Several hundred MTSU students and faculty wrapped up the annual Scholars Week Friday, April 1, with performances and 200 poster presentations in the Student Union Ballroom.

Scholars Week emphasizes the research, scholarly efforts, creativity and collaboration of undergraduate and graduate students and faculty within the university’s academic colleges. For more information and complete schedule, visit www.mtsu.edu/scholarsweek.

Performances included an excerpt from the student production of “West Side Story,” which will be presented at 7:30 p.m. April 20-24 in Tucker Theatre; various dancers from the MTSU Dance Theatre; and musician Hunter Marlowe, a senior audio production major from Newnan, Georgia, who is one of four Jones College of Business finalists in the Business Plan Competition.

In addition to nine university centers, 80 graduate and 100 undergraduate students’ work was shown.

Six local high school dual-enrollment students also shared their research and posters at the event.

— Randy Weiler (Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu)

Senior horse science major Emily Ann Carrol Smith, left, of Cosby, Tennessee, discusses her research and poster with Kalab Fulton, a junior animal science major and biology minor from Shelbyville, Tennessee, April 1 as Scholars Week wrapped up in the Student Union Ballroom. (MTSU photo by Andy Heidt)

Physics major Ghayath Dukkouri, left, of Damascus, Syria, records audio production major Hunter Marlowe of Newnan, Georgia, as he plays a tune April 1 during the finale event for MTSU Scholars Week. Marlowe is one of four Jones College of Business finalists in the Business Plan Competition.

Academic colleges ramp up for MTSU Scholars Week activities 

March 25, 2016

Four days of MTSU Scholars Day events led to the universitywide finale April 1 in the Student Union Ballroom.

The annual MTSU Scholars Week emphasizes the research, scholarly efforts, creativity and collaboration of undergraduate and graduate students and faculty within the university’s academic colleges.

Holocaust survivor Inge Meyring Smith addresses a College of Education Scholars Day audience March 28. (MTSU photos by J. Intintoli)

The various colleges within the university have stepped up with their own activities to showcase academic achievement across campus.

“Scholars Week represents activities of students — undergraduate, master’s and doctoral —across the whole campus,” said Dr. Jackie Eller, vice provost for research and interim dean of the College of Graduate Studies. “All of the colleges participate in some way.”

Eller said that the range of Scholars Week can be from a project that looks at horses and giraffes to projects that look at classical music and the ways in which art and culture and science mix to sociological observations and studies to theatrical performances.

“Scholars Week attempts to embrace all of the tremendous creativity that we find on this campus — in our faculty and students, and it is a celebration worth applauding.”

Senior animal science major Caitlin Chase of Bell Buckle, Tennessee, said Scholars Week “is an opportunity for students to showcase any research they have been doing at the university.

“I, myself, am very interested in earning a Ph.D. and teaching,” she added. “I know that must be the case with a lot of other students here. So this gives us an opportunity to talk about things that we’ve been doing that might eventually be taught in a classroom.”

Dr. Andrienne Friedli

College of Education students discuss their research and poster presentations with faculty during the March 28 Scholars Day.

Dr. Andrienne Friedli, MTSU’s vice provost for research, said all of the university’s academic colleges “have established high-quality, exciting annual events for the individual college Scholars Days to showcase research, scholarship and creative accomplishments according the traditions of their fields of study.”

Scholars Week activities were open to the public.

Events included performances, special guest speakers and other activities showing collaboration and the many varieties of ongoing research between students and faculty campuswide.

For more information and a complete schedule, visit www.mtsu.edu/scholarsweek.

Dr. Brad Bartel

Scholar’s Week at MTSU is always one of the most important events for students and faculty, said Provost Brad Bartel, because it demonstrates the “high-quality devotion” to student research and cooperation between students and faculty for such scholarship.

“Over the years, the quality and quantity of research displayed at Scholar’s Week has increased significantly. I am proud of all of the accomplishments by our students throughout all colleges,” he said.

College Scholars Days’ activities include talks, performances, posters, panel discussions, a business plan competition trade show, and invited speakers, Friedli said.

Scholars Day highlights will include:

• College of Education guest speaker Inge Meyring Smith, who fled Nazi Germany with her parents, barely escaping the Holocaust, and became the founder of Head Start in Tennessee and Battle Ground Academy’s Lower School, and Harpeth Academy’s first headmistress. She will speak at 6 p.m. March 28 in College of Education Room 160.
• Scholars Week keynote speaker Bill Ivey, a folklorist, former National Endowment for the Arts chairman and first full-time director of the Country Music Foundation and Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. He’ll discuss “Creativity, Career and Public Education” at 7 p.m. March 28 in the Student Union Ballroom.
• “Determined to Rise: Black Female Students in Higher Education,” a National Women’s History Month presentation and panel discussion. Event is scheduled for noon March 30 in Student Union Building Room 224.
• The College of Media and Entertainment’s Les Paul’s Big Sound Experience will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. March 30-31.

— Randy Weiler (Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu)

Keynote speaker Bill Ivey, left, and professor and Scholars Week committee member Will Langston visits listens as MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee makes a comment during their casual conversation March 28.