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More Reasons to Believe - Durham is Where Great Things Happen

  • Full Frame Documentary Film Festival was named one of the top 50 Film Festivals in the World by Indiewire, the premiere online news for the film industries.
  • Duke University head coach Mike Krzyzewski was awarded the New York Athletic Club's Winged Foot Award given annually to the head coaches of the men's and women's NCAA Tournament champions.
  • Durham, NC was listed as one of Yahoo Finance's 20 Cities Surviving the Recession.
  • The Durham, NC MSA rose by 26 spots, to the 59th strongest economy among 366 U.S. metropolitan statistical areas.
  • Stephen Allsop is the first student-athlete in the history of NCCU to be accepted into Harvard Medical School's M.D./Ph.D program.
  • Fifteen of Duke's teams received NCAA Public Recognition Awards for ranking in the top 10 percent for Academic Progress Rates within their respective sports. N.C. Central was included in the awards for the first time and received recognition for men's golf, women's track and women's cross country.
  • Durham School of the Arts senior Patrick Frame was awarded 1st prize in the District 4 Congressional Art Competition.
  • Duke University was awarded a $1.1 million grant from Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. to spearhead an effort in North Carolina to provide access to health care to people living with HIV/AIDS.
  • The Latino Community Credit Union is celebrating its 10 year anniversary.
  • Durham had the 18th lowest foreclosure rate among the 203 U.S. metros of more than 200,000 people dropping 61% from a year ago despite an increase in the overall foreclosure rate in both North Carolina (+27% from 4/2009) and Raleigh-Cary (+15.91% from 4/2009).

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More Reasons to Believe - Durham is Where Great Things Happen

  • Durham ranked #23 nationally for the Best Places for Business and Careers according to Forbes.
  • Duke University's medical school remained tied for sixth place for research, its law school tied for 11th and its business school was ranked 14th and the Pratt School of Engineering rose two places to tie for 33rd in U.S. News & World Report's annual rankings.
    • Duke was also recognized among the top ten in geriatrics (tied for fourth), internal medicine (fifth), AIDS (fifth), women's health (sixth), family medicine (eighth) and pediatrics (tied for ninth). It tied for 42nd in primary care.
    • Duke's law school was tied for ninth in intellectual property law and 10th for international law. Its business school was ranked third in marketing, fourth for executive MBA program, tied for sixth in international, seventh in nonprofit and eighth in management. Within engineering, Duke ranked fourth for biomedical and bioengineering.
    • The environmental sciences program ranked fifth, the immunology/infectious disease program was tied for seventh, nuclear physics tied for eighth and statistics tied for tenth. Finally, Duke ranked 13th in the biological sciences, tied for 24th place in mathematics, 27th in computer science, tied for 30th in physics and 45th in chemistry.
  • The Sirens, a women's ensemble of 39 singers at Riverside High School in Durham was recognized for its talents by winning the Triangle Youth Chorus Trophy which is awarded to an ensemble of 20 or more singers in a public school in Durham, Wake, Orange, or Chatham County.
  • Duke stands tall in 11th place nationally in the latest Learfield Sports Directors' Cup Standings. The Directors' Cup rankings measure an athletic program's comprehensive sports success by totaling points based on a team's finish in national competition.
  • The Durham County Human Resources Department was presented with an Outstanding County Program Award from the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners (NCACC) for their Dependent Eligibility Audit contest entry.

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More Reasons to Believe - Durham is Where Great Things Happen

  • The Duke University men's basketball team is the 2010 NCAA National Champion. Duke is the fifth school to win at least four NCAA titles, and Coach Mike Krzyzewski became the third coach with four championships.
  • The Campus Echo, North Carolina Central University's student newspaper, won nine Excellence in Journalism awards from the Black College Communications Association.
  • DPAC - Durham Performing Arts Center hosted three more sellout events in March bringing the total number of sellout events to 48 since opening.
  • KeySource Commercial Bank celebrated its third anniversary in March and was ranked the 11th highest in Return On Average Assets by SNL Digest when compared to the other 146 banks also started in 2007.
  • Julia Gaffield, a Duke University graduate student, discovered what is believed to be the only known printed copy of Haiti's Declaration of Independence while researching for her doctoral dissertation.
  • Trinity School is sending two teams from its robotics program to the "For inspiration and recognition of science and technology" (FIRST) world championships in Atlanta.
  • Duke University junior Lindsey Marie Wallace was honored with a prestigious Truman Scholarship. She was chosen based on her academic success, leadership potential and commitment to a career in public service.

