Warren Wilson’s Auto Shop Crew has turned a hulking piece of junk into an electric vehicle that can serve the college for years to come. Using grant money from the N.C. Clean Air Coalition and working under the direction of Jonathan Unger, crew supervisor this past year, the 12-student crew converted a 1.25-ton diesel truck into a zero-emission, electric short-haul carrier that the Carpentry Crew will use to transport lumber and other heavy material and equipment.

On May 18, the 2013 Commencement had to be moved to DeVries Gymnasium because of a persistent morning rain (the first time in more than two decades). Of course, there’s at least a slight upside to nearly every shift in plans. The Commencement location had been moved from lovely Sunderland Lawn to the hardwood home of the 2013 men’s basketball national champions. As always, the stars of the show were the nearly 200 bachelor’s degree recipients who had earned B.A. and B.S. degrees — the College’s 45th class as a four-year school.

The inauguration of a new president is a major event in the life of a college and so it is at Warren Wilson College. Steven L. Solnick, Ph.D., was inaugurated as Warren Wilson College’s 7th president on April 27. The highlight was the terrific inaugural address he delivered. Although a light rain started falling as he began to speak, it failed to dampen the enthusiasm with which his address was received by those who had gathered on the lawn. Congratulations, Mr. President, and also to Warren Wilson College.

Dr. Steven Solnick’s inauguration as Warren Wilson College’s seventh president will take place on Saturday, April 27, 2013. While presidential inaugurations are commonplace, here at Warren Wilson College our own community – student work crews, staff, faculty and many volunteers – build stages, grow food that’s being served during the festivities and tend to the landscape that enhances the breath-taking beauty that our campus is known for.

Uniontown, PA - In front of a capacity crowd, ninth-seeded Warren Wilson College won its first USCAA National Championship defeating host Penn State Fayette 76-68 on Saturday night. The victory is the 12th straight for the Owls and caps off four wins in four days to secure the championship. For his performance all week, Raysean Love was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. Anthony Barringer and Rashad Ali were named to the All-Tournament team while Dylan Johnson and Ty Johnson were named Academic All-Americans.

Warren Wilson alumna Nora Purcell ’09 has a passion for tracking how diseases spread, a passion she discovered during an internship at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC hired Purcell upon graduation as a geographer mapping and analyzing public health developments. After three years in Atlanta, she joined a team of more than 300 CDC scientists and staff in Haiti, working to help the country rebuild its health services infrastructure after the devastating 2010 earthquake and cholera epidemic.

When fire rakes a portion of land in the Southeast, workers will replant native grasses and wildflowers propagated at Warren Wilson. The Native Plants Crew is working with the U.S. Forest Service to grow grasses and wildflowers on campus. “At most schools, you can sit all morning in a lab,” said crew member Charity Villines, “and here I go from a genetics class to working in the field.” Fellow crew member Emily Ehley wants to use her environmental education degree to create spaces that support plants, wildlife and people. “Being on this crew has totally changed my life,” she said.

Twenty-three years after graduating from Warren Wilson College, Dale Morse is still living his life based upon the school’s Triad of academic, work and service. Each year he travels from Virginia to help the blacksmith crew members advance their skills. It’s something he does to stay connected to the school and embodies its belief that service is one of three legs of a meaningful, well-balanced life.

Moriah Good ’11, an environmental studies graduate, spent her summer helping the Recycling Crew build a ‘Cob’ tool shed out of local sand, clay, straw, and recycled materials like glass bottles. She’s about to leave for a graduate program in wetlands biology at Old Dominion University, but she took the time to introduce us to one of the ways that she helped leave an enduring mark at Warren Wilson.

Warren Wilson is teaching its students about the future by holding on to a bit of its past. Students like Nick Shaw are renovating the college’s 80-year-old log cabin, which now houses the Work Program that matches students’ interests with work that needs doing on campus. As one leg of the college’s learning Triad, work is as important to the college as are students’ academic experiences and their service to the community.