This year’s Varg-Sullivan Endowed Graduate Award winners are Vadu Rodrigues, an MFA Candidate in Studio Art who is the 2025 Outstanding Achievement in the Arts recipient, and Hyun-Bin Hwang, who recently earned his Ph.D. in Second Language Studies and was named the 2025 Outstanding Achievement in the Letters recipient.
The Varg-Sullivan Endowed Graduate Awards, presented by the College of Arts & Letters at Michigan State University, were established in honor of Paul Varg and Richard Sullivan, former Deans of the College of Arts & Letters who dedicated their professional lives to excellence in the college. Recipients of this award are selected based on the best performance/exhibition at a national or international event in the arts and the best presentation at a national or international event or the best-published article in the letters.
Vadu Rodrigues
An artist-activist, Rodrigues came to Michigan State University from his native Cape Verde to hone his skills as a graduate student in the MFA in Studio Art program and to fuel his decade-long efforts to transform global perceptions of Africa and the Black diaspora.
As an installation artist and veteran photographer, Rodrigues has spent the past 10 years refining his artistic vision and championing global education, cultural exchange, and community engagement values while working to dismantle negative stereotypes about Africa.
He founded Positive Africa, a creative movement that offers a unique blend of photography, storytelling, and cultural exchange with an aim toward replacing outdated stereotypes with images and stories told by African voices. Positive Africa highlights the vibrancy and complexity of African culture and reveals the continent’s diversity, resilience, depth, and beauty.
Rodrigues began his graduate studies at MSU in Fall 2023 and plans to graduate in Spring 2026 with his MFA in Studio Art, which is offered by the Department of Art, Art History, and Design.
He was nominated for the Varg-Sullivan Endowed Graduate Award by Lara Shipley, Associate Professor of Photography in the Department of Art, Art History, and Design, for his participation in the Cabo Verde, Entre Terras e Mar exhibition in Parthenay, France, in August 2024, in conjunction with the Cabo Verde National Olympic and Paralympic Committee. He was invited by the city of Parthenay to donate 50 photographs, along with three other photographers, to promote Cabo Verde while the team prepared for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. In addition to taking his own photographs, Rodrigues also co-curated the exhibition in the Valley at the Cordeliers church.
“This exhibition is a significant demonstration of Vadu’s international reach as well as his leadership as an artist representing his home country,” Shipley wrote in her nomination letter. “It aligns with Vadu’s objectives as an artist to combat historically negative visual representations of Africa. Additionally, from my first meeting with Vadu, creating an arts organization in Africa was his mission. This exhibition invitation demonstrates that he is already being recognized as an arts leader in his home country.”
“Vadu is the hardest working graduate student I have mentored. His work comes from a place of deep passion and sensitivity. He certainly has a bright future as an artist and arts leader.”
Lara Shipley, Associate Professor of Photography
In addition to this exhibition, Rodrigues participated in a panel of African Creatives in Nairobi, Kenya, during the 2023 Africa No Filter Summit, a conference that brought together a community of more than 100 storytellers, artists, and funders from the continent and diaspora, who are passionate about shifting stereotypical narratives of Africa.
“Vadu is the hardest working graduate student I have mentored,” Shipley said. “His work comes from a place of deep passion and sensitivity. He certainly has a bright future as an artist and arts leader.”
Rodrigues also received the 2025 MSU Graduate Student Emerging Leader Award presented by the Black Faculty, Staff, and Administrators Association (BFSAA) for his artwork and Positive Africa mission.
Hyun-Bin Hwang
Hwang joined the Second Language Studies program in the Fall of 2021 as a Fulbright Graduate Student Program grantee. He officially earned his Ph.D. in March 2025.
His research interests include (technology-mediated) instructed SLA and the research-pedagogy interface. He serves as the 2024-2025 Applied Linguistics Graduate Student Representative.
“Hyun-Bin has distinguished himself as an outstanding researcher in the Second Language Studies Program at MSU, demonstrating exceptional academic excellence and research impact at international levels,” Shawn Loewen, Professor of Second Language Studies, wrote in his nomination letter. “His achievements are truly remarkable for a Ph.D. student, setting him apart as one of the most promising young researchers in the field.”
Hwang was nominated for the Varg-Sullivan Endowed Graduate Award for his contribution to Language Learning, one of the most prestigious and highly ranked journals in Applied Linguistics. Language Learning has an exceptionally rigorous peer-review process, and it is rare for a Ph.D. student to have their work accepted for publication in this journal.
Hwang’s publication, Undesirable Difficulty of Interleaved Practice: The Importance of Initial Blocked Practice for Declarative Knowledge Development in Low-Achieving Adolescents, makes an important contribution to our understanding of how practice schedules influence second language acquisition, particularly for low-achieving learners.
Consequently, it can address real-world educational challenges by informing instructional design, particularly for developing more efficient flashcard application algorithms.
Hwang also is the 2025 and 2024 recipient of the Susan M. Gass Outstanding Research Award presented by the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures. He has published more than 10 research articles, an extraordinary accomplishment that highlights his scholarly productivity and his meaningful contributions to the field.
“Hyun-Bin’s accomplishments are nothing short of exceptional, particularly at this stage in his career. His groundbreaking research, extensive publication record, editorial leadership, and ability to contribute meaningfully to scholarly discourse make him highly deserving of the Varg-Sullivan Award.”
Shawn Loewen, Professor of Second Language Studies
Additionally, he has served as a coeditor for a forthcoming textbook volume, Technology and instructed second language acquisition: Connecting research and pedagogy, further showcasing his leadership in academic publishing and commitment to advancing research in language learning and teaching.
Prior to coming to MSU, Hwang was an English Language teacher in South Korea for seven years. He received his B.Ed. with the highest distinction and an M.Ed. in English Language Education from the Korea National University of Education.
“Hyun-Bin’s accomplishments are nothing short of exceptional, particularly at this stage in his career,” Lowen said. “His groundbreaking research, extensive publication record, editorial leadership, and ability to contribute meaningfully to scholarly discourse make him highly deserving of the Varg-Sullivan Award.”
By Austin Curtis
