Honors Magazine, spring 2020

HONORS Magazine of the University of Georgia Honors Program

Spring 2020

A Disney internship Christina Lee and the makings of a career at Disney

INSIDE:

President of Science

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Soil Chemistry

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Business Professional

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PAL Mentorship

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Rural Connection

Emily Austin An Honors senior from Douglasville, Emily is majoring in psychology with a neuroscience emphasis and is working toward becoming a physician. Through funding from the Honors International Scholars Program, she participated in the Ghana Service-Learning Program. In her UGA Amazing Student profile, she also thanked Elizabeth Hughes for helping her navigate the daunting waters of the medical school application process.

“Thanks to the Honors International Scholars Program, I was able to spend the majority of a summer in Africa, where UGA provided one of my most challenging learning environments through the Ghana Service-Learning Program... I attribute every ounce of growth and flourishment the last four years to the lifelong friends and mentors who have graciously encouraged and taught me along the way. �

Chad Osburn

Read more about Emily online at news.uga. edu/amazing-student-emily-austin/.

Cover photo of Christina Lee by Jonathan Demery

Spring 2020, Volume 7, Issue 1

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University of Georgia President

Jere W. Morehead Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs & Provost

S. Jack Hu

Associate Provost & Director of the Honors Program

David S. Williams

Associate Director of the Honors Program

Maria Navarro

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Assistant Director & Major Scholarships Coordinator

Jessica Hunt

Assistant Director & Programming Coordinator

Maria de Rocher

Assistant Director of Development

Colleen Pruitt

Recruitment & Enrollment Coordinator

Lakecia Pettway

Magazine staff Editor/Designer

Stephanie Schupska

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Writers

Kora Burton, Sara Freeland, Jill Neimark, Stephanie Schupska Photographers

Kora Burton, Jonathan Demery, Peter Frey, Walker Montgomery, Chad Osburn, Dale Ramos, Stephanie Schupska, Andrew Davis Tucker, Chandler West Honors Magazine is published biannually for students, alumni, friends, and supporters of the University of Georgia Honors Program.

For reprint permissions, address changes, or additional copies, email schupska@uga.edu.

Copyright © 2020 by the University of Georgia. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any way without permission from the editor. The University of Georgia is committed to principles of equal opportunity and affirmative action.

Inside 2

Briefs

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Soil chemistry

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Postmaster | Send address changes to: UGA Honors Program Magazine 005 Moore College, 108 Herty Drive Athens, GA 30602-6116

Find us online at honors.uga.edu.

On social media, we are:

@HonorsAtUGA

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Highlights of the Honors Program

Joshua Thedford works to unravel the mystery behind a CO2 surge in soil

Business attire SGA Professional Clothing Closet helps students get ready for careers

Amazing alumna Cori Bargmann reshapes science with the Chan Zuckerburg Initiative

Cover story Christina Lee moves from intern to full-time with Disney Imagineering

Crane Scholars Ten Honors students are recognized for their leadership and service

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Schwarzman

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Knight-Hennessy

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PAL mentorship

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Staff spotlight

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Rural connection

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Alumni connection

Shaun Kleber to deepen his study of education’s social narratives

Callan Russell to combine hard science and patient care as a genetic counselor

Student-to-student program provides ‘a stronger sense of community’

Honors advisors provide students with guidance, help as they navigate studies

Former Miss UGA works to build a community for rural students

UGA’s new mentorship program

HONORS

in Brief Agriscience research

American star

Civic scholarship

Community focus Tarun Ramesh will be representing UGA as a 2020 Newman Civic Fellow.

The Newman Civic Fellowship is a yearlong program that recognizes and supports community-committed students who have demonstrated an investment in finding solutions for challenges facing communities throughout the country. The fellowship is named in honor of Frank Newman, one of Campus Compact’s founders, and is supported by the KPMG Foundation.

For 2020, this group includes 290 students from 39 states and Mexico— the largest cohort of Newman Civic Fellows ever.

Tarun, a third-year Honors student and Foundation Fellow, is majoring in economics and genetics. His personal statement for the Newman Civic Fellowship honors his grandmother and her work as “an unapologetic activist and a distinguished physician.” He has “sought to bridge the gap between policy research and community needs by building diverse coalitions to reduce disparities in health care access. In Athens-Clarke County, Georgia, I have worked with the Roosevelt Institute to expand medication-assisted treatment for incarcerated individuals with opioid use disorder, helping to deconstruct the criminalization of addiction. At the Center for American Progress, I highlighted the inadequacies in emergency medical care and the risks that future hospital closures pose to rural residents. ... Prioritizing community needs has shaped my own policy evaluation framework.”

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Courtney Cameron researches fungal pathogens in addition to her normal class load as an agriscience and environmental systems major. In November, the thirdyear CURO Honors Scholar from Valdosta received the American Star in Agriscience at the 92nd annual National FFA Convention and Expo in Indianapolis.

National FFA annually recognizes FFA members who rise to the top with the American Star Awards. The American Star in Agriscience is awarded to the FFA member who demonstrates the top agriscience-based supervised agricultural experience in the nation.

Courtney is involved in research concerning Neofusicoccum and Fusarium

oxysporum f.sp. vasinfectum, both fungal pathogens. She plans to make agriculture her career, conducting research and communicating that science with others.

“I want the kind of job where I’m able to be very versatile in what I do and able to serve the farmer and serve as a bridge between the farmer and the consumer,” she said.

Unite ticket

SGA president At the end of February, Honors junior Asim Ahmed, right, was named president of UGA’s Student Government Association when UGA students elected the Unite ticket to the executive branch of the SGA for the 2020-2021 academic year.

Asim is a Foundation Fellow from Columbus majoring in biochemistry and molecular biology. The Unite ticket included Cheryl Kwapong as vice president-elect and Carson Kuck as treasurer-elect.

Pancake party

Flipping out over finals Every December, the Honors Program Student Council helps students fuel up for exams during Flipping Out Over Finals. The Reading Day Eve tradition includes cookie decorating, hot chocolate, an ugly Christmas sweater competition, and pancakes. At right, HPSC leadership Sneha Gubbala, Megan Pierce, and May Hu show off their sweaters.

Sharing our amazing: Five UGA Amazing Students—all in the Honors Program, majoring in a wide array of topics and experiencing a variety of opportunities—discuss their experiences, growth, and the value of an education at UGA.

“Since I’ve come to the University of Georgia, I’ve been a member of the Honors Program, which has provided me with a lot of opportunities.

I’ve been fortunate enough to become an Honors International Scholar, which allowed me to study abroad in Amsterdam. In the end, going to the Netherlands became the best thing I’ve ever done. I got super close with all my classmates and grew so much as a person.”

“There is no doubt in my mind that my time spent at UGA has made me a stronger, smarter, more wellrounded, and overall better person, and that after graduation I will be more than prepared for whatever life brings next. I chose to attend UGA because I knew I wanted a school with a good balance of academics, extracurriculars, and social life—all of which UGA excels in.”

“UGA surprised me with a community eager to welcome me as a Bulldog. I am grateful for the many mentors at UGA who listened as I rambled about my varying interests, who challenged some of my dreams only to aid in making the dreams more achievable, and who taught me to ask the right questions. The Bulldog Nation that rallies together every fourth quarter has been the greatest takeaway from my time at UGA.”

“I chose to attend UGA because of its combination of out-of-this-world opportunities and affordability. My triplet siblings and I were all going off to college at once, so I wanted to find the best choice for my family just as much as I wanted to fall in love with a school personally. Fortunately, UGA made that easy. ... Being offered the Foundation Fellowship introduced me to all of the opportunities UGA has to offer within and beyond the scholarship.”

Janelle Hampton

Will Perreault

Samantha Summers

Phaidra Buchanan

Major: Early Childhood Education Year: Senior Hometown: Farmingdale, New Jersey

Major: Biology and Psychology Year: Senior Hometown: Little Rock, Arkansas

Major: Biology and Psychology Year: Senior Hometown: Powder Springs

Major: Social Studies Education Minor: German Year: Junior Hometown: Tyrone

“I am the first in my family to become a Georgia Bulldog. I came to UGA ultimately because of the opportunities available in the Foundation Fellows program, which offered unparalleled travel opportunities that I took full advantage of during my time at UGA. The achievement at UGA that brings me the greatest satisfaction has been my participation in the dual bachelor’s and master’s in economics offered through the Terry College of Business.”

Drew Schmitt

Major/Master’s: Economics Minor: Statistics Year: Senior Hometown: Rochester, New York

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HONORS

in Brief

Study abroad

10,000 miles, 22 days in Australia This past December, Shreya Pandya finished her final exams and started a 10,000-mile trip with the help of the Honors International Scholars Program.

Through funding from HISP, the Honors sophomore was able to travel to Australia for 22 days through UGA Discover Abroad’s Winter Break Australia.

Shreya, a nutritional sciences major and sociology minor with a pre-med intent, said that traveling abroad for the first time on her own set this trip apart for her.

“I was really able to immerse myself in the journey with other UGA students, both Honors and non-Honors,” she said. “Being in charge of my own experience and knowing that what I get out of Australia is dependent on how much I put in, I was really able to get the most of the trip, and that was the best part for me.

“My breath was taken away at how amazing an opportunity it was.”

