In 2016, Ball State University awarded 16 Academic Excellence Grants (AEG), totaling more than $4.2 million. Funded by several 
academic-oriented private funds in the Ball State University Foundation, these grants were created to ensure that departments were able to fully pursue goals and research initiatives that were centered on students and community engagement. We asked three grant recipients to provide an update on their projects.
Chris Taylor
Lecturer of Telecommunications and Senior Director of Digital Sports Production, College of Communication, Information, and Media
Give a brief description of your proposal/project:
The award of an Academic Excellence Grant was a crucial component of a three-year plan to keep us ahead of other universities; strengthen Ball State’s reputation with our national sports production peers at ESPN; recruit more out-of-state students; and enhance immediate job opportunities for our graduates. This grant was student-centered through additional equipment, production opportunities, new and emerging sustainable projects, program marketing, and scholarships. It also strengthened our partnership with intercollegiate athletics.
In what ways did the AEG impact your project?
The grant provided substantial funding to enhance our national reputation as of one Ball State’s signature and emerging academic strengths. We nearly tripled the amount of live Ball State athletic productions yearly and provided even more immersive learning opportunities for our students. The funding also allowed us to create an important recruiting component of our program, our Sports Link Summer Camps/Workshops, where we created a camp curriculum and seminar for high school students and programs around the state of Indiana. Student centeredness and community engagement can be measured through increased high school visits, projects, live productions, and multimedia programming—both in quantity, quality, and resulting exposure for Ball State.
What is the current state of the project?
The funding portion of the grant is complete, but its impact through equipment, programming, and initiative continue.
Blair Mattern
Director of Interdisciplinary Clinical Operations, College of Health
Give a brief description of your proposal/project:
The proposal had two main goals: 1. establish a studentrun clinic offering audiology and speech pathology services, and 2. create a graduate-level course that supported the operations of the student-run clinic by covering content related to administration and leadership in health care. This course also covers content that pertains to an emerging trend in health care education referred to as health systems science.
In what ways did the AEG impact your project?
The AEG provided the funds and directives needed to get our new academic course off of the ground in the Fall 2016 and our clinic started in the Spring 2019. The studentrun clinic now has a student board of directors that is responsible for operations and management with oversight by licensed faculty practitioners. Our student participants receive health systems science education in the new course and then have an opportunity to put what they have learned into practice when participating with the student-run clinic.
What is the current state of the project?
The student-run clinic is operational and the associated course was taught for the fourth consecutive Fall semester. Both the course and clinic have evolved since their creation. In addition to running the clinic, our students are developing community health educational programs, planning initiatives to support the sustainability of the project, and developing some of the first interprofessional simulation experiences for students in the College of Health. We believe this project continues to transform the educational experience for our students and has provided needed services to our community
Pam Harwood
Professor of Architecture, R. Wayne Estopinal College of Architecture and Planning
Give a brief description of your proposal/project:
The intent of CAP Makes: Muncie Makes is to discuss ways of improving the Muncie community and the quality of life for all who reside, work, and learn here through a strategic alignment between Ball State’s and the community’s design talent. We made significant progress through numerous projects with various stakeholders and committed change makers, design workshops with schools and the community, and design-build research and interdisciplinary community‐based studio offerings within Estopinal College.
In what ways did the AEG impact your project?
With AEG’s funding, we were able to engage in significant community programs including working with the Muncie Public Library on issues of food insecurity in the Thomas Park-Avondale and South Central neighborhoods through the design and building of three pavilions surrounding a community garden. The pavilions were all built at and helped to establish the MadJax Community Makers Hub. The Gateway to Growing Gardeners’ Pavilion provides shade, seating, tool storage, accessible garden beds, and a sand and water nature play pocket. A larger, south pavilion houses a community market for the garden growers, plus an outdoor learning wall and alcove for Great Achievers, the after-school program for 50 at-risk children from Southview Elementary School. A small outdoor community kitchen and food preparation/demonstration area for nutritional education and programming is the third pavilion students designed and built in this immersive learning project. Two nature play pockets, a STEM teaching and learning area to the north of the first pavilion, and another hill slide tunnel nature-based play area south of the Market Pavilion complete the project.
We also worked with Muncie Action Plan leaders, Building Better Neighborhoods, Neighborhood Association Presidents Council, and 8twelve Coalition to establish opportunities to engage the community in strategic design initiatives. We then focused on the target area of the 8twelve Coalition (Eighth Street to Memorial, Perkins to Madison) and six neighborhood associations to develop Making a Difference in Muncie Design Initiatives in the coalition area. We developed a series of Community Crosswalks Design Workshops with over 35 participants from Muncie Arts and Culture, Ball State, the six neighborhood associations of Whitely, Riverside/Normal, East Central, Old West End, South Central, and Thomas Park-Avondale. We also worked with 8twelve Coalition on the development of the intersection of Memorial and Hoyt Avenues to create a neighborhood resource center including a co-op food market, a neighborhood health center, a local coffee shop, attainable housing, and an aquaponics facility.
Finally, we were able to establish a sustained after-school program for both Great Achievers and Motivate our Minds (MOMs). The youth of these programs engaged with power tools at MadJax once a month during First Thursdays while working on projects that ranged from building birdhouses, fairy gardens, games in the garden to a gathering circle with tables and benches at the center of the MOMs community garden. We continue to meet weekly with MOMs youth in a series of design workshops.
What is the current state of the project?
The Estopinal College, with funding from a Ball Brothers Foundation grant, proposes to create a more comprehensive “innovation lab” as a way to expand the programming of the CAP Makes: Muncie Makes design-build wood shop within the MadJax Maker Hub. The lab will host design thinking classes that incorporate woodworking, how to make your own 3-D printer, and as the wood shop expands, advanced manufacturing—including digital fabrication. The innovation lab and related 3D printer/rapid prototyping area is being proposed as a common space used by several partners and therefore supported by others. This will free up Ball State funding to support the shops.