First Lady Visits Tucson, Praises Students for Healthy Initiatives
First lady Michelle Obama arrived at the Tucson International Airport on Monday, where she was greeted by youth volunteers of Tucson Village Farm, a University of Arizona run urban farm that teaches youth how to grow their own food and make healthy life choices. She was also greeted by Haile Thomas, 11, who promotes healthier lifestyles as founder of the Healthy Girls Adventures club and Youth Advisory member for the Alliance for a Healthier Generation. (Will Ferguson/Daily Wildcat)

First lady Michelle Obama came to Tucson Monday to meet with local students as part of her effort to promote healthy lifestyles.

Obama spoke with elementary school, middle school and college students who volunteer at Tucson Village Farm [part of the University of Arizona College of Agriculture and Life Sciences' Pima County Extension] as well as some members of 4-H, a youth organization administered by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture. According to the volunteers, she asked what they did on the farm, what vegetables they liked and what they wanted to be when they grew up.

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Arizona's Greenspace Honored
All the olive trees on the western part of campus are included as heritage trees, and the oldest are north of the Arizona State Museum. Planted by Robert Forbes in the late 1800's, they were part of his trials of arid lands crop plants brought to Tucson from around the world. (Photo courtesy Campus Arboretum)

The Nebraska-based Arbor Day Foundation has named the University of Arizona a 2011 Tree Campus USA school in honor of the UA's "commitment to effective community forestry management." The UA has garned the award for three straight years.
 
Tanya Quist, an assistant professor of practice in the School of Plant Sciences and director of the UA Campus Arboretum, will receive the award, which is sponsored by Toyota.
 
The Arbor Day Foundation said the UA achieved the designation by meeting its five core standards required for sustainable campus forestry: a tree advisory committee, a campus tree-care plan, dedicated annual expenditures for its campus tree program, an Arbor Day observance and the sponsorship of student service-learning projects.

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Center Awarded for Safer, More Sustainable Pest Management

Arizona Pest Management Center Director Peter Ellsworth discusses the outcomes of integrated pest management practices with growers in a cotton field. (Photo: APMC)

For its leadership role in making pest control more ecologically friendly and less dangerous to human health, the Arizona Pest Management Center at the UA College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has been awarded the Gold Tier Shining Star Award by the Environmental Protection Agency.

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Select Faculty Honored as Outstanding Teachers
Thomas Wilson, lecturer in the Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science,

The University of Arizona Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost and the UA Foundation are honoring associate professor Laura Gutiérrez, senior lecturer Lester I. McCann, associate professor Vicente Talanquer and lecturer Thomas Wilson for their outstanding achievements in teaching.
 
These honors include the Henry and Phyllis Koffler Prize awarded to Talanquer for his contributions to the department of chemistry and biochemistry; the UA Foundation Leicester and Kathryn Sherrill Creative Teaching Award honoring McCann in the department of computer science; and the Provost's General Education Teaching Award honoring Wilson in the department of soil, water and environmental science and Gutiérrez for her work in the department of Spanish and Portuguese.

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