The 19 incoming freshmen who are involved in NUOP have been participating in a five-week summer program designed to integrate them into college life, introduce them to college coursework and reading, writing and study skills, and promote personal growth.

As part of the program, twice – on July 22 and 28 – the students volunteered at the Heart, Love and Soul food pantry in downtown Niagara Falls. There, the newest members of the NU community prepared and served lunch, assisted in the soup kitchen and played bingo with guests.

Then, on the afternoon of July 31, the same students presented posters at NU that showcased research they conducted on Hurricane Katrina. The project was inspired by their reading of Zeitoun, a nonfiction book that tells the story of Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a Syrian-American who traveled the flooded streets of New Orleans to help displaced residents in the days following the storm.

NUOP is designed for students who have the potential for and interest in furthering their education but are not admissible under Niagara University’s standard admissions criteria. The ultimate goal of the program is to make higher education possible for students who are both academically underprepared and economically disadvantaged. NUOP is funded jointly by the University and the New York State Arthur O. Eve Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP).

To view additional photos from Heart, Love and Soul and/or the poster presentations, please visit NUOP’s Facebook page.

For more information on the Niagara University Opportunity Program, please contact Lisa A. Rivera at 716.286.8064 or ude.aragainnull@nossawl.

The display, titled “Becoming Authorities on their Reading through Public Poster Presentations,” illustrates an assignment that Green’s students complete in her combined reading and writing course, Critical Literacy (CRL 101). After reading “high-interest” books, students design posters and present them to the campus community. The approach is intended to encourage students to read more actively and carefully so that they are able to respond to questions about their books and posters.

Since 1976, the National Association for Developmental Education (NADE) and its members have helped learners at all levels of preparedness realize their full academic potential. The NADE seeks to improve the theory and practice of developmental education at all levels of the educational spectrum, the professional capabilities of developmental educators and the design of programs to prepare developmental educators.

The series begins on March 24 with a discussion of Escape from Slavery by Francis Bok. A former Sudanese slave, Bok details his 10 years of enslavement, during which he endured regular beatings and ridicule, before his eventual escape.

On April 21, Holocaust Remembrance Day, “All But My Life,” the memoir of Gerda Weissmann Klein’s six-year ordeal as a victim of Nazi cruelty, will be discussed. The book was the basis for HBO’s Academy Award-winning documentary “One Survivor Remembers.”

Warriors Don’t Cry, Melba Pattillo Beals’ story of integration as one of the “Little Rock Nine,” will be discussed on May 12. Beals’ memories of the time were so painful, she could not write about them until nearly 40 years later.

The final discussion will be held on June 23. Romaine Patterson’s book “The Whole World Was Watching: Living in the Light of Matthew Shepard” will be the topic. Patterson’s book describes the 1998 hate crime near Laramie, Wyo., and her creative and brave public response to it at the trial of Matthew Shepard’s killers. For more information, call 716.754.4720 or visit www.lewistonpubliclibrary.org/events.htm