LEARNING PARTNERS. A $3.5 million federal grant has been awarded to Mountain View College and UT Arlington to fund a proposed partnership to help low-income Hispanic students pursue teaching and nursing careers. The grant is designed to help future Hispanic teachers and nurses complete their lower-division course work at Mountain View College and move toward UT Arlington’s baccalaureate programs. “The support of this grant will help us in fulfilling the community’s need for learning opportunities in these top professions, which are in high demand,” said Mountain View College President Felix A. Zamora. The U.S. Department of Education approved the Title V Hispanic Serving Institutions Program cooperative partnership grant award for a five-year term.

STUDYING THE LOTTERY. The Texas Lottery Commission selected the School of Urban and Public Affairs to conduct the most recent demographic study of Texas Lottery users. “Our selection reflects confidence by the commission and the Legislature in our ability to successfully conduct and complete this important public policy study,” said SUPA Dean Richard Cole. Approximately 2,000 Texans participated in the survey, which is designed to determine who plays the lottery games, how frequently they play and how much they spend. A report will be issued this year and presented to the Texas Lottery Commission and the Texas Legislature. Dr. Cole and staff assistant Robert Wilkins were the principal investigators for the report.

HIGH GEAR. The Formula SAE racing team won first place in the FSAE class at the Sports Car Club of America’s Solo II National Competition in Kansas in October. Mechanical and aerospace engineering graduate student Erick Kohler’s first-place time was four seconds faster than any other driver and earned him the SCCA’s Bob Woods Cup for the second year in a row. The cup is named for the UT Arlington mechanical and aerospace engineering professor who was instrumental in developing the Formula SAE competition. Student teams design, build and drive open-wheeled race cars in a series of challenges.

TALKING IN TURKEY. Marketing Associate Professor Mark Peterson has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to teach marketing classes and conduct consumer research for five months at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey. A member of the UT Arlington faculty since 1996, Dr. Peterson’s dissertation on emotional response to television advertising won the Academy of Marketing Science’s Alpha Kappa Psi Award. He and his family left for Turkey in January. Established in 1946, the Fulbright is the U.S. government’s flagship international exchange program.

MAKING THEIR MARK. Renegade, UT Arlington’s student-produced magazine, was named one of the top three college magazines in the nation in the recent Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence judging announced in Las Vegas. The honor marks the second time in Renegade’s three-year history that it has either won or been a finalist for the award. Mark Roberts, a photographer with the student newspaper, The Shorthorn, won first place in feature photography for photos of the 2004 Oozeball tournament. Former Shorthorn photographer Brandon Wade was a finalist in news photography. The Shorthorn and Renegade were the only Texas publications honored by SPJ at its national convention in October.

IN THE ZONE. The School of Urban and Public Affairs received the 2005 Student Project Award in October from the Texas Chapter of the American Planning Association. Nominated by Farmers Branch, the project involved a comprehensive zoning ordinance assessment for the North Texas city. The APA is a nonprofit public interest and research organization representing 37,000 planners, officials and citizens involved with urban and rural planning issues.