Hello, During the UAFS Day of Giving, Thursday, April 28th, I and many others are asking for your support for programs which encourage cooperation with our community, engaging students with the world, and helping them to reach their academic and personal goals. Specifically, Read This! has provided many unique opportunities on our campus and in the area to bring authors and their works to more people. Read This! encourages people to read, discuss, investigate, and share literature. Read This! and other departmental initiatives at UAFS have brought national and international authors in fiction and nonfiction to our area such as Tim O'Brien, Eva Korr, Billy Collins, Temple Grandin, Chris O'Dell, Amy Tan, M. Scott Momaday, David Grann, and many more. Students, faculty, and the general community have benefitted from in-depth lectures, workshops, and activities with these authors and about their work through the support of people like you. Your contributions are much appreciated and we encourage all to continue to support financially and with your input and attendance that promote opportunities for UAFS students and the community. Kevin L. Jones, Ph.D. Professor of English

Hello Reader Lovers! I am the co-chair of the ReadThis! Committee for this academic year and I ask that you consider donating $25 dollars or more to support our ReadThis! programming for the next year. It costs between $20,000 to $40,000 to bring a nationally recognized writer to campus. This year we read Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann! We have not selected the book for next year, but it will surely encourage students, faculty, staff, and community members to engage in meaningful conversations. The ambassador with the most donors at the end of the day will receive $500 from the UAFS Foundation that they can designate to any department/fund on campus! I plan to use this extra $500 to support another passion of mine: The Gender and Intersectional Feminism Brown-Bag Series. This year’s Day of Giving will take place on Thursday, April 28 (our beloved mascot Numa’s birthday). Please remember to make your donation by then. Thank you for supporting literacy in the River Valley!

Read This is a program very dear to my heart. I have been at UAFS since 2010, but I have been on the Read This committee since 2015. I have co-chaired with Drs. Cammie Sublette, Christian Gerard, Keith Fudge (who started the whole thing), and currently, Svetla Dimitrova! Through this program, we have been able to read so many interesting books, bring in so many amazing speakers, and most of all, create fun experiences with students and connect with so many dynamic people in the community. These are all priceless. We have spent years doing a lot with very little; however, we can't do what we do without the help of our sponsors. To find out more about Read This, feel free to contact me at ann-gee.lee@uafs.edu or follow us on Facebook at UAFS Read This to see all of our previous events: https://www.facebook.com/uafsreadthis

This year’s Day of Giving will take place on Thursday, April 28 (our beloved mascot Numa’s birthday). Our Day of Giving is an opportunity for projects and departments on campus to create unique experiences for our students that couldn’t happen without the support of our alumni and friends. Please consider becoming an ambassador for our cause and donating to impact our students’ experiences. Already an ambassador? Check out our Toolkit (which will become available on April 14) for ideas, graphics, and tutorials on how to help your project succeed!

This year’s Day of Giving will take place on Thursday, April 28 (our beloved mascot Numa’s birthday). Our Day of Giving is an opportunity for projects and departments on campus to create unique experiences for our students that couldn’t happen without the support of our alumni and friends. Please consider becoming an ambassador for our cause and donating to impact our students’ experiences. Already an ambassador? Check out our Toolkit (which will become available on April 14) for ideas, graphics, and tutorials on how to help your project succeed!

Read This is a community-wide literacy program that aims to select thoughtful books and provide programming about diverse communities around us and bring to light important social issues that foster discussion and mutual understanding. This year’s Day of Giving will take place on Thursday, April 28 (our beloved mascot Numa’s birthday). Our Day of Giving is an opportunity for projects and departments on campus to create unique experiences for our students that couldn’t happen without the support of our alumni and friends. Please consider becoming an ambassador for our cause (Read This!) and donating to impact our students’ experiences. Already an ambassador? Check out our Toolkit (which will become available on April 14) for ideas, graphics, and tutorials on how to help your project succeed!

This year’s Day of Giving will take place on Thursday, April 28 (our beloved mascot Numa’s birthday). Our Day of Giving is an opportunity for projects and departments on campus to create unique experiences for our students that couldn’t happen without the support of our alumni and friends. Please consider becoming an ambassador for our cause and donating to impact our students’ experiences. Already an ambassador? Check out our Toolkit (which will become available on April 14) for ideas, graphics, and tutorials on how to help your project succeed!

This year’s Day of Giving will take place on Thursday, April 28 (our beloved mascot Numa’s birthday). Our Day of Giving is an opportunity for projects and departments on campus to create unique experiences for our students that couldn’t happen without the support of our alumni and friends. Please consider becoming an ambassador for our cause and donating to impact our students’ experiences. Already an ambassador? Check out our Toolkit (which will become available on April 14) for ideas, graphics, and tutorials on how to help your project succeed!

