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A variety of new and traditional activities will be featured as part of Black Awareness Month celebrations at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Events scheduled to take place during February include gospel festivals, a Heritage film series, poetry nights, an African market place and a soul food fest. Organizers believe students, staff, faculty and community members will be enriched by the activities.

The University of Colorado at Boulder will be the site for the 22nd Annual Big 12 Conference on Black Student Government Feb. 19-21. More than 1,000 students are expected to attend. Formerly known as the Big 8 Conference, this year marks the first time that students from Texas colleges will be attending. The conference serves as a forum to address problems, concerns and ideas of black students attending Big 12 universities.

The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Resource Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder will host a youth visit on Monday, February 15. The program, CU OUT on Campus, is designed to encourage high school students to pursue a college education.

In case of overflow attendance at the Feb. 3 lecture of deep-sea explorer Robert D. Ballard, a live video link will be set up in the University Memorial Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Ballard, who discovered the sunken Titanic, the Bismarck and the Yorktown, will give a free illustrated lecture on "Deep Sea Explorations" at 8 p.m. in Macky Auditorium on the CU-Boulder campus. The public is invited to attend and no tickets or advance reservations are required for the 34th George Gamow Memorial Lecture.

How do you ask your boss for a raise? Why should you care about state politics? What are the rights and responsibilities of an ethical businessperson? WouldnÂ’t it have been nice if someone would have taught you these things? ThatÂ’s what the University of Colorado at Boulder will try to accomplish as it kicks off its pilot program in workplace readiness. The effort to meet increasing demands in todayÂ’s complex workplace begins February 3.

Nine students from the University of Colorado at Boulder have received scholarships to study in other countries this spring. The scholarships were awarded by the Study Abroad Office at CU-Boulder and the Colorado Commission on Higher Education (CCHE). They will help cover expenses in the Study Abroad program for Colorado residents who are underrepresented on the Boulder campus because they are ethnic minorities or are from the state's rural areas.

Approximately 100 graduates of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder were initiated into the Phi Beta Kappa scholastic honorary organization this winter. Phi Beta Kappa taps the top 6 percent of graduates receiving degrees each year in the liberal arts. The minimum grade-point average is 3.65. The Phi Beta Kappa Society was founded in 1776 at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va., and has 250 chapters nationwide. CU-Boulder's Alpha Chapter, the first in Colorado, was chartered in 1904.

A University of Colorado at Boulder journalism professor has been elected to a top position in AfricaÂ’s largest communication education organization. Polly McLean, associate professor of journalism and mass communication, was elected to the executive committee of the African Council for Communication Education (ACCE). She is the first non-African born member of the ACCEÂ’s highest governing body.

EDITORS: Reporters are invited to attend the Virtual Chautauqua press conference at 10 a.m. Friday, Feb. 5, at the Colorado Council on the Arts. Project organizers and funding agency reps will be available. The Virtual Chautauqua web site will be accessible Friday at www.artscomm.org/virtualchautauqua .

The Success in Engineering through Excellence and Diversity program, formerly known as the Minority Engineering Program or MEP, has received national recognition in a new book written by William Bowen and Derek Bok, former presidents of Princeton and Harvard universities, respectively.