UGA Honors Newsletter, spring 2007

Newsletter of the University of Georgia Honors Program

Breaking News

Truman and Goldwater Award Winners Honors students have been awarded additional prestigious national and international scholarships for 2007.

Third-year student Deep Shah is a recipient of the Truman Scholarship, which recognizes students with exceptional leadership potential who are committed to careers in public service. Deep, a Foundation Fellow, is majoring in international affairs and biology.

Third-year student Jessica Bryant and second-year student Nithya Natrajan, a new mid-term Foundation Fellow, have been awarded the Goldwater Scholarship, the premier award for undergraduates majoring in mathematics, the natural sciences, and engineering. Jessica carries majors in cell biology and French, and Nithya is majoring in genetics and microbiology. Third-year student Katherine Owers, who is majoring in biology, is a Goldwater Honorable Mention.

Further information about these awards and students will be provided in the fall newsletter.

UGA is one of only five public universities that received Marshall, Truman, and Goldwater winners this year.

Spring 2007

UGA’s First Female Marshall Scholar: Jayanthi Narain

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mbitious and dedicated, fourth-year student Jayanthi Narain loves to cook, keeps a long list of places to travel, and dabbles in photography. On sunny days, she can be found enjoying Herty Field, sitting with friends or immersed in a book. She also enjoys the film scene on campus, attending screenings of foreign films or documentaries hosted by the UGA Library or Georgia Museum of Art. But after graduating in May, Jayanthi will trade her favorite places in Athens for two different campuses in Great Britain, for she is one of only 43 recipients in the country of the prestigious 2007 Marshall Scholarship. Jayanthi will pursue a one-year master of science program in development studies at the London School of Economics, to be followed by a master’s degree in Near and Middle Eastern studies at the School of Oriental and African studies in London.

Through the Honors Program’s Foundation Fellowship, Jayanthi has traveled and studied extensively in places such as New Zealand, South Korea, and the Galapagos Islands. She has also been active in social issues both on campus and abroad: she worked in Athens with Amnesty International and STOP (Sexual violence Targeted Outreach and Prevention); volunteered for an HIV/AIDS education program in southeastern Africa; interned in Cambodia for Heritage Watch, a non-profit organization that concentrates on the preservation of Cambodia’s national culture; and taught English to refugees in Cairo, Egypt.

A native of Macon, Georgia, Jayanthi is currently pursuing majors in international affairs and economics, with minors in French and Arabic. After her studies in Great Britain, Jayanthi hopes to work in economic development with a special focus on community-based solutions to poverty in the Middle East or South Asia.

The Marshall Scholarship was established by the British Parliament in 1953 as a gift to the United States for its role in the post-World War II recovery effort, the Marshall Plan. Each scholarship covers two years of study at any United Kingdom university. The award includes living expenses, tuition, books, research grants, daily travel and airfare to and from the United States. Jayanthi is the first female and the fifth University of Georgia student to receive this honor. Y

CARTER CONFERENCE

by Ben Cobb

Honors Internships Awarded Honors in Washington Megan Bruner Patricia Burlingame Andrew Head Jamarri Ivy Geoffrey Luke

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n January, UGA hosted “The Carter Presidency: Lessons for the 21st Century,” a three-day conference to explore the challenges faced during the Carter presidency and their relevance for addressing today’s global concerns.

Last October, I was one of thirty undergraduate students selected to participate in the conference. We were asked to provide contemporary policy prescriptions related to six priority issues undertaken by the Carter administration: economic policy, energy policy, nuclear nonproliferation, Islamic radicalism, the Middle East, and human rights. After twelve weeks of intense research, historical analysis, and multiple visits to the Carter Center Library, our six papers, per President Carter’s request, were presented during a televised student panel with the former President on the first day of the conference.

