Articles

Northern Michigan University celebrates forty students who received an Excellence in Education Research Award. This award includes $1,500 and a one-credit tuition scholarship when the students enroll in a grant-required course that is directly related to their research project. 

Northern Michigan University will host the annual New Business Venture Competition, an event that includes a trade show, a business after hours event as well as “Shark Tank” pitch competitions: the Mini Pitch and the Big Pitch. The New Business Venture Competition begins at 2 p.m. on April 21, at Forest Roberts Theatre. 

Northern Michigan University will host a NMU Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble Concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 10 at Reynolds Recital Hall. Admission is free. 

The Northern Michigan University Celebration of Student Scholarship will be held on April 14 on the NMU campus and online. The annual event recognizes the academic contributions of undergraduate and graduate students in all disciplines. Students share their work with the NMU and Marquette communities by presenting research posters, recording oral presentations, and submitting creative written work, and artwork. 

Northern Michigan University alumnus Nick VanCourt is one of six inaugural winners of the Traverse Magazine Tastemakers of the Year Awards, which celebrate “six innovators who are changing the food and beverage conversation in northern Michigan.” The 2004 media production and new technology graduate is brewer and superior saisonnier at Barrel + Beam Brewery in Marquette, which he co-owns with his wife and 2003 NMU speech communication alumna, Marina Dupler.

Northern Michigan University alumnus and former Wildcat football player Jim Mansfield has found retirement fulfillment in his role as a volunteer blood courier in Spokane, Wash. The 84-year-old loves to drive and it shows. Mansfield has logged more than 256,000 road miles delivering life-saving blood to rural hospitals over two decades of volunteer service.

Northern Michigan University social work students recently had a rare opportunity to participate alongside faculty members and community clinicians in a full-day Assessing and Managing Suicide Risk (AMSR) training on campus. One of the students used her AMSR handbook earlier this week to identify the level of risk for one of her teenage clients at her field placement location.

Northern Michigan University undergraduate students are participating in cutting-edge chemistry research with Professor Yu "Leo" Liu, who is among 14 faculty members nationwide recently awarded two-year summer research grants from Organic Synthesis Inc. His project advances “green chemistry” by eliminating the use of metal-based catalysts. Instead of organic solvents, it carries the catalytic reactions in a more environmentally friendly solvent: water.

Marcus Robyns began his collegiate studies as a secondary education social studies major at the University of Oregon, yet he felt a personal sense of dissonance while pursuing that field. While organizing an undergraduate history club, he discovered there was a university archive and arranged a tour. When the archivist showed him a menagerie of old artifacts representative of the school's history, he said, “You work with all this stuff? Are there jobs in this field?” 

Northern Michigan University Alumni Relations will continue its Northern Now digital event series with a family-friendly book reading with author, TikTok influencer and alumnus Mylan Murphy '12, '14. He will begin by reading his motivational children's book, It Only Takes 1, which tells his story of becoming an entrepreneur at the young age of 13. Murphy will also answer questions about being a TikTok influencer, building his Motivated by Mylan brand, and how to overcome challenges along the way.