Courtesy of New River Community College

A Volunteer Services mentor assists a New River Community College student with his coursework.

Officials hope a new mentoring program will boost student success at New River Community College.

The program, titled "Partners in Success," has been implemented as part of the Virginia Community College System's "Achieve 2015" strategic plan. New River is one of more than 20 community colleges in Virginia.

The program combines two other services, formerly known as academic assistance and retention services and volunteer services, according to a university news release.

Students may be referred by an instructor, or may refer themselves. After an evaluation, the student will be assigned a mentor who will help them set and achieve short- and long-term goals, the release said.

GREEKS

Organizations to perform service projects this fall

Registration is on for the annual Virginia Tech Greeks Giving Back service event in Blacksburg.

In-town home and business owners may request cleaning and similar work, which will be performed by teams of students from various Greek letter organizations on Oct. 2.

Organizers expect about 1,500 students to participate this year and to help town officials and the community by cleaning up graffiti, sweeping streets, picking up litter and other tasks.

The event was founded last year to boost the image of fraternities and sororities among the resident community, and to promote unity among the university's Greek organizations.

More information is available through the event's Facebook page: www.facebook.com/pages/Greeks-Giving-Back

New business faculty hired at New River Community College

Martinsville native James Lusk has joined the faculty of New River Community College's division of business and technologies.

He replaces longtime electronics assistant professor Mir Shirvani, who retired in May, the college announced.

Lusk attended Danville Community College and transferred to Old Dominion University, where he completed his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. He worked as a building contractor and a public school teacher before earning a master's degree in technology education from Virginia Tech, according to a college news release.

LECTURE

Visiting scholar to give talk on science journalism at Tech

John Carey, award-winning reporter and editor for magazines including BusinessWeek, The Scientist and Newsweek will be Virginia Tech's College of Engineering Visiting Scholar on Sept. 21 and 22, the university announced.

Carey will give a free public lecture titled "Why Scientists Should Help Stop the Decline in Journalism" on Sept. 21 at 4 p.m. in the on-campus Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science building on Stanger Street.

The visiting scholar program is funded by a gift from engineering alumnus Bob Jebson of Culpeper, a 1956 metallurgical engineering graduate and a member of the College of Engineering's Committee of 100, according to a university news release.

Carey was the senior correspondent for BusinessWeek from 1989 until this year, and was an associate managing editor of The Scientist from 1988 to 1989.

Over his more than 30-year career, Carey covered the first space shuttle missions, the Arkansas creationism trial, the start of the AIDS epidemic and new ideas about evolution.

He is the director of the Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award for young science journalists, and has won numerous science and medical writing awards.

New medical students start their studies

The Blacksburg campus of the Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine welcomed a new class of 189 students last month.

Of those, 37 percent were Virginia residents, according to a news release. Top feeder schools include Virginia Tech, the University of Virginia and Radford University, according to the release.

The doctor of osteopathy is similar to the more traditional allopathic, or M.D., degree and qualifies students to treat patients in hospitals and other traditional settings. Doctors of osteopathy complete extra studies in the musculoskeletal system and take a holistic approach to patient treatment.

The mission of VCOM is to produce more doctors willing to work in rural Appalachia and other areas experiencing medical shortages.

-- Tonia Moxley