Helping History Come Alive

MSU student kicking out FEAR, spreading CHEER

By Jazell Ladner

Cameron Knight, son of MSU faculty members Amy and Adam Knight, participates in Extraordinary Kicks, a student-organized event.

Mississippi State senior and Ripley native Taylor J. Ward came to the university in 2016 full of dreams and a passion for children.

Her college days have seen her to pursue her passion, impacting special needs children through Extraordinary Kicks, a new program she created as a member of MSU’s Montgomery Leadership Program.

Part of the university’s Office of Student Leadership and Community Engagement, MLP is a three-semester leadership program that immerses students in community service opportunities. About 40 students are selected each fall through a rigorous application process, and they create and implement a service initiative of their own design once they reach the program’s third semester.

Ward, a mathematics major, said she initially felt stuck when no ideas “called out” to her, but wanting to make a difference in the Starkville community, she turned to her Lambda Sigma Honor Society adviser, Amy Knight, for help.

Participants and volunteers for Extraordinary Kicks

Also an instructor in MSU’s Department of Communication, Knight suggested Ward create a sports event for children with special needs because no such program existed in the local area.

“I told her I wished there were something my son Cameron could participate in where he could be honored, recognized and told ‘great job,’” Knight said, explaining that her son has a rare genetic disorder that causes neuromuscular problems, epilepsy and myopathy. “Cameron gets muscle fatigue very quickly and has poor coordination, causing him to miss out on playing traditional sports.”

Knight’s idea sparked a fire in Ward to provide a chance for kids with special needs to experience being on a competitive team. She also wanted to give their parents the experience of watching and cheering for their children from the sidelines.

Extraordinary Kicks was born and ultimately resulted in a free soccer event for kids with physical or intellectual disabilities in the spring of 2019.

Ward took part of the activity’s name from Knight, who had previously created Extraordinary Kids, an online support group for parents of children with special needs.

“I hope this forms another community in Starkville where parents can find a support system and a way for their children to interact since there are no other places except school,” Ward said. “They shouldn’t be limited.”

Ward set up and organized everything from registration forms to advertising with help from not only Knight, but also No Limitations, a special needs organization based in Waco, Texas. Hosted and sponsored by the Starkville Sportsplex, the Extraordinary Kicks event had enough funds to provide each of the 12 participants with jerseys and personalized trophies.

Bully made a special appearance during halftime, and Ward said the program not only gave children the chance to interact but taught them better communication and teamwork skills.

“I was very overwhelmed in the beginning because I had no idea where to start. A woman with No Limitations helped me with the logistics and was kind enough to send a care package before the event,” Ward said. “As far as taking care of each child’s particular needs, I was glad to have Amy Knight and my mom there for advice, since my mom teaches special needs children.”

“I’m just glad parents participated, and their kids enjoyed it. At the end, one of the kids was crying—not because anything bad happened, but because he didn’t want to leave,” Ward said.

Knight said Ward was one of the most influential leaders in the Lambda Sigma honor society, and recognized Ward’s “big” motivation to serve others. She said Ward exhibits the maturity, foresight and skills of a servant leader. “I can’t say enough wonderful things about Taylor’s heart and effort. I am extraordinarily proud of her, and she did a fabulous job,” Knight said. “Cameron has already asked me when he can play soccer again. He had such a wonderful time.”

For her efforts creating Extraordinary Kicks, Ward’s MLP peers voted her event as the best project. She also was recognized with a leadership award and earned scholarships through her work with MLP. “I am an introvert and not one to take charge, but I’m glad I followed through with this program because it taught me so much about myself and gave me confidence to lead,” Ward said.

Ward wants this event to continue in Starkville after she graduates in May 2020 and hopes it grows into a permanent league offering additional sports such as cheerleading and football.

Institute for the Humanities: Connecting Schoolteachers with MSU Resources, Helping History Come Alive By Sarah Nicholas

“History never ends. It’s expanding every day,” said Michael J. Bossetta, a McComb High School teacher who enhanced his classroom atmosphere after taking advantage of free workshops offered by MSU’s Institute for the Humanities.

Seeking to make history relevant to today’s students, Bossetta attended “America Responds to Crisis: Comparing the Alien and Sedition Acts of the late 1700s to the Cold War,” a 2019 workshop designed for American and European history teachers. The workshop was led by MSU faculty members Judy Ridner, professor of history, and Davide Orsini, assistant professor of history.

