Contact: Jim Laird
STARKVILLE, Miss.--An innovative partnership between Mississippi State University and the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science is fueling student discovery in a wide range of academic disciplines. During the yearlong internship program, MSU faculty members provide hands-on learning for the participating MSMS seniors in the land-grant institution's labs and research centers.
While the high school students receive credit from MSMS for their work, the greatest reward is the opportunity to conduct leading-edge research at the state's flagship research university, according to Mississippi State assistant vice president for research Teresa Gammill, who started the mentoring initiative when she was an administrator at MSMS in Columbus.
"These students have a great opportunity to work with Mississippi State's talented and award-winning faculty and to make contributions of their own. Very few high school seniors have a chance to be a part of research at this level," she said. "Our faculty enjoy working with MSMS' talented students, and we love having them on campus."
The relationship between MSU and MSMS is very complementary, said Thomas Easterling, a member of the MSMS English faculty who is coordinating the program this year, along with Cristi Stevens, administrative assistant to the Mississippi State vice president for research.
"Both of our institutions are committed to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education and the powerful impact that scholarship can have on the lives of our students and the state of Mississippi," Easterling said.
MSMS is the state's public, residential, co-educational high school for academically talented juniors and seniors.
Mississippi State faculty members participating in the research internship program include Wanda Cheek, apparel, textiles and merchandising; Jane Clary, food science, nutrition and health promotion; Cody Coyne, veterinary medicine; Joe Emerson, chemistry; Roger King, Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems; Keith Koenig, aerospace engineering; Ed Lewis, chemistry; Todd Mlsna, chemistry; Jarrod Moss, psychology; Dan Peterson, plant and soil sciences; Gerald Rowland, chemistry; Tonya Stone, mechanical engineering; Cyprianna Swiderski, veterinary medicine; Chuji Wang, physics and astronomy; and James Warnock, agricultural and biological engineering.
Participating MSMS students are (alphabetical by hometown):
BENTONIA--Joanna King, Yazoo County High School
BILOXI--Cheyenne Hurst and Nam Pham, Biloxi High School
BOYLE--David Liang, Cleveland High School
BRANDON--Jon Watson, Northwest Rankin High School
BROOKHAVEN--Jamarius Waller, Brookhaven High School
COLUMBUS--Chadwick Hickman and Kaitlan Rester, New Hope High School
COMO--William Briscoe, Senatobia High School
DIAMONDHEAD--Austin Ladner, St. Stanislaus
EDWARDS--Victoria Brown, Raymond High School
FULTON--Shelby Bierig, Itawamba Agricultural High School
GAUTIER--Sterling Harper, Gautier High School
GULFPORT--Arslan Arshad (high school unavailable)
HATTIESBURG--Megan Chambers, Forrest County Agricultural High School and Scott Chen, Lamar County School District
HORN LAKE--Mitchel Griffin, Horn Lake High School
KILMICHAEL--Camden Perkins and Candice Perkins, Montgomery County High School
MADISON--Akriti Kaur, Madison Central High School
RIDGELAND--Nameeta Mota, St. Andrew's Episcopal School
STARKVILLE--Joshua Stone and Wilton Liano, Starkville High School
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.