The Lead in Drinking Water project team, of which CPS is a partner, was recently recognized for outstanding community engaged teaching at the 2019 University of Mississippi Celebration of Service, hosted by the McLean Institute for Public Service and Community Engagement.
Excerpted from April 11 University of Mississippi News story by Edwin B. Smith
UM Spotlights Service with Sullivan, Community Engagement Awards
OXFORD, Miss. – University of Mississippi faculty and staff members, a student, and several external community organizations were honored Wednesday, April 10 in celebration of their community-engaged research, learning, and service work within the LOU community and beyond.
The new Excellence in Community Engagement Award recognizes outstanding accomplishments in community-engaged research, learning, service, and scholarship. Criteria include a strong collaboration between the university and partnering communities for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity while fulfilling the university’s mission of scholarly learning, research, and service.
Two projects, Base Pair: A Biomedical Research Mentorship and Behind the Big House: Interpreting Slavery in Local Communities, were selected to receive the Overall Community Engagement Award and $5,000 each for their community-engaged work.
Base Pair is a 27-year-old collaboration between the UM Medical Center with Mississippi public and private high schools to enhance science education, accelerate STEM education and influence the development of future health care practitioners in Mississippi.
Behind the Big House is a collaboration with academic researchers that ensures historical tours immersing visitors in re-creations of the antebellum era move beyond the large mansions to explore the many extant slave dwellings and interpret the experiences of enslaved people who inhabited them.
Outstanding Community Engaged Awards went to four finalists for research, learning, service, and scholarship. The recipients, each of which was awarded $1,000, are:
- Research: “Exploring Exercise Behavior in Pregnant and Postpartum Adolescents in the Mississippi Delta: The Teen Mom Study”
- Teaching: “Empowering Individuals to Reduce Lead Exposure from Drinking Water through Community-Based Research”
- Service: “Lafayette County Lynching Memorialization”
- Scholarship: “College 2 Youth: A Multi-Stakeholder Partnership for Improved Health and Well-being in the Mississippi Delta”