Five ways to use this information. For more great things, visit www.wheregreatthingshappen.com.

More Reasons to Believe - Durham is Where Great Things Happen

  • Durham, NC was named the 4th most affordable city in America on NBC's TODAY Show.
  • Anna Frost, director of secondary English and language arts and literacy for Durham Public Schools, was honored by a national book publisher with the National Scholastic Heroes Award from Scholastic Inc. for her work.
  • Duke Medicine received a $10.2 million gift from the Robertson Foundation that will help create a state-of-the-art Translational Cell Therapy Center.
  • The Durham Herald-Sun was honored by its peers during the North Carolina Press Association awards for 2009 as the first-place recipient for General Excellence, as well as receiving eight other staff and individual awards.
  • The Duke men's basketball team has advanced to the sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament and the women's team is hosting LSU tonight in Cameron Indoor Stadium in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

Five ways to use this information. For more great things, visit www.wheregreatthingshappen.com.

More Reasons to Believe - Durham is Where Great Things Happen

  • Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Energy Steven Chu will discuss manufacturing jobs and clean energy at Cree, Inc. in Durham on Thursday.
  • Duke is tied with UNC for the favorite men's college basketball team in the country according to Harris Interactive.
  • The Museum of Life and Science in Durham was the 10th most visited museum or historic attraction in North Carolina according to Carolina Publishing Associates of Matthews.
  • Willie Bradshaw, Durham athlete and former Athletic Director of Durham Schools, has been honored as an inductee into the National High School Hall of Fame.
  • The Southern Regional Education Board named N.C. Central University one of 15 institutions nationwide that outperform similar schools in graduation rates and student achievement.
  • Duke senior volleyball player Rachael Moss was one of 174 collegiate athletes nationally honored with an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship.
  • The Duke men's basketball team is the 2010 ACC tournament champs and has secured the overall number 1 seed in the South region in the NCAA tournament.
  • The Duke women's basketball team secured the number 2 seed in the Memphis region and will play at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Saturday, March 20.
  • Durham native Matthew Lundy, shop foreman at the West Palm Beach, Florida super car shop, Performance Power Racing, helped shatter the world record for the standing mile at 253 miles an hour, more than 6 mph faster than the previous record.

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More Reasons to Believe - Durham is Where Great Things Happen

  • The Duke University women's basketball team finished the season in a tie for the regular-season title and winner of the ACC tournament title. Junior Jasmine Thomas was named the tournament MVP and Coach Joanna P. McCallie, named ACC coach of the year, was the first coach in NCAA history to win coach of the year honors in four different conferences.
  • DPAC will host the 2010 national tour debut of "Billy Elliot," the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical opening SunTrust Broadway Series third season.
  • Bria Davenport, a junior at Hillside New Tech High School, has been honored for her exemplary service with a President's Volunteer Service Award for service to her community and country.
  • Eric Zuber tied for third place in the Eighth National Chopin Piano Competition at the Hannover Hochschule Fur Musik in Germany.
  • The Duke University medical center secured a $12 million lead gift toward the creation of a new state-of-the-art Duke Eye Center.
  • Matthew Sears, a teacher at Hillside New Tech High School, is one of five North Carolina teachers to win the prestigious Career Awards for Science and Mathematics Teachers from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund.
  • Duke players Jon Scheyer, Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith claimed three of the top seven spots in voting for the All-ACC men's basketball teams.
  • Senior point guard Jon Scheyer is in the running as one of six finalists for the Bob Cousy Award by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
  • The Comfort Inn on NC 55 in Durham was one of the 301 hotels in the country to earn the Gold Award from Choice Hotels International, Inc.

Five ways to use this information. For more great things, visit www.wheregreatthingshappen.com.

