A toast to the wine industry, winning prestigious recognition for the university's engagement work, a new connection in Iraqi Kurdistan, and students getting "inn" to hospitality or working with farmers in Ecuador – all are covered in recent issues of Outbursts, a publication of Outreach and International Affairs.

The monthly news briefing offers readers a look at how Outreach and International Affairs shares the best of Virginia Tech by working side by side with communities around the world.

The current issue showcases a Virginia Tech-led feasibility study for a possible viticulture and ecology center in Loudoun County, confirming that a workforce education center would give a needed boost to Virginia's wine industry.   

Other recent stories include the renewal of Virginia Tech's recognition by the Carnegie Foundation for excellence in community engagement and a new international partnership involving the Virginia Tech Language and Culture Institute's work to build sustainable relationships between universities in Kurdistan and the U.S. to help advance English language departments. Student highlights include a look at the hospitality management program at The Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference Center and a story about students combining grafting with social media to help farmers in Ecuador.

Check out the Outbursts archive for back issues.

Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $513 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.

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