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Meet your Recruitment Coordinator

LaDonna Croffe

Hi! Thank you for visiting with us online. I welcome the opportunity to speak with you in greater detail about what you’ve seen here. Whether you want to speak with a major advisor, connect with a current student or learn more about The Arts & Letters Difference, I can help.

Meet our advisors

Ever wonder how #MSUCAL advisors can help you with your Spartan journey? We put them on the spot to answer your most important questions.

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Meet your Recruitment Coordinator

LaDonna Croffe

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Meet our advisors

Ever wonder how #MSUCAL advisors can help you with your Spartan journey? We put them on the spot to answer your most important questions.

Meet Your Recruitment Coordinators!

Headshot of Dr. Yvonne Morris.

Dr. Yvonne Morris 

Email: morrisyv@msu.edu

Dr. Yvonne Morris

Coming from the bright lights of Las Vegas and the eternal sunshine of North Town, Dr. Yvonne Morris is one of the two most fly, now back-to-back MSU Outstanding New Academic Advisors with Dr. Chamara Kwakye in the Department of African American and African Studies (AAAS) at Michigan State University. Dr. Morris is a first-generation college student earning all degrees at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Dr. Morris prioritizes that her students are seen as a person beyond their academic identity and are met with care. Within advising, recruiting, and teaching, she is dedicated to ensuring students feel encouraged to take up the space they deserve and make sure they remember they already belong. She will always choose to center the joy in her work – the joy to create, the joy to engage, the joy to just be. She looks forward to co-coordinating CAL recruitment efforts with Dr. Chamara Kwakye. When not engaging students or working with Squad on the AAAS Department new build, you can find her on the floor of her office “drinking her water, minding her biz” playing puzzle. Do not hesitate to reach out with any questions about the College of Arts & Letters!

Photo of Dr. Chamara Kwakye.

Dr. Chamara Kwakye

Email: chamara@msu.edu

Dr. Chamara Kwayke

Dr. Chamara (Sh’Mar’Rah) Jewel Kwakye (Kwaa’Chee) is an award-winning artist, scholar-educator with interdisciplinary interests at the intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, ethnography, performance, and pedagogy. She is a first-generation college student whose love for learning, community, and Black studies pushed her to complete a Bachelors in Ethnic Studies and Sociology, a Masters in Post-Secondary Administration and Student Affairs, and PhD in Education Policy Studies with concentrations in African American & African Studies and Gender & Women’s Studies. She is an Assistant Professor and one of the Department of African American & African Studies at MSU two most fly, award-winning advisors and (like Dr. Morris) she wholeheartedly believes that students should graduate with their spirits intact. Her approach to recruitment, retention, and advising is to encourage students to dream about the life they want in the short term and long term (not the jobs or things they’ve been told they should want) and to work with them to make those things tangible and their dreams come true. She is excited about working closely on CAL recruitment and looks forward to enticing students to be a part of CAL and showing them that an Arts & Letters Degree can help them ask and answer questions that will change our world for the better. She has published works on qualitative methods, hip-hop feminist pedagogy, Black girlhood, and co-edited, Wish to Live: The Hip-hop Feminism Pedagogy Reader. She’s co-written, starred in, and produced several ethnographic performances based on the lives of Black women and girls. She is the past recipient of the University of California, Riverside Gluck Fellowship, the University of Illinois Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship, the AERA Mentorship award, and the Kentucky Foundation for Women’s Radical Art for Social Change Award. She is currently working on her newest book project Cimmaron, which explores Black Girlhood and the African Diaspora. When she’s not teaching, researching, or directly engaging students you can find her making something tasty and sharing it with her family and friends and looking for a new body of water to visit. 

Drs. Yvonne Morris and Chamara Kwakye.

A Great Place to Live

With highly ranked programs and exceptional professors, we educate students who advance the common good with uncommon will.

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Michigan State
university

The nation’s pioneer land-grant university, MSU is one of the top research institutions in the world—on one of the biggest, greenest campuses in the nation—and is home to a diverse community of dedicated students, scholars, artists, scientists and leaders.

1855

Founded as the nation’s pioneer land grant university

50k

Total students from more than 130 countries

200+

Undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs

275+

Education abroad programs

30k

Students participate in community or service learning

900+

Registered student groups on campus

7

Galleries & museums in East Lansing

40

Miles of bike trails and lanes

50+

Art, music, food, and film festivals yearly

25+

Popular places to shop right off campus

60+

To grab food and drinks, including 9 on campus

100+

MSU varsity sporting events to attend

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EAst
Lansing

A fun college town near the state capital, East Lansing offers engaging cultural activities for all. The tree-lined streets and patio cafes add to the energy of the city. It also boasts some of the largest, most lively regional art, film, folk, and jazz festivals around.

Visiting Campus
& Applying to MSU

Students and families interested in visiting campus and learning about all that MSU has to offer should plan to attend an Office of Admissions event. Events are available for prospective first-year students, admitted first-year students, and transfer students. Prior registration is required.

VISITING CAMPUS
& APPLYING TO MSU

Students and families interested in visiting campus and learning about all that MSU has to offer should plan to attend an Office of Admissions program. Programs are available for both admitted students and prospective students (freshmen and transfer students), and range in length from a few hours to an overnight stay. Prior registration is required.