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Listening to ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ head football coach Pete Lembo speak at the weekly "Inside the ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ Huddle" luncheon on Monday, you'd think that Saturday's matchup against the Richmond Spiders is just another game.

Luminarias bathed the ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ campus in a soft yellow glow Thursday evening as students, faculty, staff and community members filled Scott Plaza for the annual Holiday Celebration and lighting ceremony, which featured Christmas carols and a visit from – who else? – Mr. and Mrs. Kris Kringle.

ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ senior Avra Stackpole received a highly competitive White House internship for spring semester 2010. Her work in the Department of Scheduling and Advance Planning will begin next month.

When independent college adviser and Charlotte Observer columnist Lee Bierer received a reader email with a delicate question on the admissions process, she turned to Greg Zaiser, dean of admissions at ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ, who provided a lengthy answer quoted in full in a story posted Nov. 30 on the newspaper's web site.

ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ senior receiver Terrell Hudgins has been named as one of three finalists for the 2009 Walter Payton Award, presented annually to the top offensive player in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision. Hudgins is joined as a finalist by 2008 winner Armanti Edwards of Appalachian State and Southern Illinois’ Deji Karim.

ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ remains the nation’s top-ranked master’s-level university for study abroad programs in the 2009 Open Doors report by the Institute of International Education.

A philosophy class at ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ is teaming up with Allied Churches of Alamance County the weekend before Thanksgiving to build replacement bunk beds for the nonprofit on North Fisher Street in Burlington.

To many Americans, healthy living involves counting calories, watching medical segments on the morning news, or drinking diet soda. Health elsewhere on the planet takes a more active approach, according to ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ senior Ryan Bleam, the third student to be featured in a monthly series of E-net profiles on the inaugural class of Lumen Scholars.

The Pendulum, ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ's weekly student newspaper, received a 2009 national Pacemaker Award from the Associated Collegiate Press on Oct. 31 at the organization's joint conference with College Media Advisers in Austin, Texas. The Pacemaker is the highest honor ACP gives to its members.

Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine has ranked ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ among the nation’s top 50 best values in private higher education and the #2 university in total costs, a distinction published in the magazine’s December edition. The 2009-10 ranking is the fourth consecutive top-50 placement of ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ by Kiplinger’s.