Help me to raise money for the Read This program at UAFS, supporting literacy both on campus, but also to the Fort Smith Community! Your donation will go to benefit the program by helping to purchase books for students and support programs that coincide with the book themes on an annual basis.

The UAFS Read This program has enriched my life and the lives of my students, friends, and colleagues in so many ways. I have been part of this program since it began at UAFS, and nothing I've done at UAFS has been more fulfilling (which is saying a lot, given all this wonderful campus offers). Having a single book around which we, as a campus and community, can come together and share ideas has been energizing and humbling on so many levels. One year our indigenous students and communities joined us for campus events centered around N. Scott Momaday's House Made of Dawn, and another year our community had the collective inspiration of sharing in the wonder that is Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven, a novel rich with hope for humanity, even in the darkest times. In our second year of programming, our community members filled every seat in our auditorium for a talk given by Eva Kor, a survivor of the Holocaust who spoke to us about forgiveness. Two years later, while on the UAFS campus, Temple Grandin talked to local 4H students and future educators for hours, signing books for students and community members alike until not one, not two, but three sharpies ran dry and every person in line had a signed book. The year after Temple Grandin came to our campus, Amy Tan visited UAFS when we read her incredible novel The Joy Luck Club, and while with us, Tan rolled ink in our campus letterpress, elbow to elbow with some of our students and faculty as they printed beautiful broadsides with her words and their art. Most recently, after our campus and community read David Grann's Killers of the Flower Moon and hosted Grann on campus, some of our faculty and students painted a beautiful mural in our writing center, with the powerful message "The Written Word Remains." Indeed, in a world with so much ephemera, the written words that our community has shared and celebrated through the Read This program have forged powerful and lasting ties. This program has given so much to our community over the years, so I hope you'll join me in giving back to it.

Read This is a community-wide literacy program that aims to select thoughtful books and provide programming about diverse communities around us and bring to light important social issues that foster discussion and mutual understanding. About our Project The Read This program is a multidisciplinary literacy program, which originated in the English Department and has extended throughout UAFS and the community. We provide programming relevant to the selected book. Read This is a great way to bring our students together with the community while also covering important social issues to help us all be more culturally aware. Such lessons and interactions can help make our university and community better citizens and human beings. Funds will be used to invite off-campus guest speakers or towards the expenses associated with author visits; prizes for writing/art contests or other projects or activities; printing and advertising costs, and many more possibilities. Our Books & Authors Testimonials "Bringing a community together to discuss a book/topic creates opportunities for new and different ideas and perspectives to be discovered and discussed." ― Rene Wilson Myers, Scott-Sebastian Regional Library "What draws me most to the Read This Program is the tremendous respect I have for all the research that goes into creating a book like Killers of the Flower Moon. Not only do we gain knowledge from reading the book, but we also get to participate in many fun and interesting events. I have learned many fascinating facts about my hometown Fort Smith through the book launch. Book club is a great place to not just learn about the book but for fellowship and friendship. I highly recommend getting involved in Read This!" ― Joshua Hawk Hays, Computer Graphic Technology-Architectural Follow us on Social!

Read This is a community-wide literacy program that aims to select thoughtful books and provide programming about diverse communities around us and bring to light important social issues that foster discussion and mutual understanding. About our Project The Read This program is a multidisciplinary literacy program, which originated in the English Department and has extended throughout UAFS and the community. We provide programming relevant to the selected book. Read This is a great way to bring our students together with the community while also covering important social issues to help us all be more culturally aware. Such lessons and interactions can help make our university and community better citizens and human beings. Funds will be used to invite off-campus guest speakers or towards the expenses associated with author visits; prizes for writing/art contests or other projects or activities; printing and advertising costs, and many more possibilities. Our Books & Authors Testimonials "Bringing a community together to discuss a book/topic creates opportunities for new and different ideas and perspectives to be discovered and discussed." ― Rene Wilson Myers, Scott-Sebastian Regional Library "What draws me most to the Read This Program is the tremendous respect I have for all the research that goes into creating a book like Killers of the Flower Moon. Not only do we gain knowledge from reading the book, but we also get to participate in many fun and interesting events. I have learned many fascinating facts about my hometown Fort Smith through the book launch. Book club is a great place to not just learn about the book but for fellowship and friendship. I highly recommend getting involved in Read This!" ― Joshua Hawk Hays, Computer Graphic Technology-Architectural Follow us on Social!

Read This is a program that greatly enhances student learning at UAFS. Through the efforts of Read This, world famous authors have traveled to Fort Smith to speak to our students. Additionally, these authors give a talk that the entire community can attend. This allows everyone the opportunity to hear best selling authors, including Amy Tan, David Grann, Luis Alberto Urrea, Emily St. John Mandel, Tim O'Brien, and others, discuss their work. In my classes, I see first hand how the Read This program inspires students to write while helping them connect to cultures and experiences different from their own. Please consider supporting this program so that Read This can continue its outreach to UAFS students and the River Valley community.

