Rising to the Challenge

By Kathy Kenne

Many are the stories of struggle and havoc related to COVID-19, but through it we have seen examples of compassion and community strengthening that have given us encouragement. Individuals within the MSU family have applied their gifts and expertise to resolve various difficulties. Here are a few of their stories.

Mississippi 30 Day Fund

For MBA candidate Madison Grant, the Mississippi 30 Day Fund was where she found her calling to help during this critical time that challenged business survival.

Started by MSU alumna Marie Sanderson and her husband Brian, the nonprofit Mississippi 30 Day Fund provides forgivable loans to Mississippi-based small businesses. The objective is to provide quick financial assistance to business owners struggling to keep their doors open as they navigate the effects of COVID-19 on their businesses.

As the fund was being set up, Jeffrey Rupp, Outreach Director for the Entrepreneurship Center (E-Center), received a call from the nonprofit’s Executive Director Julia Grant (no relation to Madison) asking for the help of MSU students to screen applications and pass on those that were qualified.

“At first, the leaders of the 30 Day Fund asked that graduate students process the applications, but I felt the undergraduates and recent graduates involved with the E-Center were more than qualified to do this,” states Rupp. “They have all participated in peer reviews of start-up businesses. They’re very familiar with the aspects of business ownership.”

“The students from the Mississippi State College of Business along with students at the University of Mississippi School of Law have been absolutely instrumental in funding small businesses throughout the state,” says Julia Grant. “They have the first look at all of the applications and are positively key in streamlining the approval process! We are so thankful these Bulldogs decided to join forces with their would-be rivals over at Ole Miss to work together for the good of Mississippi.”

Madison Grant recalls getting an e-mail from Rupp asking for volunteers, and after a couple of training sessions she was ready to go. She is now one of the top two reviewers in the state based on the volume of work she has done. She has reviewed more than 250 of the 700 applications submitted, and that number continues to rise.

“This was very real to me,” Madison says. “I had helped some extended family members move out of their building when they had to shut down their business due to the economic consequences of the virus. This was their family’s livelihood.”

Rupp reports that out of the roughly 500 applications the young E-Center participants have vetted, at least half were women-owned businesses and approximately 55 percent were minorityowned businesses.

“This is a good way for the University to fulfill its mission of serving and for our students to ‘pay it forward,’” shares Rupp.

“It takes a lot of hard work, grit and determination to own your own business,” adds Madison. “It’s been a true honor for me to be able to help by reviewing these applications. Being a student, I don’t have the financial ability to support these struggling companies, but I do have the skills and resources to help in this way.”

CampusKnot

CampusKnot has a somewhat different story. This past spring, when schools across the country moved to online platforms, this young enterprise experienced a significant uptick in its business.

CampusKnot provides a social media type platform to enhance interaction among students and teachers. It provides quick access to course material where it is easily managed by teachers, along with an opportunity for discussions and feeds.

“When the shutdowns began in March, we started seeing insane numbers of visits to our website,” says Rahul Gopal, Co-Founder and Co-CEO. “We were suddenly getting a lot of attention not just in the U.S., but from around the globe.”

CampusKnot was nurtured in its early stages by the E-Center. Gopal holds engineering and MBA degrees from MSU, and all seven of the Starkville-based team members are MSU graduates – six from the College of Business. There is a subsidiary in India as well, with the Starkville office being the business headquarters.

“We are working with both institutions and individual professors,” shares Gopal. “We’ve also picked up clients from nontraditional entities such as cosmetology schools and other vo-tech institutions.”

Total user numbers have jumped from an average of 6,000 per semester to 23,000. The company has clients in 15 states as well as Canada, Italy, India and the Philippines.

“CampusKnot is a great aid to LMSs (learning management systems),” states Gopal. “We bring an informal way to communicate across the classroom.”

Dr. Ben McLarty is an Assistant Professor of Management and Information Systems in the College of Business and has been using CampusKnot for a few years.

“In an auditorium setting when you ask a question and try to get students to respond, you may get one or two who are willing to talk,” says McLarty. “CampusKnot is a digital format, so students have the ability to post questions. You get more into the flow of a conversation, not with a half dozen students in a class of 200, but with dozens and dozens of them. The things I really like about it are its ease of use and its affordability – and it gets the job done!” Although the pandemic has provided a surge in business for the young company, its leadership felt called to do what they could to help the situation. The platform was offered free of charge to all teachers, professors and students until July 31 to aid in transitioning from the physical classroom to online classes.

The company has also been working overtime to integrate their platform with programs like Zoom and Webex that have made working and schooling from home possible.

“Our goal is to continue to grow and innovate,” says Gopal. “We want to put the state of Mississippi on the tech map!”

