Maya Smolcic of Troy is among 51 WKKF-WW Michigan Teaching Fellows who will each receive $30,000 to complete a specially designed master's degree program based on a yearlong classroom experience. In return, Fellows commit to teach for three years in Michigan's high-need urban and rural secondary schools. The 2013 class is Michigan's third group of Fellows for this program, launched by the Kellogg Foundation in 2009 with $18 million in support and administered by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation in Princeton. The program ultimately will provide more than 100,000 students with the level of instruction they need to contribute and thrive in Michigan's rapidly changing economy and workforce.

The Michigan Shakespeare Festival is taking shape for an upcoming season with a variety of productions scheduled including "Twelfth Night," "King John" and "She Stoops to Conquer." Founded in 1995, the nonprofit festival employs nearly 25 theater professionals and has an operating budget of about $200,000. It began with productions outdoors, but since 2004 has found its home in the 403-seat Potter Center on the Jackson Community College campus. Many of the artists, including artistic director Janice Blixt, have come through the Hilberry graduate theater program at Wayne State University.

Two months ago, Wayne State University student Charles Molnar only wanted to put his benches - made of reclaimed wood from demolished homes in the Detroit area and packed with books to read - at city bus stops for residents waiting for their rides. But Detroit Department of Transportation (DDOT) officials said they would remove any benches placed at bus stops because they hadn't been approved by the city. Undeterred, Molnar kept building and kept placing benches at several stops around the city. DDOT's position drew support for Molnar's initiative - along with orders for benches and anything else he could make from the reclaimed wood. Molnar said he's met with city engineers, who gave him regulations for installing benches and paperwork for maintenance, for which he'll be responsible. The spike in demand meant Molnar needed to recruit others to help with the orders. So far, eight benches have been built and placed at city stops.

The third class of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation's Woodrow Wilson (WKKF-WW) Michigan Teaching Fellows, announced yesterday, will bring both cutting-edge preparation and real-world expertise in math and science to Michigan's high-need urban and rural schools. This year's 51 WKKF-WW Michigan Teaching Fellows -- among them an engineer who helped design a semi-autonomous car, an ornithologist who teaches at a local nature center, a professional pilot, a college economics instructor and more -- will each receive $30,000 to complete a specially designed, cutting-edge master's degree program based on a year-long classroom experience. In return, Fellows commit to teach for three years in Michigan's high-need urban and rural secondary schools.

Sports columnist Terry Foster wrote a feature about the remodeling project of Wayne State's baseball field and renaming to Ernie Harwell Field. Rob Fournier, Wayne State University athletic director, describes the project which has generated $234,000 of the $550,000 needed to complete Phase I. "It creates uniqueness for our baseball program," Fournier said of the stadium, which is patterned after New York's Ebbets Field, where Harwell broadcasted games for the Brooklyn Dodgers. "What you have is that nostalgia or that connection to a different era." "Think about it," Fournier said. "(Harwell) was at your family outings. And he was the background to the family barbecue. When he talked about the foul ball going into the stands and talked about the fan from Escanaba, Allen Park or Hamtramck catching the ball, you would say, 'Darn, how did he know that person?' "But you knew he knew everybody, even if he did not know the person. He had that kind of credibility."

A new study from neuroscientists at the Wayne State University School of Medicine provides the first novel insights into the neural origins of hot flashes in menopausal women in years. The study may inform and eventually lead to new treatments for those who experience the sudden but temporary episodes of body warmth, flushing and sweating. The paper, "Temporal Sequencing of Brain Activations During Naturally Occurring Thermoregulatory Events," by Robert Freedman, professor of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences, founder of the Behavioral Medicine Laboratory and a member at the C.S. Mott Center for Human Growth and Development, and his collaborator, Vaibhav Diwadkar, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences, appears in the June issue of Cerebral Cortex, an Oxford University Press journal. "The idea of understanding brain responses during thermoregulatory events has spawned many studies where thermal stimuli were applied to the skin. But hot flashes are unique because they are internally generated, so studying them presents unique challenges," said Freedman, the study's principal investigator. "Our participants had to lie in the MRI scanner while being heated between two body-size heating pads for up to two hours while we waited for the onset of a hot flash. They were heroic in this regard and the study could not have been conducted without their incredible level of cooperation."

Wayne State University and the American Civil Liberties Union have opened a new civil rights clinic in Detroit. It'll give students some hands-on experience handling cases dealing with issues such as voting rights, immigration, juvenile justice, women's rights, and free speech. David Moss, director of clinical education at Wayne Law was interviewed by WDET's Pat Batcheller.

The Patent Procurement Law Clinic at Wayne State University Law School gives students interested in patent law a major advantage, according to local attorneys practicing in the intellectual property field. "Wayne Law has the only patent procurement clinic in Michigan, so if you want to be a patent attorney, you have to look at Wayne Law first," said patent attorney Christopher Darrow, who earned his law degree at Wayne Law in 2000 and his master of laws in intellectual property law at George Washington University in 2004. He also was instrumental in developing the patent clinic last year at Wayne Law, which is the only school in Michigan - and among only 25 law schools nationwide - chosen by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a participating patent clinic certified for the office's pilot program.

A new website is available to keep supporters of Wayne State's Transition to Independence Program (TIP) apprised of opportunities to support the university's foster youth. The website, www.tipwaynestate.org, provides comprehensive information on the year-old program, which is funded by a contract from the Michigan Department of Human Services and administered by the WSU School of Social Work. Visitors to the site can learn about the program's mission, administration and governance, community partners and resources, as well as opportunities to provide financial, material, or volunteer support. The new website includes resources for current and prospective program participants, including information on program eligibility, financial aid and scholarships, child care, vocational training, and other forms of support. It also includes research on foster youth and education by TIP Director and Assistant Professor of Social Work Angelique Day, one of the most published experts in this emerging field.

