University of Rhode Island

At the University of Rhode Island's 128th Commencement on Saturday and Sunday, May 17-18, 2014, more than 3,100 undergraduate and 680 graduate students became the University's newest alumni.

The University of Rhode Island recognized outstanding talent last month by presenting excellence awards to faculty, students, administrators and staff. The URI Foundation, the URI Research Foundation and the URI Division of Research and Economic Development held the joint award celebration on May 14.

The Rhode Island Foundation recently named 15 University of Rhode Island students Demers fellows. The Beatrice S. Demers Fund provides fellowships to Rhode Island residents and any Rhode Island college or university students who pursue foreign language study. Fellowships cover the cost of tuition, fees, travel, housing and living expenses.

Presented by the URI Office of Student Involvement, the Rainville Awards are given to students who have shown exemplary leadership and teamwork skills while maintaining a strong academic standing.

Presented by the URI Office of Student Involvement, the University's Rainville Awards are given to students who have shown exemplary leadership and teamwork skills while maintaining a strong academic standing.

The URI Senior Student-Athlete Awards Banquet is an annual event which recognizes and celebrates the hard work and devotion every senior has put in during their four years as a student-athlete.

The University of Rhode Island Coastal Fellows program is an environmental fellowship initiative designed to involve URI undergraduate students in addressing current environmental problems.

The goal of URI's orientation program is to welcome new students and their families to the URI community and to start them along a path for a success. The Orientation Team represents all that URI is - a diverse and enthusiastic community of learners.

As part of a commitment to pride and responsibility in the engineering profession, 103 University of Rhode Island engineering students were inducted into the Order of the Engineer on April 30. The students became the first group from the state's flagship university to join the national professional organization and established the first Link (chapter) in Rhode Island.

The University of Rhode Island's Black Scholar Awards program honored this year's Rhode Island Onyx Senior Honor Society inductees based on their academic excellence, community service, and cultural pride.

The University of Rhode Island Theatre Department continues its season with the world-famous musical, "Chicago." Based on the book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, with music by John Kander and lyrics by Ebb and the play written by Maurine Dallas Watkins, URI Professor and Theatre Department Chair Paula McGlasson will direct dozens of actors as they bring this award-winning stinging satire on corruption, crime and celebrity to the stage in Kingston this month.

Nine graduating University of Rhode Island seniors were honored for their academic excellence and achievements during the 17th annual Black Scholar Awards ceremony April 7 in Ryan Auditorium at the Center for Biotechnology and Life Sciences. Donald Cunnigen, professor of sociology and anthropology at URI and a member of the URI Black Faculty Association, established the awards program in 1998 to recognize and honor outstanding African-American seniors.

The URI Harrington School of Communication and Media recently recognized outstanding students at its second annual Public Relations Excellence Awards ceremony. Five award categories captured the essence of student achievement: leadership, most innovative, community/campus involvement, outstanding internship experience, and impact.

Now in its 15th year of existence, the URI Women's Hockey team recently captured their 10th Eastern Collegiate Women's Hockey League title, finished fourth at the American Collegiate Hockey Association's (ACHA) Women's Division 1 championship tourney, and three of their players were named to two ACHA All American teams.

The Energy Fellows Program provides University of Rhode Island undergraduate and graduate students with the opportunity to gain invaluable experience addressing real-world energy issues working in interdisciplinary teams with staff, faculty or outside organizations on one or more projects.

The University of Rhode Island Theatre Department continues its season with the 1981 Pulitzer Prize-winning hit "Crimes of the Heart" by acclaimed playwright Beth Henley. The hilariously funny, yet poignant tale of three sisters living in Mississippi, "Crimes of the Heart" lovingly investigates the sorrows and joys of what it means to leave behind a self-destructive legacy and to truly move on.

The University of Rhode Island is pleased to announce that about 4,300 undergraduates have qualified for the Fall 2013 Dean's List. The students represent nearly all of Rhode Island's cities and towns, all six New England states, New York, New Jersey, and many other states and nations.

Three graduate students at the University of Rhode Island have been named John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellows, which will enable them to spend a year working on marine policy issues in Washington, D.C. The John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship, established in 1979, is a program of the National Sea Grant College Program.

University of Rhode Island Italian language students recently won an award in an international competition in which participants adapted stories from Giovanni Boccaccio's masterpiece into diverse media, from embroidered pieces to theatrical presentations to a Twitter feed in a rhyming verse form called terza rim a.

Students in a University of Rhode Island landscape architecture design studio recently presented their ideas for turning a 47-acre parcel in Richmond, R.I., into a multi-purpose recreation center.

Three University of Rhode Island students were recently chosen as members of Team USA for the 2013 World University Games in Trentino, Italy. Second only in importance to the Olympics Games, the World University Games showcase the finest student-athletes from all over the world.

A group of University of Rhode Island business students were named the first-place winners of the student case competition at the 29th Annual Minority Business Conference sponsored by the Boston Metropolitan Chapter of the National Association of Black Accountants. Although URI business students have attended the annual conference in the past, this is the first time they have participated in the student case competition.

A group of University of Rhode Island political science students collected 80 used bikes to send to Uganda and Ghana as part of a community service class with a global focus. The collection started in the fall, and included donations from the Newport Police Department, individuals, community groups, and bike clubs.

The University of Rhode Island Theatre Department continues its season with the hit British comedy "How the Other Half Loves" by acclaimed international playwright Alan Acykbourn. The play is a farce about the lives and loves of three couples at different stages in their marriages. Adultery, mistaken identity and mounting comic tension come together to create a crowd-pleasing and hysterical evening of top-class theatre.

University of Rhode Island Theatre Department opened its season with the high-spirited, yet dramatic production of "Be Aggressive" by Annie Weisman. The play tells the story of Laura, a girl whose life is upended when her mother is suddenly killed in a car accident. The tension between the superficial veneer of cheer and Laura's very real struggle to find her true self amidst the chaos of teenage life created a thrilling theatrical experience.

Six University of Rhode Island graduate students studying cytopathology spent 10 days in Peru last month as part of a course that examines the challenges of conducting cervical cancer screenings in developing nations. The students, along with Professor Barbara Klitz and Education Coordinator Nadia Saadeh, worked with local health care provider CerviCusco to screen Pap smears collected from women in rural communities in the Andes Mountains.

The Rhode Island Foundation recently named 13 University of Rhode Island students Demers fellows. The Beatrice S. Demers Fund provides fellowships to Rhode Island residents and any Rhode Island college or university students who pursue foreign language study. Fellowships cover the cost of tuition, fees, travel, housing and living expenses.

The 6th annual Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows (SURF) Conference provides undergraduate students from around Rhode Island with a unique opportunity to present their summer research findings to a group of their peers. Held at the University of Rhode Island, the annual event is co-sponsored by the Rhode Island IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (RI-INBRE) and the Rhode Island NSF Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (RI NSF EPSCoR).

The University of Rhode Island is pleased to announce that about 3,800 undergraduates have qualified for the Spring 2013 Dean's List. The students represent nearly all of Rhode Island's cities and towns, all six New England states, New York and New Jersey, and many other states and nations.

Eight University of Rhode Island undergraduates are among this year's winners of five coveted international scholarships including the Truman Scholarship, the Boren Scholarship, three Fulbright Scholarships, a Whitaker Scholarship, and three NOAA/Hollings Scholarships.