Starkville SEW Strong

“W e had no idea this would ever get so big! We didn’t know how we were going to get 500 made.”

These are the words of Dr. Emily Marett, Instructor of Management at the College of Business. She’s referring to her idea to get a group of stitchers together to help Oktibbeha County Hospital (OCH) obtain much needed face masks when the COVID outbreak occurred.

I saw a Facebook post of a hospital in Indiana asking volunteers to help them with their mask shortage, along with instructions for making the masks,” she shares. “It made me think how bad things really were and that I could do something to help.

Marett contacted a friend who is a nurse at OCH to see if they had a need, and the “Yes!” came back loud and clear. Coincidentally, Marett’s friend Holly Fron had contacted the hospital about the same time with the same thing on her mind. The two decided to work together to try to reach a goal of making 500 masks.

Marett and Fron developed a Facebook group and called on the community and Marett’s Girl Scout troop to help sew masks. The response was tremendous. Within two weeks, they had delivered 1,000 masks to OCH, but the group members wanted to keep going. So, through networking they continued to reach out to meet the needs of nursing homes, clinics and other medical providers in the Starkville area.

“This group is very organic,” says Marett. “Someone will post a need from a friend or relative, and whomever wants to, will jump in and volunteer to sew for that organization. That way people are sewing for someone they really care about and are connected to.”

Although the initial push has quieted down, the organization maintains a list of about 100 active sewers with 600 Facebook group members. Many community residents have donated fabric, so the funding hasn’t been an issue.

All of this work has earned Marett the title of MSU Maroon Volunteer Center Faculty Volunteer of the Year. She is quite worthy, leading a movement that has produced more than 7,000 masks.

“I am humbled beyond words to have had this experience,” she says. “Starkville is truly an amazing community, and I am so happy I had a small part in supporting those working the front lines of this crisis.”

And Starkville SEW Strong is here to stay.

Marett says, “I haven’t thought too much beyond this, but there’s always a need for charitable sewing. I’m sure we’ll find more needs soon!”

MSU Meridian

Approximately 60 percent of the population of Meridian and the surrounding area works in healthcare. So needless to say, there was an overwhelming number of people in need of personal protective equipment when COVID-19 struck. Anderson Regional Health System and Rush Health Systems were faced with keeping almost 2,000 employees as safe as possible while they treated patients.

Both are blessed to have Dr. Carlton Young on their boards of directors. Dr. Young is Professor of Healthcare Administration in the Division of Business at the MSU Riley Campus in Meridian. He is also a member of MSU’s Faculty Research Advisory Committee. Serving on that committee with Young is Dr. Linkan Bian, Associate Professor for Industrial Systems Engineering in the Bagley College of Engineering.

When the pandemic arose, Bian asked Young if the College of Engineering’s 3D printers could be of any help to the Meridian hospitals. Young spoke with the CEOs of both health systems, and it became readily apparent that there was a critical need for face shields. Most protective equipment of that nature had been manufactured in China, and it was no longer being shipped to the United States. After consultation with the hospitals regarding a design that would protect frontline workers from the COVID-19 pathogens, production began in late March and continued throughout April.

Rush Health Systems’ surgical staff show their appreciation to Mississippi State University after receiving their first shipment of 3D face shields.

“With PPE in short supply through our normal procurement channels, innovation became a critical factor in making sure our staff and patients were protected,” says John G. Anderson, President and CEO of Anderson Regional Health System. “Many, many thanks to MSU’s faculty and researchers for developing a face shield that could be produced with easily obtainable supplies.”

Rush Health Systems Chief Executive Officer Larkin Kennedy echoed Anderson’s comments, “The donation of these face masks from Mississippi State University helped ensure our front-line staff remained safe while caring for patients.”

Young remained in close contact with the medical centers to monitor implementation as well as consult on a variety of issues related to healthcare services and COVID-19 in particular.

“It was gratifying to me that Mississippi State was able to step up and almost immediately provide an essential piece of hardware to keep a system working,” shares Young.

Young’s position at MSU goes far beyond the classroom. He believes strongly in the University’s public service mission. He has worked with area healthcare organizations on efforts to improve delivery for underserved populations and rural healthcare providers.

He also helped establish the MSU Healthcare Systems Working Group, which was recently awarded a grant to develop skills training for healthcare employees utilizing virtual reality technology.

As Dr. Young strives to help improve the lives of Mississippians, he simply says, “I am grateful for the opportunity.” And he genuinely means it.

Anderson Regional Health System’s ICU nurses (from left) Makayla Jenkins, Melissa Wright, Hannah Cain, Cynthia Stewart and Madison Wright model the new face shields MSU faculty produced.