As the panelist representing the energy policy group, I approached this honor with utmost respect for President Carter, whose progressive energy policies and rhetoric regarding “sacrifice” serve as a unique marker in political history. Immediately prior to our panel, as we anxiously stood before the stage, President Carter attempted to calm our nerves with the assurance that he too viewed our discussion “with a little trepidation.” Our worries proved unwarranted—after a brief presentation of each team’s findings, the panel discussion smoothly transitioned into a casual, living-room Q&A with the former President. Personally, the opportunity to engage President Carter has since cultivated a newfound optimism in my ambitions to reshape our country’s energy consumption practices.

I spent the entirety of the Carter Conference captivated by the candid panelists who demonstrated the remarkable foresight and political acumen which characterized the Carter administration. Throughout the weekend, conference participants repeatedly emphasized the importance of my generation’s increased involvement in championing political causes. These calls for increased political activism were not delivered to inattentive minds.

I left the conference reinvigorated with ideals that no longer seem to resonate within the public conscience, aware of the consequences of my inaction, and inspired by the words, wisdom and experience provided by a humble peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia.

Aqsa Mahmud Harry Saag Daniel Sattlemeyer Sara Schreiber Amrita Veliyath Bill Wiegand

Honors in New York Lindsay Looft Anureet Cheema

Honors in Savannah Rachel Shunnarah —

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Stipends are funded through generous support of John Huland Carmical Foundation Fund William T. Blackstone Fund Charles Hicks Fund Georgia Power Honors in Washington Fund Honors in New York Fund Charles Gowen Honors Fund James Buck Fund Honors Program Service Fund and Honors Program Annual Fund

Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities (CURO) Sana Hashmi arrived at UGA from Martinez, Georgia as a CURO Apprentice. The apprenticeship allowed her to start work as an undergraduate researcher in a laboratory during her first semester.

After a year of promising research at UGA’s Complex Carbohydrate Research Center (CCRC), Sana was awarded the Bill and Jane Young Summer Research Fellowship. Sana and her labmates have been studying the changes in sugars on cell surfaces that may make a cancer cell more metastatic. Now in her second year as an apprentice, she has presented her research results at an international scientific meeting and plans to publish her results in a scientific journal.

Darryl Tricksey from Atlanta also arrived at UGA as a CURO Apprentice, but one whose interests were in environmental issues related to poverty. He first learned of UGA’s undergraduate research programs at a CURO Symposium he attended as a high school senior, where he was recognized along with several other students as a CURO Promising Scholar. They were invited to the symposium last April, where they viewed the research presented by more than 160 students. Now a first-year student majoring in environmental health science and public relations, Darryl is assessing the validity of surveying methods for gathering data on poverty in Athens-Clarke County.

Sana and Darryl are only two out of hundreds of students who are participating in programs sponsored by the Honors Program’s Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities (CURO), which provides research opportunities for all students at UGA with a 3.4 or higher GPA. These students conduct research in a wide range of scholarly disciplines. On April 9, approximately 190 of these students showcased their research at the annual CURO Symposium. The event was held at the UGA Tate Student Center and the Student Learning Center. Students presented their research either as an oral presentation, poster presentation, creative performance or art exhibit. “It is not enough for students to conduct research,” says Pamela Kleiber, associate director of the Honors Program. “It is critically important that research questions, methods and findings are shared. The CURO symposium offers an important opportunity for any undergraduate who is conducting faculty guided research to expand their conversations about research and their findings beyond their own mentors and fellow researchers.”

2007 Mid-term Foundation Fellows Selected Recently, three second year Honors Program students were selected as Mid-term Foundation Fellows.

Clare Hatfield International Affairs and Romance Languages Alpharetta, GA

Sana Hashmi Biology, Microbiology, and Religion Martinez, GA CURO Apprentice

Nithya Natrajan Genetics and Microbiology Martinez, GA 2007 Goldwater Scholar

HONORS STUDENTS MAKING A DIFFERENCE Matt Wooten has made every minute of his college career count. Matt will graduate in May with concentrations in economics, modern history & politics, and Latin American & Caribbean studies.

