MPM Awards First-Ever Scholarship to Mississippi State Student

Sandra Woolfolk

FAIRFAX, Va. — The National Pest Management Association's (NPMA) Minorities in Pest Management (MPM) has selected Mississippi State University (MSU) graduate student Sandra Woolfolk as the first-ever recipient of the MPM Scholarship.

A Ph.D. candidate studying the utilization of biological control agents to manage red imported fire ants, Woolfolk currently holds a 3.76 grade point average. A member of Phi Chi Omega, the national fraternity for the pest control industry, she anticipates completing her doctoral studies in December of 2008.

Originally from Indonesia, Woolfolk previously earned master's degrees in entomology from MSU and North Carolina State University. She has also taught at the graduate, undergraduate, and K-12 levels and has been published in numerous refereed and non-referred journals. A mother of two, Woolfolk is a Girl Scout leader of the only international Girl Scout troop in Mississippi.

"Sandra is an extremely deserving recipient of the first-ever MPM Scholarship and MPM is incredibly proud to be able to assist in her education," said Genma Stringer Holmes, the Chairwoman of MPM's Steering Committee. "It is especially gratifying for MPM to award a scholarship to a minority student studying an academic field in which minorities have traditionally been underrepresented."