Former Wake Forest track & field standout and Hall of Famer Hunter Kemper qualified for his fourth consecutive trip to the Olympic Games after finishing fifth in the ITU World Triathlon Championship Series. Kemper earned the automatic bid to the London Olympics as the first American to cross the finish line.

Over three dynamic days, presidents, career office directors, liberal arts deans, and faculty from more than more than 70 colleges and universities came to Wake Forest to share ideas on how to prepare students more effectively for life and work after college.

Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs offered by the Schools of Business are among the nation’s top 10 percent in the U.S. News & World Report rankings. Within three months of graduation, 91 percent of the MBA class of 2011 had accepted jobs, with an average annual salary and starting bonus of $91,504.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas visited the School of Law, meeting with students, faculty and alumni, visiting a class and lecturing on professional responsibility. He was interviewed by Marc Rigsby (JD ’12) in front of a 350-plus audience in the Worrell Professional Center.

This week’s announcement by Virginia Tech and Wake Forest researchers is generating serious discussions about the future of football in America. The two schools released the first study that measures head impacts among youth football players.

Wake Forest was included in The Princeton Review’s annual list of “Best Value Colleges.” The list “identifies America’s top undergraduate schools offering excellent academics, generous financial aid, and/or relatively low cost of attendance.”

Today, members of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) elected Wake Forest President Nathan O. Hatch as chair of its board of directors. NAICU represents private, nonprofit colleges and universities on policy issues with the federal government.

Rising media star, Tulane political science professor and Wake Forest alumna Melissa Harris-Perry (’94) makes her debut with her own television show on MSNBC from 10 a.m.-noon on Feb. 4. It will air Saturdays and Sundays.

The Schools of Business full-time MBA program is once again ranked among the Top 50 Business Schools in the U.S. by Poets&Quants. Wake Forest broke into the top 40 this year by climbing up three positions to No. 38.

Wake Forest has accepted an invitation to play Mississippi State in the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tenn. The game will be played on Friday, Dec. 30 at LP Field and will kickoff at 6:40 p.m. The game will be televised on ESPN.