Nicholls State University recently held its Spring 2023 Convocation in order to recognize grant winners, faculty, and staff for their hard work throughout the 2022 academic school year. At the  Spring 2023 Convocation, Nicholls recognized the top 10 grants award winners for the funding they had received in 2022, according to this news release from the school.

The Spring 2023 Convocation opened with opening remarks from Nicholls President Dr. Jay Clune and Dr. Sue Westbrook, who is the Nicholls State University Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. University President Dr. Jay Clune spoke about his outlook for the Spring 2023 semester by saying, “this semester, we look forward to not only changing the lives of the students we teach, mentor, and care for today but the lives of their children and the generations that will follow them.”

The ceremony awarded the ten faculty and staff members who received the most grant money for 2022. When collectively added together, these ten grant recipients represented over $8 million in grant awards for both programmatic support and research.

Nicholls State University awarded the following for being the top ten grant recipients for the funding they received in 2022: Dr. John Lajaunie (Bayou Region Incubator), Dr. John Doucet (Nicholls Coastal Center and College of Sciences and Technology), Zerica Washington (Nicholls Family Service Center), Dr. Jonathan Willis (Nicholls Department of Biological Sciences), Katie Lasserre (Little Colonels Academy), Dr. Balaji Ramachandran (Nicholls Department of Applied Sciences), Dr. Kimberly Reynolds (Department of Psychology and Louisiana Child Welfare Training Academy), Dr. Allyse Ferrara (Department of Biological Sciences), Dr. Darcey Wayment (Department of Chemistry), and Gina Bergeron (Nicholls Family Service Center).

Debi Benoit is the Director of Research and Sponsored Programs at Nicholls, and she spoke about the top ten grant award winners by saying, “rigorous academic research and creative scholarship is time-consuming, requires great attention to detail, strong adherence to the standards and principles of your discipline, and takes substantial persistence to complete. For that reason, Nicholls has initiated the annual Grantsmanship Award as a means to celebrate and recognize ten outstanding faculty or staff who obtained the largest funding in the past year. This year’s 10 recipients represent over $8 million in awards for both research and programmatic support.”

The grants awarded by Nicholls State University were made possible by direct support from alumni, private foundations, parents, corporations, and organizations; additionally, the grant funds are allocated by Nicholls’s Office of University Development. In order to provide financial support for Nicholls State University, The Office of University Development plans and executes annual fund campaigns, capital campaigns, endowments, planned giving initiatives, and other types of fund-raising activities.

Nicholls’s Spring 2023 Convocation also saw five professors and assistant professors awarded the Academic Affairs Award for Teaching Excellence. These five awardees were: Dr. John Lajaunie, Dr. Chantrelle Varnado-Johnson, Dr. Jason Ladd, Mrs. Jeanne Chaisson, and Dr. Himanshu Verma.

Additionally, the Student Affairs “Apple” Awards were given out to five staff members. These awards were for “Outstanding Faculty Advisor of a Student Organization,” “Outstanding Faculty Mentor,” “Outstanding Faculty Support for Student Activities,” and “Outstanding Faculty Merit Award.”

The ceremony also featured the introduction of a new program that is designed to help Nicholls State Universitysupport its students, communicate important information throughout the school year, and answer student questions. Renee Hicks, Assistant Vice President of Institutional Effectiveness, Access, and Success, announced the implementation of Nicholls State University + EdSights. The program was described as being “available to students 24/7 to answer any questions about Nicholls. The program can help the university support students, answer their questions and communicate important information throughout the school year creating an avenue for student feedback and a virtual community.”

For more education-related information, click here.