Middle Tennessee State University

Eight players for the Middle Tennessee State University hockey team were recognized as part of College Hockey South's All-Academic Team for the 2023-24 season.

Middle Tennessee State University sophomore Victoria Grigsby earned a spot as a Delta Scholar in the 2024 Delta Scholars Program.

As the emerging field of data science becomes an everyday part of industry and the modern job market, associate professor and researcher Ryan "Seth" Jones from the College of Education is taking a lead in developing best practices and frameworks for getting K-12 students well-versed in the topic.

Middle Tennessee State University sophomore Victoria Grigsby earned a spot as a Delta Scholar in the 2024 Delta Scholars Program.

Middle Tennessee State University sophomore and Honors Buchanan Fellow Ariel Nicastro was recently named as a 2024 Goldwater Scholar. She is one of 10 students from Tennessee institutions to receive the award this year and the only one from MTSU. The Goldwater Scholarship Program, one of the oldest and most prestigious national scholarships in the natural sciences, engineering, and mathematics in the United States, seeks to identify, encourage, and financially support college sophomores and juniors who show exceptional promise of becoming this Nation's next generation of research leaders in these fields. A physics major and student in the MTSU University Honors College, Nicastro was among more than 430 college students selected from more than 5,000 applicants to receive the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship this year.

Middle Tennessee State University's College of Education is working to make student research more of a focus and priority. "Research in education is vital to ensuring that we are giving our children and young people the highest quality of education for their future and to make sure our teachers feel confident in providing that for them," said Bonnie Barksdale, assistant education professor and active researcher who helps support research within the college.

Middle Tennessee State University College of Media and Entertainment audio production major Bryce Tall-LaRue was awarded the Gilman Scholarship to travel to Senegal in Summer 2024.

Middle Tennessee State University senior religious studies and nursing double major Eli Ward swept his arm over the five striking, colorful stained glass images depicting the stories of faith and perseverance of the patients he worked with for his research project. It was one of the almost 200 projects showcased recently inside the Student Union Ballroom at Middle Tennessee State University's 18th annual research exposition that culminates "Scholars Week," a premier research expo each spring giving students like Ward the opportunity to present their wide range of projects and passions to the campus community.

In his junior year at Middle Tennessee State University, Carlos Aldana Lira was awarded a Research Experience for Undergraduates, called DUB, to attend the University of Washington in Seattle to conduct computer science education research this summer.

Middle Tennessee State University's annual Invention Convention again welcomed over 1,000 local students to campus to showcase their gamut of creations that ranged from making others' lives easier, solving a community problem, providing a new service or even designing a new game.

Honors Buchanan Transfer Fellow Brian Maxwell has been named the first Phi Kappa Phi Graduate Scholar recipient at Middle Tennessee State University.

The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs administers University funds to directly support mentored undergraduate research through Undergraduate Research Experience and Creative Activity grants. Awards range from $500 for beginners to $3,500 for experienced Middle Tennessee State University student researchers.

Middle Tennessee State University's Undergraduate Research Center is sending undergraduates to participate in a national research program for the second straight year to collaborate with other undergrads from across the country, to advocate for undergraduate research with government stakeholders and more.

"Collage: A Journal of Creative Expression" again received high honors from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association. The student-run magazine featuring submitted work such as poetry, art, photos, video, nonfiction, audio, and more, was recently awarded its 18th gold medalist certificate from the CSPA and was also recognized with All-Columbian Honors for the verbal category of the review process.

Middle Tennessee State University undergraduate, STEM-based researchers recently showcased their talents, met Tennessee. Gov. Bill Lee and toured the halls of state government at the annual Posters at the Capitol event in Nashville, Tennessee. The MTSU group of nine joined undergraduates from public universities across Tennessee at the Cordell Hull Building to share their projects spanning from cancer treatment to local waterway pollution.

Middle Tennessee State University's English Ph.D. program aims to provide a graduate experience with tight-knit faculty, multiple hands-on training opportunities and a supportive environment. Kylie Petrovich, a current Ph.D. candidate in the program, recently began her dissertation and shared about her decision to pursue her degree within the university's Department of English.

Two students have been named as inaugural Andrew Goodman Foundation Ambassadors at Middle Tennessee State University. Created in 1966, the Foundation supports youth leadership development, voting accessibility, and social justice initiatives on campuses across the country with mini grants to select institutions of higher learning and other financial assistance to students.

A junior mechatronics engineering major at Middle Tennessee State University, Samuel Apigian has been awarded a Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) Research Internship in Science and Engineering (RISE) in Dresden, Germany, this summer. Apigian was selected from more than 2,000 applicants worldwide.

