NIU Today

The 2011 Outstanding Women Student Awards have been presented to 48 women from across all disciplines at Northern Illinois University and representing undergraduates, graduate students and law students. NIU’s Presidential Commission on the Status of Women gave out the awards during its April 17 reception on campus. The recognition program was created in 1980 and is held annually to:...

More than 100 Northern Illinois University students are headed for warmer climes during the university’s upcoming spring break, but their main objective isn’t to soak up rays on the beach. Instead, they’ll be working with the poor in West Virginia, building homes for Habitat for Humanity in Florida and Tennessee, helping victims of Hurricane Katrina...

Gather your teams and find your work gloves: Online registration for the annual NIU Cares Day begins Tuesday, Feb. 1. This year, the army of volunteers from the NIU community will fan out Saturday, April 16, to paint, rake, clean sweep and repair agencies’ buildings and yards. If the turnout is anything like last year’s,...

NIU’s office of Student Involvement and Leadership Development is offering three separate destinations for students interested in participating in Alternative Spring Break trips next March. Students can help rural Kentucky residents renovate their homes, tend to wildlife in Oklahoma or help children in Louisiana. Whatever the students decide, they will feel accomplished, connected and a...

Students interested in Alternative Spring Break have more opportunites to learn about the trips and fundraising. Informational sessions are scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 12, and Tuesday, Oct. 19, in the Lincoln Hall Commons (Tower A). A fundraising seminar will take place at 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 21, in the Douglas Hall Smart Classroom. Past Alternative...

For the first time, NIU and 10 other universities in Illinois will be part of the national Students in Service program, which matches students with local not-for-profit groups in need of volunteers. NIU will send nine undergraduate and graduate students into the part-time volunteer workforce to do such things as work in food pantries, soup...

NIU is never short on volunteers or projects to keep them busy. Every spring and fall, hundreds of students donate time at animal shelters, community food pantries, nursing homes and schools, and this year should be no different. “Students who volunteer and expect nothing in return are hardcore volunteers,” said Becky Harlow, assistant director of Student...

NIU’s Alternative Spring Break program is scheduled for the week of March 14 in 2011. Three to four groups of students travel to different locations in the country and focus on community work pertaining to a specific social issue, including disaster relief, poverty, homelessness and more. Informational sessions are scheduled at 2 p.m. Monday, Sept,...