MTSU Mondays: Scholarship boost for chemistry students, state's top student voter-getter

Here's the latest news from Middle Tennessee State University.

MTSU faculty land $2M grant for chemistry student scholarships

A group of Middle Tennessee State University faculty, under the leadership of chemistry professor Andrienne Friedli, recently launched a last-dollar scholarship program to fund and support undergraduate and graduate biochemistry and chemistry students in need.

“The project aims to increase student persistence in STEM fields by linking scholarships with

proven effective supporting activities, including faculty and peer mentoring, research experiences, professional development courses, graduate school and employment preparation, and participation in discipline-specific conferences,” Friedli said.

Friedli collaborated with faculty Charles Chusuei, Scott Handy, Katy Hosbein, Justin Miller, Kevin Bicker, Ngee Chong, Keying Ding, Mengliang Zhang and Eric Oslund, grant evaluator, to land and manage the six-year, $1.97 million grant.

Ten qualifying master’s students will each receive up to $20,000 per year and 15 junior or senior undergraduates will each be awarded an estimated $7,000 per year to assist their educational pursuits in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

“MTSU has a high population of underrepresented students, including first-generation college students,” Friedli said, “and also a high percentage of Middle Eastern and North African students, (so) this project has the potential to broaden participation in STEM fields.”

Eric Olsund, who, unlike the rest of the team, works outside of STEM as chair of the Elementary and Special Education Department, said faculty collaboration is the most important aspect of succeeding with a grant like this.

“The overlapping but different skill sets provide the students with the best experience because they are benefiting from multiple areas of expertise,” Oslund said. “We sometimes have a tendency to live in our narrow world of the content we are experts in…. I’ve been on multiple million-dollar grants in areas outside of my area that have high success rates because of the diversity and collaboration of faculty with different backgrounds and perspectives that lead to the best experience for our students.”

Since its early launch a month ago, the Scholarships for STEM grant, more commonly known as the S-STEM grant, has already awarded a total of $50,000 to five students: Hannah Butler, Ryleigh Porter, Alexandria Rankin, Joshua Thammathong and Jacob Thomas. Friedli said the goal is to award 25 students annually.

“I was extremely happy,” said Porter, a first-year chemistry master’s student who qualified to earn $10,000 for both the fall and spring semesters. “I'm a GTA (graduate teaching assistant) but also started the semester working another job. When I heard I would get this scholarship, I was happy that I could quit that other job and just focus on school and being a good GTA teaching chemistry labs.”

“It honestly felt great that I got the scholarship since it allowed me to pay my rent without having to worry on other things such as utilities and such,” said Thammathong, a second-year master’s student who received the full amount allowed by the NSF for this semester. “For me, it's practically life-changing.”

Porter and Thammathong also both highlighted the program’s strength of community and cutting-edge equipment.

Secretary of State presents MTSU with voter registration competition award

Secretary of State Tre Hargett presented Middle Tennessee State University with an award for winning the annual Tennessee College Voter Registration Competition in the four-year public school category.

“The continued commitment of MTSU students to register their fellow students to vote is evident by their work to earn the top spot in the competition for a third time,” said Hargett, who visited MTSU recently to present the award to MTSU Student Government Association Michai Mosby and a group of student leaders. “The first step to making your voice heard on Election Day is registering to vote. I hope the newly registered Blue Raiders put their voter registrations to use by becoming lifelong voters.”

The Secretary of State’s 2023 Tennessee College Voter Registration Competition was held during National Voter Registration Month in September. Thirty-eight of Tennessee’s two- and four-year colleges, universities and technical colleges across the state participated in this year’s contest.

“I continue to be so proud of our student leaders, with the support and guidance of our American Democracy Project and Student Government Association, for their stellar voter registration efforts resulting in this recognition from Secretary Hargett,” said MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee, who attended the presentation in the Student Union Building.

“And I applaud his office's initiative through this friendly annual competition to get more college students involved in this important civic responsibility. Part of our True Blue Pledge encourages our students to 'be engaged in the life of the community' and voting remains a critical part of that endeavor.”

Rutherford County Administrator of Elections Alan Farley also attended the presentation.

In addition to MTSU, TCAT Pulaski won in the Tennessee College of Applied Technology category, Cumberland University earned the top spot in the private school category and Pellissippi State Community College won in the two-year community college category.

The winning schools were selected based on points earned by registering students to vote, creating a voter registration campaign for their campus and promoting voter registration on social media using #GoVoteTN along with their campus-specific hashtag.

MTSU Mondays content is provided by submissions from MTSU News and Media Relations.

This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: MTSU Mondays: Scholarship boost for chemistry students, state's top student voter-getter