On most Saturday mornings, the pool in Reynolds Gym is filled with just a few people swimming laps. But on April 28, it was filled with underwater robots built by students at Hanes Magnet School, thanks to a partnership with Wake Forest’s Society of Physics Students.

Several hundred Wake Forest students welcomed about 50 elementary school students to campus earlier this month to paint their very own desk. WFU students started D.E.S.K. (Discovering Education through Student Knowledge) 12 years ago to provide desks to underprivileged children.

Elementary education students and their professor, Michelle Klosterman, have partnered with a rural Yadkin County school to put hands-on science back into the school day in creative ways.

On April 10, more than 180 students walked barefoot on Hearn Plaza and lined the Quad with paper feet to show support for children in sub-Saharan Africa who walk to school without shoes.

More than 50 alumni writers returned to campus for the first Words Awake! conference last weekend. Find out more about how the writers interacted with students, the campus community and local schools, and learn about the first class of the WFU Writers Hall of Fame.

Silk maps, B-24 bombers and avoiding anachronisms were the hot topics during Laura Elliott’s visit to Northwest Middle School in Winston-Salem. Elliott, a 1979 Wake Forest graduate who writes young adult historical novels, mixed WWII history with writing advice in conversations with 6th-, 7th- and 8th-graders as part of Words Awake! A Celebration of Wake Forest Writers and Writing on campus March 23-25.

Political science majors Kathryne Doria (’13) and Tamara Guillen (’12) witnessed first-hand how global issues shape local communities in Winston-Salem when they took Latino Political Behavior and Public Opinion, taught by assistant professor Betina Wilkinson.

The Latin American and Latino Studies Program and the Organization of Latin American Students are co-sponsoring Wake Forest’s first-ever Latino Awareness Week. Events cover the challenges and problems faced by the Latino community worldwide.

The student-run festival includes a free week-long series of film screenings and workshops and ends on March 23 with a keynote address by Morgan Spurlock, the director of “Super Size Me.”

Schools of Business students are exemplifying Wake Forest’s motto of Pro Humanitate by applying skills they are learning in their “Dynamics in Organizations” class to support a local non-profit agency.