Outreach & Community Engagement

Students gather around the table on Sanford Mall during the 2023 Community FEaST. Photo by Chase Reynolds

October 8: 2025 Community FEaST
Sep 2, 2025

2025 Community FEaSTWednesday, October 8, 2025, from 4:30-6:00 p.m.Sanford Mall, Appalachian State UniversityBOONE, N.C. — AppalFRESH, the Appalachi...

Dr. Julie Shepherd-Powell

From one mountain community to another: App State professor delivers warmth to Qwaqwa [faculty featured]
Aug 27, 2025

A spirit of international collaboration and heartwarming generosity filled the air on the Qwaqwa Campus as Prof Julie Shepherd-Powell, ...

A band competes against more than 100 others in the bluegrass band competition during the 89th Annual Old Fiddler's Convention on Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025, at Felts Park in Galax, Va. Photo by Allison Isley for NPR

Old Fiddler's Convention is pushing 90 and keeping mountain music alive [faculty featured]
Aug 20, 2025

GALAX, Va. — Ellie Massey, 13, stands inside a giant, yellow tent with dozens of other contestants and practices singing the gospel tune, "I'll Fly ...

People enjoying Guy Ford River in Sugar Grove on July 26, 10 months after Hurricane Helene hit the area. Photo by Emma Green

Stories in the mud: Boone’s rivers after Helene [student featured]
Aug 19, 2025

Hurricane Helene hit Western North Carolina Sept. 27 with three days of heavy rain, permanently altering the infrastructure and geography of the ...

A Foster Grandparent Program volunteer assists a child with reading.

Foster Grandparent Program seeks volunteers to support Lucy Brock Child Development Lab partnership
Aug 13, 2025

BOONE, N.C. — Appalachian State University's Foster Grandparent Program is partnering with the Lucy Brock Child Development Lab to provide inte...

The Center for Appalachian Studies at Appalachian State University

Center for Appalachian Studies holds winter coat drive through August 4
Jul 18, 2025

BOONE, N.C. — In an ongoing partnership with the University of the Free State in South Africa, Appalachian State University's Center for Appala...

App State environmental science majors Kyia Wing, a senior from Suwanee, Georgia, left, and Kaden Cusack ’25, an App State alumnus from Cary, take a close look at the new boulder donated to the university’s rock garden by Albemarle Corp. Cusak graduated from App State in May, earning his bachelor’s degree in environmental science. Photo by Chase Reynolds

Rock garden and lab expanded at App State after Helene cleanup
Jul 2, 2025

BOONE, N.C. — Appalachian State University’s Fred Webb Jr. Outdoor Lab and Rock Garden — a resource for geology students, researc...

Susan Keefe, Pegge Laine, Carolyn Grimes, Roberta Jackson and Lynn Patterson discussed the recent projects of the Junaluska Heritage Association. Photo by Nick Fogleman

Library celebrates the Junaluska Heritage Association [faculty featured]
Jul 2, 2025

BOONE — The annual Friends of the Watauga County Library celebration featured a panel discussion centered on two recently published books about Boon...

Tucker Terrell ’25, who graduated from App State in May with a bachelor’s degree in geology-environmental geology, far left, shows community members where a single headstone was located by App State researchers trying to determine the position of grave sites in an area formerly covered with brush behind the Fort Defiance site in Caldwell County. Photo by Bret Yager

App State researchers uncover hidden history at Fort Defiance
Jun 23, 2025

BOONE, N.C. — In a newly discovered graveyard at Fort Defiance in Caldwell County, an interdisciplinary effort led by Appalachian State Un...

App State senior Devin Axtell, a biology major from Baldwin, Florida, prepares a meal for the student group participating in the spring 2025 Restoration and Exploration at the Coast Alternative Service Experience at Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge in South Carolina. Axtell was one of two peer leaders on the trip. Photo by Kyla Willoughby

App State students help restore national wildlife refuge as part of Alternative Service Experience
Apr 30, 2025

BOONE, N.C. — Each spring break, college students from across the nation head to the beaches to enjoy a week off from school — but for many Appala...