Fifteen Ole Miss Students Win Stamps Impact Prize

The university created the competitive award in fall 2023 to enhance undergraduate students' academic experience by supporting innovative, faculty-supported endeavors beyond the classroom. Each student receives up to $5,000 to support their work.

Provost Noel Wilkin announced the spring 2025 recipients on April 15.

"This year's awarded undergraduate projects are impressive," Wilkin said. "It reinforces the fact that our undergraduate students are making contributions to knowledge in their areas while earning their degrees.

"It also highlights the fact that our faculty and their willingness to work with undergraduates as they test out their ideas, makes this an amazing community."

The 15 awardees represent a variety of fields, including public health, psychology, music and computer science. The spring recipients are:

• Jana Abuirshaid, of Southaven, a junior majoring in public health and Arabic
• Maria Fernanda Argote de la Torre, of San Andres Cholula, Puebla, Mexico, a junior biomedical engineering major
• Darryl Bonds, of Flowood, a junior psychology major
• Emma Broemmer, of Leesburg, Virginia, a junior psychology major
• Benton Donahue, of Madison, a junior music education major
• John Griffith of Charlotte, North Carolina, a junior mechanical engineering major
• Ann Grigsby, of Hot Springs, Arkansas, a senior studio art major
• Sydney Guntharp, of Hernando, a senior majoring in English and political science
• Jacob King, of Canton, a junior biochemistry major 
• Lindsey McGee, of Chesterfield, Missouri, a junior mechanical engineering major 
• Camille Newman, of Pass Christian, a junior mechanical engineering major
• Compton Ross, of Madison, a junior majoring in computer science and mathematics
• Jackson Sevin, of New Orleans, a junior psychology major 
• Katherine Tibbs, of Gulfport, a junior exercise science major 
• Abi Turner, of Suwanee, Georgia, a junior elementary education major.

Turner was selected for her project focused on producing code-switching literature, or books primarily written in one language that switch to another. Her faculty mentor is Kristina Livingston, assistant professor of elementary education.

A fellow in the Mississippi Excellence in Teaching program, Turner has focused her research on bilingual literacy, and the support from this award will help her take action.

"I'm really trying to make an impact in the education community and community as a whole because there really aren't a lot of bilingual books that are code-switching for both English and Spanish or that are about a variety of different topics," she said.

"Being able to write and release books and research that I've found on this topic with support and not having to fund it myself definitely helps me achieve something that I've worked so hard and dreamt of doing."

Through her thesis and coursework, Turner said she has witnessed and identified barriers of bilingual literacy. She wants to help remove those to help all students thrive.

"Bilingualism isn't something that should be seen as a disadvantage," she said. "It should be seen as something that is an advantage.

"Bilingual literature gives every student the opportunity to have that advantage."

Roe Stamps and his family gave the university a $100,000 renewable gift in 2023, which the university matched to create the Stamps Impact Prize. Thirteen students received the inaugural awards.

The support for these enterprising student projects enriches their academic experience while also advancing a variety of research, program director Kenneth Sufka said.

"The Stamps Impact Prizes awarded in our spring cycle represent an array of high quality, student-initiated research, creative achievement and community service projects across a wide range of academic disciplines," said Sufka, distinguished professor of psychology and pharmacology and research professor in the Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

"We are thrilled to support these faculty-mentored undergraduate experiences as our students address important issues in science, culture and society."

The application portal for the fall semester opens Oct. 1. Recipients will be announced Nov. 15.