Volume 16 - Issue 1 - Home Page

Message from the Vice Provost

Kwesi Brookins, Vice Provost for University Outreach and Engagement

Let’s Get Engaged!

As we approach the end of October, our vibrant MSU campus is bursting with fall color and a rich tapestry of activity—academic classes, sporting events, an array of arts and cultural activities.

Likewise we at University Outreach and Engagement (UOE) have had a productive start to the academic year. We have facilitated events and professional development opportunities to further enhance community-engaged scholarship here at MSU and beyond.

We co-hosted the 2023 Engagement Scholarship Consortium (ESC) Conference, welcoming thought leaders and practitioners of community-engaged scholarship from across the United States and the world. Nearly 600 participants gathered for the Oct. 4-5 conference, representing 118 universities from 39 states, the Menominee Nation, and Colombia, Malaysia, Paraguay, South Africa, Uganda, and the United Kingdom. Pre-conferences provided opportunities for participants to delve ... Read more

Featured MSU Engaged Scholars

Ángel Abuelo works with final-year veterinary students completing an advanced dairy production medicine clinical rotation at Car-Min-Vu Farm in Webberville. The students are performing a thoracic lung ultrasound to evaluate the presence of subclinical respiratory disease in calves.

Early Intervention Keeps Dairy Cows Healthy, Happy, and Productive

When MSU veterinary medicine associate professor Ángel Abuelo and his students toured Sand Creek Dairy in Hastings, he popped into Ethan Haywood’s office. They struck up a conversation.

“That’s how we started talking about doing some research projects,” said Haywood, who runs the farm with his brother, father, and grandfather—all MSU graduates.

“We have really been trying to increase our focus on calf and young stock health,” he said. “(Ángel) was interested in coming in and trying to evaluate that further, and we were really excited.”

That’s just one example of the way real-world issues facing dairy farmers inform Abuelo’s research on dairy cattle health. In addition to his teaching appointment, Abuelo serves as MSU’s Extension veterinarian and runs the Abuelo Lab. For Abuelo, these roles are often intertwined, with his contact with veterinarians and farmers influencing his research and teaching and vice versa ...

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Members of the Trans-ilience research team, board members, and volunteers pause for a group photo during the 'Queer and Trans Joy Celebration' event.

Dedicated to Making a Difference: Transgender and Gender Diverse People Find Support in Trans-ilience

It’s Monday morning. Your alarm clock is set for 6:30, allowing enough time to double check your carry-on and enjoy a cup of coffee before heading to the airport to catch a 9:30 a.m. flight. Suddenly your subconscious jolts you awake only to come face-to-face with your clock reading 8:20 a.m., and the realization hits: You set your alarm for 6:30 p.m., not a.m. Thus begins the mad dash, leaving the thought of a leisurely cup of coffee in a whirlwind of dust you created while scrambling to get out the door.

You get to the airport with 45 minutes to spare, show the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) agent your ticket and ID, and are waved through to your gate. You made it.

However, if you’re a transgender or gender diverse (TGD) person, interactions with TSA can add a traumatic layer to an already stressful morning. When interacting with the TSA and using your ID, the information about someone’s gender, legal name, or gender marker is sometimes used to target TGD people. This is just one of many examples of ...

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Students from MSU, the University of Dar es Salaam, and Sokoine University of Agriculture worked as a team with Naitolia residents to build chicken coops. They are designed to protect chickens from predators and reduce the incidence of disease.

From Chicken Coops to Community Gardens: MSU Students, Village Residents Co-Design Projects in Northern Tanzania

Having grown up in rural Kenya, Jonathan Choti understands the culture and way of life of the people of East Africa. As an associate professor, he imparts this knowledge to his students by teaching Swahili, along with courses focusing on African cultures, languages, and literature.

Each summer since 2015, he has led a study-abroad program where students from a variety of academic backgrounds—such as advertising, engineering, French, and history—live and learn with and from the people of Naitolia, northern Tanzania.

“Education is much more than the formulas we teach. It’s much more than the theories we teach,” said Choti, who sees the study-abroad program as an extension of his academic interests in African languages and cultures. “Education is much more about enabling all the people involved in our educational activities to be successful. Students and faculty from different backgrounds that work in this community can come together and engage with and help this community.”...

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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 Burton Bargerstock, Executive Director of the Office for Public Engagement and Scholarship, at (517) 353-8977 or bb@msu.edu.


Feedback

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.

Resources

MSU Graduate Certification in Community Engagement
This program prepares graduate students for 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.

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

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