Community engagement projects recognized at MSU with annual awards
Contact: Michelle Garraway
STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State is honoring six outreach and engagement projects with the university’s seventh annual Excellence in Community Engagement Awards. Zhujun Pan and John Lamberth, faculty members in the College of Education, are among the honorees.
Winners, awarded in three categories for 2024, include community-engaged research, service, and teaching and learning.
Winning projects are awarded $3,000 and honorable mention $750 to further the engagement projects. Recipients were selected by MSU’s Center for Community-Engaged Learning, Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President, Office of Research and Economic Development and Division of Student Affairs.
Community-Engaged Service honorable mention:
Enhancing Senior Wellness
Zhujun Pan, John Lamberth
Facilitated by faculty in MSU’s Department of Kinesiology, the Mississippi Bingocize Project, funded by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, is an innovative program designed to improve physical activity, social interaction and quality of life for residents in certified nursing facilities, or CNFs, across Mississippi. By integrating exercise with bingo, the project engages older adults in a fun, evidence-based health promotion activity.
Since its launch, the program has trained 209 facilitators, including 66 CNF staff and 137 university students pursuing healthcare and geriatric nursing careers. Over 20 CNFs have participated, and 15 facilities have hosted Bingocize sessions and engaged more than 1,850 attendees to date. The project also has expanded its reach through collaborations with the Mississippi State Department of Health and the Fall Prevention Task Force. These partnerships enabled the team to promote Bingocize during events like Mississippi Fall Prevention Week, where they shared program resources with healthcare professionals to encourage further adoption.
This program has demonstrated its potential as a scalable, impactful model for enhancing health and social well-being among older adults in long-term care settings.
MSU’s College of Education is home to five academic departments, a division of education, one research unit and numerous service units. Learn more at https://www.educ.msstate.edu/.
Mississippi State University is taking care of what matters. Learn more at www.msstate.edu.