More Reasons to Believe - Durham is Where Great Things Happen

  • Counter Culture Coffee's Lem Butler used his advances barista skills to capture the top honors at the 2010 Southeast Barista Championship.
  • Duke University junior Jasmine Thomas is one of eight nominees for the national 2010 Nancy Lieberman Award.
  • Duke University researcher Mark Onaitis brought home a grant from the NC chapter of the National Lung Cancer Partnership from its 2010 Young Investigator Research Grant competition.
  • Former Duke star Christian Laettner earned a spot on the 2010 class for the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
  • Duke University Muslim Chaplain Imam Abdullah Antepli will have the honor of giving the opening prayer to the U.S. House of Representatives on March 3 in Washington, D.C.
  • The Atlanta Tipoff Club announced Duke Basketball player Jon Scheyer as one of 30 midseason candidates for the 2010 Naismith Trophy, awarded annually to the collegiate national player of the year.

Five ways to use this information. For more great things visit www.wheregreatthingshappen.com.

More Reasons to Believe - Durham is Where Great Things Happen

  • Magnolia Grill earned recognition as a semifinalist for Outstanding Restaurant and Outstanding Service in the 2010 James Bread Foundation Awards competition.
  • Scott Howell of Nana's has been recognized for his talents as a semifinalist for Best Chef: Southeast in the 2010 James Bread Foundation Awards competition.
  • The Durham, NC MSA ranked 6th on Hanley Wood Market Intelligence's list of Healthiest Markets among the top 100 U.S. Housing Markets.
  • Paula Rosine Long, a 2009 Duke University graduate, was one of 29 students from outside the United Kingdom to receive a Gates Cambridge Scholarship that covers the full cost to study at Cambridge University in England.
  • Durham County is the 11th-healthiest county in North Carolina, according to a report by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Five ways to use this information. For more great things, visit www.wheregreatthingshappen.com

More Reasons to Believe - Durham is Where Great Things Happen

  • Durham's Chuck Davis African American Dance Ensemble garnered recognition from the Washington Post as a way to commemorate Black History Month.
  • Durham-based kora player Mamadou Diabate was recognized with his first Grammy Award in the category of Best Traditional World Music Album for the recording "Douga Mansa".
  • The Durham Performance Learning Center earned kudos from Bill Gates in his 2010 Annual Letter on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's website.
  • Duke Men's Basketball Senior guard Jon Scheyer was celebrated for his talent as one of ten nationwide named a 2010 Lowe's Senior CLASS Award finalist.
  • The Ronald McDonald House in Durham (North Carolina's first) is celebrating its 30th anniversary having served nearly 30,000 families over the past three decades.
  • The City of Durham's Purchasing Division earned the highest award a purchasing department or division can obtain within the Carolinas Association of Governmental Purchasing, the Sustained Professional Purchasing Award for 2009.
  • The Avery Boys & Girls Club of Durham is celebrating its 70th anniversary of providing a safe and nurturing place for boys and girls to grow and learn.

Five ways to use this information. For more great things, visit www.wheregreatthingshappen.com.

More Reasons to Believe - Durham is Where Great Things Happen

  • Kim D. Saunders, president and CEO of Mechanics and Farmers Bank, is one of the most powerful women in business nationwide according to Black Enterprise.
  • Phoebe Lawless, chef/owner of Scratch bakery can claim bragging rights as one of the top "pie purveyors" in the U.S. according to the editor of Seriouseats.com in a USA Today article. Scratch is at the Durham Farmers' Market every Saturday and will open a retail location Downtown later this year.
  • Three Duke University students have advanced to the The World Finals of the International Collegiate Programming Contest, billed as the "toughest competition of its kind in the world."
  • DPAC is outperforming 83 of the 89 cities that will host the tour of "Wicked" making it the musical's sixth best on-sale performance this year.
  • The Duke University Tennis team scored the #1 recruiting class in the country according to the Tennis Recruiting Network's list of the top 25 recruiting classes in 2010.
  • Jeopardy! featured Durham in its Double Jeopardy! Round category "They Named a City for Me In…" with the question "Dr. Bartlett Durham (1854)."
  • Durham-based MCNC won a $28 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, one of only four organizations, companies or universities nationwide selected.
  • North Carolina Central University kicked off a three-year student exchange program with the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration to deepen cooperation between the two countries.
  • A Prime Example Events & Wedding Planning earned its place in the top 5 percent of local wedding professionals according to the WeddingWire Network in the Bride's Choice Awards 2010.
  • Harvey Heartley, Sr., NCCU varsity basketball player from 1951 until 1955, was one of six individuals and one relay team elected into the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association's 2010 Hall of Fame class.

Five ways to use this information. For more great things, visit www.wheregreatthingshappen.com.

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