From interpreting musical theater to redesigning campus technology, Ava Gilbert
is shaping campus experiences so no one is left out.

When Ava Gilbert first began learning American Sign Language, it wasn’t for a class or a credit—it was for connection. Her journey started in high school, inspired by a friend who lost her hearing and another who was Deaf. Determined to communicate authentically without an interpreter, Gilbert began learning ASL on her own, one sentence at a time.

“I would Google things, and I would come back to church on Sundays with one new sentence,” she says. “And I would sign, ‘How was school?’ And she would respond, but I would have no clue what she said.”

That simple act of friendship sparked a passion that has grown into a powerful mission.

Gilbert AB ’25 graduated from the University of Georgia in December with a bachelor’s degree in political science and a minor in ASL. She is pursuing a Master of Public Administration in the School of Public and International Affairs.

Gilbert has become an advocate for accessibility, especially for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community. Her work is rooted in a belief that everyone deserves to be understood.

“I just encourage people to listen to others’ stories,” she says. “When someone says they’re Deaf or Hard of Hearing, take the time to hear their experience, because I guarantee you, it’s not the same as what you think it is.”

From Diagnosis to Determination

Thirteen days into her freshman year, Gilbert received her own diagnosis: ADHD and autism. It was a moment of confusion and fear. How could she succeed at a rigorous university when she was just beginning to understand her own learning needs?

A conversation with Erin Benson at UGA’s Office of Accessibility and Testing reframed everything. “Having a disability doesn’t make you incapable,” Benson says. “It just makes learning different.”

That moment transformed Gilbert’s perspective. She realized that using accommodations was simply what she needed to have an equal opportunity to learn and succeed. Once she understood that, her passion for accessibility advocacy took root. Gilbert shares her story, knowing many students feel vulnerable, and she’s determined to be a voice for them.

How often does someone become aware of their heartbeat? Maybe they feel it thumping in their chest during a run or listen to it stutter during a scary movie. For Dr. Alejandro “Alex” de Feria Alsina BS ’10, listening to heartbeats is the cornerstone of his profession.

De Feria is a cardiologist at the center for inherited heart disease at the University of Pennsylvania. As an assistant professor of clinical medicine, he works closely with patients and their families to navigate the complex challenges of genetic heart disorders. While the science is cutting edge, his approach is deeply human.

How Do You Treat Genetic Heart Conditions?

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost 700,000 people die from heart disease every year. Having blood relatives with heart disease can greatly increase that risk.

De Feria studies and treats people with hereditary conditions like dilated cardiomyopathy where the heart chambers dilate and weaken, as well as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which causes the heart muscle to thicken and potentially obstruct blood flow. Both genetic conditions put patients at a higher risk of heart failure. While the genetic risk may be present at birth, symptoms can lay dormant until adolescence or adulthood.

“Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy affects about one in 500 people,” says de Feria. “It’s common enough that everyone knows someone who has it, whether they realize it or not.”

Until recently, many of the treatments used to treat genetic heart conditions were borrowed or adapted from other areas of cardiology and were only moderately effective. Today, de Feria’s work spans clinic visits, hospital care, and clinical trials for targeted therapies and gene-based treatments. He is involved in ongoing trials with fellow University of Pennsylvania researchers focused on targeted therapies for genetic heart disease.

“Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy affects about one in 500 people. It’s common enough that everyone knows someone who has it, whether they realize it or not.”

Dr. Alejandro de Feria

“I used to have to offer patients open heart surgery to fix a problem, but now we have targeted medicines and catheter-based procedures,” says de Feria. “As gene therapy becomes a reality, I am hopeful that during my career the field will shift from treating disease complications to offering cures.”

A Treatment Versus a Cure

De Feria has patients from their teens to their nineties, often in the same family.

“Many young people struggle with accepting a diagnosis, especially when it’s genetic,” says de Feria. “They’ve seen other people in their family deal with serious issues, and they think, ‘That’s not me. I’m not going to have that.’ I want people to know that even though it’s scary, plenty of people live with these conditions and can have good lives.”

For those with genetic risk who do go on to develop disease, de Feria does his best to treat the symptoms and reduce the chance of heart failure. He encourages all his patients to focus on quality of life.

De Feria vividly remembers the limitations put on patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, but a lot has changed since he started studying medicine.

“In the early 2000s, exercise for kids with HCM was restricted to bowling or golfing with a cart, and that was about it. Now there are professional athletes who have these conditions and continue to play,” he says. “My hope is that we’ll continue to improve disease detection and treatment to help families change the trajectory of their health outcomes across generations.”

Ambition and agriculture drive a UGA poultry science student.

When Addie Bennett moved to Athens, she wasn’t intimidated by class sizes, game days, or the plethora of student club options. What caught her off guard was the existence of crosswalks …and how to use them.

