Student research grant
Library Student Research Grant
Since 2003, Friends has awarded more than $22,000 to fund selected proposals by Messiah students for research projects.
Please join us in congratulating Henry Zercher, the 2026 Friends of Murray Library Student Research Grant awardee! Henry will graduate in 2027 with a bachelor's degree in History with a minor in Politics.
Henry's research project is entitled "Reconsidering Competition: Shifting Brethren in Christ Attitudes on Athletic Participation, 1909-1983." The objective of Henry's research is to determine how the Brethren in Christ Church, a denomination characterized by nonconformity, nonviolence, and simplicity, responded to the growing popularity of sport in mainstream culture. His research will determine how the denomination and its associated educational institutions negotiated the ethics of competitive sport in light of distinctive church teachings, and how the denomination brought sport into alignment with its doctrines.
Collections found in the Brethren in Christ and Messiah University Archives will be used as well as Murray Library resources and materials from other institutions such as the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society, the Hess Archives and Special Collections at Elizabethtown College, and other archival collections at Christian and Anabaptist colleges.
Henry will present an overview of his research journey at the annual Friends dinner in the fall of 2026. Dr. Bernardo Michael is his faculty advisor.
Congratulations Henry!
Recent Awardees
2025: Olivia Reardon, The Great Books and Me: Ethical Formation in the Classroom
2023-2024: Michael Azar, Effects of Proglumide on Expression of Fibrosis in Pancreatic Cells
2022-2023: Micaiah Saldana, My Last Military ID and Other Stories From Growing Up Army
2021-2022: Hye Lim Jung, Tracing My Identity through Korean Myths and Folklore
2020-2021: Anya Benninger, Social Stories: Bookmaking in the Life of an Autistic Artist