This year’s Day of Giving will take place on Thursday, April 28 (our beloved mascot Numa’s birthday). Our Day of Giving is an opportunity for projects and departments on campus to create unique experiences for our students that couldn’t happen without the support of our alumni and friends. Please consider becoming an ambassador for our cause and donating to impact our students’ experiences. Already an ambassador? Check out our Toolkit (which will become available on April 14) for ideas, graphics, and tutorials on how to help your project succeed!

This year’s Day of Giving will take place on Thursday, April 28 (our beloved mascot Numa’s birthday). Our Day of Giving is an opportunity for projects and departments on campus to create unique experiences for our students that couldn’t happen without the support of our alumni and friends. Please consider becoming an ambassador for our cause and donating to impact our students’ experiences. Already an ambassador? Check out our Toolkit (which will become available on April 14) for ideas, graphics, and tutorials on how to help your project succeed!

I am helping out UAFS team "Read This" in their fundraising efforts. Reading is very important to me, and I appreciate all this team does for the community. I have participated in many of their projects...reading the assigned award winning books, attending discussion groups, as well as the author events where the books' authors are flown in to speak! This is the group that brought us Temple Grandin and so many other notable authors! This year’s Day of Giving will take place on Thursday, April 28 ( UAFS mascot Numa’s birthday). Our Day of Giving is an opportunity for projects and departments on campus to create unique experiences for our students that couldn’t happen without the support of our alumni and friends. Please consider becoming an ambassador for our cause and donating to impact our students’ experiences. Already an ambassador? Check out our Toolkit (which will become available on April 14) for ideas, graphics, and tutorials on how to help your project succeed!

This year’s Day of Giving will take place on Thursday, April 28 (our beloved mascot Numa’s birthday). Our Day of Giving is an opportunity for projects and departments on campus to create unique experiences for our students that couldn’t happen without the support of our alumni and friends. Please consider becoming an ambassador for our cause and donating to impact our students’ experiences. Already an ambassador? Check out our Toolkit (which will become available on April 14) for ideas, graphics, and tutorials on how to help your project succeed!

This year’s Day of Giving will take place on Thursday, April 28 (our beloved mascot Numa’s birthday). Our Day of Giving is an opportunity for projects and departments on campus to create unique experiences for our students that couldn’t happen without the support of our alumni and friends. Please consider becoming an ambassador for our cause and donating to impact our students’ experiences. Already an ambassador? Check out our Toolkit (which will become available on April 14) for ideas, graphics, and tutorials on how to help your project succeed!

This year’s Day of Giving will take place on Thursday, April 28 (our beloved mascot Numa’s birthday). Our Day of Giving is an opportunity for projects and departments on campus to create unique experiences for our students that couldn’t happen without the support of our alumni and friends. Please consider becoming an ambassador for our cause and donating to impact our students’ experiences. Already an ambassador? Check out our Toolkit (which will become available on April 14) for ideas, graphics, and tutorials on how to help your project succeed!

This year’s Day of Giving will take place on Thursday, April 28 (our beloved mascot Numa’s birthday). Our Day of Giving is an opportunity for projects and departments on campus to create unique experiences for our students that couldn’t happen without the support of our alumni and friends. Thank you so much for your support for our students! Success is just not just because of one person, but because of a team. It is because of you that we are able to be successful!

This year’s Day of Giving will take place on Thursday, April 28 (our beloved mascot Numa’s birthday). Our Day of Giving is an opportunity for projects and departments on campus to create unique experiences for our students that couldn’t happen without the support of our alumni and friends. Please consider giving to support the Read This! program and help us reach our goals!

This year’s Day of Giving will take place on Thursday, April 28 (our beloved mascot Numa’s birthday). Our Day of Giving is an opportunity for projects and departments on campus to create unique experiences for our students that couldn’t happen without the support of our alumni and friends. Please consider becoming an ambassador for our cause and donating to impact our students’ experiences. Already an ambassador? Check out our Toolkit (which will become available on April 14) for ideas, graphics, and tutorials on how to help your project succeed!

This year’s Day of Giving will take place on Thursday, April 28 (our beloved mascot Numa’s birthday). Our Day of Giving is an opportunity for projects and departments on campus to create unique experiences for our students that couldn’t happen without the support of our alumni and friends. Please consider becoming an ambassador for our cause and donating to impact our students’ experiences. Already an ambassador? Check out our Toolkit (which will become available on April 14) for ideas, graphics, and tutorials on how to help your project succeed!