Bennett came from the small Georgia town of Millen with a high school graduating class of 55. She is one of only a few people from her hometown to be admitted to the University of Georgia as a first-year student in the last several decades. So she knew there’d be a bit of a culture shock.

“I had never lived in a place where there were more than five or six cars on the road at one time,” says Bennett. “Most people where I grew up become a nurse, a teacher or a prison guard, and there’s not really anything in between. But I’ve always been ambitious and wanted to see what was out there and what I could do.”

Redefining Rural Perceptions

Bennett grew up around cattle and had planned to be a large animal veterinarian. However, the poultry science department, housed in the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, lured her into a different field. Now she can’t imagine any other path.

She credits this to community recruiting events, as well as the efforts of a college outreach coordinator. That same community outreach that allowed Bennett to see the department’s integrated academic rigor, hands-on teaching, and research and professional development is now under her purview as an avian ambassador. Bennett regularly engages with prospective students and shares the same magic that motivated her to become a self-proclaimed chicken scientist.

Part of that involves speaking with potential Bulldogs who come from similar backgrounds. Rural communities sometimes lack the capacity to offer dual enrollment, Advanced Placement courses, or college prep. But that doesn’t mean rural students are any less worthy of admission, Bennett says.

“Rural students aren’t disadvantaged. We’re not sad little kids who can’t compete. We just don’t have the same access to those resources, to those materials, to the information that everyone else does,” she says. Instead, she says, rural students come with different skills and a different way of life. What matters is knowing how to use that background to their advantage.

Poultry on the Potomac

As an avian ambassador, Bennett prioritizes building community within UGA’s agricultural world. Her favorite place to do that personally? In the lobby of the newly constructed poultry science building.

If you sit there long enough, good things happen, she says. It’s not only the place she credits with finding her core friend group, but it’s also the best spot for students to help each other and themselves.

“Sitting 3 feet from someone, you’ll eventually form that community,” Bennett says. “When you’re first here, you’re trying to establish who you are as a student, so this program has given me a nice home away from home.”

Bennett believes she can keep advocating for underdog communities, especially rural ones, by becoming an agricultural policy advisor in Washington, D.C.

“It’s like speaking an entirely different language. I was bilingual with cattle and poultry, and I had to become trilingual with policy.”

Addie Bennett

To help her on that path, she has so far secured two distinct, selective opportunities. As a Georgia legislative intern, Bennett spent an entire semester in Atlanta, working full-time with a Senate committee, researching and writing agricultural policy.

“At first, I had no idea what I was looking at,” she admits, “but I did a lot of reading, connecting with people in the fertilizer and pesticide industries. It became my favorite part of that entire internship—just asking people what they thought and why they thought that way.”

Three weeks later, Bennett hopped on a plane to Washington to spend her summer as a Congressional Agricultural Fellow. There, she worked with the Georgia delegation in the House Appropriations Committee.

When she completes her bachelor’s degree in 2027, Bennett will also finish her master’s in agribusiness through the Double Dawgs program, UGA’s offering to earn both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in five years or less.

“Afterwards, I think I’ll be right back on the Potomac,” she says.

Not only will she be ready to tackle problems for rural communities, but she’ll be able to tackle any crosswalks she encounters.

Like many siblings, Smitha and Shreya Ganeshan have plenty in common.

Each sister studied at the University of Georgia as a Foundation Fellow, led tours through UGA’s Visitors Center, and took a keen interest in technology.

Still, the Ganeshans, who grew up in Johns Creek, took different paths when it came to their careers. One chose medicine; the other dove into the tech industry.

Dr. Smitha Ganeshan BS ’14 is an assistant clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and the medical director for clinical AI programs at the UCSF Medical Center.

Her younger sister, Shreya BS ’18, AB ’18, served as a data scientist working on Google Photos and Google One teams, where she used data analysis to improve user experience.

Today, they both work in the greater Bay Area and live about 10 minutes apart in the Haight-Ashbury District of San Francisco.

A Picture’s Worth

One and a half billion. That’s how many people use Google Photos worldwide. Shreya’s job was to use data to improve the product for all those users.

That involved building models and digging into how users interact with the product.

She also experimented with these models to define new metrics and create tools from her findings. But the job is much more than numbers to her.

“I think developing relationships with professors early catapulted my curiosity about statistics, about using data to solve really thorny problems.”

Shreya Geneshan

“I think images are sort of an untapped source of richness about our lives,” she said.

Making those images—full of memories and connections—shareable and accessible enriches people’s lives, she says.

Before landing at Google, Shreya followed her sister to UGA, drawn by Smitha’s experience and the range of activities. Rather than work through an established path like pre-med, Shreya says she used her Foundation Fellowship as an “incubator” to explore ideas. She majored in statistics in Franklin College and economics in the Terry College of Business.

