Giving Back Endowment: Faculty Innovation Grant.
Apply for a $1,000 Faculty Grant
Application Deadline: Monday, February 12, 2024 at 11:59 p.m.
The Faculty Innovation Initiative is a signature piece of the Nonprofit Leadership Program's long established commitment to high impact community engagement. With generous funding provided by the Giving Back Endowment, established by Dr. Robert and Patricia Long, the Initiatve offers a competitive grant funding of one-time initial support for faculty across campus seeking to incorporate innovative approaches to student-community engagement into their courses. These innovative approaches to classroom education, and the strategic actions that take our students out of the classroom and into our community is part of what makes Murray State such an exceptional university.
Past Award Recipients and Projects
Not sure how to blend philanthropy into your course content? See how past award recipients used their grant funds in creative and transformative ways.
2023 Recipients
Dr. Kimberly Vigil, an assistant professor in the Department of Education and Human Services, was awarded $1,000 to incorporate health and wellness into the community through her course (HPE 409) in order to establish True Play, Movement and Reflection for the Calloway County community. This project will also allow the students in Vigil’s HPE 409 class to engage with the community and practice their assessment skills. While facilitating this program, students will be able to assess the program's efficiency and meet Health and Physical education outcomes.
“The Faculty Innovation Award is important for my courses because it offers an opportunity to make sure the Calloway County community is healthy and also by providing a new experience for the students in my class,” said Vigil. “This proposed project clearly assists students that are planning to become certified physical education teachers. However, for those students that are in the non-certification track, it also models for them how they can strengthen their programs by practicing the process of aligning.”
Dr. Bommanna Loganathan, professor in the Jesse D. Jones College of Science, Engineering and Technology, received $1,000 for his course, Technology (CHE-495). Students taking this course will be engaged in a special project involving hands-on water quality measurements using advanced analytical instruments including multi-parameter electrodes, atomic absorption spectrometer, gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer. Students will also be trained in field sampling and laboratory analysis, coupled with processing data, writing reports and making presentations in local, regional and national conferences.
“This course gives the students an opportunity to apply their chemistry knowledge to assess our regional water quality, especially with respect to learning and maintaining good water quality,” said Loganathan. “Students will perform field sampling in Kentucky Lake, the Clarks River and the Ohio River.”
Dr. Joshua Ridley, professor in the Jesse D. Jones College of Science, Engineering and Technology, was awarded $1,000 to work with students in his Introduction to Astrophysics (PHY 316) class where the students will work in groups of two or three to teach basic telescope and observing fundamentals to interested community organizations. Students will teach community members how to operate telescopes, how and what to look for, safety precautions and also discuss differences between telescopes.