Starting in Sydney, Australia, the program immerses students in the country’s culture of conservation and resource awareness at stops like the Sunshine Coast, the Great Barrier Reef, Lamington National Park, and Brisbane.

Students are encouraged to ask their instructors and themselves questions about developing sustainably on the urban

scale, drawing lines to preserve smaller ecosystems in a world of ever-growing tourism, and contributing to sustainability as an individual.

“Everyone bonded together and was really interested in what we were learning” Shreya said. “Overall, I was able to learn a lot about sustainability in terms of culture, economy, and development.

“I’m so grateful to HISP for being able to provide more than any other scholarship would have. And I’m grateful that I’m a part of Honors to be able to receive that.”

Every year, HISP is able to fund study abroad experiences for about 60 second- and third-year Honors students with scholarships ranging from $2,500 to $5,000. Experiences include classes, internships, research, public service, and other international experiential learning opportunities.

From marveling at the inner ceiling architecture of the Sydney Opera House in Northern Australia to scuba diving and taking in the beauty of the Great Barrier Reef on the country’s southern coast, “those two moments were really an amazing juxtaposition,” Shreya said. “The world has so much to offer.”

“This trip has really shown me how I can navigate a new area and—especially

through the UGA network—explore abroad and have connections in different places.”

- Kora Burton

Thailand meeting

Peace Summit delegates Honors students Sam Driggers, Samantha Daly, and Elizabeth Carter represented UGA at Humanitarian Affairs Asia’s 2020 Peace Summit of Emerging Leaders in Bangkok, Thailand, in February. The three-day conference had more than 400 delegates from 53 countries.

“We learned from the son of the 1993 World Trade Center bomber, a survivor of the Cambodian civil war and genocide, and a UN representative who focuses on NGO relations within the Office of Global Communications,” said Samantha, a junior Ramsey Honors Scholar who is earning bachelor’s/master’s degrees in international policy and international affairs.

Elizabeth, a junior, is earning bachelor’s/master’s degrees in international policy and international affairs. Sam, a senior CURO Honors Scholar, is earning bachelor’s/master’s degrees in geography, international affairs, and political science.

The three-day conference featured talks and workshops designed to expand delegates’ understanding of peace.

“We really enjoyed our trip and are very grateful to the Honors Program for selecting and funding us to attend the conference,” Samantha said.

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HONORS

Scholarships

Goldwater Scholar In late March, Landon Clark was recognized as a Goldwater Scholar; UGA has had 61 Goldwaters in the last 25 years

L

andon Clark was among 396 undergraduates across the nation to be recognized as Barry Goldwater Scholars, earning the highest undergraduate award of its type for the fields of the natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering.

Landon, from Leesburg, is a third-year CURO Honors Scholar who is triple majoring in biochemistry and molecular biology, genetics, and biology.

Since 1995, 61 UGA students have received the Goldwater Scholarship, which recognizes exceptional sophomores and juniors across the United States.

This year, recipients were selected from a field of more than 5,000 college sophomores and juniors who were nominated by 461 academic institutions nationwide. Each awardee will receive up to $7,500 toward the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board.

Of this year’s Goldwater Scholars, 50 are mathematics and computer science majors, 287 are majoring in the natural sciences, and 59 are majoring in engineering.

“I am thrilled for Landon, who is absolutely one of our very best students,” said David S. Williams, associate provost and director of the Honors Program, who serves as the UGA campus faculty representative for the Goldwater Scholarship. “As a CURO Honors Scholar, Landon was recruited to come to UGA because of his promise as a researcher. This Goldwater award and recognition proves that his hard work is paying off. I look forward to watching his career continue to blossom in the future.”

Landon’s long-term plans include an MD/PhD in immunology, performing translational research on immune diseases using gene and immunotherapy techniques, and teaching at a university. As a translational researcher

specializing in immunology, he plans to use gene therapy techniques to treat and cure immune disorders in humans.

Since his first weeks as a UGA freshman in August 2017, Landon has conducted research in the lab of Michael Terns, Distinguished Research Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He researches the complex processes of CRISPR-Cas immune systems through a model archaeal organism, Pyrococcus furiosus. Now a junior, he has collaborated on three different projects and co-authored a paper, and mentors other undergraduates in this field.

Last summer, he worked in the translational research lab of H. Trent Spencer, professor of pediatrics and director of the gene and cell therapy program at Emory’s Winship Cancer Institute. Landon researched immune diseases and potential gene therapy techniques. In 2017, he also conducted research on sociological variables influencing educational inequality with Dawn Robinson, professor of sociology at UGA. Landon is a Crane Leadership Scholar, director of academic outreach for the Student Government Association, director of internal communications for UGA Red Cross, exam writer for UGA Science Olympiad Outreach, co-president of the Biochemistry Undergraduate Society, co-president of Omicron Delta Kappa National Honor Society, and treasurer of the Honors Program Student Council. He volunteers at Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center.

Landon has presented his research at 10 conferences. He also studied neurology and cancer biology through UGA’s Studies Abroad Program in Cortona, located in Tuscany, Italy.

- Stephanie Schupska UGA HONORS PROGRAM MAGAZINE SPRING 2020

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HONORS

Research

Soil research

Joshua Thedford prepares for a future focused on chemistry

By Stephanie Schupska

J

oshua Thedford has a favorite soil, and the week before spring break at UGA, he was about to run out of it.

He hefted the remnants of the final bag, which weighed close to 30 grams.

It was enough to add to 30 small glass bottles—and get him closer to his goal of solving a mystery of soil chemistry.

Joshua has been working with soil in airless conditions, studying its content of iron and dissolved soil organic matter.

He’s trying to figure out what happens to that dissolved soil organic matter when it is exposed to air.

“There’s this phenomena that happens if you have soil that’s been incubated anaerobically, meaning without oxygen for a long time,” he said.

“There’s a buildup of Fe(II)—iron two— which is a reduced iron. If you suddenly oxidize that soil, so take it from Fe(II) to Fe(III)—iron three—in organic matter in the soil, there’s an unexplained pulse of carbon dioxide. I’m investigating the mechanisms for that.”

An Honors junior and CURO Honors Scholar, Joshua’s journey to soil chemistry started in high school. He was considering a career in agriculture, and his interest in chemistry—developed in an AP chemistry course at his high school on the outskirts of Atlanta— led toward a major in environmental chemistry.

As a freshman, Joshua took a seminar course specifically designed for CURO Honors Scholars. Part of his homework was to contact several professors that he was interested in working with.

“I had four professors I was emailing in a series,” he said. “Dr. Thompson was my second one, and two minutes after I emailed him, he emailed me back.”

Aaron Thompson is an associate professor of environmental soil chemistry in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

“I really like the energy that undergraduates bring to the lab,”

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Thompson said. “Josh in particular is endlessly curious and energetic about finding out new things and contributing to science. I also really like the ability to provide undergraduates with research opportunities because I know that it can mean so much in terms of their development.”

Joshua has been working in Thompson’s lab for seven semesters and is taking two classes with him this semester.

“Josh is endlessly curious and energetic about finding out new things and contributing to science.”

Aaron Thompson

Associate professor, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

“I’m taking soil chemistry and environmental measurements,” Joshua said. “The way Dr. Thompson talks is slowly becoming my internal monologue.”

Joshua also travels to chemistry conferences with Thompson, where he is able to discuss his research through oral presentations. He says the annual CURO Symposium at UGA—where he has presented twice—is really good practice.

“Presenting is kind of nerve-racking, because some of the attendees know more about my research than I do,” he said. “After I was done presenting at the American Chemical Society National Conference (in California in August), this guy recommended about 17 different

things I could do to improve my project.

It was very good constructive criticism.”

Joshua spent his spring break studying and taking the GRE—he will be applying to graduate schools in the fall. He’s also preparing for the GRE chemistry subject test and emailing faculty across the country to see who he might like to study and work with.

Back in the lab, he scoops tiny portions of soil into glass bottles. He’s already dealt with disappointment in his research—the first type of soil he was studying did not carry enough microbes with iron reducing capabilities to produce measurable results. He switched to a soil called El Verde, which is from Luquillo, Puerto Rico.

“The dormant microbes in there use iron as an electron acceptor in their food pathway, so as they’re consuming food, they use iron and reduce it,” he said.

“That’s very good for my experiment because it’s about reduced iron.”

Joshua’s goal is to learn more about understudied areas of soil chemistry.

“Josh has been working on his own research project that is an outgrowth of work I do on the interaction of iron and carbon in soils,” Thompson said.

“His work has given us a view of the very early stages (less than one hour) of iron oxidation in soils and how that impacts carbon cycling. This is not something that anyone has ever measured before because it is challenging.

“Josh’s work has illustrated there are rapid changes in CO2 efflux that we don’t fully understand. Based on his work, we now think most of these changes have to do with the production of free radicals, and Josh has now moved his research focus in that direction.”

His next step is to make the iron and organic matter complexes in a test tube.

“Soil is very complex,” Joshua said.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to identify and approximate what’s happening in the soil by studying iron and organic matter in a test tube. So that’s next.”

Stephanie Schupska

Joshua Thedford scoops and weighs a soil sample for a research project he is working on in the Thompson lab.

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HONORS

in the Community

Business professional Story by Kora Burton, photos by Stephanie Schupska

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UGA HONORS PROGRAM MAGAZINE SPRING 2020

New SGA Professional Clothing Closet provides students with needed professional attire—for free

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t the end of a long corridor in Milledge Hall, just past several peer-mentoring rooms, Sabina Ashurova opens emails from UGA students, each requesting professional clothing.

After scanning a message from a student hoping for a black blazer, Sabina leaves her workspace in the old tutoring room—now used as the SGA Professional Clothing Closet—and searches through the rack of suit jackets.

Just over a year ago, Sabina was in a similar situation with a similar need.

“In my first semester, I was interviewing to be a first-year SGA senator and needed a black blazer,” said Sabina, who is now a sophomore pursuing a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s in business analytics.

She sought help first from her resident assistant in Russell Hall and then called the UGA Career Center. Both attempts at finding on-campus sources of professional clothing—even to borrow for the day—came up short.

Now, because of the work of the Student Government Association, UGA students have the option of contacting the SGA Professional Clothing Closet when they need clothes for interviews and presentation days. The bonus for students is that the clothes aren’t offered on a loan basis—they’re given to them.

Having served more than 200 UGA students since its opening in November, the SGA Professional Clothing Closet currently houses about 2,000 items of clothing, including shirts, slacks, tops, dresses, shoes, accessories, and ties.

“You think of it, we probably have it,” Sabina said.

A student walks through the door

Sabina Ashurova, co-founder of the SGA Professional Clothing Closet, folds a blazer as she finishes fulfilling a student’s request.

and peeks past a large whiteboard filled with headings like “Big Ideas” and “What We Need” interspersed with encouraging notes and ideas for campus partnerships.

After trying on the clothing options volunteers have selected, the student holds her bag of new clothes, beaming.

“Everything fits perfectly,” she exclaims.

“I actually can’t believe it!”

The clothing closet is open to any UGA student, including graduate and professional students.

“Professional clothing is expensive, regardless of how old you are,” Sabina said. The closet seeks to serve students at all stages of their professional lives.

This campus resource didn’t appear overnight. As a first-year senator, Sabina

didn’t realize there was something she could do until her SGA mentor and fellow Honors student Griffin Hamstead showed her a sample legislative resolution.

The resolution was the first stage of a clothes closet. Griffin and Max Harris, an Honors student and SGA senator, had worked on the draft together in the 20172018 academic year.

“Griffin pulled up the draft as an example to show me what legislation looks like,” Sabina said. “The moment I saw the call to establish a professional clothing closet on campus, I knew I wanted to work on it.”

Griffin, a fourth-year Foundation Fellow, is finishing his English degree this May. He and Max laid the groundwork for

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in the Community

Andrew Davis Tucker

Andrew Davis Tucker

HONORS

Top left: SGA Sen. Sabina Ashurova and President Pro Tempore Matthew McDaniel speak at the SGA Professional Clothing Closet's grand opening on Nov. 21, 2019. Top left, bottom photo: The clothing closet is located in Milledge Hall Room 101 and serves all students on campus, including graduate and professional students. Above, center: UGA President Jere W. Morehead, center, along with university administrators and SGA members, cut the ribbon at the closet’s grand opening.

Bottom left: Sabina shows off a “conversation starter” tie, which has all of the SEC logos printed on it. Thanks to a plea for help from a student and a YouTube tutorial, Sabina now knows how to tie a tie.

the closet by conducting initial research.

“I remember being at the Jittery Joe’s in the Miller Learning Center with Max, and we came to the conclusion that this was something that was missing on campus,” Griffin said. “We put forward a resolution

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that essentially communicated what we thought, that there was a gap on campus, and what we thought ought to happen. We wanted to get the SGA stamp on it to give us the kind of credence to move forward and do some more investigation.”

“It’s about students working together to help students. That’s SGA at its best,” said Max, a fourth-year history major who is the Franklin College senator and chairman of the Educational Affairs Committee. “As an Honors and UGA student, service is one

Andrew Davis Tucker

From casual to business How to request SGA Professional Clothing Closet help

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Fill out the form at https://sga. uga.edu/content_page/clothing_ closet or, for urgent requests, email sgaclothingcloset@uga.edu.

The sign-up process is designed to make it easy for students to request professional clothing through the SGA website, even on very short notice.

2 of our pillars, and this is just one way we decided we were going to contribute.”

“There are things we do for our resumes, and then I think there are things we should be doing because they’re right or good,” Griffin said. “That’s about leaving a legacy that isn’t just personal, but can be carried forward because it helps others.”

Along the way, students working on the project—specifically Sabina and SGA Senate President Pro Tempore Matthew McDaniel—had to overcome complex problems like finding a suitable location and adequate staffing and making the resource sustainable for the long term.

The closet’s official opening included UGA President Jere W. Morehead, Vice President for Student Affairs Victor Wilson, and executive members of the SGA. “It’s been really awesome to have that support,” Sabina said. “Alumni, faculty, staff, everyone here on this campus has been incredibly supportive and generous.”

Realizing this dream required many partnerships from all areas of campus, including the Career Center, Alumni Association, Division of Academic Enhancement, and Terry College of

Business. The project has also managed to address its issues of sustainability by securing donor partnerships and university resources, such as Office of Sustainability and Terry Diversity grants.

The clothing closet also partnered with student groups like the Fashion Design Association, which provides volunteer tailoring and styling assistance; the Student Merchandising Organization, which helps sort donations; and Terry Student Consulting, which provided the clothing closet with advice on improving daily operations.

The clothing closet accepts donations and especially needs smaller men’s clothing, men’s and women’s shoes, and ties in solid colors. Currently, students are able to borrow professional shoes and ties but must return them after use.

“To our donors, we say we take everything, and we do,” Sabina said. “We also accept monetary donations, which we hope to use toward giving students vouchers to Goodwill or another store that we are partnered with.”

For more information or to volunteer with the clothing closet, visit https://sga. uga.edu/content_page/clothing_closet or email sgaclothingcloset@uga.edu.

Note the type of event and formality of attire. “That information helps us figure out what kind of clothes the student most needs,” Sabina said.

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Wait for a notification that clothes are ready. After receiving the request, volunteers put together a first draft outfit.

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Attend a styling session.

“We want to make it like a shopping experience,” Sabina said.

Volunteers walk students through the process of their important events, from picking out clothing to mental and emotional readiness.

The clothes closet also provides resume vouchers to the Tate Student Center, allowing students to print out their resumes on professional paper at no charge.

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Wear your new professional attire. “It’s about empowerment and professional development, and making sure our students have the resources and knowledge of what it takes to succeed in their career, and to not let these things be barriers to their success,” Sabina said.

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HONORS

Alumni

Cori Bargmann is

RESHAPING SCIENCE

By Jill Neimark

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n the summer of 1979, neurobiologist Cori Bargmann scored her first science job in a biology lab at the University of Georgia. She spent each day preparing fly food from cornmeal and molasses.

“You cannot imagine a less intellectually challenging job,” she laughed.

Nevertheless, the Honors undergrad and Foundation Fellow was soon hooked on science.

“I loved these smart people talking about really deep, interesting questions,” she said. “I loved how concrete the work was, and I especially loved how interested the UGA professors were in their students.”

Little did she know her future held extraordinary achievements that would reshape scientific knowledge and inquiry—from research that led to an important breast cancer drug; to deep, broad discoveries about how nervous systems are built and work; to her position now as head of the ambitious Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s science work. Funded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, its mandate is to support the science and technology that would make it possible to cure or manage all diseases by 2100. As impossible as that sounds, Bargmann takes the task seriously, and even believes it’s possible to achieve.

Bargmann is “a scintillating polymath” who is up to the task, explained neuroscientist Marc Tessier-Lavigne. He is now president of Stanford University, but for 10 years had an office next to Bargmann at the University of California, San Francisco, and they collaborated on some projects. “She has a breadth of knowledge both in science and outside it in literature and art that is just astonishing.”

Erin Dolan, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology and Georgia Athletic Association Professor of Innovative Science Education in UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, did her dissertation work in Bargmann’s lab at the University of California, San Francisco.

“I had heard her at our program retreat and I just knew I wanted to work with her,” Dolan said. “She is provocative and succinct at the same time. She has the ability to think in ways that are just unparalleled. She can connect ideas and communicate them in a way that drives everyone’s thinking forward.”

Bargmann grew up in Athens, the third of four sisters, in what she fondly referred to as “an insanely overeducated family.” Her parents, who met as translators in Nuremberg after World War II, emigrated to America, and her late father became a professor of statistics at UGA (the Bargmann Computer Lab is named after him). She was raised bilingual—her father spoke to her in English, her mother in German.

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“Like many immigrants, my parents believed in education.

We were immersed in music, art, math, and science,” Bargmann said.

She loved growing up in a college town, and to this day feels most at home on a campus. At 20 she was a First Honor Graduate at UGA, and she went on to become a graduate student at the laboratory of biologist Robert Weinberg at MIT. Weinberg was working on “oncogenes”—genes that can trigger the transformation of normal tissue into a tumor. Her project, which was to isolate and clone an oncogene called neu, was a step on the path that led to the development of Herceptin, an important breast cancer medication.

The mind of a worm In spite of her success at the Weinberg lab, Bargmann was restless. She really wanted to study how the brain works, so she took a position as a postdoc in the lab of MIT biologist Robert Horvitz, who would later win a Nobel Prize for worm research that revealed how genes regulate organ development as well as cell death. His laboratory was a hotbed of research into Caenorhabditis elegans—the most famous worm in science. C. elegans is an almost microscopic, translucent, deaf, and nearly blind nematode the size of a comma.

The worm, however, has a complete nervous system, one that has yielded astonishing insights into the way all brains are built and operate. Bargmann was inspired by the fact that the worm’s entire nervous system had just been mapped in a project that took 20 years and resulted in a famous paper affectionately called “The Mind of a Worm.”

“No brain has ever been mapped with that extraordinary level of detail,” said Bargmann. “I could not have done my work without that map. I still use that map today.”

What can a worm tell us about ourselves? Lots, it turns out.

In 1993, Bargmann’s experiments showed that the tiny worm was not just an empty tube moving around; it was a genius in terms of odor recognition. Humans are thought to detect as many as a trillion odors with their 400 smell receptors, but this tiny worm with only 302 neurons has over 1,000 receptors for smell.

And because the worm is virtually see-through, Bargmann was able to watch individual neurons in action as worms responded to odors. Using powerful lasers to perform microscopic surgeries, and equally powerful microscopes, she watched worm after worm undulate toward smells that signaled delicious bacteria nearby, but rapidly wriggle away from harmful molecules, and she proved that worms are born with neurons already hardwired to either propel or repel it from specific odors.

Brigitte Lacombe/photo illustration

This story on Cori Bargmann is part of a series, called Georgia Groundbreakers, from UGA’s Division of Marketing and Communications that celebrates innovative and visionary faculty, students, alumni, and leaders throughout the history of the University of Georgia—and their profound, enduring impact on our state, our nation, and the world.

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Chandler West/CZI

Chad Osburn

Walker Montgomery

Alumni

Dale Ramos/CZI

HONORS

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UGA HONORS PROGRAM MAGAZINE SPRING 2020

Walker Montgomery

Top left: Cori Bargmann talks with participants at a workshop on health data in multiple modalities, including genomic, imaging, and medical record data. Top right: Bargmann was the sole recipient of the Foundation Fellowship at UGA in the Class of 1981. Middle left: Bargmann delivered the fall 2018 commencement address at the University of Georgia’s graduate ceremony. Middle right: Bargmann talks to Vivian Wu, left, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative managing partner of ventures. Right: Bargmann runs an experiment in a UGA lab as an undergraduate circa 1980.

Cori Bargmann, continued...

“I still remember the first time we moved a receptor for its favorite odor, diacetyl, into a neuron that detects harmful smells,” she said. “And then, when exposed to diacetyl, it was as if the worm was horrified. It was instantly racing far away.”

It was not the molecule itself that mattered at that moment—it was the neuron, which had been hardwired before birth to make a worm flee.

Over nearly three decades, she conclusively showed that a worm’s nervous system—and very likely all nervous systems including our own—is regulated both by a genetically hardwired, inborn map, as well as by its environment and shifting inner states.

“One of the great surprises in modern biology,” said Bargmann, “is that genes are not that different between different animals.”

Most genes in our own nervous system, she said, can be found in a worm as well.

By 2018, the National Institutes of Health had already granted 550 awards to hundreds of investigators for the initiative, totaling over $950 million in grants. The studies range widely, though many are focused on new technologies, from “brain prostheses” for those with spinal cord injury to nanosensors for brain imaging that are so tiny they have been likened to “ultrasonic neural dust.”

Preventing, curing, and treating In 2016, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, founded the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative with an initial commitment of $3 billion, hoping to overcome all the diseases we suffer from today. They chose Bargmann to lead it. For those who think the goal is too lofty, she points out that in the last hundred years new antibiotics and vaccines have been able to prevent or treat innumerable previously deadly Revolutionary initiative infections; heart bypass surgery, For over a decade, Bargmann ran a new blood pressure medications, lab at the University of California, and statins now regularly extend San Francisco. Today, she is the heart patients’ lives by another 20 Torsten N. Wiesel professor of years; and once-deadly AIDS is now genetics and neurosciences at The a treatable chronic illness.

Rockefeller University in New York, One key to success, believes and she leads the Chan Zuckerberg Bargmann, is open collaboration and Initiative as head of science sharing of resources and results. She in California. In 2003, she was learned that by working on the worm elected to the prestigious National brain.

Cori Bargmann, Ph.D. Academy of Sciences and is the “Scientists built these great Head of Science, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative recipient of numerous national and tools, like the map of the C. elegans Torsten N. Wiesel Professor, The Rockefeller University international awards, including nervous system, and shared it sharing the $1 million Kavli Prize freely,” she said. in Neuroscience and the $3 million With this in mind, one of the first Breakthrough Prize in Life Science. big, international projects for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative In 2013, an entirely new kind of challenge came her way. is a Human Cell Atlas, one that will map and characterize all President Barack Obama asked Bargmann to co-chair the cells in a healthy human body: cell types, numbers, locations, planning of the BRAIN Initiative (Brain Research Through relationships and molecular parts.

Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies). It was to be a The CZI is also providing support for another project, 12-year, $4.5-billion undertaking, with $100 million granted bioRxiv (pronounced BioArchive), which allows scientists the first year. The aim, according to the president, was to to post and share preprints of studies before publication. It revolutionize our understanding of the human mind and already has over 40,000 followers on Twitter. uncover new ways to treat, prevent, and cure brain disorders “Sharing information quickly is a way of accelerating like Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, autism, epilepsy, and traumatic discovery,” said Bargmann. brain injury. And though a single human brain has 86 billion Today, the girl who grew up in Athens listening to her neurons and Bargmann’s favorite worm has only 302, Obama’s mother speak German and her father speak English is an choice was a clear vote of confidence in her work. international science star, dividing her time between research Bargmann is, said Tessier-Lavigne, a natural leader. on two coasts. She has been married since 2007 to scientist “She did an extraordinary job in that role,” he said, Richard Axel, whose research on mammalian olfaction won a “consulting broadly in the scientific and medical community, Nobel Prize. “He has made me happier than I thought possible,” and synthesizing all of the information into a very actionable she said. And mused: “I can’t imagine anything better than a plan.” life in science. Science is a mystery with a solution.”

“Scientists built these great tools, like the map of the C. elegans nervous system, and shared it freely. ... Sharing information quickly is a way of accelerating discovery.”

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HONORS

Cover Story

Christina Lee and the makings of a career at

DISNEY

By Stephanie Schupska

F

or Christina Lee and the other five individuals on Walt Disney Imagineering’s Show Software Interactives Team, the 20-hour workdays leading up to opening day of Disney’s NBA Experience were a mad dash of hardware and software and cameras and basketballs and hoops and slam dunks and code and more cameras and late nights and coffee-fueled mornings. The grand opening came like a sigh of relief.

“The cool part of the NBA Experience and the grand opening is that we got to see the first guests come through the door and see it for the first time,” she said.

“There was one little kid, we ended up referring to him just as the Lakers kid.” At four years old, by her rough estimate, he proudly wore a purple and gold Los Angeles Lakers jersey.

On opening day, Aug. 12, 2019, the little boy stepped through the doors of the NBA Experience and stood frozen in place, his excited face illuminated by two stories’ worth of colors, lights, and video monitors.

“The Lakers kid comes in and looks up—there are all these moving lights, and it’s kind of insane when you first walk in—and his jaw just drops,” Christina said. “That moment right there just encapsulates everything that makes the late nights completely worth it. It brings the magic back.”

Full-time Disney Christina, an Honors senior and Foundation Fellow majoring in computer science, spent this past summer and fall working with Walt Disney Imagineering in Orlando. The first half of her internship revolved around the NBA Experience, an immersive, basketball-themed venue in Disney Springs that is “a slam dunk of fun for fans of all ages,” according to the Disney website.

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Jonathan Demery

There, guests are invited to live out their NBA and WNBA hoop fantasies through 13 different guest experiences.

“We’re trying to create a space for any NBA or WNBA fan,” she said. “If you’re into stats and learning, there are experiences for you. If you want to feel like an NBA player, if you want to be drafted, if you want to dunk and have that sweet, beautiful photo of it, we have spaces for you.”

If the first half of her internship was an all-out sprint, the second half of Christina’s time in Orlando more closely mirrored an average work week—a work week that she will pick up again after she graduates from UGA in May. Starting in June, she will be working full-time at Disney World, which was the most visited theme park resort across the globe in 2018, according to the 2018 Theme Index and Museum Index: The Global Attractions Attendance Report, published by the Themed Entertainment Association.

Disney World’s Magic Kingdom Theme Park was No. 1 worldwide in number of visitors. With an attendance of 20,859,000, it hosted close to a third of the 58.3 million people who traveled to Walt Disney World Resort in 2018. Epcot, which houses Christina’s next major projects, was Disney World’s third-most visited theme park that year, with 12.4 million visitors.

Disney World is made up of four theme parks (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom), two water parks, 36 hotels (27 Disney-themed and nine non-Disney), golf courses, and other venues. The Show Software Interactives Team works with all new projects that require software integration.

The majority of Christina’s team is now working predominately on Epcot’s new Play Pavilion, which is scheduled to open in 2021.

“It’s fun because we are much further back in the project life cycle than the NBA Experience,” she said. “Instead of being involved in rapid installation, I’m much more focused on systems architecture.”

Disney’s Creative Team is envisioning the entire new Epcot experience, and her Show Software Interactives Team is doing their part to bring the vision to life. Their work includes preplanning, testing, mocking up, finding technology, assessing risks, and working with lighting, audio/video, operations, show set designers, and facilities to make sure that the show software will collaborate correctly with other systems.

“We bring in some of the constraints to projects, because we can’t break the laws of physics, even if sometimes the Creative Team wants us to,” she said. “It’s a really interesting job in that it’s not just a list of tasks. There is a lot of room for collaboration. We’re all working toward making the best possible experience for all of our guests.”

Dreaming Disney Disney has been Christina’s big dream “for forever,” she said. “I didn’t really know how I was going to get there.”

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Christina started college as a biology major. By her sophomore year, she had switched to mechanical engineering and theatre and was working in the scene shop for the UGA Theatre Department. As a junior, she landed on computer science and English, participated in the Disney College Program as a custodian, and then started a two-year internship at Netherworld Haunted House. She will finish UGA with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and, because of a condensed class load after an extra semester at Disney, a minor in English.

Along the way, she discovered a passion for themed entertainment design and technology.

“It is such a niche field,” she said. “I did some independent CURO projects, which allowed me to explore what I was interested in and teach myself a lot of the skills that I wouldn’t have learned in classes.”

In her final semester at UGA, she’s flipping the self-teaching model, taking one class in particular that is helping to explain some of the processes she had to learn on the fly during her Disney internship.

“I’m taking computer networks right now with Dr. Keshtgari, and she’s amazing,” Christina said. Manijeh Keshtgari is a lecturer of computer science in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

“We network everything at Disney, but networks were something I had no experience with in the slightest. There was a lot of on-the-job learning. In her class, I’m putting the final pieces together, and some of the concepts I didn’t quite understand are falling into place.”

Managing Disney magic While her major is computer science and she is on the Show Software Interactives Team at Disney, that doesn’t mean Christina will spend her days in Orlando writing code.

Instead, her team spends most of its time in project and vendor management, systems planning, and problem solving.

They are figuring out every single aspect of the hardware and software used in each guest experience and how those items are going to communicate with each other.

“It’s really finding the proper hardware and finding what suits the application best,” she said, “based off software needs, based off creative needs, based off maintenance needs, based off the fact that the majority of our stuff needs to run anywhere from 12 to 18 hours a day, 365 days a year, for at least four years, which is a lot of load to put on hardware.”

For Epcot’s play pavilion, Christina has spent a large amount of time planning conduit runs, using problem solving, systems architecture, and systems engineering to figure out where the wires need to go.

She was deep into conduit meetings on Nov. 12, 2019, when The Imagineering Story came out on Disney’s new streaming service, Disney+, detailing the behind-the-scenes work that makes Disney magical. Christina’s phone lit up as her friends kept texting variations of “oh my gosh, your job is so cool,” she said. “And I’m in my fifth meeting of the day about conduit and making sure that we get the conduit correct before we pour the concrete. That’s kind of the less cool aspect of the job that is still very real.”

Stephanie Schupska

Full Disney circle Christina’s childhood included an annual family trip from Atlanta to Orlando; she has happy memories of those yearly visits to Disney World.

“It’s cool now to work on Epcot projects,” she said. “Growing up in my nerdy family, that was one of our favorite places because of its educational components.”

Her parents and little brother were able to join her at the NBA Experience and are excited to see the changes at Epcot next year, she said.

Christina also enjoys exploring the connections at Disney, linking attractions to the people who helped bring them to life.

“As I meet more people who have been at the company for a while and talk to them, I realize that some of my family’s favorite experiences or attractions growing up were some of their first projects,” she said. “It’s just a very, very surreal feeling.

This attraction that holds such a big place in my heart and has so many memories associated with it, I’m literally having a conversation with the person who brought it to life, and that’s pretty cool.

“The best part about it, aside from all the good, fun problemsolving and everything, is that at the end of the day, everything we are working toward is to create these enchanting places where families and loved ones and friends can come and create memories.

“It’s incredibly crazy to think that somehow I’ve made it here.”

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HONORS

Crane Scholars

Crane Leadership Scholars

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his past fall, 10 Honors students were recognized for their exemplary leadership efforts as recipients of the William Moore Crane Leadership Scholarship. The $1,000 scholarship, awarded to third-year students in the Honors Program, recognizes leadership in extracurricular activities and/or involvement with civic or community organizations. This year, students’ leadership experiences ranged from Refugee Outreach and Roosevelt UGA to Arch Society and Extra Special People, Inc. Administered by the Honors Program and the UGA Center for Leadership and Service, the scholarship is named in honor of a 1921 UGA graduate who was influential in the founding of the UGA Alumni Society.

Elizabeth Carter

Landon Clark

Hometown: Augusta, GA Major: International Affairs Master’s degree: International Policy

Hometown: Leesburg, GA Majors: Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Genetics, Biology

Elizabeth explored her interest in public-private partnerships through her Honors in Washington internship at the U.S. Department of State (DOS) with the PEPFAR Private Sector Engagement team in 2019. She now serves as UGA’s campus coordinator for the DOS, coordinating with the Diplomat in Residence for the Southern region and connecting students to internship opportunities.

Her SPIA student organization involvement includes the SPIA Student Union, of which she is president. Through SPIA Ambassadors, Elizabeth created and directs the SPIA Peer Mentorship Program.

She also mentors students through the Honors PAL Mentorship Program.

After graduation, Elizabeth intends to pursue a graduate degree in communication and design. She hopes to direct partnership and initiatives for a multinational corporation seeking to maximize its positive impact.

A CURO Honors Scholar and Goldwater Scholar, Landon works with Michael Terns to research CRISPR-Cas, for which he received Best Paper Award at the 2019 CURO Symposium. He is a teaching assistant for the CURO Honors Scholar seminar class and served as the teaching assistant for Honors general chemistry.

Landon is co-president of the Biochemistry Undergraduate Society.

A member of the SGA for three years, he serves as the director of academic outreach. Landon holds executive positions on the Honors Program Student Council and UGA Red Cross and was inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa.

In 2019, he studied abroad in Cortona and worked for Emory Children’s Center studying gene therapy treatments for immune disorders.

Landon plans to obtain an MD/PhD in immunology and research immune disorders.

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HONORS

Crane Scholars

Allison Fine

Culzean Kennedy

Hometown: Marietta, GA Majors: Marketing, Political Science Certificates: Applied Politics, Personal & Organizational Leadership

Hometown: Atlanta, GA Majors: Biology, Ecology Minor: Global Health

An SGA senator, Allison is head of the diversity, inclusion, and equity committee, working with other senators to make UGA more accessible. Allison served as an Honors teaching assistant, an associate consultant in Terry Student Consulting, and a member of the judicial board for her sorority, Sigma Delta Tau. Outside of UGA, Allison supports the pediatric cancer community, having grown up a sibling of a pediatric cancer patient. As part of her Girl Scout Gold Award, Allison created a book containing stories by siblings of pediatric cancer patients to be distributed to siblings of newly diagnosed patients.

In 2019, Allison published a Spanish language edition of the Sibling Story Project.

After graduation, Allison plans to attend law school to work toward her goal of becoming a U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

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With support from the CURO Summer Fellowship and CURO Research Assistantship, Culzean conducts research with Donald Harn, focusing on the development of a malarial vaccine with enhanced immunogenic capabilities.

She is vice president of education for Refugee Outreach at UGA and a member of Gamma Sigma Sigma service sorority.

Culzean served as a peer learning assistant for the Honors general chemistry course. She is an Honors teaching assistant and mentors in the Honors PAL Mentorship Program and the Odum School of Ecology.

After obtaining a master’s degree in comparative biomedical sciences with an emphasis in infectious disease, Culzean hopes to volunteer with the Peace Corps or AmeriCorps programs before pursuing an MD. She hopes to work at a health NGO to improve healthcare availability and health practices globally.

UGA HONORS PROGRAM MAGAZINE SPRING 2020

Kelton McConnell Hometown: Bishop, GA Majors: Biology, Genetics, Psychology Minor: Cellular Biology As a member of the iGEM executive team, Kelton is working to develop a genetic promoter system to detect toxins in peanut crops. He works in Jesse Schank’s lab studying the effects of social defeat stress on alcohol consumption and depression-like phenotypes.

Kelton volunteers as an administrative intern with Campus Kitchen at UGA and serves with Science Olympiad Outreach at UGA and IMPACT service breaks.

Kelton is passionate about the connection between neuroscience and food and follows this passion as a member of the Undergraduate Neuroscience Organization.

After graduation, Kelton will pursue a neuroscience PhD. He plans to be a professor at a research university and study connections between the brain and mental well-being with food and drugs.

John Morris Hometown: Suwanee, GA Major: Economics Certificates: Personal & Organizational Leadership, Music Business A CURO Research Assistant, John is researching housing vulnerability under the supervision of Grace Bagwell Adams. His interests are rooted in his work with local outreach organizations like Athens PBJ, Extra Special People, Inc. (ESP), and Muse UGA, which provides free music education to local middle school students.

John assists in the Terry Data Analytics Lab and is a Leonard Leadership Fellow in the Institute of Leadership Advancement, a co-dean in the Dean William Tate Honor Society, and an Honors teaching assistant.

In addition to working in the local music scene in management for two bands, Everyday Dogs and Hotel Fiction, he is a production intern at the 40 Watt Club.

