“I realized there are so many types of writing—you can write for a magazine, for essays, for news stories,” said Portia Agyapong, reflecting on her internship in Mississippi State’s College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office last summer. “Even though I initially struggled because I was stuck with an academic writing mindset, it was an amazing experience to learn different ways of writing during my internship. I really learned a lot from it.”

“Curiosity is the foundation for every scientist’s motivation to understand complex problems,” said Chandler Woo, a senior chemistry major at Mississippi State. “Exploring the uncharted and finding answers to a problem that has not been successfully solved is what excites me about research in general.”

Ryan P. Semmes, historian and Mississippi State Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library research director examines the far-reaching implications of Reconstruction in his first book “Exporting Reconstruction: Ulysses S. Grant and a New Empire of Liberty.” The 2024 University of South Carolina Press publication is part of the organization’s “Reconstruction Reconsidered” series.