It’s a busy and exciting time of year here at Mississippi State. The landscape is in full bloom thanks to warmer and sunnier days and the hard work of our Campus Landscape team. We are in the final weeks of another successful spring semester, and there’s so much going on and so much to be a part of throughout our campus community.
 
Earlier this week, we were thrilled to announce that three of our students have been awarded prestigious Goldwater Scholarships. David C. Heson of Guntown, Annamarie L. Thompson of Trussville, Alabama, and Alyssa Williams of Franklin, Tennessee, are receiving one of the nation’s premier undergraduate scholarships for STEM students who have significant research experience and a passion for making important research contributions in graduate school and their careers. I’m so proud of them and grateful for the faculty who have taught and mentored them and provided them exceptional research opportunities.
 
We also signed a new articulation agreement with one of the leading community colleges in Texas to facilitate greater academic opportunities for their students. On Tuesday [April 2], I visited Lone Star College to formalize this new partnership, and I also had the opportunity to share more about Mississippi State. We are working hard to provide students—wherever they are—with the academic programs they want and need. This most recent collaboration with Lone Star is the perfect example of our commitment to offering options with flexibility, convenience, and quality that’s second to none.
 
And in a major milestone, we recently celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Raspet Flight Research Laboratory—the nation’s premier academic flight research lab. The work being done at Raspet exemplifies the transformative research that this university is doing. We’ll soon be enhancing Raspet’s impressive capabilities with a new all-weather lab to test uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) in a wide range of real-world conditions thanks to grant funding from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
 
As you can see, our students, faculty, and staff really are doing great things, and I invite you to learn more about them in this month’s Leadership Matters.