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Encouraging current students to hone their pitch skills, pop-up pitch participants will be asked to highlight a problem and solution that apply to one of West Virginia Forward’s three main areas of focus: business, education or human capital. In addition to the pop-up pitch, current LaunchLab clients will showcase their ideas and innovations to the audience. This allows pop-up pitch participants and spectators to better understand the resources, connections and successes that the LaunchLab offers.

The WVU Center for Excellence in Disabilities will hosting its first all-inclusive fundraising event - Run, Walk or Roll. Events at the WVU Coliseum include a 5K run, a relay track event, a one-mile fun walk and a kids 100-meter dash. People are encouraged to make their own teams and come out to help the CED expand services to individuals with disabilities and their families in West Virginia.

West Virginia University will host professor Dariusz Stola, the director of the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews, for his lecture, “Polin: A Museum of Jewish Life at a Site of the Holocaust." Co-sponsored by WVU alumni of the former Jewish fraternity Pi Lambda Phi and the Office of the Provost, the lecture references the museum’s location within the walls of the former Warsaw ghetto.

Chemistry can be an intimidating subject since the concepts are literally microscopic. That’s why the Principles of Chemistry course at the West Virginia University Eberly College of Arts and Sciences is making chemistry cool by holding an ice cream-making contest.

The success of a trade deal to replace NAFTA will be measured by the positive gains experienced by all partners, according to West Virginia University associate professor of political science Christina Fattore – not how much the U.S. gains compared to its partners. She calls a congratulatory phone call from President Donald Trump to Mexican President Pena-Nieto “a bit premature” and contends many US-based industries will be worse off with this revamped deal.

West Virginia University experts Erin McHenry-Sorber and Matthew Campbell say that WVU can be a key player in solving the teacher shortage crisis, which has several causes including higher salaries and different hiring timelines in bordering states and the rural nature of most West Virginia school systems.

Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign manager, was convicted today (Aug. 21) on eight federal felonies— five counts of tax fraud, one count of failing to report foreign bank accounts and two counts of bank fraud. West Virginia University expert Erik Herron (political science) says the Manafort convictions and Michael Cohen’s guilty pleas may “connect the dots” of Russian interference in the 2016 election, while Anne Lofaso (law) says the Manafort trial will play a historical role in how the Trump presidency is perceived when time gives us distance and objectivity.

The Art Museum of WVU will celebrate three years since its opening with a variety of activities for the whole family and access to the museum’s exhibitions.

As another general election looms in November, the threat of outside interference in U.S elections remains a concern for many Americans. While there are advocates of returning to a paper —and thus, hack-proof—ballot, West Virginia University expert Saiph Savage is researching the option of blockchain to verify voting results. Blockchain stores digital data that cannot be altered once it is received and uses biometrics as a security measure to validate votes.

As the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin’s music was woven into the tapestry of the American experience, the “emotional depth” of a country struggling with racial divides and the emergence of women demanding respect and equal rights. West Virginia University’s Travis Stimeling says with Franklin’s range of genres—from gospel and jazz to country—she earned her place as a “masterful interpreter of songs.”