The Division of Community Affairs’ Office of Global Engagement will host a reception to honor visiting Fulbright scholars on June 5 from 5:00–6:30 p.m. in Capital Hall. Visiting scholars are from Indonesia, Panama, Russia, Mali, Iraq, Madagascar, Bahrain, South Korea, Burma (Myanmar), Argentina, West Bank, Japan, Slovenia, Angola, Egypt, Spain, Ukraine and Morocco.

Swim to the Top is scheduled to take place June 5–29 at the Barnes Branch YMCA and Tuscaloosa’s PARA Freeman Pool. New to 2023, this year will include adult swim lessons and health screenings for families. Skilled swimmers from the oldest age group will also be invited to serve as junior instructors.

Vision Days was awarded the Extending the Dream Grant from the Southern Association for College Admission Counseling to use for high school transportation cost coverage with support from UA Admissions. Vision Days was also invited to participate in early May college and career readiness events at Amelia Love Johnson High School, Francis Marion High School, and the Robert C. Hatch Community Center in Uniontown. More than 150 high school juniors and seniors and their family members attended. Five UA undergraduate students have been invited to serve as Vision Days Ambassadors for the 2023–2024 school year.

STEM Entrepreneurship Academy (SEA) begins July 9–14, on the UA campus. Participants include 35 rising junior and senior high school students, recruited primarily from Vision Days schools and from connections on the New Faculty Community Engagement Tour.

BLAST Academy (Building Leaders Through the Arts, STEAM and Teamwork) will return for the second summer in a row July 3–28, on the UA campus. As of May 16, more than 225 children have registered for BLAST. This includes children from Bibb, Hale, Lauderdale, Pickens and Tuscaloosa Counties, as well as from the city of Tuscaloosa. BLAST was recently awarded the Dollar General Literacy Foundation Summer Reading Program Grant to support Developing Reading Skills through Arts Literacy in the BLAST Academy.

Congratulations to BOA member Kendra Key. Key, who is also Regions Bank senior vice president, was recently selected to lead Regions’ Birmingham Black-Owned Business Initiative.

The upcoming NFL draft has drawn BAMA folks to Kansas City this week, but one — BOA member Ryan Davis (aka Kadesh Flow) — won’t have to go far to find the spotlight. He and three of his fellow KC hip-hop artists will perform at Friday night’s City Market Red Zone Concert in the famed commercial and entertainment district north of downtown.

Congratulations to BOA member Terri Brewer. The United Way of West Alabama recently announced its 2023 campaign chair, board of directors and campaign cabinet. Brewer will serve on the campaign cabinet, representing Tuscaloosa County Schools.

Congratulations to BOA President Samarria Munnerlyn Dunson. Dunson was selected as an Alabama Law Foundation Fellow. The selection committee extends this invitation to exceptional lawyers who have demonstrated a steadfast commitment to improving their communities and the state and invites no more than 1% of Alabama bar members to join.

Congratulations to BOA member Kyle Buchanan. Buchanan, president of Helen Keller Hospital, was recently appointed to the University of North Alabama (UNA) Board of Trustees. The Tuscumbia native earned his undergraduate degree from The University of Alabama and now lives in Muscle Shoals with his wife and two children.

As BOA members are also UA graduates, we know how invaluable your experience as UA alumni has been. If you have not already done so, please consider participating in your local alumni chapter.