Bronwen McVeigh of Granger, Indiana, an Honors College senior in the College of Music studying piano performance and composition, was recently chosen as the 2017 recipient of the Richard Lee Featherstone Endowed Prize.
“I am thrilled and extremely grateful to have been selected for this award,” McVeigh said. “I am honored the committee members believe my work exemplifies Dr. Featherstone’s creativity and outside-of-the-box thinking.
“I intend to use the prize money to continue the Featherstone legacy to the best of my ability by searching for unique and compelling ways to use my art as a platform for social justice and creative thinking. I owe a tremendous debt to the MSU faculty who have helped me develop my skills and have encouraged me to take chances.”
This $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.
“Overall, in her tenure as an undergraduate student, Bronwen has been a persistently imaginative, creative and critically engaged thinker, a dedicated and highly competent performer of music, especially contemporary, and a productive, engaged and highly creative composer,” said Mark Sullivan, associate professor of music composition. “In 32 years at MSU, and two universities before it, I have never come across a student with the diverse array of skill and imagination, passion and critical and creative drive that she brings to bear on everything she does.”
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 and 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.
McVeigh was announced as the recipient during a luncheon on April 26 at the University Club of Michigan State University.