Sean Rafferty

When Sean Rafferty arrived at Fairmont State University as a freshman in 2011, he knew two things for certain: he was going to major in Political Science and he wanted to join Student Government.

A ribbon cutting ceremony on Tuesday, Oct. 29, celebrated the renovation and expansion of the Starbucks located inside the Ruth Ann Musick Library on the shared main campus of Fairmont State University and Pierpont Community & Technical College.

As the semester winds down, the 2013-2014 Student Government is just getting started. The executive officers will be busy this summer preparing for a new year of Firsts.

Nineteen Fairmont State University students will witness an important moment in American history by participating in a 10-day academic seminar in Washington, D.C., focusing on the U.S. Presidential Inauguration.

A team of Fairmont State University students traveled to Washington, D.C., earlier in December to present their comparative research tourism as part of the 2012 ARC Appalachian Teaching Project. Their project focused on the exploration of conflict and poverty in relationship to community sustainability and economic stability between Northern Ireland and North Central West Virginia through heritage tourism.

As part of the Introduction to Global Perspectives course, which offers students a chance to familiarize themselves with cultures and concepts outside their own, 11 students and two instructors from Fairmont State University spent their spring break in Canada. This trip, which offered many students their first international experience, was funded by a grant from the Consortium for Internationalizing Higher Education, part of the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission.