FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Kenneth J. Williams Jr., Communications Manager, Office of the Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education, at will2559@msu.edu or 313-525-6783
Michigan State University senior Jordyn Davis, of Westland, Michigan was recently chosen as the 2019 recipient of the Richard Lee Featherstone Endowed Prize. Davis is the first African-American woman, in the College of Music, to receive a bachelor of music degree in composition. Davis is also the first person, in the history of the College of Music, to graduate with a bachelor of music degree in composition and jazz studies.
“I was honestly really surprised when I found out I had won the award. I got the phone call when I was grocery shopping and started dancing in the aisle as I was being told me I had won,” Davis said. “It is truly an incredible honor to have received the award after being encouraged to apply by two of my friends who were past winners in 2017 and 2018.”
“Receiving this award has allowed me to be able to travel to Paris later this summer to attend a the European American Musical Alliance Summer Music Institute,” Davis said. “I was recommended for by Julliard Composition Professor Robert Beaser.”
The $4,000 prize seeks to identify the most outstanding graduating senior and to grant an award, without limit or bounds, to be used for future growth and development, travel, graduate study or meditation.
The prize was created in 1986 by a group of MSU College of Education alumni to celebrate Featherstone’s life and contributions to scholarship, research and leadership.
The award recipient must be an MSU senior who exhibits an open, curious, creative approach to education and ideas, as well as intellectual ingenuity. Additionally, the award recipient must demonstrate exceptional character and leadership in enriching the lives of others and a commitment to community service and lifelong learning.