Committed to a career tangibly improving the lives of marginalized people, John is considering non-profit management or pursuing a PhD in economics.

Adanze Nnyagu

Anthony Potts

Kiana Powers

Christiny Reeves

Hometown: Austell, GA Major: Psychology Minor: Studio Art

Hometown: Athens, GA Majors: Economics, Political Science; Master’s Degree: Public Administration

Hometown: Norcross, GA Majors: Political Science, Sociology Minor/Certificate: Criminal Justice Studies, Personal & Organizational Leadership

Hometown: Macon, GA Majors: Biology, Criminal Justice

A chemistry tutor at the Academic Resource Center, Adanze is a member of the African Student Union and Minority Student Science Association, and president of the Abeneefoo Kuo Honor Society. In 2018, Adanze volunteered in Tanzania to build the foundations for teacher accommodations in rural areas.

As vice president for the UGA chapter of the Nanka School Project (NSP), Adanze raises donations to support education in schools in Nanka, Nigeria, and collaborates with other organizations to raise awareness of important health and social issues.

Adanze recently returned from a summer in Nigeria, where she assisted the national chapter of the NSP in distributing medications and school supplies.

After graduation, Adanze plans to attend medical school and continue working with the NSP to improve the quality of health and education in Nigeria.

Anthony is a Vinson Fellow for the Carl Vinson Institute of Government, a PSO Student Scholar at the Fanning Institute for Leadership Development, and executive director of Roosevelt UGA. He interned in South Africa with Lawyers for Human Rights, where his research project on unaccompanied migrant children prompted national policy creation by the South African Department of Health.

A CURO Honors Scholar, he researches the information age and inequality. He has published professionally, presented at international conferences, and co-founded Humanitarian Informatics.

Through this organization, he developed the largest statewide dataset of jail incarceration records, which is being used by groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and Southern Center for Human Rights.

Anthony plans to earn a JD/PhD in data science to promote algorithmic fairness.

Kiana serves as a justice in University Judiciary and a Leadership Fellow with the Institute for Leadership Advancement. She is an Honors teaching assistant and a mentor in the Global Buddies Program and Honors PAL Mentorship Program.

In UGA’s Laboratory for the Study of Social Interaction, Kiana is working on social research projects in identity processes.

She received the Ash Service Award to support her work as an intern with Athens-Oconee Court Appointed Special Advocates, a nonprofit that advocates for the rights of neglected and abused children.

She created internship training materials and media contributions for presentation at the statewide Georgia CASA conference.

Kiana intends to enroll in law school to pursue advocacy and policy work for vulnerable populations.

Christiny (CC) is involved with UGA’s Center for Leadership and Service. She has led IMPACT servicelearning trips and has been a Dawg Camp peer mentor and counselor, Arch Society member, LGBT Resource Center ambassador, University Housing resident assistant, and Navigators at UGA ministry member.

Community service and social activism are two of Christiny’s passions. Through UGA’s Inside-Out Program, she studied with persons incarcerated in Clarke County jails to learn about criminal justice reform. She tutors for Oasis Católico Santa Rafaela.

In 2019, Christiny interned for the Georgia Department of Public Health in the Infectious Diseases Department, and she will intern with the St. Jude’s HIV clinic in Memphis this upcoming summer. Her long-term goal is to be a community health physician specializing in HIV/AIDS and a social activist for disenfranchised people.

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Scholarships

Story power UGA’s newest Schwarzman Scholar dives into social narratives of education

By Stephanie Schupska

S

haun Kleber is deeply interested in stories, in the social narratives that shape how different people and different groups view the world.

This fall, he will have the opportunity to learn about a whole new set of stories through the Schwarzman Scholars program.

In December 2019, Shaun was one of 148 candidates selected internationally as a Schwarzman Scholar, a graduate fellowship designed to prepare the next generation of leaders with an understanding of China’s role in global trends.

Shaun graduated from UGA in 2016 with bachelor’s degrees in international affairs, political science, and economics. A Foundation Fellow and Honors Program alumnus, he spent two years with McKinsey & Company as a business analyst before transitioning to work with City Year, an AmeriCorps program.

He first served as a student success coach in Detroit. He is now a team leader with City Year Boston and supervises student success coaches at UP Academy Boston, developing tailored strategies for middle school student achievement.

His interest in storytelling emerged while working with AmeriCorps.

“As I started working with students and working in communities that are very different from the one I grew up in and have existed in for most of my life, I started recognizing the power of stories in shaping our reality,” he said.

Originally, his main focus was education—his career aspirations are in education policy—and how educational opportunities help shape students’ futures. The more time Shaun has spent with students, the more he has realized the power that stories and social narratives have in determining what paths students will take.

“It got me interested in the Schwarzman program and China specifically in recognizing that they have very different styles of storytelling and very different stories guiding their society and their sense of reality,” he said.

Shaun is UGA’s fifth Schwarzman Scholar. The incoming Class of 2021 was narrowed down from a pool of more than 4,700 candidates from China, the U.S., and around the world. It includes students from 41 countries and 108 universities.

Five classes of Schwarzman Scholars have been named since the highly competitive program opened to applicants in 2015.

Students focus their studies on public policy, economics and

business, or international studies and, in many ways, can design their own academic programs.

Shaun’s program, he said, will center around leadership in shaping social narratives. His coursework will focus on leadership, communication, policy, and education.

“As China’s influence is rising in the world, I think understanding the values and stories that guide their society is going to be critical to understanding the world that we are going to be living in, in the 21st century,” he said.

After he completes his year as a Schwarzman Scholar, Shaun will attend Harvard Law School and continue to pursue a career in education policy and public education administration.

“I met Shaun when he was in high school, and I enjoyed getting the chance to work closely with him while he was a student at UGA,” said David S. Williams, associate provost and director of the Honors Program. “It has been clear all along that he is destined to make a very positive impact on society.”

In Shaun’s time with City Year and in his internship while in college with the superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools, he has confronted issues such as intergenerational poverty, segregated neighborhoods, and insufficient access to basic resources. He is working to unlock the potential of individuals through education, he said, before ultimately working to unlock the potential of the American South through both public education and public policy.

“The Schwarzman Scholars program prepares and connects future global leaders, and that makes it the perfect fit for Shaun,” said Jessica Hunt, UGA’s major scholarships coordinator. “He made a profound impact on our campus as an undergraduate, and he has already demonstrated a remarkable commitment to building community in Detroit, Atlanta, and Boston. He will no doubt do the same during his year as a Schwarzman Scholar.”

Now almost four years out from his time at UGA, Shaun says he can look back and see how the Honors Program and Foundation Fellowship have helped shape him.

“What I took from this program is the very real power that comes in creating teams and groups that are deeply diverse— not just surface diversity, not just demographic diversity, but diversity of thought, background, and experience,” he said.

“There’s so much vibrance and power in the community that’s built by the Honors Program and Foundation Fellowship in expanding our horizons and our perspectives.”

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Scholarships

Caring science UGA’s newest Knight-Hennessy Scholar plans to combine hard science and patient care as a genetic counselor Story and photos by Stephanie Schupska

U

niversity of Georgia senior Callan Russell, an Honors student from McDonough, has been selected for the third cohort of Knight-Hennessy Scholars, a global graduate-level program at Stanford University.

Established in 2016, the KnightHennessy Scholars program provides full funding for graduate students as they pursue studies ranging from medicine to law to doctoral programs as well as joint- and dual-degrees.

The program is designed to prepare students to take leadership roles in finding creative solutions to complex global issues.

“Callan is a very active Honors student, who has been selected for some of our most impressive scholarships and programs, including the Crane Leadership Scholarship,” said David S. Williams, associate provost and director of the Honors Program. “Callan has also been greatly engaged with undergraduate research through CURO, which has positioned her to enter a most exciting new field, genetic counseling. Given that Stanford has arguably the top program in this cutting-edge area, the Knight-Hennessy Scholarship is a perfect fit for her.”

Callan will graduate in May with a bachelor’s degree in genetics and a minor in music and will begin a master’s degree in genetic counseling at Stanford University this September.

Her long-term goal is to be a prenatal genetic counselor in a hospital setting, educating potential parents about their family histories and the role genetics play in family planning.

“Genetic counseling combines hard

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“Genetic counseling combines hard science with caring for people and the opportunity to directly interact with patients.”

Callan Russell

Knight-Hennessy Scholar, Honors senior majoring in genetics and minoring in music

science with caring for people and the opportunity to directly interact with patients,” Callan said. “Stanford, the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program, and the niche they provide are a dream fit for my career goals.”

For the past two years, Callan has conducted genetics research in the lab of Robert Schmitz, Lars G. Ljungdahl Distinguished Investigator in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. A CURO Research Assistant, she has been studying heat and light tolerances in Arabidopsis thaliana, a small flowering plant widely used as a model organism in genetics and plant biology. She also spent six weeks last summer shadowing genetic counselors through the University of South Carolina’s School of Medicine.

Callan is band captain and trombone section leader in both the UGA Redcoat Marching Band and various UGA ensembles and coordinates community and university events. She volunteers with Extra Special People, assisting children and adults with disabilities; founded UGA G.E.N.E.S., the first genetics club at UGA; and has presented her Arabidopsis research at the CURO Symposium. She also received the Vince Dooley Redcoat Band Scholarship.

