Civil rights leader U.S. Rep. John Lewis will deliver the spring commencement address at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.

The commencement ceremonies will be Saturday, May 9, at the Greensboro Coliseum; the will begin at 8:30 a.m. During the event, Lewis will be presented the 2015 N.C. A&T Human Rights Medal, which is awarded annually to an individual who has strived to correct social injustice and has contributed significantly to the betterment of the world.

The award commemorates the actions demonstrated by four A&T freshmen—Ezell Blair Jr. (Jibreel Khazan), Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil and David Richmond Jr.—whose peaceful sit-in at a Woolworth’s lunch counter on Feb. 1, 1960, ignited a national sit-in movement. Lewis himself organized lunch counter sit-ins as a student at Fisk University in Nashville.

Lewis is recognized as one of the most courageous and effective leaders of the civil rights movement. At age 21, he was one of the original Freedom Riders in 1961. Two years later, he became nationally known as a leader of the civil rights movement for his role as an organizer and speaker at the March on Washington.

Lewis served as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee from 1963-66. He was an organizer of the Selma-to-Montgomery march for voting rights on March 7, 1965. Leading 600 marchers, he suffered a broken skull when police attacked the group on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

He continued his activism on voting rights into the 1970s. President Jimmy Carter named him director of ACTION, the federal volunteer agency, in 1977.

His career as an elected official began in 1981 when he was elected to the Atlanta City Council. First elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1986, Lewis has been called “the conscience of the U.S. Congress.” Today, he represents Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District, which covers much of Atlanta.

Lewis holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in religion and philosophy from Fisk, and he is a graduate of the American Baptist Theological Seminary. He has received many national and international honors, including the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor; the Capital Award of the National Council of La Raza; and the only John F. Kennedy “Profile in Courage Award” for Lifetime Achievement ever granted by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation.

He is the co-author of the bestselling and widely honored graphic novel trilogy, “March,” a memoir of the civil rights movement. He published his autobiography, “Walking With the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement,” in 1998.

Reflecting its commitment to collaboration with other universities and the Greensboro community, North Carolina A&T State University joined with its academic and local government partners April 7 in a groundbreaking at the Union Square Campus in downtown Greensboro.

Union Square’s first phase will be devoted to nursing and other health care professions.

N.C. A&T will locate its highly successful accelerated degree program in nursing and its RN-to-BSN program there.

Co-located with the A&T programs will be nursing programs from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Guilford Technical Community College and Cone Health. By housing the programs together, the four institutions can share lab space and equipment with significant cost savings.

“N.C. A&T was established in 1891 to prepare students for the careers of the modern day and the future,” Chancellor Harold L. Martin Sr. said at the event. “More than 124 years later, A&T is holding fast to that principle, and that is why our participation in this initiative is imperative.”

Union Square is the latest of A&T’s collaborations with other Greensboro-area institutions, UNCG in particular. A&T and UNCG created the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering, a graduate-level education and research institution. The two universities also created and operate the Gateway University Research Park. A&T and UNCG offer a joint master’s degree program in social work as well.

A&T’s 12-month accelerated nursing program serves students who want to become nurses and already have a bachelor’s degree in another discipline. The RN-to-BSN program is a bachelor’s degree program for registered nurses who have associate degrees. The School of Nursing plans to grow enrollment in both programs.

Union Square’s first building will be located at the corner of Lee and Arlington streets, about one and one-half miles southwest of A&T’s campus. The building will contain a state-of-the-art simulation lab, classrooms, other labs and offices. It also will include a 350-seat auditorium.

The estimated total value of the project is $37 million to $40 million. Completion is expected in August 2016.

The City of Greensboro contributed the land for the campus and will provide parking and streetscape improvements. Guilford County also is a partner through lease funding for GTCC.

Union Square Campus is an initiative of Opportunity Greensboro, a group of leaders from Greensboro businesses, foundations and higher education institutions, created by Action Greensboro.

Dr. Winslow Sargeant, former chief counsel for the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, will be the next featured speaker for the College of Engineering Dean’s Distinguished Speaker Series on Tuesday, April 14.

