Maria-Elena Lapetina, a student at the University of North Carolina School of Law, has been named a Womble Carlyle Scholar by Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC.

Lapetina is a graduate of Williams College and earned a Master's Degree in bilingual childhood education from the City College of New York. At UNC, she serves as president of the Latino Legal Initiative and was selected as an Honors Writing Scholar.

The Womble Carlyle Scholars Program was established in 2004 to honor minority second-year law school students for their academic credentials, participation in community service and achievement outside the classroom. The program is designed to increase participation in the Bar by traditionally underrepresented groups.

Heather Folliard of Chapel Hill recently received a scholarship from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship for the 2008-'09 academic year. Folliard attends Duke Divinity School in Durham.

Scholarships have been granted to more than 70 students at 15 Fellowship partner schools, institutions that have expressed a common mission of training Baptist leaders for congregations.

A scholarship student is awarded $2,000 to $5,000 for each semester.

CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches that share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice.

Lee Pavao has been selected as one of Orange County's recipients of the 2008 N.C. Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service.

He is chairman of the Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau and has been an active board member for 11 years. In these roles, he has helped the bureau grow its programs, staff and budget while increasing the level of services and economic contributions to the community at large.

Orange County students will make up about six percent of the 125 University of North Carolina-Wilmington Honors Scholars Program's new freshmen.

Christopher N. Anstine, Katherine A. Dodds, Elizabeth A. Dyer, Kasey J. El-Chayeb, Caleb A. Hayes, Olga A. Pylaeva and Runyon C. Woods will participate in special interdisciplinary honors seminars and sections of basic studies courses. Under the guidance of faculty, students propose and carry out an honors "capstone" scholarly research project in their major.

Cynthia Bulik, director of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Eating Disorders Program, has received the 2008 Price Family Award for Research Excellence from the National Eating Disorders Association.

Bulik's work focuses on the genetic and environmental factors that influence the risk of anorexia, bulimia nervosa and other eating disorders. She is the author of "Runaway Eating: The 8-Point Plan to Conquer Adult Food and Weight Obsessions," and the forthcoming book "Crave: Why You Binge Eat and How to Stop," due out in early 2009.