Category: Alumni

Nationally renowned journalist and author Neenah Ellis, FA'81, will be the featured speaker at the Live! @ the Drake Library Series on Tuesday, March 27. Ellis will share highlights of her career at 7 p.m. in the Cowles Library Reading Room.

The McCormick Tribune Foundation has awarded Drake’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication $50,000 for a Specialized Reporting Institute called "McCormick Tribune Specialized Reporting Institute: Covering the Presidential Nominating Process." Drake will be teaming up with the Poynter Institute, a news media training organization, to present the institute on Drake’s campus June 3-5.

The Scholarship Committee of the Drake Alumnae Association of Des Moines plans to award six scholarships of $1,000 each. The scholarships will be awarded to current Drake students, and awards will be applied toward tuition for the fall 2007 semester.

Drake Head Start continues its 30th anniversary, and the program has plenty to celebrate. In 2006, Drake Head Start received a few especially nice birthday presents, racking up literary achievements with awards and grants both locally and nationally.

Drake's School of Fine Arts and Friends of Drake Arts have received an $8,000 grant from Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino through its 2006 Community Betterment Grant Program.

Bryan Ptak, JO'96; Nolan Mitchell, AS'95; and more than 20 other Drake alumni plan to participate as Team Drake in the International Triathlon Union / Hy-Vee World Cup Triathlon to be held in Des Moines on June 17. Des Moines is only the fourth U.S. city -- in addition to Honolulu, New York and St. Petersburg, Fla. -- to host a World Cup elite triathlon since the competition began.

Since 1961, nearly 900 Drake men have been initiated into the Iowa Delta chapter of Phi Delta Theta. During the 2007 Drake Relays, the chapter will officially celebrate its 45th year at the University.

Tickets for the 98th running of the Drake Relays, to be held April 26-28, are now on sale at the Drake Athletic Ticket Office.

Travis Thompson, vice president of operations for the Edge Business Continuity Center in Altoona, will discuss business continuity and disaster recovery at Drake’s Let's DU Lunch speaker series at noon Wednesday, March 14.

Who says there’s no reward for doing good? There is for students of Drake University and other universities, colleges and high schools who can verify that they’ve volunteered 10 or more hours in the past year. The reward: a concert by Australian band Jet on April 11 at the Drake Knapp Center.