Callan Russell perches on a bench next to the Davidson Life Sciences Complex, where she takes classes and works as an undergraduate research assistant in Robert Schmitz’s lab. She’s about a quarter mile from the Hugh Hodgson School of Music, where she spends much of the rest of her time practicing the trombone. Facing page: Callan served as band captain and trombone section leader for UGA’s Redcoat Marching Band. “Music is a passion of mine, second only to science,” she said.

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HONORS

Program Student Council

PAL PEER ASSISTED LEADERSHIP Story & photo by Kora Burton

Student-to-student mentorship program gives undergraduates ‘a stronger sense of community’

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n a cloudy Georgia Wednesday, second-year Honors student May Hu and first-year Roy Epstein Koch meet to catch up and have coffee outside the Tate Student Center. Last semester, they were PALs—participants in the Honors Program Student Council’s Peer Assisted Leadership program.

The mentor and mentee dive into conversation, chatting about upcoming interviews, choosing clubs, and balancing academics with social life.

Every semester, Honors underclassmen and upperclassmen are paired through PAL to discuss everything from professors to downtown restaurants to hobbies and interests. Participants are asked to meet three times during the semester-long program.

Mentors help fill in the blanks, said Roy, a management information systems and international business major who did extensive research before starting college at UGA last fall.

“I knew where I would be living in Myers, and I knew what kind of clubs I wanted to join, but once I got on campus, it’s so much at once that it’s really hard to get through,” he said. “After meeting May, it helped me organize my thoughts.”

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May sees the mentoring relationship as a two-way street.

“Honestly, I got as much help from him as he got from me,” said May, who is majoring in management information systems, international business, and psychology. “I think that in itself is such a testimony to the friendship that’s built from this.”

PAL has had positive ripple effects in the Honors Program since it was started in 2015, said Maria de Rocher, assistant director of Honors and programming and the Honors Program Student Council staff advisor.

“It was an entirely student-led initiative to help foster a stronger sense of community among Honors students.

And that they’ve certainly accomplished,” she said. “I’ve been tremendously impressed by the success of the program.”

PAL is chaired this academic year by Monte Fischer, a fourth-year Foundation Fellow finishing his degrees in mathematics and computer science through the Double Dawgs program, and co-chair Meredith Van De Velde, a third-year Ramsey Honors Scholar studying computer science and international affairs.

They are in charge of the PALgorithm, the problem-

solving mechanism that connects mentors and mentees each semester. The algorithm matches students by pre-professional track, major, and minor. Then, Monte and Meredith go through the data and fix any matches that don’t make sense.

“I really have to give kudos to whoever pairs people up,” May said about her match with her PAL, Roy. “We were a really good fit.”

PAL program chairs run the programming and orientations each semester, ensuring that students who want PAL mentorship are provided with as many opportunities as possible.

“PAL’s main function is to connect people and to pass some knowledge down between different generations of UGA students,” Monte said. “I’m responsible for drafting emails that go out on the Honors Listserv and the application forms. Once we’ve tabulated the responses, I lead the effort to match students up.”

Meredith is assisting with the semester’s two orientation sessions, making plans for upcoming semesters, and running the PALgorithm as applications from mentors and mentees come in during the first part of the semester.

“PAL is a really cool program, and it’s cool to use coding to do it,” she said. “It’s also drawn a number of computer science majors into the Honors Program Student Council, which is great.”

After matches are complete and emails go out, it’s time for the PAL orientation, which is held twice a semester.

“We make the matches,” Meredith said, and mentors and mentees—like May and Roy—do the rest.

“The most impactful part of PAL has been the support and friendship,” said Roy, who is approaching the end of his freshman year. “May helped me set a bunch of professional and personal goals throughout the year. The PAL program showed me that you can put all this chaos into order. It made campus seem a lot more doable.”

“I really have to give kudos to whoever pairs people up. We were a really good fit.”

“The PAL program ... made campus seem a lot more doable.”

May Hu

Honors sophomore majoring in management information systems, international business, and psychology

Roy Epstein Koch

Honors freshman majoring in management information systems and international business

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HONORS

Staff Spotlight

Academic advising

The spring Honors Staff Spotlight focuses on our academic advisors—five individuals dedicated to helping our students prepare for their futures by assisting them, answering their questions, and clarifying Honors requirements.

From left to right are Steven Honea, Lainie Pomerleau, Heather Smith, Lindsay Dickerson, and Michele Johnson.

By Stephanie Schupska

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T

he Honors Program has five staff members dedicated to guiding students through degree program and Honors graduation requirements. These academic advisors provide vital help to Honors undergraduates—guiding students to the classes they need, helping them navigate major changes, and providing a listening ear when students need to think out loud about their majors, minors, and certificate program options.

Heather Smith, who has advised at UGA for more than 10 years, looks forward to seeing the smiles of students “when we discuss something and it finally clicks that they really can accomplish a goal.”

She also loves experiencing “the joy of the students when one semester was really rough and then they come in for advising and they have improved 100 percent.”

Michele Johnson, who has worked for the Honors Program for about nine years, enjoys chatting with students as she walks them up to her office. The conversation often turns to discussion about their pets or where the student is planning to do an internship.

Honors advisors are available to help all Honors students, no matter their majors. They serve as primary advisors to students pursuing most Franklin College majors, as well as all intended Terry, intended Grady, and intended pharmacy majors. For students studying in majors other than these degree programs, Honors advisors serve as secondary advisors, helping answer Honors-related questions.

Below in our Q&A section, the Honors academic advisors share a little bit about themselves.

wrapped up in the place.

Favorite college course: SOCI 3150— Criminal Punishment and Society (but only with Todd Krohn; he’s the greatest professor at UGA) What’s something interesting about you that students don’t know? I have a paralyzed digestive tract—I don’t have a large intestine (among other organs), and I have an ileostomy bag! I’m passionate about working with individuals with disabilities and rights for those with chronic illnesses and disabilities.

What do you like best about working with students? I love hearing their goals, what they want to do with their lives, where they came from, and their stories. Advising is more than talking about what classes you want to take—I want to know who you are!

Lindsay Dickerson

Academic Advisor Hometown: Cleveland, Ohio College, degree(s): University of Georgia, AB English and MA History How long have you worked for UGA? Almost nine years, the whole time for the Honors Program Favorite restaurant in Athens: Probably the Grit Favorite spot on campus: The library, because it’s a great place to study and find all sorts of information Favorite college course(s): I’ll let you know when I stop taking classes.

What’s something you do for fun? I love music, singing, and dogs.

Academic Advisor Hometown: Donalsonville, GA College, degree(s): University of Georgia, AB Criminal Justice and Sociology How long have you worked for UGA? I started working as an advisor in October 2016 and transitioned into the Honors Program in August 2019.

Favorite restaurant in Athens: Seabear Oyster Bar Favorite spot on campus: The Miller Learning Center (previously called the Student Learning Center, back in the day).

I’m a nerd, and I spent so much time studying there—there are good memories

Steven Honea

Lead Academic Advisor Hometown: Marietta, GA College, degree(s): University of Georgia, AB English, AB Political Science How long have you worked for UGA? 13 years at UGA, 12 years at Honors Favorite restaurant in Athens: Thai Spoon Favorite spot on campus: Founders Garden, a quiet and peaceful spot Favorite college course(s): Gender, Law and Politics with Susan Haire, and Criminal Law with Stephanie Lindquist What’s something you do for fun? Hiking What do you like best about working with students? I enjoy helping students navigate the vast resources of a major university and take advantage of them to realize their goals.

Michele Johnson

What’s your favorite memory from your time working (or being a student) at UGA? The time when I gave a professor a book that he lost, and he ran out of the building to ask if it was a bomb.

What do you like best about working with students? I meet someone new every day.

Lainie Pomerleau

Academic Advisor Hometown: New England College(s), degree(s): University of Georgia, PhD English Literature; University of Tennessee, MA English Literature; University of Southern Maine, BA English How long have you worked for UGA? Sixplus years for UGA, and since Nov. 1, 2019, for Honors Favorite restaurant in Athens: Mifflin’s House Favorite spot on campus: State Botanical Garden, because it’s quiet and lovely Favorite college course(s): Geoffrey Chaucer, Medieval Romance, William Shakespeare What’s your favorite memory from your time working at UGA? I have enjoyed teaching and advising UGA students.

What do you like best about working with students? Meeting new people who bring different perspectives and ideas to the Honors Program

Heather Smith

Academic Advisor Hometown: Donalsonville, Georgia College, degree: University of Georgia, AB Political Science How long have you worked for UGA? Over 10 years total and at least six years for Honors Favorite restaurant in Athens: Hi Lo Favorite spot on campus: I always enjoy the Georgia Museum of Art. The collection of works is amazing, and the museum mix nights are always a fun date night—and the museum mix is free.

Favorite college course: I enjoyed Southern Politics with Charles Bullock.

What do you like best about working with students? The best thing about working with students is they keep you young.

Why you came to UGA/Why you enjoy it here: I was a transfer student to UGA. I stayed after college because of the city of Athens. It has a little bit of everything yet still has a small-town feel.

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HONORS

on Campus

Building a community for rural students Former Miss UGA works to make the university feel more like family for students from small towns

By Sara Freeland

H

ow does an introvert from rural Georgia make friends were a few people from my hometown, but I never really saw at UGA? them. When you go to a big school, you don’t have people to For Briana Hayes, being named Miss University of introduce you to others.”

