Contact: Sasha Steinberg

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Fourteen incoming first-year students from Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana are being honored with Mississippi State University’s prestigious Provost Scholarships.

The annual honor includes an academic scholarship, as well as funding for study abroad. Grants for research or creative discovery and an optional travel grant to attend a conference also are included.

To qualify, applicants must have a minimum 30 ACT and 3.75 high school GPA (based on a 4.0 scale). For more, visit www.honors.msstate.edu/scholarships/provost-scholarships.

Selected from more than 800 qualified applicants, this year’s group joins 45 already participating in the program, which is part of MSU’s Judy and Bobby Shackouls Honors College.

Fourth-year program mentor Seth F. Oppenheimer, the honors college’s undergraduate research program director, said Provost Scholars serve as leaders at Mississippi State and share their passion for understanding, exploration and truth with fellow students.

“Whether it is designing a better way to deliver lifesaving drugs using new classes of nanoparticles, uplifting a soul with new poetry, finding ways to feed the multitude of the world’s hungry with new agricultural techniques, or nourishing the hearts of people with new music, Provost Scholars follow the passion of their curiosity with hard work, diligence and creativity,” said Oppenheimer, who also serves as professor and associate dean of MSU’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics.

The 2018-19 Provost Scholars class includes (by hometown):

BELDEN—Abigail E. Grant, a biomedical engineering major.

BRANDON—Jonathan D. Bailey, a political science major; and Jackson T. De Gruiter, a software engineering major.

CLARKSDALE—Allyson V. Espy, a computer engineering major.

CLINTON—Tanner S. DeYoung, a biochemistry/pre-MBA major.

JACKSON—Mary Margaret Mitchell, an industrial engineering major.

MADISON—Chappel C. Pettit, a biomedical engineering major.

MONROE, Louisiana—Madeline C. Enlow, a communication/public relations major.

OLIVE BRANCH—Anna C. Salzgeber, a psychology major.

PRATTVILLE, Alabama—Andreana M. “Andi” Durham, a psychology major.

RIDGELAND—Isaac G. Johnson, a biomedical engineering major.

STARKVILLE—Abigail F. Musser, a civil engineering/environmental engineering major; and Garrett C. Smith, a political science major.

VICKSBURG—Sarah Grace Dulaney, a biological sciences/pre-medicine major.

Learn more about MSU’s Shackouls Honors College at www.honors.msstate.edu.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.