Eight Mississippi State students are heading abroad this year with the help of the highly competitive Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship, marking the largest group of MSU recipients in university history.

“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.”

The Mississippi State University Institute for the Humanities kicks off its 2025-2026 lecture series with “The Great Balancing Act: Student-Athletes at Mississippi State,” a roundtable discussion scheduled for 6 p.m. Sept. 24 at the Duff Center Auditorium.