2021 list of the Best Maker Schools in Higher Education.

����ֱ�� State University publicly launched a $350 million comprehensive fundraising campaign Saturday, Oct. 2. During a special halftime announcement at the Homecoming football game, campaign co-chairs Sandra C. and Lawrence R. Armstrong joined ����ֱ�� State President Todd Diacon to publicly unveil Forever Brighter to thousands of alumni, donors and friends. 

The back-to-school season is in full swing, and students, faculty and staff are preparing to take on the increased workload once again. While the process is a fulfilling and rewarding experience, often the fast-paced lifestyle leaves little time for much else. However, Kim Laurene, Ph.D. and Deric Kenne, Ph.D., professors in the College of Public Health, and Senior Vice President for Student Affairs Lamar R. Hylton, Ph.D., are committed to prioritizing mental health upkeep by supporting and expanding pre-existing services and programs offered at ����ֱ�� State. 

A $1.5 million gift from The Timken Foundation of Canton has allowed ����ֱ�� State University to advance the groundbreaking timeline for the expansion of the Aeronautics and Engineering Building.

����ֱ�� State University and The Red Door Films of Los Angeles announce “Play with a Purpose,” a sponsor challenge as part of the SkyHack 3.0 competition at ����ֱ�� State to be held Nov. 5-7. Teams of students will create an interactive toy universe based on the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) of World War II and their training base, Avenger Field.
 

����ֱ�� State University’s School of Fashion once again ranks as one of the best fashion programs in the United States according to Fashion-Schools.org. 

Once again, ����ֱ�� State University shines in the new U.S. News & World Report 2022 Best Colleges rankings. U.S. News has again named ����ֱ�� State among the Top Public Schools in the nation in the newly released rankings.

It’s reunion time for the ����ֱ�� State University Golden Flashes family. ����ֱ�� State celebrated Homecoming 2021 with a week of activities and events leading up to the Oct. 2 Homecoming Parade and Homecoming football game.

At the start of his freshman year at ����ֱ�� State University in 2018, Tim Tusick was the epitome of health. At the end of that year, Tusick was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. He remained strong throughout the treatments, but did not want to stay silent. When the Leukemia Lymphoma Society reached out to Tusick, he quickly agreed to help. And help, he did.

Each year, hundreds of nominations are submitted to ����ֱ�� State University, showcasing some of the best and brightest alumni and students who excel in their fields and communities. This year, seven alumni and one student will be honored as 2021 Alumni Awards recipients.

Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) is one of the fastest growing global education fields, and ����ֱ�� State students in the 2021 TEFL program taught international students via Zoom over the summer. The students created unique lesson plans and executed them entirely on their own and made lasting memories.

The ����ֱ�� State University Museum and the Wick Poetry Center at ����ֱ�� State announce the launch of the “Digital Green Book” created in support of the exhibition “TEXTURES: the history and art of Black hair.”

What happens when two neutron stars collide? What extreme densities and temperatures are reached? What new states of matter exist within the core of a neutron star? One ����ֱ�� State College of Arts and Sciences theoretical astrophysicist, Veronica Dexheimer, associate professor in the Department of Physics, is diving headfirst into these questions as a co-principal investigator collaborating with her peers at multiple institutions on a recently funded cyberinfrastucture research grant project.

Campus Pride has released its 2021 Best of the Best LGBTQ-Friendly Colleges and Universities list, and for the second time in two years, ����ֱ�� State University has landed on it. ����ֱ�� State is the only Ohio public university to make the 2021 list, and it again is the only school in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) to receive this recognition.

The Farris Family Innovation Awards support the research of tenure-track faculty members who are not yet tenured at ����ֱ�� State and who have shown promising drive for their field of study. In May 2021, Faculty Affairs announced the recipients of this year's Farris Family Innovation Awards: Michelle Bebber, assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology, and Elda Hegmann, assistant professor in the Materials Science Graduate Program.