Matt began his studies during the summer of 2003 by participating in the Honors Interdisciplinary Field Program, through which he studied Native American anthropology, physical and historical geology, and ecological systems during a two-month journey across the United States. Later, he befriended a Peruvian worker in Athens who introduced him to the struggles of immigrant workers in the South, motivating him to become more involved in the local Latino community, and he began teaching English to immigrants. As a result, Matt became curious about the lives these immigrants had left behind. When he served as an aide to Sam Zamarripa, a former Senator in the Georgia State Legislature, he realized that if he was ever going to fully understand immigration problems in the United States, he needed to experience life in immigrants’ homelands.

The Honors Program Courts International Scholarship afforded Matt the opportunity to volunteer with CARE International and

Cross-Cultural Solutions in the highlands of Peru, where he worked to implement sanitation programs and potable water systems projects. Seeing firsthand that local development efforts could have a positive impact on quality of life, Matt began to understand he could play a role in changing the way development policy impacts rural communities around the globe.

Encouraged by what he experienced in Peru, Matt spent a year in Mexico, where he studied the economics of poverty and inequality at the Universidad Iberoamericana and spent several months helping to establish one of Latin America’s first indigenous universities. When he returned to Georgia, Matt spent the summer of 2006 working as a National Science Foundation Policy Intern at the Andrew Young School of Public Policy Studies in Atlanta.

Last fall, Matt was a finalist for the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship, and he wrote an Honors thesis entitled “Aid and Economic Development Policy: The Need for Localized Implementation and Microeconomic Orientation.” He is currently working on a second Honors thesis dealing with Black-Latino relations within the context of labor organization in the South.

Before attending law school, Matt will continue his studies at the University of Texas at Austin, where he will further develop his research about how economic and social development policy impacts rural communities throughout the Americas.

Dedicated and determined to make a difference, Matt reflects the caliber of students throughout the Honors Program and serves as a shining example of the possibilities for exploration and intellectual growth at UGA.

¿Dice usted Español?

Brad Lindell is a kind, well-spoken, highly intelligent, and humble student from Jackson, Mississippi, with a dream of becoming a doctor. Now in his last semester at UGA, he is deciding which medical school he will attend this fall. During his college years, he actively worked toward a career in medicine with a major in microbiology. He also conducted undergraduate research in a genetics research laboratory, volunteered as a student assistant in an emergency room, and worked as a translator for Spanish-speaking patients in medical clinics.

Brad’s long-standing interest in Spanish language and cultures is immediately evident. He has volunteered as an ESL instructor with Catholic Social Services for Hispanic immigrants, performed a study of the limitations of the Peruvian health system, and studied in an intensive small-group course in medical Spanish in Spain. Together, these experiences have given him a strong knowledge of Spanish medical terminology. Brad realized that many of the translators he was working with lacked such knowledge. As a response, he decided to write a medical

translation guide designed to be used as an active reference for physicians and volunteers alike. His creation, A Field Guide to English/Spanish Medical Translation, is organized by body systems and organs, and includes both terminology and practical diagnostic questions in each section.

“I have been fortunate enough to enjoy the stable support of a loving family, the gift of quality education, and a sense of place and acceptance which has allowed me to explore myself and the world around me,” Brad states. “This book is my attempt to give something back in appreciation for the wonderful, undeserved opportunities which I have enjoyed throughout my life.”

Honors Scholarship Awa r d s Courts International Scholars

Biking for the Cure

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arah Breevoort and Nathan Crain are Honors students and undergraduate cancer researchers who have founded a nonprofit organization Believe in the Cure. It is for this organization that, together with five other UGA students, they will bike about 4,500 miles this summer on a transcontinental bike ride to raise $100,000 for cancer research. Sarah is a biochemistry and molecular biology major and conducts research in the laboratory of Dr. Walter Schmidt. Nathan works in the genetics lab of Dr. Michael McEachern. Official fundraising has begun this month and several events, including a benefit concert and partnering with organizers during the Athens Twilight Criterion, will lead up to a send-off party on June 5.