When I was in school, I was not an avid reader. Now, I always have a book going and read all different genres. This has made me interested in bringing the joy of reading to others. As part of this interest, I have joined the Read This program at UAFS and am an ambassador for this year's Day of Giving. The Read This program has brought several guest speakers to the campus in conjunction with reading one of their books. These books often touch on a social topic such as autism, Holocaust survivors, and murder of indigenous peoples for their oil rights. We have had Eva Kor, Amy Tan, Temple Grandin, and, just this year, David Grann. These speakers help to bring the topic to life and to provide insight into their methods to help future writers. These programs are not only open to students, faculty, and staff of the university, but also to the community. To have a program like this and to bring in speakers takes money. Speakers can charge anywhere from $15,000 and up. Please help this program by donating to our program. This year’s Day of Giving will take place on Thursday, April 28 (our beloved mascot Numa’s birthday). Our Day of Giving is an opportunity for projects and departments on campus to create unique experiences for our students that couldn’t happen without the support of our alumni and friends.

Read This is such an awesome program! I have gotten to meet so many amazing authors and hear them talk about their craft, hear their stories first-hand, and see how the community gets involved with their stories, not to mention my students. Please help us bring even more wonderful people here to talk to the community! Read This is a community-wide literacy program that aims to select thoughtful books and provide programming about diverse communities around us and bring to light important social issues that foster discussion and mutual understanding. About our Project The Read This program is a multidisciplinary literacy program, which originated in the English Department and has extended throughout UAFS and the community. We provide programming relevant to the selected book. Read This is a great way to bring our students together with the community while also covering important social issues to help us all be more culturally aware. Such lessons and interactions can help make our university and community better citizens and human beings. Funds will be used to invite off-campus guest speakers or towards the expenses associated with author visits; prizes for writing/art contests or other projects or activities; printing and advertising costs, and many more possibilities. Our Books & Authors Testimonials "Bringing a community together to discuss a book/topic creates opportunities for new and different ideas and perspectives to be discovered and discussed." ― Rene Wilson Myers, Scott-Sebastian Regional Library "What draws me most to the Read This Program is the tremendous respect I have for all the research that goes into creating a book like Killers of the Flower Moon. Not only do we gain knowledge from reading the book, but we also get to participate in many fun and interesting events. I have learned many fascinating facts about my hometown Fort Smith through the book launch. Book club is a great place to not just learn about the book but for fellowship and friendship. I highly recommend getting involved in Read This!" ― Joshua Hawk Hays, Computer Graphic Technology-Architectural Follow us on Social!

This year’s Day of Giving will take place on Thursday, April 28 (our beloved mascot Numa’s birthday). Our Day of Giving is an opportunity for projects and departments on campus to create unique experiences for our students that couldn’t happen without the support of our alumni and friends. Please consider becoming an ambassador for our cause and donating to impact our students’ experiences. Already an ambassador? Check out our Toolkit (which will become available on April 14) for ideas, graphics, and tutorials on how to help your project succeed!

This year’s Day of Giving will take place on Thursday, April 28 (our beloved mascot Numa’s birthday). Our Day of Giving is an opportunity for projects and departments on campus to create unique experiences for our students that couldn’t happen without the support of our alumni and friends. Please consider becoming an ambassador for our cause and donating to impact our students’ experiences. Already an ambassador? Check out our Toolkit (which will become available on April 14) for ideas, graphics, and tutorials on how to help your project succeed!

This year’s Day of Giving will take place on Thursday, April 28 (our beloved mascot Numa’s birthday). Our Day of Giving is an opportunity for projects and departments on campus to create unique experiences for our students that couldn’t happen without the support of our alumni and friends. Please consider becoming an ambassador for our cause and donating to impact our students’ experiences. Already an ambassador? Check out our Toolkit (which will become available on April 14) for ideas, graphics, and tutorials on how to help your project succeed!

This year’s Day of Giving will take place on Thursday, April 28 (our beloved mascot Numa’s birthday). Our Day of Giving is an opportunity for projects and departments on campus to create unique experiences for our students that couldn’t happen without the support of our alumni and friends. Please consider becoming an ambassador for our cause and donating to impact our students’ experiences. Already an ambassador? Check out our Toolkit (which will become available on April 14) for ideas, graphics, and tutorials on how to help your project succeed!

This year’s Day of Giving will take place on Thursday, April 28 (our beloved mascot Numa’s birthday). Our Day of Giving is an opportunity for projects and departments on campus to create unique experiences for our students that couldn’t happen without the support of our alumni and friends. Please consider becoming an ambassador for our cause and donating to impact our students’ experiences. Already an ambassador? Check out our Toolkit (which will become available on April 14) for ideas, graphics, and tutorials on how to help your project succeed!