“Developing relationships with professors early catapulted my curiosity about statistics, about using data to solve really thorny problems,” she says.

Siblinghood

The sisters feel fortunate to be so close to each other, even if so far from Johns Creek. They see each other almost every week, but they’re trying to get one more Ganeshan to San Francisco.

The youngest of the three siblings, Shashank BS ’23, AB ’23, is another Georgia grad and former Foundation Fellow. He’s working at Microsoft in Seattle, but his sisters are intent on luring him down to the Bay. And something about that bond continues to bring them together through shared experiences—like UGA—while also forging their own paths.

UGA engineering students are tackling the growing threat of space debris.

Benjamin Pumphrey presented NASA staff with a bold pitch in the summer of 2023: use a shoebox-sized satellite with a deployable net to capture space debris.

The idea won a $10,000 NASA seed grant from the Marshall Space Flight Center. Now, Pumphrey and fellow fourth-year University of Georgia mechanical engineering student Grant Baumann have teamed up with students from universities nationwide to develop technology to clean up space. Their project: Skyfall Space.

Pumphrey is the team’s lead engineer for technical development, focusing on systems engineering and other technical aspects. Baumann serves as the team’s principal investigator. 

When Debris Collides

The threat of space debris or “space junk” is real and accelerating. The debris are remains from old satellites, scientific experiments, and military tests. And the risk of that junk colliding with an operational spacecraft grows as more satellites launch into orbit every day.

Space debris about the size of a credit card can cause damage that looks like it was made by a car. “Even tiny pieces of shrapnel will rip through multimillion-dollar equipment like it’s a piece of paper,” Baumann says.

When two pieces of debris collide at high speeds, they fragment further and potentially create a cascade that can render entire orbital zones unusable for GPS, military and weather satellites.

Skyfall Space targets a critical gap: medium-sized debris, roughly 10 centimeters to a meter in diameter. Previous efforts have primarily focused on eliminating smaller debris through lasers or takedowns of large objects such as decommissioned satellites.

The Net Solution

The Skyfall Space solution is a net deployment system housed in a small satellite. The satellite travels to space attached to a larger rocket launched from earth. Once in orbit, the satellite detaches from the larger rocket and uses its onboard propulsion system to navigate to debris-dense regions.

That’s the easier part. The real test begins when the satellite’s deployable net must withstand the harsh conditions of space and the impact of the hurtling debris to catch a heap of space junk. Then the satellite reels in the full net like a fishing trawler, securing the space debris to the satellite for the journey back to Earth.

To find their debris targets, the Skyfall Space team will use NASA reports that locate the most problematic debris fields. Those reports estimate the chances of collision and how much the resulting damage could cost — helpful details that the team can use to explain their project’s financial value.

Baumann and Pumphrey work with 14 other students from universities, including:

• the Georgia Institute of Technology
• University of Michigan
• Cornell University
• and the University of California, San Diego

UC San Diego is home to mechanical engineering student Brandon Vinh, who developed the design for the deployment mechanism. 

In early 2025, Skyfall Space secured a second NASA seed grant to further develop the net capture mechanism.

A Foundation for Innovation

Baumann’s and Pumphrey’s training ground at UGA has been the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences’ and College of Engineering’s Small Satellite Research Lab, a student-faculty collaboration that develops and builds miniature research satellites. They joined the team as first-year students, working on a computational imaging satellite for the U.S. Air Force Research Lab. The experience prepared them for Skyfall Space’s technical challenges.

“What I’ve been amazed by at UGA is the scope of the programs offered,” Baumann says. “I’ve also had the opportunity to work on hard things with very passionate and smart people.”

Baumann, a Foundation Fellow in the Morehead Honors College and Student Industry Fellow in the Office of Experiential Learning, has competed in pitch competitions through UGA’s Innovation District and traveled abroad for multiple internships. After graduation, he’s considering a master’s degree in quantum computing.

Pumphrey pursued similar opportunities through his co-presidency of the Engineering Ambassadorship Program and internships with Blue Origin and MIT’s Lincoln Lab. He’s planning to work in aerospace and research.

His strategy for opening doors in these competitive fields boils down to one principle. “Relentlessly pursue what you think is the most interesting,” he says. “Put in the hours, put in the interest, ask the questions and try to meet people.”

Baumann and Pumphrey graduate from the College of Engineering in spring 2026, but they aren’t finished with Skyfall Space yet. The project needs more funding to build the satellite and test the net deployment system in space. It’s the kind of ambitious, boundary-pushing work that has defined their college experience. 

“What’s most exciting is the chance to develop the project, break barriers and show that we can actually do this,” Pumphrey says.

For Swetha Pendela, people are at the heart of her journey to become a pediatric neurologist.