“The fact that I participate in cancer research now offers various advantages pertaining directly to the trip,” Sarah says. “I feel that I have a realistic perspective as to what it takes to develop drugs and eventually find a cure for the disease. Too often I have seen potentially amazing projects remain uncompleted because of a lack of funds.”

“We are very proud of Sarah and Nathan, who, like many of our students, are already making a significant positive difference in the world,” according to Dr. David Williams. “I’m personally pleased to see the interconnectedness of research and community service in their project, and wish them a good and safe trip.”

Sarah Ahmed – Thailand Kevin Athans – Argentina Alicia Belleza – China Shivan Bhatt – Tanzania Ryan Blalock – Peru Andrew Bosson – Vietnam Charles Cohen – China Stephanie Coleman – Japan Caitlin Cornwell – Argentina Kimberly Darnton – Brazil Andrew Durso – Ecuador Naseem Esteghamat – Peru Candiss Franklin – Argentina Julia Friederich – China Chandler Holbrook – China Chen Lin – Vietnam Lydia Luangruangron – Peru Yael Miller – Morocco Katherine Munden-Dixon – Thailand Monique Pamphile – Costa Rica Amanda Perofsky – Costa Rica Emily Rosenblum – China Julia Schuchard – Peru Christopher Stallman – China Sabra West – Ghana William Wiegand – Peru Anna Wolosick – Egypt Christine Yuan – China Willson International Scholars Sonia Talathi – Uganda Bert and Cathy Clark Study Abroad Traci Tucker – China Arroll Travel Study Abroad Lauren Molner – Costa Rica Neal and Libby Quirk Scholarship James McKenzie – Interdisciplinary Field Study Program

Mark your calendar for the Honors Graduation Banquet Wednesday, April 25, 2007

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6:00–9:30 p.m.

or Honors Program students who graduated in summer or fall of 2006 or who will graduate in May of 2007. Invitations have gone out to the student’s permanent address.

For more information, call 706/583-0698.

What are you reading?

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onors students are experiencing an exciting new way of adding to their academic experience through participation in book discussion groups. Designed to encourage students to read interesting books outside of class and to create a friendly environment for students and faculty to interact, each group consists of ten students and a faculty member who facilitates the discussion. A few weeks after an initial meeting in which books are distributed and students introduce themselves, the group meets over dinner at the home of the faculty leader to discuss the reading.

This spring, Honors students could choose among George Packer’s The Assassin’s Gate: America in Iraq; Barbara Ehrenreich’s best-selling Nickel and Dimed; Jimmy Carter’s memoir An Hour Before Daylight; Molly Hurley Moran’s Finding Susan; Cormac McCarthy’s The Road; Irene Nemirovsky’s international hit Suite Française; and a collection of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s writings and speeches entitled A Testament of Hope.

“We’re always thinking about ways to create additional extracurricular educational opportunities as well as more creative ways to connect students and faculty,” says Honors Program director David Williams. “The book discussion group concept is a perfect way to do both.”

Student response has been overwhelming, affirming that the book discussion groups are an effective way of connecting students and faculty through literature and current events. “This is a great way to meet other Honors students and interact with faculty on a more personal level,” said one participant of the Warriors Don’t Cry fall discussion group. “I only hope that more groups will be formed in the future, so more students can have the opportunity to take part!”

You can support a book discussion group with a gift of $250.00 to the Honors Program Annual Fund.

Classic Center

E xcellence in Undergraduate Research Award The Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities (CURO) has established a program to support students’ travel to present their research work at state, regional, national and international conferences. Students may apply for a $200 Excellence in Undergraduate Research (EUR) Travel Award to support this academic and professional experience.

