Eric Townsend

A group dedicated to the education of Ugandan children is today one of the fastest-growing student organizations on campus. The Elon chapter of “Invisible Children” has raised more than $5,200 in the past year to sponsor a secondary school in the war-ravaged African nation.

Researchers led by an Elon University associate professor have identified in walnuts at least two molecules that may hold the key to better treating, if not completely reversing, the effects of Alzheimer’s disease, a fatal type of dementia that diminishes memory and affects behavior in older adults.

A recent Elon University graduate has been named the recipient of a 2008 Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship, an award that will help in her graduate studies of documentary film production with a focus on social justice and women’s rights.

After decades of civil war, a fragile peace exists today in the southern Sudan.  While people have hoped that the peace accord there could serve as a model for ending genocide in the African nation's western province of Darfur, there are growing fears that calm in the south could unravel.  One Elon professor has shown that sources of hostility for the Sudan have deep historical roots.

Elon students and faculty are planning a trip to the second-poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere to help build what one trip leader dubbed “a mini Honduran Wal-Mart.” Proceeds from the trip benefit a charity that aids impoverished children.

Elon University has once again been named the top organization in Alamance County for the amount of blood its students, staff and faculty donate to the American Red Cross. And the Red Cross continues to look for more donors during the holidays, a time when blood supplies everywhere begin to dwindle.

The shampoo vials you took from the hotel at the beach last summer? Samantha Tremblay wants ‘em. She'll also take the free shower caps and hand soap. Tremblay, an Elon senior, is the driving force behind a nonprofit that collects toiletries for impoverished families. And she’s trying to expand her reach.

He “wrote like a maniac” for a year until his pen spun out with a bad case of writer’s block. But after accepting an offer to join Elon University's religious studies department in 2005, L.D. Russell hit the literary gas pedal once more. His finished work, “Godspeed: Racing is My Religion,” explores how NASCAR can be a religious experience for its fans – just like it is for him.