Each Spring, Center of the American West awards cash prizes to talented CU-Boulder students writing on Western topics. All CU-Boulder degree students - undergraduate and graduate - are eligible to enter. Categories include poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, academic non-fiction, and memoir. The work must have as its subject or theme any aspect of the American West. First place winners receive $500. The entry deadline is March 19. For rules, entry form, and to read past years' winners, visit our website.

Feb. 18-22 is Ally Week! Save the date for multiple events on allyship, co-sponsored by the Women's Resource Center, Center for Multicultural Affairs, SORCE, GLBTQ Resource Center, QPOC - Queer People Of Color, Theta Nu Xi Multicultural Sorority Inc., CUSG, and Counseling and Psychological Services. Kenyon Farrow, social justice speaker, writer, and activist, will be talking about his experience uniting across diverse communities and supporting underrepresented groups. Monday, Feb. 18 6-7:30 p.m., Humanities 250.

Starting Feb. 15, Fridays, 4-5:30 p.m. in the GLBTQ RC, 4th floor of Center for Community. Throughout the spring semester, we will be screening films on Friday afternoons that portray the diversity of gender and sexual identities and cultures around the globe.

Feb. 8, Friday, 4-6:30 p.m. Abrams Lounge, 3rd Floor of Center For Community Please join the GLBTQ RC to celebrate the beginning of 2013! From 4-5 p.m., students who attended Creating Change, the national conference on LGBT equality, will talk about what they learned from attending conference sessions. The discussion will be followed by a reception to welcome the LGBTQ and allied community from 5-6:30 p.m. Food and drinks will be provided.

Feb. 6, Wednesday 5:30-7 p.m. British and Irish Studies Room, M549, 5th floor of Norlin Library Please join us for a discussion of the Civil Unions Bill in Colorado! Daniel Ramos from One Colorado and Representative Dickey Lee Hullinghorst will speak about the history of the bill and its implications for the LGBTQ and Allied Community in Colorado.

Promote your student group or learn about new opportunities on campus at the Student Involvement Fair! The spring Student Involvement Fair will be held Jan. 29, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. in the UMC Glenn Miller Ballroom. Come enjoy some free food and get involved at CU! To register a student group to participate in the fair, go to http://umc.colorado.edu/studentlife/involvement/events/fair. Space is limited. For any questions, contact umc-events@colorado.edu

The Symposium (Mar. 15 and 16, 2013) hosts national and local transgender, gender queer, and allied activists and scholars to address issues surrounding transgender, gender queer and related identities. For proposal form, guidelines and tentative schedule please click here.

Want to start your summer off right this year? Join us in Nicaragua for two weeks in May, where a group of your peers will be traveling to work with the local Nicaraguan community to meet environmental, economic, and social opportunities through local and global resources. Don't miss out on this life changing opportunity to serve abroad and participate in amazing activities like hiking a volcano! For more details on this trip and to apply online, visit our website!

The Adolescent Development and Preventive Treatment (ADAPT) research program is looking for individuals to participate in a study of mental health and adolescent development. Potential invitation to attend 3 additional annual time points at 6-7 hours each ($25 per hour for these). If interested, please call the ADAPT at (303) 492-4616. A confidential phone screen will be conducted to determine your child’s or your own initial eligibility. Individuals under age 18 must have their parents call.

The Center for Humanities and the Arts invites you to this month’s Performance Friday! featuring chamber music from College of Music’s professors Erika Eckert (viola) and Margaret McDonald (piano). Please join us Jan. 25, from 12 - 1 p.m., in the Center for British and Irish Studies (Norlin Library’s 5th Floor). Doors open at 11:30 a.m. for a free, light lunch.