Swetha Pendela has spent the last four years exploring just about every corner of the University of Georgia. From research labs to orientation panels to the streets of Italy, she is a familiar face across the UGA campus.  

Pendela’s college journey has zigged and zagged through different clubs, majors, and international trips, but these unexpected turns have helped her find her direction. Now, a double major in biochemistry & molecular biology and international affairs, she’s finishing her applications to medical school. 

“I didn’t come into college knowing exactly what I wanted. It’s why I double majored. I wanted to cover all of my bases,” says Pendela. “I actually thought about a law degree first, but then I found medicine.” 

A Pre-Med Journey 

Pendela’s interest in neuroscience began in UGA’s physiology & pharmacology department. She joined a research lab focused on alcohol use disorder. Over the past two years, she’s studied how stress and substance abuse affect brain activity. 

“As much as I love my lab, I realized that’s not how I wanted to leave my mark,” says Pendela. “But working there was the turning point. It taught me about people and that I really like working with the brain, which is why I tuned into neuroscience.” 

As she continued to narrow down her future career, Pendela went to work as a medical scribe at Piedmont Athens Regional Hospital, did clinical work at the Athens Heart Center, and volunteered at St. Mary’s Hospital.  

She shadowed physicians and learned about patient care in real time. Pendela looked beyond the test tubes and the science. She learned the importance of empathy and community in a clinical setting. More importantly, she learned how she could use those skills to help people. 

“Those roles answered the bigger question I’d been asking about my future,” says Pendela. “I didn’t just want to study medicine. I wanted to practice it. I want people to be at the heart of everything I do.” 

The Proof is in the People 

After that, it didn’t take long for Pendela to nail down her future career as a pediatric neurologist. She has always invested deeply in community involvement focused on children, including Shop with a Bulldog and Books for Keeps.

“I genuinely get so much joy working with kids,” Pendela says. “They’re so full of hope. And sometimes they don’t even know exactly what they’re going through, which means you get to be a calm, steady support system for them and their families.” 

Pendela’s path through college hasn’t been linear. But that’s exactly what makes it meaningful. Research opened the door to neuroscience. Clinical work deepened her interest in medicine. Mentorship with children confirmed her passion for pediatrics.  

Pendela’s work is driven by human connections, whether it’s children in a hospital or students navigating their first day on campus. 

As an Orientation Leader in 2024, Pendela welcomed thousands of students and families to campus. Supporting others through uncertain transitions comes naturally to her. She says that doing so as an Orientation Leader shaped her into the person she is today. 

Growing Through Study Abroad 

Pendela’s leadership on campus is as wide-ranging as it is impactful. She’s president of the Genetics Club, an Honors Ambassador, and Vice President of Blue Key Honor Society. 

“I don’t think that I would be as confident or as good of a public speaker or as comfortable with talking to strangers without these opportunities,” she says. “It really helped me break out of my comfort zone and seek out more.” 

But some of her most transformative moments happened far from Athens. In 2025, Pendela studied abroad during a Maymester in Cortona, Italy. She took courses in biology and art history and learned as much about herself as she did the Renaissance.  

“People always say studying abroad changes you, and now I believe it,” says Pendela. The ‘me’ before that trip was a completely different person than I am now. It changed how I look at myself. It will certainly change the way I look at my patients and how I care for them.” 

Whether she is mentoring children or guiding nervous new students, Pendela consistently seeks experiences that push her beyond her comfort zone and into moments of personal connection. For her, it has always been people that have left the biggest impact.  “I make sure to tell anyone that comes to UGA to be open to new friends and new connections,” says Pendela. “You’re going to meet people who are different from you, who will open doors to incredible experiences. Make sure to walk through every one.” 

“I think most people who work with me in the clinic or the hospital are probably a little bit surprised when they see videos of me on the sideline…but to me, both feel pretty natural.”

Chip Chambers

Becoming a Doctor

After graduating in 2020, Chambers enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania to earn an M.D. and an M.B.A.

The business degree was all about trying to understand how to manage systems. His experience as an undergraduate at the Mercy Health Clinic inspired him to grapple with not just how to help individual patients but also to try to heal a system.

“Unfortunately, the American healthcare system is quite expensive without necessarily delivering improvements in care,” Chambers says. “I think many of the failures of our healthcare delivery system aren’t questions of biology; they’re questions of how we’re going to structure the system and deliver care.

“Medical school is going to provide you with the medical know-how that you need to be a doctor but might not provide as much training about the healthcare delivery system. And I think many physicians’ frustrations are with the delivery system.”

In Philadelphia, Chambers found another faith-based clinic to get hands-on training and receive mentorship from like-minded physicians. The Esperanza Health Center operates in an area that has struggled with the opioid epidemic.

“I would see some patients with them,” he says, “but then we would also read books together and just discuss what it looks like to love people in a way that is humble and compassionate and really ask them how we can be useful rather than coming in and telling them what we’d like to do.”

