Brialle Ringer is an exemplar of community engagement and applied scholarship. She lived in unstable housing as a multiracial woman growing up in the Upper Peninsula. Ms. Ringer chose EMU for its emphasis on diversity. She is a Honors College student, an Emerald Scholarship winner, recipient of the 2015 Honors Fellowship to fund her research on homeless college students, recipient of the 2015 National Association of Social Workers of Michigan Student Leadership in Diversity Scholarship, and 2016 EMU Evan Strand Diversity Award winner. Brialle is also a McNair Scholar, and has published 2 research articles in the McNair Research Journal: the first on the STD risk factors and prevention options for African American adolescent girls, the second on college student experiences of homelessness.  In 2014 Ms. Ringer became the Alternative Spring Break Coordinator, planning three volunteer trips with a focus on “Promoting the Well-Being of Housing Insecure Individuals.” Then she became the Coordinator and Site Leader for a ten day Alternative International Break to Haiti, learning to advocate for Haiti upon return to the U.S. Brialle Ringer chooses the profession of Social Work, so she may join a professional community of active citizens. She aspires to be a scholar activist, and to eventually organize a non-profit organization that advocates for political and societal restructuring through action research that reflects the needs of all oppressed people, based on the analysis of the dynamics of privilege, power, and social hierarchy.

Brialle Ringer, a senior social work major, combines strong community engagement with applied scholarship at EMU. She lived in unstable housing with various relatives as a multiracial woman growing up in the Upper Peninsula, and is now conducting research on homeless college students.

She is a McNair Scholar at Eastern, and has published two research articles in the McNair Research Journal, one on the STD risk factors and prevention options for African American women, and the second on college student experiences of homelessness.

In 2014 Ringer became Alternative Spring Break coordinator at Eastern, planning three volunteer trips with a focus on “Promoting the Well-Being of Housing Insecure Individuals.”

She is currently planning an Alternative Break Site Leader Retreat in Ypsilanti, during which the leaders will tour Ypsilanti’s historic sites and study the intersections of gender, class and race in the community. The leaders will meet with Mayor Amanda Edmonds to discuss the importance of social justice and political representation in electoral processes.