A USF researcher has received an almost half a million dollar state grant to continue studying a computer program, originally designed as a singing tutorial, that also helps struggling adolescent readers improve their comprehension and fluency. University Beat takes you to a Tampa elementary school where students are testing the product out and singing their way to better reading.

For more information:
Dr. Susan Homan, Professor of Literacy, USF College of Education
E-mail: homan@tempest.coedu.usf.edu
or 813-974-1059

Dr. Homan's webpage: http://www.coedu.usf.edu/main/departments/ce/homan.html

Electronic Learning Products or 1-888-357-8863

Electronic Learning Products' Chief Operating Officer Kenneth Spiegel explains how the "TUNEin to Reading" computer program actually started as a program to help people sing better.

Thanks to a new student-run organization, USF was one of almost two thousand schools and groups across the country that took part in "Focus the Nation." While the January event brought the discussion of global climate change into the classroom, USF also hosted a one-day symposium where researchers and students shared information and views with representatives from government and industry.

For more information:
Students for the Marketing & Advancement of Renewable Technologies (SMART)
E-mail: smart.usf@gmail.com
or 813-974-6614

Focus the Nation website: www.focusthenation.org

For more information:
Arts In Medicine, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center
813-745-8407

Arts In Medicine artist-in-residence Lloyd Goldstein, who left the Florida Orchestra after 21 years to join the AIM program, shares one of his favorite stories about how art can help a patient and his family.

Student with Hillary Clinton

Student with Mitt Romney

For more information:
Dr. Judithanne Scourfield McLauchlan, Department of Political Science, USF St. Petersburg
E-mail: jsm2@stpt.usf.edu
or 727-873-4956

Course Website: http://www.stpt.usf.edu/whitehouse/

This week's University Beat puts you right in the middle of USF's "Stampede of Service," a one-day service event that's part of the University's Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration. In just three years of existence, the Stampede has more than doubled in size, with over two thousand USF students lending a hand this year to more than forty organizations around Hillsborough County.

For more information:
USF Center for Civic Engagement & Volunteerism
E-mail: vservices@admin.usf.edu
or 813-974-5053

Website: http://ctr.usf.edu/volunteer/default.asp

For more information:
Ms. Clara Cobb, Coordinator, USF's Institute on Black Life
E-mail: ccobb@ibl.usf.edu
or 813-974-4727

Website: http://usfweb2.usf.edu/ibl/

USF's Sarasota-Manatee campus recently hosted world-renowned violinist and conductor Itzhak Perlman and his "Perlman Music Program." The two week Winter Residency, presented in conjunction with the Van Wezel Foundation, welcomed over thirty young, gifted musicians from around the globe for a series of classes and lessons, as well as recitals and performances that were open to the public. University Beat takes you to one of those concerts, and speaks with Maestro Perlman as well.

For more information:
Elizabeth Power, Grants & Perlman Music Program Manager, Van Wezel Foundation, Inc.
Website: www.vwfoundation.org
or 941-366-5578

Perlman Music Program website: www.perlmanmusicprogram.org

For more information:
Dr. Juel Smith, Executive Director, Women in Leadership & Philanthropy
E-mail: WomenLeaders@admin.usf.edu
or 813-974-9646

Women in Leadership and Philanthropy website: http://usfweb2.usf.edu/WLP/