“I think every decision that we make either moves us closer to or further from the type of person that we want to become.”

Chip Chambers

Back to the South

Chambers wrapped up at Penn in the spring. When it was time to find a residency program, he was looking to leave the big city and practice in a rural community.

“I was looking for a program that would place me in a setting that needs adequate access to healthcare and where primary care can really make a difference and also provides really strong clinical training.”

He found a new home in Greenwood, where Self Regional Healthcare’s Family Medicine residency takes 10 new clinical residents each year.

“They’re doing a lot of great stuff in the community, and I wanted to be a part of that,” he says. “Plus, it was coming back closer to home.”

These days, Chambers is trying to help his community with each patient he sees, but he is working to be part of something much bigger.

“I think that many people have lost trust in medicine, particularly in urban and rural areas,” he says. “One day I hope I can play a small role in earning back trust with high-quality, compassionate, evidence-based, joyful care, one patient at a time.”

“What’s still loading for you?” 

That’s the go-to ask for anyone Trey Wilson is chatting with. Whether it’s a longstanding project or a dream put on the back burner, he genuinely wants to know.

It’s what also inspired his podcast The Subtext where he kicks every episode off asking creative professionals that question. What goal keeps getting pushed aside?

For Wilson, his subtext is a mindset shift: Be more present in the moment—purpose isn’t found just in success. It’s not always easy for the rising junior already involved in more than a dozen organizations at the University of Georgia.

“That’s what’s still loading for me, not just the work I do, but the way I exist in it,” Wilson says.

Still, every single one of them, from the Student Government Association to The Corsair Society, has made an impression on him. As a tour guide for the UGA Visitors Center, he tells future Bulldogs that there’s a chance for everyone to find their niche and their community.

“When I got to UGA, I felt really lost and confused about my dream and what I was going to do. Now, it’s a full circle moment where I’m in the the position to help others,” Wilson says, reflecting on foundational guidance from fellow students such as Stephen Amolegbe, Andre Akinyemi, and Jhaycee Barnes. “It feels surreal, but I know that I’m going to pour everything I possibly can to help as many people as possible because I’ve been fortunate enough.”

Never Underestimate the Power of People

Wilson is a born people person and a self-described extrovert.

Over the summer, he landed a coveted internship with Monomoy Capital Partners in New York. And within just two days in the Big Apple, he had already made plans with nearly a dozen people. That affable nature is a family trait, he says.

“Family is, in my opinion, one of the most important things in life,” Wilson says. “On a family beach trip, I asked my grandfather once for advice on finances, and he goes: ‘Do you want to know what my best investment was? It’s this family time that I’ve been able to establish. You can’t put a value on cultivating really good memories.’”

That’s partly where he got the idea for The Subtext. He realized everybody could use similar support to reach personal successes. He helps narrow down long-term goals for busy young adults whose dreams may hit the back burner, to reveal their deeper subtext.

“I want to get deeper with people and help them be comfortable planting their feet in the moment, laughing hard, and learning deeply,” he says. “College isn’t just a stepping stone. It’s your life.”

Caleb Adams was one of those curious kids who was mesmerized by outer space—the mystery, the possibilities for new discoveries, and the futuristic gadgets that make space exploration possible. He once did an elementary school reading report on American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh and the discovery of Pluto.

“I always had space books and watched Carl Sagan’s (TV series) Cosmos,” he says.

Today, Adams is helping shape the future of humankind’s ventures into the cosmos. And that future is, well, small.

Adams BS ’18, MS ’20 works in Silicon Valley at NASA’s Ames Research Center, where he helps lead efforts to develop automated spacecraft to manage traffic in Earth’s low orbit and perhaps one day explore deep space. The satellites he helps develop are “self-driving,” so to speak, and work in concert with each other; each is small enough to pack into a carry-on suitcase.

But the first satellite he helped build and see launched into space was developed when he was a student at the University of Georgia.

Space Traffic Control

Today, Adams is the project manager for distributed spacecraft autonomy and the deputy project manager for the Starling Mission.

The Starling Mission is testing the capabilities of a quartet of small autonomous satellites. The Starling satellites, each about the size of an old-school boombox with two flat, foldable solar panel wings attached to power their systems, work together as a team called a “swarm.” And the swarm maneuvers through low orbit and collects data.

One of the goals is to develop an autonomous air traffic control system in space to manage the thousands of satellites and spacecraft in Earth’s low orbit.

“You can imagine a situation like when you’re walking down the street, and you try to walk to the left and another person coming the other way goes to their right, and you keep trying to walk past them but can’t.”

That same technology could be used in the future as spacecraft swarms explore deep space.

