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Among the 700+ women who attended this year's National Conference for College Women Student Leaders (NCCWSL) in Washington, D.C., two were from UAH: Kenya Wallace, a Ph.D. student in materials science, and Karelohn Williams, a junior in psychology.

Each learned of the conference separately. Williams says a guest lecturer in her women's studies class talked about her experience attending it. Wallace, meanwhile, was at a meeting of the Huntsville chapter of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) when it was discussed.

When Harrison Walker decided to attend The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), he had yet to figure out what he wanted to major in, let alone do with his life. But after two years of "switching around from business to marketing" he says, he realized his passion lay in the arts.

"I knew I wanted to do something that had to do with photography, specifically the technical side of traditional photography and its history," says Walker, who is a Huntsville native. "So I decided upon studio art."

Fast-forward three years later and now the one-time business major is presenting his senior exit show entitled "Who We Are." Walker says the collection of images he selected for inclusion "makes the viewer think about the past and 'where they came from'." It also challenges them to become "who we are."

Starting next week, the Theatre Program at UAH will begin its eagerly awaited run of Spoon Lake Blues, a new comedy from playwright Josh Tobiessen.

The play, which follows two brothers who turn to robbery in an attempt to save their house from the bank, is based on Tobiessen's own stranger-than-fiction experience while on vacation a few years ago.

At the time, he says, he was staying in a cabin with "sketchy plumbing and carpenter ants," while next door stood a huge house with a two-car garage and Jacuzzi. That juxtaposition of wealth and poverty struck him as the kind of "honest conflict" that makes for a good plot.

It's common, if not required, to be a published author as a college professor. But as a student, it's a rare accomplishment. And yet two undergraduates at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) can make that claim: Charity Ethridge and Michelle Hopkins.

The students, along with UAH history professor Dr. John Kvach and UAH alumna Susanna Leberman, are coauthors of Images of America: Huntsville. Published by Arcadia, the book is a pictorial history of the city dating back to the early 1800s.

The Theatre Department of UAH and The Arts Council Inc. will co-host the first-ever Lee Deal Theatre Symposium on Saturday, August 24, from 1:00 - 6:30 pm. Named for Lee Deal, a former UAH student and local community theater actor for nearly thirty years, the symposium will comprise three workshop sessions: Casting & Audition Techniques Master Class , presented by Tiffany Little Canfield, a casting director with New-York-based Telsey + Company (Wilson Hall) Scene Study Master Class , presented by Ron Harris, a 40-year theater veteran and the recipient of numerous state, regional, and national awards (Chan Auditorium) Setting Your Stage: The Intersection of Script, Design, & Budget , presented by Brian Phillips, formerly of the Goodman Theatre, Chicago's oldest and largest not-for-profit theater (Wilson Hall)

An opening reception was held Tuesday at the Union Grove Gallery for a photo documentary exhibit being presented by six photography students from The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). The exhibit, which will run through August 29, features photographs taken by the students during their recent trip to England as part of the advanced historical processes class taught by Associate Professor of Art & Art History José A. Betancourt.

Over the course of the two weeks they were there, the students - Emily Pate, Conway Campbell, Sarah Best, Harrison Walker, Leslie Posey, and Paige Heddon - compiled thousands of photos from six destinations: London, Lacock, Chippenham, Bristol, Stonehenge, Bath, Salisbury, and Greenwich. Yet despite being in the same place at the same time, each brought to their work a completely different perspective.

History is often considered the stuff of dusty tomes, dense and uninteresting words on a page that invariably prove to be the bane of many a student's existence. And yet how many of us love stories, whether told by our parents as they put us to bed each night or by our grandparents as they reminisced about the old days?

Melissa "Birdie" Jones has declared several majors over the years she has been attending The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), all in the hopes of one day landing a high-paying job.

"I have actually been through about six different degrees from psychology to foreign languages to political science to nursing," she says with a laugh. "I couldn't find what I wanted to do for a career."

One major she didn't consider, however, was communication arts, despite her longtime interest in both music and dance. And focusing on theater in particular? "Theater wasn't even on the table," she says. "I never looked at it as something I could make a career out of."

All that changed, however, the night she met David Harwell, an associate professor in UAH's Theatre Department.

Katie Hale never intended to go to The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH).

"I grew up around here and went to Sparkman High School, and no one who lives here wants to stay here and go to school!" she says with a laugh. "You want to leave the nest. So I was dead set on going somewhere else."

But after she received a four-year scholarship for academic excellence, her parents were able to talk her into attending UAH. "They were like, we don't want you to graduate with debt," she says.

Turns out her parents were right. Not only has Hale been able to graduate debt-free with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree, but she now looks back on her time at UAH with nothing but fond memories.

"I wouldn't have traded it for anything," she says. "The Art Department here is the most nurturing and best department! The professors go beyond being teachers; they know your work, they're there to talk to you, and they email you all the time."

Many college students know exactly what they want to be after they graduate, while others take their time deciding. And still others think they know before they realize their passion lies elsewhere. That's what happened to Tom Gray, a rising junior at The University of Alabama in Huntsville.