Virginia Arata left Mobile after high school, then returned to the University of South Alabama for a degree in hospitality and tourism management. Now she’s starting her career on Alabama’s Eastern Shore as a beverage supervisor at the Grand Hotel Golf Resort & Spa. Family history plays a part in her career path. Arata’s grandfather, […]

Tiffany Pogue describes her life as a journey and her education as a process that pulls her in different directions. She’s an artist and a poet. She’s a voting rights advocate who hosts open mic nights for local nonprofits. She’s critiques conventional wisdom in business, politics and culture. “I’m definitely rebellious,” she said. “I question […]

On hot summer nights in West Texas, with her eyes wide and heart racing, Grace Coppinger learned how to capture rattlesnakes. She joined Dr. Jason Strickland, a biology professor at the University of South Alabama, and two graduate students on a field trip near Big Bend National Park. After sundown, they drove through the desert looking for […]

When Kim Lawkis looks at Arlene Mitchell and Camille Bonura, she recognizes the long line of women students, professors and administrators who helped build the University of South Alabama. Mitchell is the first woman to serve as chair pro tempore for the USA Board of Trustees, while Bonura is the fifth female in a row to […]

The Gulf Coast Student Symposium challenged more than 400 engineering students from 15 universities with everything from concrete canoe races and surveying tests to construction, transportation and coastal erosion projects. One event – the bridge-building competition – had special significance for Dr. Eric Steward, associate dean in the College of Engineering at the University of South Alabama. “For 12 […]

After two years of classroom work in the College of Nursing at the University of South Alabama, Alli Boudreaux can’t wait to begin clinical courses and gain practical experience. “I feel like my nursing education is just starting,” she said. “Until now, it’s been strictly bookwork. I’m just getting to the part where it’s hands-on.” Boudreaux has […]

Margaret Bradford, a graduate student in accounting at the University of South Alabama, looks forward to tax season. That’s when she and other students help people file electronic tax returns. They’re part of a nationwide program called VITA, Volunteer Income Tax Assistance. Students gain accounting experience, while clients get free help with their forms. Bradford, the site […]

The University of South Alabama will be awarded up to $2 million from the Alabama STEM Council to make it easier for students pursuing STEM majors – those in science, technology, engineering and mathematics – to earn teacher certifications and begin careers in education. The UTeach South program will target a shortage in mathematics and science teachers with […]

Dr. Khaldoon Nusair, the new department head for Hospitality and Tourism Management at the University of South Alabama, made his reputation as one of the most-cited marketing scholars in the world. He taught and did research in the Rosen College of Hospitality Management at the University of Central Florida, one of the largest programs in the country. After eight years in […]

University of South Alabama researchers began work this semester on a three-year study that examines the relationship between social media use and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among African American communities in Alabama. South students and faculty will do interviews and surveys in Mobile County, while their counterparts at Tuskegee University will be doing the same in […]

Dr. Kern Jackson, director of the African American Studies Program at the University of South Alabama, served as co-writer and co-producer of “Descendant,” the Africatown documentary that has won fans and wowed audiences at film festivals across the country. He appears in the film, too, but those aren’t his favorite scenes. “What tickles me is seeing storytellers […]

Dr. John Lehrter and the University of South Alabama School of Marine and Environmental Sciences will play a lead role in a $3.1 million project to study water and sediment quality along the Alabama Gulf Coast. The three-year program will be funded by the Alabama Gulf Coast Recovery Council with money from the BP oil spill settlement. […]

Andy Scott hadn’t even graduated from the University of South Alabama when he started his first graphic design business. Identity Signs. He worked from the back of his dad’s car lot in Mobile. Even then, doing computer-generated signs and banners, he admired the old-fashioned craft of lettering by hand. “It’s not perfect, you know?” said […]

Less than a year after work on the Great Red Snapper Count, which changed the way scientists estimate fish populations in the Gulf of Mexico, Dr. Sean Powers of the University of South Alabama is leading a “Dream Team” of researchers in an $11.7 million study of the greater amberjack species. The Greater Amberjack Research […]

Each month, Dr. John Lehrter and his South graduate students collect water samples throughout Mobile Bay. They test for temperature, pH, salinity and oxygen levels. They look for changes or patterns that might indicate environmental stresses such as hypoxia, acidification and global warming. “We’ve had lots of rainfall this year,” said Lehrter, a professor in […]

Angelo Bautista always wanted to become a pilot, even as a little boy growing up in the Philippines, but he studied nursing at the University of South Alabama. “It was my dad’s idea,” he said. “He said you’re going to need a bachelor’s degree anyway, so why not get something as a backup?” Bautista graduated in 2009 […]

When Gayle Shaffer left the Midwest for college on the Gulf Coast, it didn’t take long for her to discover Southern hospitality at the University of South Alabama. “I felt at home immediately,” she said. “You couldn’t walk across campus without every single person you passed saying ‘Hey.’ I loved it. I made some friends […]

Chris Phengsisomboun grew up in the Vietnamese fishing community of Bayou La Batre, where the families of war refugees worked and sacrificed to build better lives for their children. He remembers his grandparents coming home reeking of shrimp from the packing house. He remembers the community reeling from Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the Deepwater […]

Raghad Sultan came to Mobile all the way from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, but her family forms a long line of Jaguars at the University of South Alabama. Eleven years ago, her brother, Mohanned, graduated in electrical engineering. One of her sisters, Rahaf, studied respiratory therapy, while the other, Moroj, majored in marketing. And her cousin, […]

The University of South Alabama will begin a new era of coastal education and research with a newly created School of Marine and Environmental Sciences. Plans call for new undergraduate and graduate programs to complement the existing degrees that have been offered by the department of marine sciences. “We can make a much larger impact by […]

From a Grand Bay bedroom decorated with posters from forensic TV shows such as “Bones” and “Dexter,” Olivia McCarter spends long hours on her laptop working to identify people and solve crimes. Though just a sophomore at the University of South Alabama, where she’s studying anthropology and criminal justice, the 19-year-old is a senior intern with a Massachusetts company […]

When Dr. Ronnie Baker returns to the Galapagos Islands as part of ongoing research project with the University of South Alabama, he’ll bring along a dozen underwater cameras and a plan for surveying the waters surrounding one of the most remote and unique ecosystems on the planet. “What I’d like to do is look at […]

On a glorious fall afternoon — their favorite time of the year — Louis and Melinda Mapp pull up a pair of rocking chairs on the front porch of their Fairhope home. They sit down to trace a family history that begins with business roots in Mississippi and ends with hospital philanthropy in Alabama. Both […]

Dr. Saeed Latif and a group of engineering students at the University of South Alabama are preparing to explore space with a satellite project called SWARM-EX. The plan is to launch three identical CubeSats – miniaturized, light-weight and low-cost satellites – to form a small constellation orbiting around the Earth. The satellites will feature new […]