This year, Adams and his team won a grant from NASA’s Early Career Initiative Program for their work on a low-light 3D mapping system that could illuminate hidden regions of our solar system.

Rayna Carter is turning research into results as a Foundation Fellow at UGA.

Foundation Fellow. Ronald E. McNair Scholar. Franklin College SGA Senator. Blue Key Honor Society President. Rayna Carter’s resume reads like a future president, but her goals are both more humble and loftier than even the highest office.

A triple-major in psychology, sociology, and women and gender studies, Carter plans to further her research with a doctoral degree and use it to improve support for treating substance abuse disorder. 

Since stepping foot on campus, Carter hasn’t wasted a moment of time. She found her home in the Jere W. Morehead Honors College and immersed herself in research as a CURO Honor Scholar. Within the first few weeks, she joined the College Learning Study as a research assistant. 

Her work has spanned four labs—from neuroimaging to bioinformatics—and she has presented it at national conferences and published peer-reviewed work as an undergraduate student. 

From substance abuse to metacognition, Carter deliberately chooses to solve problems that affect people in their everyday lives. She wants to serve her community as much as possible, starting with UGA.

It wasn’t long before Carter was inspired to help other students discover UGA as a Georgia Daze ambassador, Road Dawg, and Orientation leader.

“I know how powerful it is to feel both seen and intellectually inspired before stepping foot on campus. And I want other students—especially those with doubts like mine—to see what’s possible here too,” says Carter.

For Carter, the most meaningful parts of her UGA experience haven’t been the numerous titles and accolades, but rather the relationships and moments of growth she has found along the way.

“UGA taught me to advocate for myself and to seek out opportunities,” says Carter. “This is a truly special place. If you open yourself up to it, UGA will meet you where you are and push you further than you ever imagined.”

UGA students earn some of the highest honors.

It’s been a banner year for some of UGA’s most inspiring students. From solving real-world challenges in science labs to shaping public policy, these Bulldogs are earning top national honors and proving that the future is in very good hands.

Behind every prestigious honor is a story of hard work, late nights, and the kind of mentorship that makes a difference. At UGA, students don’t chase these dreams alone—they’re backed by faculty, staff, and programs that help lead them every step of the way. 

Through the Jere W. Morehead Honors College, which houses UGA’s Major Scholarships Office, students receive guidance and encouragement as they navigate the rigorous application processes for national scholarships. Faculty and staff work closely with students to help them refine their goals, polish their applications, and prepare for interviews, opening doors to some of the world’s most competitive academic and leadership opportunities.

“Across our institution, we are committed to helping our students thrive, whether they are debating international challenges in the classroom, working with DNA in the lab, or checking on turtle populations in the field,” said Meg Amstutz, dean of the Morehead Honors College. “From faculty to staff to community mentors, our students are succeeding because of the strong support they receive.” 

Science and Innovation

UGA’s Oscar de la Torre, Anderson Smith and Sloka Sudhin are among the 441 undergraduates from across the nation to be recognized as Barry Goldwater Scholars this spring. Whether it’s protecting endangered species or solving real-world equations, they are turning curiosity into impact.

Since 1995, 70 students at the University of Georgia have received the Goldwater Scholarship, which recognizes exceptional sophomores and juniors across the United States.

As the immersive week on Jekyll Island nears its end, 11 students gather in the pre-dawn June light on Driftwood Beach. The striking landscape, renowned for its gnarled, sun-bleached driftwood stretching from sand to sea, fills with the quiet bustle of the students setting up their easels and watercolor palettes in the early morning light. 

The sky begins to lighten, and they race to capture the dark outlines of the driftwood against the oranges and yellows of the sunrise. Many pause to take photos for personal keepsakes or for reference to complete their paintings long after the sun has risen.

Beth Shapiro, the Chief Science Officer at Colossal and a MacArthur Fellow, helped clone the extinct dire wolf. Before that, she was a UGA Honors student trying to find her way.

Extinct species are brought back all the time through museum exhibits, the magic of moviemaking, and even the pages of an illustrated book.

But imagine petting the massive furry trunk of a woolly mammoth or staring into the peculiar eyes of a dodo.

Beth Shapiro has touched the fur of a living, breathing dire wolf, a species that died off in North America 10,000 years ago. Shapiro BS ’99, MS ’99, the chief science officer of the “de-extinction” startup Colossal Biosciences, helped bring three dire wolf pups into the world in late 2024 and early 2025 by editing the genes of the gray wolf. 

The mammoth, the dodo, and the Tasmanian tiger may be next.

The resurrection, or de-extinction, of long-lost species raises questions. 

Is it ethical? Is it safe? 

Radio to Rhodes

Shapiro’s journey began as a freshman at the University of Georgia, bent on studying broadcast journalism, of all things. The Honors student, who came to UGA on a Foundation Fellowship, lived in the nine-story Oglethorpe House and even got a job as the news director of the local Magic 102 radio station.

