Mississippi State University held a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday, June 15, for construction on a new music building north of the university’s current band and choral rehearsal hall on Hardy Road in Starkville.

MSU estimates that construction on the $21 million, 37,000 square foot facility will finish by the fall of 2021. The new building includes classrooms, a choral rehearsal hall, faculty offices, sound-proof practice rooms, a recording studio, a lecture and recital hall, a student lounge and an administrative suite.

The building will house the university's Department of Music and will have a choir wing to allow the MSU's choral programs to vacate the current band hall and give the choral and band programs more space, a release from MSU says.

MSU Assisting Mississippi 30 Day Fund

The Mississippi State University Center for Entrepreneurship and Outreach, part of the university's College of Business, has partnered with the recently established Mississippi 30 Day Fund to help small businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The center will process initial application reviews for the program to help small business owners receive funding more quickly.

MSU alumna Marie Sanderson and her husband Brian Sanderson, who live in Ocean Springs, Miss., launched the nonprofit Mississippi 30 Day Fund, which provides quick, forgivable loans of up to $3,000 to Mississippi-based businesses.

To qualify for assistance, a business must be owned and operated by a Mississippi resident, have been operating in the state for at least a year and employ between three and 30 people. Business owners do not have to pay funds from the program back, but can choose to direct money back to the fund to help other businesses in need, a release from MSU says.

The MSU Center for Entrepreneurship and Outreach’s Peer Review Panel will work together with business college graduate students to help screen applicants. Entrepreneurs that worked with the E-Center to start businesses make up the panel.

For more information on the Mississippi 30 Day Fund, visit ms30dayfund.com.

JSU Receives Adult Literacy Grant

The congressional office of Mississippi U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson recently announced the National Science Foundation awarded Jackson State University a $467,080 grant to train local minority scientists at the university.

JSU received the “Excellence in Research: Processes and Interactions in Hybrid Plasmonic Systems" grant through the Condensed Matter and Materials Theory program in the Division of Materials Research. The grant is part of the Division of Human Resource Development's HBCU-UP program. JSU will carry out all the research, a release from the university says.

The grant will help students prepare for careers in STEM-related jobs involving disciplines such as chemistry, physics, biology, environmental science and materials science.

Dollar General Literacy Foundation Gives Adult Literacy Grant to JSU

The Dollar General Literacy Foundation recently awarded Jackson State University's Continuing Education Learning Center an $8,000 grant to support adult literacy.

Adult students at JSU will receive at least 150 hours of literacy training in a traditional classroom and computer-assisted instruction focused on high school equivalency skills and career readiness training, a release from JSU says. The goal of the program is to allow participants to receive their HSED or achieve a minimum of 1.5 grade level improvement in reading. Students in the program must live in the area of Hinds, Madison or Rankin counties.

The Dollar General Literacy Foundation has awarded more than $8.6 million in grants to more than 950 schools, nonprofits and organizations, the release says. DGLF has awarded $182 million in grants since its founding in 1993.