New Scholarship Helps Students in Low-Paying or Unpaid Internships

A new scholarship is being offered to College of Arts & Letters majors who are participating in independent internships. Funded by the Excel Network, the College of Arts & Letters Independent Internship Scholarship is designed to help students who are doing unpaid or low-paying internships. The scholarship aims to alleviate the financial burden that low-paying or unpaid internships can bring…

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English Major Receives Board of Trustees Award for Graduating with Perfect 4.0 GPA

Michigan State University College of Arts & Letters student Mary Claire Zauel is graduating with a perfect 4.0 grade point average and is a recipient of the Board of Trustees’ Award. Each semester, the MSU Board of Trustees recognizes graduating students for earning the highest scholastic average. This fall semester, 52 students received the award, including Zauel. Each of the award…

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Graduate Embarks on New Chapter After Life-Changing Experiences at MSU

Writing has always been something I was innately interested in. Throughout all the stages of my life, I would always find ways to engage in it when all other forms of communication fell short. This feeling has remained very much present since the early days of surpassing the single composition page required for writing prompts in elementary school, writing articles for my high school’s newspaper, and composing poems and short stories in my room on the weekends...

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College of Arts & Letters Graduate to Receive Honorary Doctoral Degree from MSU

Marta Tienda grew up poor in the inner ring suburbs of Detroit. Her mother died when she was 6, but her father assured her life would be better if she worked hard and finished high school. She listened to her father, an immigrant from Mexico who raised five children in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Alternating between jobs as a factory…

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Studio Art Student Uses CREATE! Micro-Grant Funds to Produce Sculpture of Balisong Knife

As a 2022 CREATE! Micro-Grant recipient, Ryan Freund, a junior majoring in Studio Art, produced a sculpture featuring a single, manipulated Balisong knife. Titled Intersection, Freund utilized the knife's four handle scales to complete the piece. "I find flipping Balisong knives to be very beautiful and have been doing it since I was 13 years old," Freund said. "Their handles are used…

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Living Her ‘Freedom Dream’ With New Major

Evamelo (Eva) Oleita came to Michigan State University wanting to pursue a degree in Human Biology, but after re-evaluating her priorities and thinking about the communities she wanted to serve, she is now among the inaugural class of students majoring in African American and African Studies (AAAS) at MSU. Oleita, who is in her second year of her undergraduate education,…

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International Collaboration to Explore Intersectionality and Inclusion in Research and Curriculum Design

A collaborative project focusing on “Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality in Africa: the History and Current Status of LGBTQ+ in Kenya,” led by College of Arts & Letters faculty Jonathan Choti and Danny Mendez, will bring two guest speakers from Kenya to Michigan State University this spring to share their knowledge, experiences, approaches, and ideas in implementing intersectionality and inclusion in curriculum design and pedagogical practices. The two…

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CREATE! Micro-Grant Used to Produce Sculpture Representing Lives Lost to COVID-19

Apparel and Textile Design major Gwen Pinger used a $500 CREATE! Micro-Grant to build a sculpture consisting of thousands of glass beads that hang from elastic strings, each representing a life lost from COVID-19 in Michigan.  “The sculpture functions as a sort of wind chime with many long strands of string and glass beads that twinkle in the sun. The beads — in red, white, and silver — form the shape of IV needles,” said Pinger,…

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New Scholarship Encourages Entrepreneurship Among Creative Career Paths

It’s not often humanities professors transform an idea into a successful business venture, but that’s exactly what Bill Hart-Davidson and Jeff Grabill did 10 years ago thanks to the vision and support of Greg Bradbury, an MSU graduate with a B.A. and MBA from the Broad College of Business. A scholarship has now been created in Bradbury’s name that will…

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Pursuing a Love of Black Feminisms Through New AAAS Major

With a passion for Black feminisms, Bailey Griffin, an MSU sophomore, said it’s an honor to be among the first group of students at Michigan State University to declare African American and African Studies (AAAS) as their major.   The newly established Bachelor of Arts degree in African American and African Studies is being offered for the first time this year through the Department of African American and African Studies in…

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