When UGA mascot Hairy Dawg is jumping along the sidelines at UGA sporting events high-fiving fans and cheering on the team, the student inside the suit may be Joshua Whitlock (Junior, Child and Family Development).

Like other members of the cheering squad, Whitlock had to try out for Hairy Dawg. Once he was chosen, he also received a partial athletic scholarship and a stipend. In exchange, he stays in shape with nearly daily workouts and Saturdays spent on the sidelines cheering the Dawgs.

This is Whitlock's second year as Hairy Dawg, although last year his costume featured the UGA basketball uniform rather than the football attire he sports this year. Whitlock has been awarded the Karin Willis Scholarship which honors a student athlete in FACS.
 

Christi Thomas (Senior, Consumer Economics) is receiving a wealth of recognition as a result of her leadership on the U.S. Young Women's National Team, which defeated Brazil 71-55 in the gold medal game of inaugural World Championship for Young Women in Sibenik, Croatia.

Thomas was named to the all-tournament team after averaging 10 points and 7 rebounds in three medal-round games.

Thomas-a 6-foot, 5-inch forward/center from Buford-is also among 30 leading, pre-season candidates to be considered for the Naismith Award as the National Player of the Year as well as for the inaugural John R. Wooden Award for women's basketball.

The Wooden Award already is widely known as the most coveted individual honor in men's college basketball by recognizing the nation's best player at an institution of higher education who is making progress toward graduation and maintaining a cumulative 2.0 grade point average.

In addition to basketball, Thomas also stays busy with other aspects of college life. During the summer she worked as an orientation leader in the FACS Office of Student Services as well as being a part of an outreach project that involved working with a total of 1,800 middle and high school 4-H students who visited the University of Georgia.
 

Family-Centered Project Receives $4 Million Grant

CFD faculty members Gene Brody and Velma McBride Murry have received $4.2 million from the National Institutes of Mental Health for a "developing center grant" focusing on family-centered intervention for mental health in rural African-American families. The project will include other UGA faculty members as well as colleagues at Fort Valley State University. The project will focus on piloting the research design and work toward becoming a full-fledged center.

National Food Preservation Center Receives Grant

A $540,000 grant to the National Center for Home Food Preservation will provide the funds necessary for the first revision in a decade of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's guide to home canning and allow development of a series of videos to educate the public how to safely preserve foods. "In addition to these two major projects, we'll also continue to update our website and maintain a small, applied research program that allows us to continue testing recipes for new products, such as for salsas and flavored vinegars," said Elizabeth Andress (Professor, Foods and Nutrition), who directs the center. The National Center for Home Food Preservation was established four years ago with funding from the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service of the USDA, which has also provided the continuing funding.

CFLP Expands to 21 Counties

Michael Rupured (Extension Financial Management Specialist) has received $500,000 to allow the Consumer Financial Literacy Program to expand to an additional 10 counties, which means low-income working families in 21 of Georgia's poorest counties are now receiving education on how best to manage their financial resources.
 

An interactive CD that has allowed teachers to reduce disruptive behavior in their classrooms by as much as 65 percent has been recognized by the seventh annual Excellence in E-Learning Awards competition.

PEGS!-Practice in Effective Guidance Strategies was developed by researchers at the Developmental Therapy-Teaching outreach unit of the College of Family and Consumer Sciences in cooperation with LetterPress Software, an instructional design and e-learning technology company.

The CD is designed for teachers to use on their own to learn how best to decrease problem behavior among students and to increase classroom participation. Teachers who have used the program said the CD was an excellent way to learn on their own. Using the skills they learned on the CD, preschool teachers reported a 64 percent decrease in disruptive behavior. Elementary school teachers reported a 55 percent decrease in disruptive behavior, and middle and high school teachers reported a 28 percent decrease.

The E-Learning Awards competition is the nation's oldest program honoring companies for effective use of new multimedia technologies to improve learning. The competition has three categories-Best Practices, Innovative Technology, and Custom Content. PEGS! received the silver award in the Custom Content category.