The office of Community Engagement@Wayne is hosting its annual College JumpStart program. The free program takes place July 14-20, 2013, and is designed to expose underrepresented students to higher education and career paths. Sixty ninth and 10th graders from metropolitan Detroit will spend a full week living and learning on the campus of Wayne State University. "We hope the experience we provide to these young students will help them see the tremendous possibilities that exist when they attend a university like Wayne State," said Jerry Herron, dean of the Irvin D. Reid Honors College. "We're looking forward to having them on campus as our guests."

Kami Pothukuchi, associate professor of urban planning and market director for Wayne State University's Wednesday Farmer's Market, was a guest on CBS's "Street Beat" to talk about bringing fresh fruit to city residents and the SEED Wayne program.

To commemorate the 125th anniversary of the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association, the NCAA has given the association an exhibit at the NCAA Hall of Champions in Indianapolis, which will run until Sept. 30. The Hall of Champions' theater includes a 10-foot canvas poster of Wayne State diver Paige Kortman's appearance on the cover of the NCAA Champions magazine. Kortman is a former Holland High School diver who won an NCAA Division II national championship this season.

A photo is featured of Wayne State University business students who traveled to Poland in June as part of a study abroad program.

Lawrence Horn was appointed chairman of the Wayne State University School of Medicine's Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Detroit Medical Center-Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan. Horn has served as interim chairman since mid-2010.

A federal Department of Education list shows Michigan's universities aren't squeezing students' wallets as much as other schools across the nation. The rankings, found through the government's College Affordability and Transparency Center, rate every institution in the nation on tuition cost and net price. Michigan finished near the bottom of the pack when looking at how much the net price of college increased from 2009-10 to 2010-11, the years covered by the new report. Net price takes the sticker price of college and then deducts the average financial aid award. From 2009-10 to 2010-11, the net price at Michigan's public universities dropped 1.9 percent. Last year's report showed Michigan with a 2.2 percent average increase in net price. Michigan was one of nine states with a decline in the new report. Administrators at Michigan's universities said the drop reflects more money being pumped into financial aid, despite annual increases in tuition. In net price, Western Michigan University came in at 97th, University of Michigan in Ann Arbor came in at 114th, Michigan State University at 232nd and Wayne State University at 374th. A total of more than 650 four-year universities were listed.

The Southeast Michigan Purchasing Managers Index dropped sharply in June, to 49.2, after having reached a six-month high of 61.2 in May. The 12 point drop is reportedly due to a decrease in the New Orders Index (from 68.0 to 47.6), Finished Goods Inventory Index (from 44.0 to 33.3) and the Employment Index (from 66.7 to 57.1). "This is the first time since August 2012 that the Southeast Michigan PMI has fallen below 50. It's likely the drop is only temporary and may simply be reflective of a "leveling out" of the prior months' activity," said Timothy Butler, associate professor of supply chain management at Wayne State's business school. "PMI values above 50 generally indicate an expanding economy, and the three month average remains favorable at 55.2." Southeast Michigan Purchasing Managers Index dropped sharply in June - Michigan Chronicle Online

A Wayne State University researcher is using a tiny worm to better understand how human physiology and behavior are affected by the environment. In studying the worm C. elegans, Joy Alcedo, assistant professor of biological sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, recently found that the animals' sensory neurons affect lifespan through recognition of food types, which include different bacteria. Her team also found that those neurons act with a neuropeptide receptor similar to one existing in humans. Neuropeptides are small proteins released from neurons that regulate important biological processes by activating receptor proteins and their signaling cascades. Expressed in both the sensory system and the reproductive system, they found that this particular neuropeptide receptor influences the C. elegans' lifespan in a manner dependent on the outer structure of the worm's live E. coli food source. "Environmental cues, like the type of food source, level of food intake or various forms of stress, have been shown to influence lifespan," Alcedo said. "These different cues presumably modulate the activities of different signaling pathways that have previously been shown to affect longevity."

The Wayne State University School of Social Work this month is teaming up with the College of Education and the Merrill Palmer Skillman Children's Institute to give youth aging out of the foster care system critical work experience as they transition to independence. Under the federal Workforce Investment Act Year-Round Youth Program administered by the Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation, 20 youth ages 16 through 24 will be employed on Wayne State's campus from July 8-Aug. 18 as research, administrative or human services assistants, each assigned to one of the three university partners. Working 20-hours a week for $7.50 an hour, youth participants will be mentored and supervised by faculty and staff, gain valuable job skills and references, and hopefully set their sights on a college career.

IAV Automotive Engineering, Inc. is investing in student programs that help to cultivate the next generation of ambitious and dedicated engineers, and promote the importance of science, technology engineering and math education. One key initiative IAV supports is the Wayne State University College of Engineering's EcoCAR 2 project, a three-year program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and General Motors, that provides engineering students the opportunity to gain real-world experience in developing energy-efficient vehicles in a competitive setting. Of the 15 teams competing, WSU is the only university from Michigan participating. In addition to increasing fuel economy and reducing emissions, students also must maintain the performance and safety of the vehicle, a 2013 Chevy Malibu. The 48-member WSU team has seen significant improvement from the first year competition to this year, jumping four spots to eighth place.

Egypt is on edge after the military issued an ultimatum to President Mohammed Morsi and the opposition to resolve their dispute by Wednesday or have the army step in. Saeed Khan, an expert on Near East history, politics, and culture at Wayne State University, spoke with WDET's Pat Batcheller about what's at the heart of the dispute, and whether it can be resolved without military intervention.