[477] Get Involved In Campus Life, Says MTSU Academic Superstar And May Graduate Merranda Holmes

May 20, 2010
CONTACT: Tom Tozer, 615-898-2919

GET INVOLVED IN CAMPUS LIFE, SAYS MTSU ACADEMIC SUPERSTAR AND MAY GRADUATE MERRANDA HOLMES

MURFREESBORO—Merranda Holmes, a recent graduate of Middle Tennessee State University, with a major in biology and minor in chemistry, received one of 57 national Phi Kappa Phi Fellowships in the amount of $5,000 to pursue graduate study during the 2010-2011 academic year. Phi Kappa Phi is an interdisciplinary honor society with chapters throughout the nation.
Dr. John Vile, dean of MTSU’s Honors College and PKP board member, commented that Holmes, who graduated with a 4.0 grade point average, not only has brought honor to herself but to the entire university.
“Merranda wrote an Honor’s thesis, won awards for [research] posters, participated in internships, served on the board of the Honors College literary magazine and is a founding member of the Omicron Delta Kappa honor society that was initiated on campus on April 30,” Vile said. Holmes served as vice president of the new honor society.
Holmes recently was among 75 undergraduates from across the United States selected to display her biology research during the Posters on the Hill event last month in Washington, D.C. Classmate Shannon Murphy, also a senior, accompanied Holmes to the nation’s capital, the two being the only undergraduates from Tennessee selected for that honor.
“I truly think MTSU is student-centered,” Holmes said. “Professors care so much about you as a student. I’ve e-mailed professors with questions, and they have e-mailed me back early in the morning—they have really made me feel like they wanted me to be in their class.”
While at MTSU, Holmes was involved in the Band of Blue, Gamma Beta Phi, the Honors Studies Association, Women in Science and Engineering, Tri Beta Biological Honors Society, Tennessee Academy of Science, on the staff of Collage, the campus literary magazine, and served as an MTSU Student Ambassador, among other activities.
She contends that student initiative has a lot to do with integrating into campus life.
“Students have to want to get involved,” she said. “I have friends who ask, ‘How do you get to do this and that?’ You have to have the desire to get active. MTSU offers a lot of opportunities.”
Holmes is the daughter of David and Kim Holmes of McMinnville, Tenn.

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With three Nobel Prize winners among its alumni and former faculty, Middle Tennessee State University confers master’s degrees in 10 areas, the Specialist in Education degree, the Doctor of Arts degree and the Doctor of Philosophy degree. MTSU is ranked among the top 100 public universities in the nation in the Forbes “America’s Best Colleges” 2009 survey.


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