Feb. 26, 2024

Overcoming Obstacles and Encouraging Others

Reginald Rogers woke up on June 18, 1999, and expected it to be a fairly uneventful day. Rogers was at home in Atlanta, Georgia, enjoying a well-deserved break after finishing his sophomore year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Late in the afternoon, Rogers hopped in his car for a quick trip to pick up his father. He never made it to his destination. Rogers was involved a terrible accident, one that kept him in surgery for 14 hours and unconscious for three days. When he awoke, he had no memory of the collision and was…

Feb. 21, 2024

Communicating Vital Messages

Part of the ASH Scholars Program, the Minority Focused News as a Locus of Empowerment research team investigates the manners in which news websites and streaming platforms that serve under-represented and marginalized populations provide a benefit to society. The team was created in 2019 and undergraduate students at the University of Missouri who participate in the research seek to understand how identity-focused content serves as a safe space for those affected groups. It’s work that Julius Riles, an associate professor of communication at MU, had admired since its inception. Riles joined Mizzou in 2016, bringing with…

Feb. 19, 2024

A Strong Mizzou Connection

Botswana Blackburn got her first taste of how rewarding the collegiate experience could be – especially at the University of Missouri – through the Missouri Scholars Academy (MSA), a three-week residential program on the MU campus for 330 of Missouri’s academically gifted students who are ready to begin their junior year of high school. That experience would set Blackburn on an academic journey that has been beyond rewarding – and kept her closely tied to Mizzou. Along with earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, with a focus on broadcast news, and a master’s degree in health education…

Jan. 28, 2024

Educating the Next Generation

While Shari Freyermuth had planned to one day attend medical school, when she arrived at the University of Georgia as an undergraduate student she found a new interest – research. That enthusiasm for discovery followed her as she finished her Ph.D. at Duke University and began a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Missouri.  Freyermuth’s fellowship was in the laboratory of Joe Polacco, a professor emeritus of biochemistry at Mizzou. There, she participated in a variety of exciting plant-related projects and provided mentorship to the undergraduate students in the lab. It was the latter experience that…

Jan. 2, 2024

Honors Students Go Live on KBIA

Honors Tutorials, small one-credit discussions available to University of Missouri Honors students, are designed to provide more meaningful relationships and in-depth learning experiences than the traditional classroom setting can offer. Some Tutorials, such as last semester’s “Views of the News: Media Criticism” taught by Amy Simons, a professor in the MU School of Journalism, offer hands-on experience to students in areas that may or may not be related to their major. Simons, who produces and hosts a media criticism show, Views of the News, on KBIA with professors …

Dec. 14, 2023

Building Bridges Between His Interests

With interests in music and philosophy, Troy Hall explores both passions as affiliate faculty in the University of Missouri Honors College. Hall, who is an instructor of philosophy and percussion faculty in the School of Music, regularly teaches in the Honors Humanities Sequence and lends his expertise each spring semester to the Honors medical ethics discussion group. With his wide range of teaching duties, Hall interacts with Tigers from multiple degree programs and has built strong relationships with the students he educates. Those efforts led Honors students to nominate him for the Honors Outstanding…

Dec. 5, 2023

From Ma Rainey to Beyoncé: A Study of Black Women in Music

Maya Gibson places Black history and music center stage in “Black Women in Music,” an Honors course covering Black female musicians from Ma Rainey to Beyoncé. Gibson, who is originally from the Washington, D.C., area, attended Oberlin College in Ohio and received degrees in vocal performance, English literature and Black studies. She pursued two master’s degrees at the University of Wisconsin-Madison – African American studies and music history. Gibson came to Mizzou 12 years ago and eventually found her place in the Honors College. Gibson is part of a growing Honors faculty cohort who are teaching classes on…

Oct. 31, 2023

Time to Think: How an MU Professor Achieved Success

If you’ve been in college for any time at all, then you likely have mixed feelings about the question, “What do you want to do when you graduate?” While there may be a blessed few who have their futures mapped out, the best answer most young people can give to this question is a disheartened shrug. Doug Valentine, an assistant teaching professor of sociology at Mizzou, was no different while he pursued his own education. Constantly bouncing back and forth in his mind between choices, Valentine would often find himself in “a crisis of what am I doing.”…

Oct. 21, 2023

A Revolutionary Series

Revolutions are a team effort. For one Honors College series, education is, too. Matthew Frierdich and Billy Coleman, faculty in the Honors College and the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy, are leading the charge together in a Kinder-Honors collaboration about the revolutionary movements of the world. The class, titled simply, “Revolutions,” is the first in the two-class Social Sciences Series offered through the Honors College. The sequel is “Constitutions.” Frierdich, assistant teaching professor of political science, says, “We’re working really closely together. We have different backgrounds, different training, different assumptions about how to approach…

Oct. 8, 2023

Contributing to Vital Research in African Linguistics

Undergraduate students who are part of the Collaborative Research in African Languages (CORAL) team at the University of Missouri contribute to vital research in African linguistics. Students perform a variety of tasks depending on their experience, their interests and the needs of the team. Some of that work includes extracting linguistic data from existing sources, such as vocabulary from dictionaries, and working with software to align transcriptions and translations with audio from interviews. The CORAL team, which began in 2016, is an extension of two separate National Science Foundation (NSF) grants secured by Mizzou faculty – Michael Marlo,…