Event Title

 Primary Applicant

2009 MLK Week Celebration at Ferris State University
The 4th annual MLK Week Celebration at FSU included student activities and organized events both on and off-campus, culminating in the MLK Legacy Dinner and Awards.

2009 MLK Week Planning Committee

$2,768.68

Final Report

Baldwin After-School Mathematics Tutoring Program
The Baldwin After-School Tutoring Program links Ferris students who are pre-service mathematics teachers with Baldwin elementary and high school students who need assistance with their study of mathematics.

Mary Forintos

$3,750.00

Final Report

Critical Encounters with Globalization: a Colloquium Series The Colloquium Series will invite two speakers to inform Ferris students and the larger community about the role diversity plays in two contrasting economies: the European Union and India.

Piram Prakasam

$4,000.00

Final Report

EYE-DOC: Encouraging Youth Empowerment – Diversity in Optometry Collaborative
EYE-DOC is a 2-day summer diversity pilot program which seeks to expose 9th-11th grade high school students from traditionally underrepresented racial and ethnic minority groups within the Grand Rapids public school system to the profession of Optometry.

Jim Nash

$4,000.00

Final Report

Love Makes a Family: Portraits of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender People and Their Families
Love Makes a Family is a museum-quality traveling exhibit including photographs and interviews with families that have lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) members. Through first-person accounts and positive images, this exhibit seeks to challenge and change damaging myths and stereotypes about LGBT people and their families.

Katherine Harris

$4,000.00

Final Report

Raising Expectations with Raised Bed Gardens
In the spirit of collaboration, engagement and inclusion, a group of concerned FSU community members are planning to work with the FSU Physical Plants Grounds Crew and Big Rapids Parks and Recreation Department to locate and build several wheelchair accessible raised bed garden planters for growing ornamentals and vegetables.

Scott Herron

$4,000.00

Exploring the Seven Passages: A conversation about LGBTQ spirituality
This student event will address the complex issues facing individuals who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning (LGBTQ) in regard to finding a balance between their sexual orientation and spiritual beliefs.  This event will provide a learning opportunity where students can engage in a discussion about current issues surrounding not only the LGBTQ community but also members of faith based communities.

Mike Berghoef

$2,300.00

Final Report

Tres Vidas
Musical theater that celebrates the life, times and work of three legendary Latin American Women; Frida Kahlo, Alfonsina Storni, Rufina Amaya.

FY10

Luzia Tartari

$4,000.00

Final Report

Event Title

 Primary Applicant

Fred Weston – “Living with HIV”
Fred Weston, a Detroit native, is an artist, a Ferris Alumni and an African American living with HIV.  The Rankin Art Gallery will invite Fred Weston to exhibit his artwork on our campus in an effort to showcase the work of an artist who is living with one of the most misunderstood and stereotyped diseases. 

Carrie Weis

$2654.00

Final Report

"Blood and Politics: White Nationalism and the Politics of Hate"
Leonard Zeskind, winner of the MacArthur Genius Award and author of Blood and Politics: The History of the White Nationalist Movement – From the Margins to the Mainstream, is currently touring the nation speaking out on the politics of hate.  The single most important issue that has brought white nationalists from the margins into the mainstream, according to Leonard Zeskind, has been the debate over immigration and “illegal aliens.”  Zeskind’s new book, Blood and Politics will be indispensable to Ferris’s diversity efforts; having him here to interact with our students will move us another step toward our shared vision for the future of Ferris.

Barry Mehler

$3500.00

Final Report

Students With Children (SWC) Network
The programming will offer activities, resources, and services for SWC’s attending Ferris including peer mentors, referrals to campus and community resources, parenting education seminars, and family friendly activities.  These new efforts will be provide for first-time college students and returning and transfer students who have children.

Karen GreenBay

$3753.00

Final Report

Without Fear: Dolores Huerta talks about neighbors uniting
Dolores Huerta is one of the most prominent Chicana labor leaders in the United States and has dedicated her life to the struggle for justice and dignity.  As co-founder of the United Farm Workers, Cesar E. Chavez, referred to Huerta as a women “without fear.”  Today, her foundation seeks to engage women, children, and neighbors to actively seek solutions to community problems. Ferris, Big Rapids and other communities will gather to both hear Huerta and begin a dialogue on community issues and community involvement in problem solving.

Stephanie Thomson

$1390.00

Final Report

The 2010 MLK Celebration featured Presentation “The NWC Show”

The 2010 Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration’s theme is to focus on “The Jim Crow Era: Then and Now” in a critical reflection of its impact in society. We aim to educate the University community, through a reflection on the past, a significant examination of the present, and a collective commitment to a more inclusive community in the future.
A featured presentation of this year’s MLK Celebration is the NWC Race Show. Our overall goal in bringing the NWC Race Show to FSU is to educate the campus on the impact of hateful words, is for individuals to evaluate perceptions/stereotypes of groups in society, as well as encourage individuals to have continuous dialogue for understanding with race and ethnicity on campus.

Michael Wade

$4,000.00

Final Report

Disabilities Awareness Month
The Liaison Committee for Students with Disabilities is organizing events for the Disabilities Awareness Month. The events include two nationally known speakers, Kathy Buckley and Johnny Tuitel, who will share and discuss their own experiences with disabilities.  Kathy Buckley has been coined as “America’s First Hearing Impaired Comedienne, Actress, Motivational Speaker and Humanitarian.” Johnny Tuitel was born with cerebral palsy and has used a wheelchair his entire life. Mr. Tuitel will discuss how he has succeeded through acceptance, self-esteem and motivation.  Additionally, the committee will bring the Michigan Sled Dogs to campus. The Michigan Sled Dogs are a team of hockey players with a variety of disabilities that plays a sit down version of ice hockey; they will challenge a “celebrity” Big Rapids team at the Wink Arena. The fourth and final event is a showing of the movie, “Music Within.” This movie is the true story of Richard Pimentel and his work in Disability Employment and the Americans with Disabilities Act.  The grant will fund Johnny Tuitel and Disability Movie Night. 

Karen GreenBay

$2,850.00

Final Report