Georgia changed her whole college experience.

She wanted rural students to have an easy way to get to know Briana is from Baxley, a tiny town of other students or just learn the campus 4,400 people that sits two hours west culture. of Savannah. When she arrived at UGA The structure of RISE is based partly in 2017, she had to start from scratch on Briana’s experience at UGA. On the making new friends. bus, she didn’t have any friends to wave The Miss UGA title expanded her to. In classes, the culture is to skip a seat network and introduced her to people between the next student. At the dining across campus and the state. She commons, it’s not common to go up to represented UGA at fundraisers, judged someone and ask to sit at a table. pageants, and judged a lot of talent “It was hard to find where my place shows. was,” she said.

“It was a lot of fun and a lot of RISE has had a few group meetings and traveling,” she said. “I feel like I’m more has a group text of more than 80 students. connected to the university because of Briana wants to expand the organization the title—the people it allowed me to to start a letter-writing campaign to meet and relationships it allowed me to encourage rural students to attend the form.”

University of Georgia. She envisions a Not everyone has a pageant future ambassadorship program and experience that connects them to campus, visits to rural high schools to talk about Briana Hayes and Briana wanted to find another way applying to college, taking the SAT and Honors junior majoring in health promotion for students from rural towns to make ACT, how to apply for scholarships, and connections. In fall 2019, she started what life is like at UGA. Then, when rural RISE, Rural students Igniting Success in students come to campus, the group aims Education. The transition from a rural to help with student retention, connecting town to a large university isn’t easy, said Briana, and she doesn’t them to resources like the Honors Program, the Tate Society, the want any students to feel isolated.

ALL Georgia Program, and internships.

“Coming to campus, I didn’t know anybody,” she said. “There She wants to create a community for rural students.

“Whenever RISE has tables at events, I meet another rural student who has had a hard time transitioning and wants to be a part of RISE.”

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Andrew Davis Tucker

“What keeps me going is, whenever RISE has tables at events, I meet another rural student who has had a hard time transitioning and wants to be a part of RISE.” Miss UGA Briana did a few pageants when she was little. Then, after a mock interview during her senior year of high school, her guidance counselor encouraged her to consider pageants—especially in the Miss Georgia circuit.

She cringes when she recounts her sparkly pink dress and “worst walk in the world” at her high school pageant.

Needless to say, she didn’t make the top 10.

She put in more work, and at the Miss Altamaha Scholarship Pageant, she was named first runner-up. Her next pageant was Miss UGA, which she won.

Briana genuinely likes being on stage and likes the evening gowns. She even likes the interview portion. “I oddly like answering questions,” she said.

Health promotion Briana is a health promotion major. She struggled with an eating disorder while doing pageants. Her dad has high blood pressure, and her grandfather died of lung cancer.

“I saw how important health was, not only for me personally,

but also for the people close to me,” she said. “I want to learn more about this to learn how to help other people be healthy.

“Your education affects how much money you’re going to make.

The amount of money you make affects your health in the long run. People who are impoverished are more likely to be sick.”

Her interest is how “African American students get into college, and stay in college, which will improve their economic status, and improving economic status will improve their health in the long run,” she said.

She’s currently conducting research with Darris Means, an associate professor in the Mary Frances Early College of Education, and working on an intervention to help rural high school students get into college.

For Briana, going to college was a way to challenge herself.

“I wanted to go to a bigger place and be exposed to new people, new ideas, new cultures, new backgrounds,” she said. “You don’t grow unless you’re challenged. You can be comfortable, but there’s no growth in that. I have grown so much from sticking the challenge out.”

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HONORS

Alumni Connection Mareasa Fortunato Rooks (AB ’07) on

staying engaged

U

pon graduating from the University of Georgia with an Honors interdisciplinary studies degree in rhetoric and law, I took the logical next step: law school. I knew I wanted to practice in Atlanta, and given the experience I had at UGA for my undergraduate degree, the UGA School of Law was an easy choice.

After law school, I joined the Atlanta office of the global law firm, Jones Day, where I was an associate in the business and tort litigation and white collar defense groups for nearly eight years. As an associate, I managed multi-milliondollar complex commercial litigation matters; investigated Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other compliance matters on behalf of public companies; served on the Atlanta office’s hiring committee; and maintained an active pro bono practice largely focused on immigration matters.

In 2018, I left law practice to pursue my passion for mentoring and teaching students. I joined the Emory University School of Law as an associate director and adjunct professor in the Career Center. While there, I advised law students on career strategy and taught Emory Law’s first-year career development course.

In 2019, I joined another global law firm, King & Spalding LLP, to manage the Atlanta office’s non-partner level hiring and to develop and implement firmwide recruiting strategy and policies. Additionally, in my free time, I continue my pro bono immigration practice and will be teaching a course at the Georgia State University College of Law in spring 2021.

Now, almost 15 years later, my enthusiasm for and participation in the UGA Honors Program remains. As an alumna, I stay engaged in the Honors Program and participate in Honors activities. Not only is it a great way to give back to the university, it is a great way to pay it forward and help prepare and develop the next generation of Honors alumni.

I do this not just because I enjoy it, but also because the Honors Program had an influence in all of my professional experiences. As an Honors student, I developed leadership skills, learned about different career opportunities, and engaged with some of the brightest and most interesting people I know.

A crucial part of these experiences was the Honors alumni I encountered.

For example, both my Honors in Washington internship host and a panelist at Super Friday (an Honors career-development event) were the people who inspired me to attend law school, and an Honors Advisory Board member later offered me my first law firm summer internship. These alumni and others were instrumental in my career path to law school and beyond.

As an undergraduate at UGA, Mareasa: • Was president of the Honors Program Student Council and was also a peer advisor, Honors civic leader, and Honors ambassador.

• Was one of UGA’s four nominees for the Truman Scholarship.

• Participated in the Honors in Washington internship program as a sophomore, where she interned for Rep. Jack Kingston.

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• Taught Spanish to Sub-Saharan African immigrants while studying through the UGA en España Valencia summer program.

• Worked in the Main Library as a student worker in the administrative offices.

• Volunteered as an instructor for the Catholic Social Services English as a Second Language Program.

Thanks Thanks so so much much forfor thethe advice! advice!

Show up & share:

Of Of course! course!

AnyAny time. time.

Be a UGA Mentor

Presenting Presenting thethe BIGBIG project project this this afternoon. afternoon.

I believe that investing in others is one of the greatest gifts we can give.

I’d encourage you to think for a moment about the individuals in your own life who have invested in you—your teachers, coaches, pastors, colleagues, camp counselors, supervisors, siblings, parents, family friends—the list goes on.

In my own life, I have been lucky enough to have had numerous people offer me guidance, help support my educational goals, walk me through professional experiences, offer parenting advice, and help me navigate a variety of circumstances.

The common thread with all of the mentors in my life is they were willing to show up and share. And that is great news for the rest of us!

Mentoring is something we can all do. It does not require a certain amount of money, a specialized degree, or even advanced training. Mentoring only requires the willingness to invest in someone else.

The UGA Mentor Program, the university’s first comprehensive mentorship initiative, is a digital platform that allows students to form mentoring relationships with alumni, regardless of geographic location or schedules. Mentorship has been proven to help students succeed in their academic and professional careers. A few hours a month can open life-changing doors for our students.

Next year is a special one for the Honors Program as we celebrate 60 years of academic excellence and transformational experiences. Now is the perfect time for you to share your own story and help make a difference for our students. My hope is that 60 Honors alumni will commit to investing in current students by becoming UGA Mentors.

Consider becoming a mentor; consider showing up and sharing. As a mentor myself, I can attest to the fact that you will get far more out of this experience than you give.

You’ve You’ve gotgot this! this!

The TheMoment MomentWhen When YOU YOUSEE SEEYOURSELF YOURSELFININTHEM THEM INVEST IN A BULLDOG’S FUTURE THROUGH THE UGA MENTOR PROGRAM.FUTURE THROUGH THE INVEST IN A BULLDOG’S UGA MENTOR PROGRAM.

The UGA Mentor Program personalizes the mentoring experience, connecting youpersonalizes with students matter The UGA Mentor Program the no mentoring where you areconnecting and on youryou schedule. experience, with students no matter where you are and on your schedule.

Getting started is simple: •Getting Create a profile on our digital platform started is simple: Accept aa profile studenton request for mentorship •• Create our digital platform • Accept a student request for mentorship What’s the commitment?

•What’s 1-2 hours per month the commitment?

•• 16-week mentorship 1-2 hours per month ••

Share experiences and feedback 16-week mentorship

• Share experiences and feedback You can shape the next generation of leaders. Visit mentor.uga.edu and help a student their future.

You can shape today, the next generation ofsee leaders.

Visit mentor.uga.edu today, and help a student see their future.

Colleen Pruitt Development and Alumni Relations, UGA Honors Program

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Nonprofit Org. U. S. Postage

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Moore College, 108 Herty Drive University of Georgia Athens, GA 30602-6116

60 years of

HONORS at the University of Georgia

Athens, GA Permit No. 165

We need your stories!

In 1960, the Honors Program was established at the University of Georgia. With our 60th anniversary coming up this fall, we would love to hear from you!

Please share your Honors stories with our magazine editor at HonorsatUGA@ gmail.com. We will be including as many memories as possible—from all class years—in the fall issue of the Honors magazine.