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Message from the Interim Associate Provost

Laurie Van Egeren, Interim Associate Provost for University Outreach and Engagement

MSU's 2030 Strategic Plan Strengthens Commitment to Community Engagement

Dear Engaged Spartans and our partners in Michigan and around the world,

At the beginning of the 2021-2022 academic year, Michigan State University unveiled a bold new vision in the MSU 2030 Strategic Plan.

Twenty months in the making, the ambitious plan launches MSU on a trajectory that will expand opportunity, advance equity, elevate excellence, strengthen community, and foster stewardship. Far from mere visionary rhetoric, the MSU 2030 Strategic Plan, conceived by a diverse group of faculty, staff, students, administrators, and trustees, lays out specific, tangible ways in which MSU will enact these qualities across its mission ... read more

Featured MSU Engaged Scholars

Wheelchair Users Find Relief with MSU Professor's Innovation

Tamara Reid Bush, Ph.D.
Interim Chair and Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
College of Engineering

For individuals who are wheelchair dependent, pressure injuries are common and can be a major deterrent to enjoying a high quality of life. These injuries are typically caused by a constant force being applied to the skin and tissues beneath the skin. In collaboration with individuals affected by these injuries, Tamara Reid Bush, professor and interim chairperson of MSU's Department of Mechanical Engineering, and her research team are using their knowledge of biomechanical design to create a wheelchair to ultimately prevent these life-threatening wounds from ever forming ... read more

The Future Workplace: Youth Learn to Work with AI

Hee Rin Lee, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Media and Information
College of Communication Arts and Sciences

Human-robot interaction has long been an interest of Hee Rin Lee, assistant professor with the College of Communication Arts and Sciences at MSU. For Lee, the concept of positively combining human work with artificial intelligence (AI) through the use of robots, began while observing individuals in manufacturing plants. She found in these settings, robots have a high chance of replacing human workers, leaving production workers out of employment ... read more

Tipping Points to Leverage Points: Modeling Flint's Food Systems

Steven Gray, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Community Sustainability
College of Agriculture and Natural Resources

Food agency—the ability to choose and acquire food that we like and that is healthy—is something many take for granted. But for some, enjoying a variety of food options may not be so easy. Lack of access, availability, resources, or transportation can cause some city residents to experience "food apartheid," a situation in which they are entrapped by dependence on emergency or supplemental food systems. For many urban areas, food access is an ongoing problem hovering at a tipping point ... read more

Announcements and Events

Outreach and Engagement Resources

MSU Graduate Certification in Community Engagement
This program prepares graduate students for academic careers that integrate scholarship with community engagement. It offers students a transcript notation indicating that they have completed the program.

Community Engagement Toolkits
Designed by the Center for Community Engaged Learning to guide and support MSU faculty, students, staff, and community partners.

Tools of Engagement Learning Modules
Online curriculum modules are available for use by MSU faculty to introduce undergraduate students to the concept of university-community engagement.

Transformations in Higher Education: The Scholarship of Engagement Series
Available from Michigan State University Press

Looking for Community Partners?

Collaboration and partnership with communities are at the core of engaged scholarship. In all of its work, University Outreach and Engagement emphasizes university-community partnerships that are collaborative, participatory, empowering, systemic, transformative, and anchored in scholarship. If you are a faculty or academic staff member wanting to establish a community partnership, University Outreach and Engagement may be able to help you. Our staff and researchers have connections across the state in areas such as education, mental health, human services, business, and government. For more information, contact Laurie Van Egeren, Interim Associate Provost for University Outreach and Engagement at (517) 353-8977, or vanegere@msu.edu.

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We would like to hear from you. Contact us with comments, suggestions, announcements, or “engaged scholar” project information for future e-newsletters. Send to: engaged.scholar@msu.edu.

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