Students who have received a EUR travel award are: Karen Usselman, “Music and the Mexican Immigrant Community of Atlanta,” Tepozlán Institute for Transnational History of the Americas Tepoztlán, Morelos Mexico Erika Vinson, “Using Visual Journals to Assess the Effectiveness of Training Art Therapists,” The National Art Education Association New York City, New York James Wheeler, “Site-Mapping and Glycan Characterization of Functional Alpha-Dystroglycan,” 2007 Glycobiology Conference Universal City, California Jennifer Wilson, “Potential Blood Biomarkers for Alzheimer’s Disesase,” 35th annual meeting of the International Neuropsychological Society, Portland, Oregon.

A gift of $200.00 to the Honors Program Annual Fund will support student travel to a conference.

Dr. David Williams recognized as Distinguished Professor

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t the 2007 Faculty Awards banquet on April 12, Dr. David Williams will receive the prestigious Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professorship. This award, which recognizes excellence in instruction at the undergraduate and graduate levels, is the highest teaching honor at UGA. Dr. Williams is one of three faculty members to be awarded the Meigs Professorship this year. In addition to his duties as director of the Honors Program, he continues to teach a variety of courses, including his popular Holocaust course and several Honors seminars. Dr. Williams, a graduate of the UGA Honors Program, has been teaching in the Department of Religion since 1989. The Meigs Professorship is the latest in a long string of teaching honors for Dr. Williams. Previously, he has received the Richard B. Russell Undergraduate Teaching Award, the Sandy Beaver Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Sandy Beaver Professorship, and he has served as a Senior Teaching Fellow.

Honors Program Annual Fund

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This is truly a great time to be a student in the Honors Program

maller classes and personal interaction with the finest professors on campus have always been hallmarks of the Honors Program, and that remains so today. But these days, the Program also provides exciting and special opportunities for its students: internships; travel-study opportunities; direct access to faculty through special lectures and programs; undergraduate research stipends; the Honors Ambassadorial Program and Honors Civic Leaders; and professional assistance in applying for major national and international scholarships.

These significant academic opportunities are funded through special scholarship funds but also, in large measure, by the Honors Program Annual Fund.

We encourage you to become part of this expanded Honors Program and to give generously in support of our great students. For more information please contact Dorothe Otemann, Director of Development at 706/583-0698 or dotemann@uga.edu. We thank you for your support! Y

Honors Program Annual Fund

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An Evening with Honors Friends

by CiCi Cheng

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n February, I had the opportunity to participate in a private showing of the I Have a Dream exhibition at the Atlanta History Center, sponsored by the Honors Program and the UGA Libraries.

The exhibit features the Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collection, containing over 600 works hand-written by Dr. King, ranging from papers of his youth and manuscripts of sermons to declarations for protests and writings while imprisoned. The exhibit also includes supplementary audio and visual materials. The night was hosted by 18 Honors students who viewed the exhibit alongside Honors Program alumni and friends.

The experience was truly extraordinary, beginning with a small introduction encapsulating the endeavors of CURO and highlighting the research on civil rights events by undergraduate Courtney Thomas.

Courtney has been working under the guidance of Dr. Barbara McCaskill, utilizing primary sources at the UGA Library including rare footage of interviews with Dr. King.

The exhibit was more than just a walk around the museum—it was a walk through the struggle of a trampled minority group who miraculously prevailed, in large part due to the valiant and enormous efforts of people like Dr. King. His values were palpable in all that he did, and were reflected in his unflinching courage, devoted compassion, and unassuming humility. His daily battle with those who despised him for his color only strengthened his unwavering love for all humankind.

I am grateful that I can feel his presence in today’s world and in the absence of a fight I am proud to say we have won as a society. The exhibit was an astounding reminder of his great service to humanity, and serves to remind us of our own expected role in society. Hearing his message ring out, his dreams and passions, I can only hope that my generation will pronounce such values as clearly. Y

The Honors Program is grateful to Sheffield Hale for sponsoring this alumni event.

Honors Program The University of Georgia Moore College Athens, GA 30602 706/542-3240 www.uga.edu/honors

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