Jackson Free Press

The Department of Mental Health Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Services awarded Jackson State University's Metro Jackson Community Prevention Coalition program a block grant of more than $300,000 again to further substance-abuse prevention on campus and in Jackson on July 1.

Henry Thompson, senior prevention specialist for MJCPC, told the Jackson Free Press that the program has successfully applied to receive the grant every year since it started operating 27 years ago.

MJCPC provides preventative substance-abuse programs for Kindergarten through 12th-grade students, college students, seniors and parents. MJCPC also offers community organization services; conducts life-skill training seminars in schools, churches and neighborhood associations; and provides training to youth and adults about substance-abuse prevention.

For more information on MJCPC, visit http://www.jsums.edu/mjcpc/.

USM Brings Eaglepalooza Back to Downtown Hattiesburg

University of Southern Mississippi Student Government Association President McKenna Stone announced on Wednesday, July 11, that USM will hold one of its most popular annual events, Eaglepalooza, in downtown Hattiesburg for the first time in three years. The free festival will be Saturday, Sept. 15, beginning at 3 p.m.

Eaglepalooza, launched in 2004, has taken place at Reed Green Coliseum on USM's Hattiesburg campus in recent years, and featured hip-hop artist B.o.B. as the headliner in 2017. A release from the university states that around 10,000 people attend the event each year.

This year's event will feature food specials from downtown Hattiesburg businesses, musical acts throughout the day and a performance from the headlining artist at 8 p.m. USM will announce the music lineup at a later date.

For more information, call the SGA at 601-266-4407 or the university's Dean of Students office at 601-266-6028, or visit www.southernmisssga.org.

MSU Presents Mississippi Rural Physicians Scholarships

Mississippi State University presented $30,000 scholarships to six current students and three graduates on Thursday, July 12, as part of the Mississippi Rural Physicians Scholarship Program.

MRPSP, which the state legislature created in 2007, grants scholarships to students based on available funding after they complete the pre-matriculation portion of the program before formally entering a university.

After their medical training, MRPSP scholars enter a primary-care residency program in family medicine, general internal medicine, pediatrics, or obstetrics and gynecology. The program also requires four years of service in a clinic-based practice in a participating rural Mississippi community.

The nine MSU students who received grants during a ceremony at the Old Capitol Museum in downtown Jackson are senior human development and family science and child development major Taylor Ann Bailey; junior pre-medicine major Hallie R. Murtagh Rutledge; junior pre-medicine major Kenya L. Williams; junior pre-medicine major Danielle Wolfe; senior pre-medicine major Katelyn Jackson; junior biological sciences major Jenna M. Hull; December 2017 agricultural life sciences and biochemistry graduate Amelia R. Kundel; May 2017 pre-medicine graduate Marianna L. Tollison; and May 2018 kinesiology and clinical exercise physiology graduate Emilio M. Luna-Suarez.

For more information on MRPSP, visit http://mrpsp.umc.edu or call 601-815-9022.