The position at SBA Office of Advocacy was a presidential appointment (2010-2015). Sargeant currently serves as managing director of Sargeant and Tlale LLC, a firm supporting investment and business development for early-stage growth companies in cybersecurity, energy, communications, capital formation and energy.

In his talk, Sargeant will discuss ways to institute policies and programs that support the development of an innovative ecosystem through entrepreneurship. Such policies will enable students, researchers and professors to participate in creating small innovative businesses that will grow, thrive, and create jobs by building the economy and a stronger America. Insights into the impact on academia will also be shared.

Sargeant served as managing director (2006 to 2010) for Venture Investors LLC, an early-stage venture capital firm in Madison, Wis. He also has served as program manager at the National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research Office (2001–05) and as an associate adjunct professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania (2000–05). He is a member of the board of trustees at the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

Sargeant earned his doctorate in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a master’s in electrical engineering from Iowa State University and a bachelor’s in electrical engineering from Northeastern University. He is a Kauffman Fellow (class of 2011).

The College of Engineering Dean’s Speaker Series brings speakers from industry, government and academia to speak about innovative advances and approaches anchored in engineering and computer science.

The event will be in McNair Hall Auditorium at 11 a.m. It is free and open to the public.

The third annual Earth Day Fashion Show and Food Drive will be held Thursday, April 23, at 6 p.m. in Harrison Auditorium. Doors will open at 5 p.m.

Come out and be amazed at garments student designers created from materials that are normally thrown away. Past shows have included fashions made of newspaper, plastics, cardboard, candy wrappers, bottle caps, bubble wrap, Styrofoam, aluminum cans, grass and tree leaves.

Along with dozens of student models, Chancellor Harold L. Martin Sr. will make his modeling debut during the show.

Cash prizes will be awarded to the winning designers. Additionally, the winning garment will be featured in Charlotte Fashion Week.

Tickets are available in advance at the N.C. A&T box office. General admission is $5. A&T students and employees with IDs can receive tickets in exchange for non-perishable food items or $1.

The general public is also urged to bring non-perishable food items when they purchase tickets at the box office. All food will be donated to Urban Ministries.

The Earth Day Fashion Show and Food Drive is sponsored by the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, the Fashion Merchandising and Design Program in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, and Sonoco, a proud member of the 2014/2015 Dow Jones Sustainability World Index.

The College of Engineering and the E-Academy at North Carolina A&T State University will host several science activities as part of the annual North Carolina Science Festival, April 10–26.

The statewide event showcases science and technology while engaging a wide range of public audiences through hands-on activities, science talks, lab tours, nature experiments, exhibits and performances. N.C. A&T engineering faculty members will present experiments for middle and high school students throughout the festival:

Wednesday, April 15, 6:30 p.m.
Donald McCoy will present “Science of Sensing the World Around You,” an exciting hands-on experiment designed for middle school students at Vance H. Chavis Library, 900 S. Benbow Road in Greensboro.

Thursday, April 16, noon–2 p.m.
Dr. John Kizito, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, will demonstrate how fluids behave in space. This activity will show how surface tension causes fluids to flow using two experiments known as “Capillary Action” and the “Penny Drop.” This activity will be in Cherry Hall, lab 111.

Monday, April 20, 8:30–11:30 a.m.
McCoy will present “Science of Sensing the World Around You” at Eaton-Johnson Middle School in Henderson, N.C.

Friday, April 24, 12:30–2 p.m.
Dr. Stephanie Luster-Teasley, associate professor in the Department of Chemical, Biological and Bioengineering, will present a chemistry demonstration teaching participants how to make their own silly putty polymer using glue and borax and biodegradable polymers using milk. This activity will be in Cherry Hall, lab 110.

Friday, April 24, 12:30 p.m.–2 p.m.
Dr. Narayan Bhattarai, assistant professor in the Department of Chemical, Biological and Bioengineering, will present a demonstration titled “Cotton Candy.” The exhibit will illustrate techniques used by scientist, researchers and engineers to aid physicians in treating diseased or damaged tissues. This activity will be in Cherry Hall, lab 111.

For more information about the N.C. Science Festival, visit www.ncsciencefestival.org. To view a list of activities, go to www.coe.ncat.edu, or contact Dr. Marcia Williams at 336-285-2640.