When the pandemic hit, some people turned to baking bread, binge-watching Netflix or endlessly scrolling through TikTok.
University of Northern Iowa doctoral student Glynis Worthington decided to enter a beauty pageant.
It was just the latest in a lifetime of unconventional but successful choices for Worthington, a 59-year-old Cedar Falls resident with a strong aversion to boredom. She beat out competitors decades younger to win the Mrs. Iowa crown last month.
Belinda Creighton-Smith has never let adversity stand in her way. To become a pastor, community leader and inspiration to many on campus, she’s had to overcome the death of her son during her graduate studies and five-hour commutes to start her education.
She now has a doctorate in education and is taking her determination to a new role in her fight for diversity on campus at UNI, as a member of UNI President Mark A. Nook’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Advisory Committee.
Under the shade of a tree in a courtyard of Bartlett Hall, a group of masked students sat in a widely spaced semicircle of chairs arrayed around a podium where University of Northern Iowa languages and literature professor Grant Tracey gave a lecture for his Introduction to Film course.
Extension cords snaked across the grass to power a television Tracey used to show film clips and lecture slides. A microphone carried his voice to students in the back.
Elected five years ago as the first African-American mayor in Waterloo’s 147-year history, UNI graduate Quentin Hart has focused ever since on building bridges.
As the oldest literary magazine in the nation, the North American Review (NAR) has published work from acclaimed authors of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Its most recent project is the publishing of Stellaphasia, the final poetry collection of a recently passed University of Northern Iowa alumnus.
Washington, DC – In recent years, climate surveys and research studies have demonstrated a critical need to prioritize the mental health of postsecondary students, but little information exists about programs and services designed to address the needs of master’s and doctoral students. The University of Northern Iowa is pleased to endorse the recent work by the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) and The Jed Foundation (JED) to address this issue.
Paige Mathews always knew she wanted to help others. She was pursuing a nursing degree when she unexpectedly discovered her true calling while taking a prerequisite athletic training class.
“I went in and I thought, ‘I’m just gonna’ go and tape some ankles and watch people on the sidelines. It’s gonna’ be so boring,’” said Mathews, now in her second year of graduate studies in UNI’s athletic training program. “Now, I’m still surprised every day of what athletic trainers can do.”
Every semester, the Department of Communication Studies hosts student and faculty performances in its Interpreters Theatre, located on the University of Northern Iowa's campus in Lang Hall. These performances range from one-person shows to full-cast plays and give students the chance to write, direct, and act in a black box theatre.
As one of the top performance studies programs in the U.S., UNI also sends faculty and graduate students to performance festivals and conferences around the country, and this spring semester was no exception.
It was the middle of the afternoon when Phales Milimo saw a pregnant woman go into labor and collapse on the sidewalk.
She was in the Sinazongwe District in southern Zambia, just a five-hour drive from her hometown of Lusaka, the country’s bustling metropolitan capital. Technically, she hadn’t left her country, but it felt like she was in a different world.