It wasn’t nearly as glamorous as she had hoped.

“Let me tell you: Having to get up at 4 o’clock in the morning and go and write the news and be on the morning news show is not compatible with living in a dorm,” she says.

At first, she thought she’d become a science journalist, but she continued to switch majors as her interests evolved. She ultimately earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in ecology from the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. 

After an internship at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, she planned to get a graduate degree studying under a researcher starting a lab at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Through the Honors Program (now the Jere W. Morehead Honors College), she applied for international scholarships, with the singular hope of getting the Marshall Scholarship, which enables students to study at any British university.

She didn’t get it.

Instead, she was awarded the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship and the opportunity to study at the University of Oxford.

Finding a mission

There, she began studying ancient DNA, taking trips to Siberia to extract genetic material from the partially preserved bones of woolly mammoths. And she began to help piece together more about how mammoths lived and their role in their ecosystems.

Her work combined her many interests as an undergraduate: geology, paleontology, evolutionary biology, and storytelling. 

In 2009, she received the MacArthur Fellowship, the so-called “genius grant,” and she wrote two books, which considered how what we know about ancient extinctions could be used to curb the ongoing mass extinction, primarily caused by human activity.

In her second book, Life As We Made It (2021), Shapiro argues that humans have drastically shaped our planet and ecosystems.

She wrote, “Within the last 50,000 years, our ancestors hunted, polluted, and outcompeted hundreds of species to extinction. They turned wolves into Boston terriers, teosinte into popcorn, and wild cabbage into kale, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and collard greens (to name a few).”

Humans don’t just shoulder a responsibility, she says; they have an urgent incentive to protect ecosystems.

“Habitats around the world are changing at a pace that is faster than evolution can keep up,” Shapiro says. “Conservation works, but it’s not enough. Our footprint is too big. What we need are new tools.”

In 2022, Shapiro joined Colossal to develop such tools in the company’s quest to clone the dire wolf, woolly mammoth, dodo, and the Tasmanian tiger (which was a striped carnivorous marsupial, not a big cat).

The Choice

Two surrogate hound mothers birthed Romulus and Remus in October 2024, the first dire wolves in millennia. (Technically, these pups are not 100% replicas of dire wolves, but gray wolves given their extinct relative’s features.)

Reactions ranged from celebratory to cautionary. 

Shapiro welcomes the dialogue—as long as we don’t forget what’s at stake: the health of our planet. What gets lost in the discussion, she argues, is that refusing to explore the promise of de-extinction technologies is a choice.

 “It is a choice that carries consequences,” she says. “We know what those consequences are: We will continue to lose species, and we will continue to lose this fight.”

UGA student rolls out the welcome mat for all.

One goal

Straughter says that community is key in helping people flourish. 

That’s why he’s involved with five student orgs, working to ensure that students from all backgrounds feel as welcomed at UGA as he did.

That authentic hospitality he provides for every person is what he wants to bring to a career in real estate law and to create a feeling of “home” wherever that may take him.

“There’s a very important difference between everyone being treated the same and everyone being treated like they need to be treated,” he says. “I feel like it’s very important that everyone feels like they’re wanted.”

Grammy winners and jazz legends inspire the next generation of UGA performers.

Each year, Athens music lovers can delight in dozens of performances by world-class musicians and University of Georgia student ensembles through the Performing Arts Center. Occasionally, UGA students also get to glean a few tricks of the trade from these virtuosos.

This February, students in the Hugh Hodgson School of Music learned from and performed with two such acts: Grammy-winning ensemble Eighth Blackbird and MacArthur Fellowship-winning jazz pianist Jason Moran and his wife, mezzo soprano Alicia Hall Moran.

“These opportunities for students to perform alongside musicians who are the leaders in their fields are highly impactful for everyone involved,” said Jeffrey Martin, director of the Performing Arts Center. “The students achieve great insights and reinforce key principles taught in classrooms and studios by UGA professors as they work side by side with our visiting professionals.”

Sounds of Artistic Mastery

Eighth Blackbird, a contemporary music sextet and winner of four Grammys, performed with the UGA Wind Ensemble at the Hodgson Concert Hall on Feb. 20. While on campus, Eighth Blackbird members rehearsed with students and led several master classes. 

For Addison Aycock, a spring 2025 bachelor’s of music graduate, the experience offered a taste of artistic perfection.

That perfection, he said, was like the right amount of salt in a gourmet dish. 

“Its effect brings more life and color to the dish and highlights flavors that get lost in the background,” he said. “Now I want to perform my classical and notated music more perfectly to bring out more flavors of the music.”

