West Virginia State University Announces Inaugural Justin Smith Morrill Scholarship Award

2/24/2019

---

Contact: Jack Bailey
(304) 766-4109
jbaile19@wvstateu.edu
     
INSTITUTE, W.Va. –West Virginia State University (WVSU) biology major Sarah Greenberg has received the inaugural Justin Smith Morrill Scholarship. The $2,500 scholarship is awarded by the 1890 Universities Foundation to students studying food and agricultural sciences.

Greenberg is not only WVSU’s first recipient of the Morrill Scholarship, but is also only the ninth student in the nation to receive the award. 

The competitive scholarship is named in honor of the late Senator Justin Morrill, whose Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act established the 1890 Land-Grant University System. It was made available in the fall of 2018 to students studying at 1890 Land-Grant Universities, of which WVSU is one of 19 in the nation.

“This award program was very competitive,” said WVSU Vice President for Research and Public Service Dr. Orlando F. McMeans. “We are excited to present Sarah with this scholarship, and we are confident that the program will be an annual occurrence at State.”

The scholarship was established by the Association of Research Directors and the Association of Extension Administrators, overseers of the 1890 Universities Foundation. Each of the 1890 universities were granted one recipient for academic year 2018-2019. An appointed committee at WVSU oversaw the award distribution.

“Sarah is so accomplished,” said Dr. Katherine Harper, chair of WVSU’s Department of Biology. “She has set the scale with quality and is a true leader.”

Greenberg, a native of Leonardtown, Md., is working on a freshwater initiative research project at WVSU, studying water quality in the Kanawha River, with the goal of pursuing a graduate degree in marine ecology.

Follow West Virginia State Universityon Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @WVStateU.
 
West Virginia State University is a public, land grant, historically black university, which has evolved into a fully accessible, racially integrated, and multi‐generational institution, located in Institute, W.Va. As a “living laboratory of human relations,” the university is a community of students, staff, and faculty committed to academic growth, service and preservation of the racial and cultural diversity of the institution. Its mission is to meet the higher education and economic development needs of the state and region through innovative teaching and applied research.
 
Reasonable accommodations will be made to provide this content into reasonable alternate accessible formats upon request. Please contact the WVSU Extension Service office at (304) 204-4305 or extension@wvstateu.edu.
 
West Virginia State University Research & Development Corporation is an equal opportunity, affirmative action institution that does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability or veteran status in any of its programs or activities.