Sparking a group discussion in his classroom connecting “false, scandalous information found on Instagram and Facebook” with how the U.S. Constitution has stood the test of time, Bossetta said the workshop “showed how something from a long time ago was relevant now,” connecting it to the border-crisis issue today.

“The workshop was presented in a great way to give background to this current issue,” Bossetta said of the event that provided him connections between the past and present which he uses today in his classroom. “We must learn from our history so we can move forward.”

Noticing his students were “attached to their phones,” the U.S. history teacher said social media is one of his biggest challenges in teaching because students “don’t always see how distant things can be relevant today,” and that too many students think “if they see it in print, it is true—but anyone can write anything.”

The Institute for the Humanities, an outreach unit of MSU’s College of Arts and Sciences, is advancing education across the state by providing continuing education units, or CEUs, for primary and secondary teachers, connecting educators statewide with university faculty to enhance classroom content.

MSU faculty donate their time, leading free workshops that include lectures, group discussions, packets of curriculum material and the option to pay for .6 CEU credit hours.

“These workshops cover a topic from history that has modern resonance, or that teachers might find speaking to today’s headlines,” said Julia Osman, institute director and associate professor of history. “When we hosted the Civil War workshop, there was a lot of discussion in the state and country about the controversies over Confederate

statues and the state flag, so Dr. Andy Lang’s workshop included reliable sources on those controversies and ways to talk about them with students.”

“We don’t charge anything for the workshops,” Osman said, noting they are open to teachers of all levels. “We immerse primary and secondary teachers directly in conversation with professors who are content specialists. Not only do workshop leaders teach history at the college level, but they are experts in the topics we discuss.”

“These workshops also allow teachers to grasp how historians understand and use the curriculum,” said Osman. “The Institute for the Humanities, teachers and professors are on the same page—we are all trying to help our students navigate the material and the skill sets they need to succeed.”

Osman said last year’s “America Responds to Crisis” workshop, with lectures on the Alien and Sedition Acts and the Cold War, “spoke to today’s concerns about fake news and immigration, and it helped teachers find ways of making events from decades or centuries past immediately relevant and interesting to their students.”

“The conversational style allows teachers to ask questions about anything from teaching issues to content curiosities, and sometimes other teachers in the workshops will share their experiences and success,” Osman said. “The professors leading these workshops also get to hear about the challenges and triumphs from the teachers.”

Bossetta said collaborating with teachers from other areas of the state and discussing universal issues such as “rigor, testing and policy,” helps him strengthen his skills, which benefits his students. “We want to make sure that the students have every possible opportunity to succeed.”

Before entering the field of education, Bossetta spent 28 years as a New Orleans police officer. He retired at the age of 47 and decided to get his teaching degree. After Katrina forced a relocation to Mississippi, Bossetta began teaching in McComb. He said he finds his age to be a benefit in teaching social studies, especially with topics like the Civil Rights movement, which he experienced first-hand.

For Carl Gregory, a U.S. History teacher at Byhalia Middle School in Marshall County, attending Lang’s “Teaching the Civil War” came just in time for his class unit on the war.

Gregory said he knows textbooks can be out-of-date and students work best when working with primary sources, so attending the workshop helped him cover the topic in a relevant way.

“There is not enough time to cover all the material I want to,” Gregory said, who wishes he could spend more time on politics in U.S. history.

“One of the great things about the Institute for the Humanities workshop is the sources we’re given,” Gregory said, noting he likes the lists of trusted, reliable websites and sources the presenters provide. “It is so informative. I feel like I am having a discussion with people that share the same passion for history.”

Through his teaching career, Gregory said he “gets to mold the minds of the future.”

“I teach my students to look at everything from multiple perspectives,” he said.

“The atmosphere is prone to learning, so informative, and the speakers clearly know what they are talking about,” Gregory added. “There is a lot of open discussion so you can share ideas with fellow educators and historians. The topics fit into current events.”

The Institute for the Humanities is planning more workshops to extend this outreach to English teachers.

“The teacher response to our workshops has been so overwhelmingly positive, we are trying to build on that success and generate more workshops to further support teachers in their challenging and crucial roles in our state,” Osman said.

For more information on the Institute for the Humanities and to view upcoming CEU opportunities, visit www.ih.msstate. edu.

The Institute for the Humanities promotes research, scholarship and creative performances in the humanistic disciplines and raises their visibility, both within Mississippi State University and the wider community. The Institute’s activities also include sponsorship of the distinguished lecture series, support for faculty research initiatives and public outreach through scholarship and innovative teaching. Michael J. Bossetta Carl Gregory