Congratulations to our 61 Magellan Circle scholars, who received $500 and met their patrons at a breakfast on Dec. 11! To learn more about our Magellan Circle program, click here.

Mayor Jonathan Rothschild spoke to students in the 2014 "Poverty in American Cities" course. Photo by Patrick McArdle.

This spring, UA undergraduate students in the course "Poverty in Tucson Field Workshop" will collect, analyze, and present data on local community issues related to poverty. The course is a continuation of a collaboration between the College of SBS and the Mayor's Commission on Poverty. The course is being supported by gifts from Habitat for Humanity Tucson, the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona, and the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona. More

The Knowledge River Program, founded to address equity and access issues for underserved populations with a specific focus on American Indian and Hispanic communities, has  received a $500,000 Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program Grant. Since the program's launch, 158 graduates have gone on to introduce community-based programs, reopen community libraries that have closed, and lead diversity initiatives at major organizations. More 

Photo by Moses Thompson

On Nov. 20, the UA Community and School Garden Program helped celebrate Manzo Elementary's designation as the first school in Pima County to obtain Arizona Department of Health Services certification to serve school-grown produce as part of the lunch menu. Through the garden program, hundreds of UA student interns have helped K-12 teachers develop lesson plans related to building and maintaining school gardens. More here and here.

Robin Reineke and Moses Thompson

Recognizing the best, brightest, and most influential young leaders in Tucson, this year's list of "40 Under 40" winners included seven employees from the UA, including two from SBS. Robin Reineke, a graduate student and research associate in the School of Anthropology, is the co-founder and executive director of the Colibrí Center for Human Rights, a nonprofit organization that helps medical examiners along the border identify human remains. Moses Thompson, who created and runs the ecology program at Manzo Elementary, recently was named coordinator of the UA-TUSD Community and School Garden Program. More 

The School of Sociology's "Care, Health and Society" major has enrolled about 135 students in its first year. Students are prepared for careers in disciplines that include medicine, nursing, pharmacology, teaching, and physiology, providing them with the analytical, organizational, and advocacy skills needed to thrive in work settings. Sarah Mason, chose to study at the UA because of the new major. "Once I found out about it, my decision was made," Mason said. "Care, Health and Society is such a well-rounded degree that I feel like I will be prepared for virtually any career in health care." More here and here. 

Samara Klar, an assistant professor in the School of Government and Public Policy, had two op-eds published recently. In "Women Fight More Than Men Over Politics," she revealed that Republican and Democratic women appear to be even more antagonistic toward each other than Republican and Democratic men are. In "Independents Didn't Decide the Midterm Election," she argued that "the Democrats did not lose because they couldn't convince independents (many of whom were likely Republicans) to vote for them. They lost in part because they could not depend on their own supporters to encourage their friends to turn out and vote Democratic."

UA School of Journalism students are producing news stories, in English and Spanish, for the entire region as part of the student-run Arizona Sonora News. Their content is appearing in newspapers and news sites on both sides of the border. More