Middle Tennessee State University's Quantum Science Initiative is taking more giant leaps with two new grants - totaling more than $1 million - from the National Science Foundation to expand research, education and inclusivity in quantum education.

Middle Tennessee State University Buchanan Transfer Fellow Jake Salter was awarded the Fulbright Canada-Mitacs Globalink Research Internship, which will take place this summer. Salter is majoring in computer science and minoring in mathematics and Honors. He has a prior degree in music performance from Indiana University and he currently plays bassoon in the MTSU Symphony Orchestra.

Middle Tennessee State University's College of Education partnered with the Rutherford Arts Alliance recently to bring reading to community kids through the second annual Southern Kid Literary Festival held on the Blue Raider campus. More commonly known as "SoKidLit!," the event brought in 167 third through fifth graders, many arriving with friends and family in tow or as part of another partnership with the local pre-K-6 school district, Murfreesboro City Schools.

Twelve Honors students from Middle Tennessee State University made presentations at the annual Tennessee Collegiate Honors Council (TCHC) conference held Feb. 9-10 at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee.

Middle Tennessee State University freshman John Aduroja won the novice division at the sixth annual Tennessee Valley Invitational Tournament, which took place Feb. 9-10 at Pellissippi State Community College in Knoxville, Tennessee.

A Middle Tennessee State University art and design professor landed one of the university's internal grants to create his upcoming solo exhibition that explores the fickle nature of memory and how it informs the present through sculpture. Associate professor and artist Mark Mcleod brought on student Caroline Yates, a junior majoring in art history, to help on the major project, and Yates, who aspires to be a museum or gallery curator, said the opportunity has been an invaluable experience.

Sixty-seven members of Middle Tennessee State University's Band of Blue stood instruments poised and bodies packed into the College of Media and Entertainment's Studio No. 1 for a project two decades in the making - an updated recording of MTSU's fight song. In addition to a collaboration between MTSU faculty, audio production graduate students Mitchell Breitmann, Kelly Grenvik and Kolyo Vanchev worked on the studios' final preparations from measuring the exact distance between the multiple microphones and considering the effect of rising air temperature to make sure the recording would be pitch perfect.

Michael McCormick, a candidate in Middle Tennessee State University's Public History Ph.D. program, took a passion for researching his family origins to a career of multiple, major genealogy projects and most recently an internship that helped release over 100 years of vital records in Maryland. "There are legal and health reasons why a person should have rights to research vital records and family tree data, to be able to build their history," McCormick said. "(Releasing records) makes researching multiple individuals and families for broader projects in families, or history topics, much more doable."

Middle Tennessee State University is congratulating over 6,200 students who appear on the dean's list for the fall 2023 semester. To qualify for this distinction, an undergraduate student must maintain a current semester grade-point average of 3.5 or above and earn at least 12 semester hours. The complete list of honorees, compiled by the MTSU Registrar's Office and alphabetized by the students' surnames and home counties, also is available as a searchable PDF in this story at MTSUNews.com, the university's news site: https://mtsunews.com/deans-list-fall2023/.

An enterprising group of Middle Tennessee State University students recently captured the top spot in an international software innovation challenge pitting them against other students from universities across the nation. The group of five students from the Jennings A. Jones College of Business tied with a group of students from Florida International University in a virtual contest organized by the Association of Information Systems Student Chapters, a networking and professionals development program for undergraduate students studying information systems.

Middle Tennessee State University students from the Jones College of Business recently had the opportunity to participate in the Amazon Reliability and Maintenance Engineering Third Party Summit, held at the Amazon Nashville, Tennessee, headquarters. The event was organized by MTSU alumnus Nathan Swartz, senior manager at Amazon. The 1996 MTSU graduate (B.S. in political science) graciously welcomed a select group of Jones College students into the inner workings of Amazon. The summit provided an exclusive glimpse into the world of the global e-commerce giant, shedding light on crucial aspects of supply chain, finance, information systems, and professional selling.

Middle Tennessee State University political science students enrolled in Humanitarian Aid and Crisis course participated in the American Red Cross Youth Action Campaign, part of the nonprofit's International Humanitarian Law program, which educates communities about the rules of war through interactive initiatives. The program is sponsored by the Red Cross' Service to the Armed Forces division. Led by political science professor Amy Atchison, the course helps students examine the politics of humanitarianism and explore efforts of nongovernmental and international organizations to address challenges in this area. To fulfill requirements of the YAC program, Atchison's students designed multiple activities, both online and in person, to educate the over 530 participants of the project about international humanitarian law and nuclear weapons.