Featured Awards – January/February 2018

Yang Deng – Earth and Environmental Studies
Toward Sustainable Urban Stormwater Management with New, Green, Low-Cost Sorbent-Coated Wood Mulch (Phase II)
US Environmental Protection Agency
$75,000
Dr. Deng’s project will develop effective, low-cost, and easy filter media from a novel source. The filter media will be used for filters designed to absorb pollutants from urban water runoff with minimal leaching. This project aims to remove numerous contaminants from urban stormwater at the source, shortening water treatment time, and increasing efficiency of the process.

Margaret Freedson – Early Childhood/Elementary Education
International Consortium for Multilingual Excellence in Education (ICMEE)
US Department of Education
$7,000
This supplemental award, funded by a subaward from University of Nebraska Lincoln, will support Dr. Freedson’s exploration of the content of available ICMEE e-workshops on second language acquisition and on ELL content area instruction in K-6 math and science. Dr. Freedson will then integrate appropriate eworkshop content into the in-service work and field experiences of approximately 40 students enrolled in MSU graduate and undergraduate courses with a focus on ELL supports, creating school- and university-based learning communities around the eworkshop use.

Valerie Sessa – Psychology
Jennifer Bragger – Psychology
Longitudinal Leadership Development Study (Year 5)
C. Charles Jackson Foundation
$3,609
In their fifth year of their study, Dr. Valerie Sessa and Dr. Jennifer Bragger plan to continue to longitudinally assess college student leaders at five universities during their college years plus two years post-college. The research seeks to determine which students pursue leadership development opportunities, which opportunities they choose, what they are learning, how these opportunities build on each other, and the impact of the process on student leadership competencies, success in college, and post-college experiences and leadership activities. The C. Charles Jackson Foundation has generously supported this project for the past four years.

Krystal Woolston – Center for Community Engagement
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service – 2018
NJ Commission on National and Community Service
$4,000
This grant was awarded in support of MSU volunteers who participated in the national Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service. This marks the fourth year that the Center for Community Engagement and the Volunteer Center collaborated to organize the event.