A pair of grants from the National Security Administration will help Troy University teach a summer workshop in Mandarin Chinese.

The workshops are designed for pre-K through 12th-grade Chinese language teachers – or those who aspire to teach the language – and high school students.

A 15-day residential program to train 25 teachers from Alabama and the region and 30 high school students from Alabama is being supported by nearly $200,000 in federal funds for the Troy-STARTALK Program in Chinese.

“We want to encourage students to make foreign language study a lifetime pursuit while increasing each student’s level of proficiency,” said Dr.

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley Thursday signed a bill that will allow Alabama to compete more effectively for film production in the state.

HB243, sponsored by Representative Terri Collins and carried by Senator Gerald Dial, increases incentives allowed for filming projects in the State of Alabama from $10 million per project to $20 million per project. The minimum that can be spent remains at $500,000 and the percentages received (25 percent for expenditures and 35 percent for hiring residents) also remain the same.

This new amendment also increases the amount that can be rebated per year to qualified productions.

Artist Charlotta Janssen, whose paintings pay tribute to the men and women who took part in the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Freedom Rides, is currently being featured in an exhibit at Troy University’s Rosa Parks Museum.

“Threads of a Story: History Inspiring Art” will be on display in the museum’s exhibit hall through May 28. The exhibit features paintings that recreate the mug shots of people arrested for their participation in the Bus Boycott and Freedom Rides.

Using oil, acrylics, rust and collage, Janssen re-imagines these arrest mug shots as a tribute to those who took part in the civil rights movement. “Threads of a Story” has been displayed at exhibits in New York and at the Nashville Public Library.
 
Janssen was born in Maine to German parents living in the U.S. under the Marshall plan. In 1973 the family moved to Iran, and later fled during the 1979 revolution.