Volume 17 - Issue 1 - Home Page

Message from the Vice Provost

Kwesi Brookins, Vice Provost for University Outreach and Engagement

A Season of New Beginnings

As we settle into a new academic year, we’re feeling energized at University Outreach and Engagement (UOE) as we welcome a new leader, participate in a new experience, and mark a new milestone for our community-engaged learning efforts.

We congratulate Kevin Leonard, Ph.D., who became director of MSU’s Native American Institute (NAI), a unit with UOE, on August 1. Named interim director in October 2022, Kevin was tasked with revitalizing NAI and rebuilding relationships with Michigan's 12 federally recognized Tribes along with Native communities within MSU and throughout the state. Kevin traveled the state for listening sessions with Tribal leaders facilitated by Grassroots Solutions. The priorities and needs that emerged from these conversations are summarized in the newly released Tribal Outreach Project report, which will help guide NAI’s engagement efforts in the years ahead ... Read more

Featured MSU Engaged Scholars

Brooke Ingersoll (second from left) directs the MSU Autism Lab. She is pictured last summer with Hannah Tokish, a clinical science doctoral student; Jessie Greatorex, research assistant; and Isabelle Saligumba, lab manager.

Study Examines the Power of Play for Children Showing Early Signs of Autism

“Bop-bop-bop.”

A mom shakes a maraca to the beat as her toddler looks on. “Now, you do it!” she says.

This simple game can help young children at risk for autism develop imitation skills, a key building block of social communication.

“Imitation is a core behavior for learning all sorts of things,” said Brooke Ingersoll, a professor of clinical psychology at MSU. “We use imitation to learn new skills. We also use imitation as a way of socially connecting with others. So, it’s a very important developmental skill that many children with early signs of autism have difficulty acquiring.”

Ingersoll and a team of researchers, working closely with early-intervention providers and parents/caregivers, hope to help boost children’s social communication skills by increasing access to evidence-based strategies ...

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Mandela Washington Fellowship participants pause for a photo after completing the program.

Young African Leaders Leave Lasting Impact on MSU and Local Communities

In June of 2024, a steady arm accompanied Tsaone Mosweu as she approached a wooden lectern on the Blackbox Theatre stage in MSU’s Auditorium. One of her hands was gently placed on the lectern while the other was guided toward the microphone stand next to her. She took a moment to gauge her surroundings before addressing an audience of her peers.

Confidently she began, “I champion the principle of leaving no one behind.”

Mosweu, 28, is a young professional from Botswana living with blindness. She has dedicated her career to promoting reproductive health rights for young women with disabilities. She holds a bachelor’s degree in public health and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in sexual and reproductive rights.

“The harsh truth is that the rights of persons with disabilities are often overlooked, which ...

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Golden mantella frog perched on a pathos leaf

Researchers, Pet Industry Collaborate to Keep Amphibians Free of Disease

On a windy spring night at the Bengel Wildlife Center in Bath, Michigan, Alexa Warwick led 45 people on a “frog walk.” They were rewarded with a chorus of high-pitched frog calls, each representing a different species. “It can be really incredible to go out at night and listen to them,” Warwick said.

Warwick relishes sharing her love of wildlife and the outdoors with others.

As an MSU conservation biologist, she has focused her research on the ecology and evolution of amphibians such as frogs and salamanders. As a community-engaged researcher, she is equally interested in the role humans have in protecting the rich biodiversity of the natural world.

These passions have intertwined through Warwick’s participation in a study examining the socioeconomic factors that contribute to the spread of disease in the U.S. amphibian pet ...

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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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