In one master class, pianist and doctoral candidate Jacob Skiles played a challenging new piece of music for Lisa Kaplan, Eighth Blackbird’s pianist and co-artistic director. The piece mimics bird calls from the American South. After listening to Skiles perform, Kaplan provided thoughtful feedback, encouraging Skiles to “take more liberties.”

“Birds are wild animals,” she told him. “There should be the element of unpredictability.”

For Skiles, it was a different kind of experience for a master class.

“It was also really good to hear from somebody with great musical intuition for new music,” he said. “Her knowledge of what the audience needs to hear on first listen was really valuable. I performed the piece at a conference the next day.”

Finding the Heart of Jazz

The following week, contemporary music shifted to century-old jazz tunes when Jason and Alicia Hall Moran brought the program, Duke Ellington: My Heart Sings, to Hodgson Concert Hall with the UGA Jazz Ensemble I on Feb. 27. 

The Morans have performed together at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and concert halls worldwide. However, the excitement for students to perform with such accomplished musicians came with the challenge of playing the music of legendary jazz musician Duke Ellington. The opportunity made jazz music more approachable for Aycock, who got to perform a solo in an ensemble piece with Jason Moran.

“I never really felt the conversational aspect of jazz until performing with Moran,” Aycock said. “He asked me to leave more space in the music to listen. When I did this during the performance, I could hear the band responding to what I was playing.”

Moran was pleased with the results.

“It takes a lot of courage for these students to play this music,” he told the concert audience. “It’s from another era. To have them summon up these songs is quite a treat, and I think they’ve done an incredible job.”

With a job well done, the students get to take these experiences with them throughout their studies at UGA and beyond.

“Opportunities to regularly engage with these amazing performers in master classes, question and answer sessions, and even in performances are an incredible opportunity for our students,” said Daniel Bara, interim director of the School of Music. “It’s part of what makes studying music at UGA so transformative.”

Politics can propel us to peace

Once you have this background and understanding, Bajramović says it’s feasible to map out potential solutions. 

She wants to be the bridge connecting solutions, which is what she learned with the Carter Center’s Conflict Resolution Program on peace mediation. Through her work on Syrian conflict mapping, Bajramović now better understands the progression of conflict and resolution, as well as the role aid from a third party can play.

There’s also something to be gained in conflict studies just for everyday life. Although it’s likely a disagreement on a smaller scale, applying things like negotiation tactics and thoughtful communication can make a big difference for individuals.

“So much of this can be utilized in interpersonal situations that I don’t think people necessarily connect at first. It’s nice to have these pieces of information and know I can use this on my own,” Bajramović says.

Cannes, Sundance, Tribeca. 

All are top of mind when thinking of premier film festivals, but for film students in Georgia, Backlight is the place to screen and be seen.

The Backlight Student Film Festival celebrated its fourth year at the University of Georgia’s Tate Student Center on March 29 and 30 with screenings, panel discussions, awards, networking, and—what would a film festival be without one?—a red carpet.

While the festival has its roots at UGA, it invites undergraduate and graduate student filmmakers from across Georgia to submit films and welcomes the community to join in the festivities.  

The Origins

In 2021, Rayna Sklar and twin sisters Aleesa and Cate de Castro were brainstorming ways to spotlight the films they and their classmates were creating in the Department of Entertainment and Media Studies at UGA’s Grady College. 

They decided to start a film festival through their work with student organizations. But it was only a matter of time before the fledgling effort evolved into a nonprofit organization complete with a board of directors, sponsors, and participation from around the state.

“Backlight started as a platform to give students the ability to showcase their work, and I think it’s something we’ve seen continue to inspire and encourage future filmmakers,” says Cate de Castro, a 2023 UGA graduate who now works as a West Coast Page with NBCUniversal.

Sklar and the de Castros researched other film festivals, and the de Castros attended Grady’s Cannes Film Study Abroad program in the summer of 2022. 

“It definitely opened our eyes to that space,” Cate says. “We really saw the impact of networking at this event and how we could elevate our screenings to make them feel top-notch.”

Covering Backlight Film Festival

Backlight Student Film Festival isn’t only an opportunity for young filmmakers. Students studying journalism, public relations, and other disciplines can also find valuable learning opportunities through the festival. 

Dodie Cantrell-Bickley, senior lecturer at Grady College, and Andrea Hudson, lecturer, assign projects covering the film festival, resulting in episodes of the talk show Grady Night Shift. 

Hudson teaches an entertainment reporting course, and Cantrell-Bickley advises a group of volunteer visual content producers. She teaches them skills for broadcast and social media. 

For Grady Night Shift, students pitch stories, interview filmmakers, write features, photograph the event, and produce two episodes highlighting the festival. 

9 days. 17 students. 8,000+ miles logged. One subject. A new world opened.

In a single Spring Break, 17 University of Georgia students, most in their first year, crossed the Atlantic to explore the field of computing—past, present, and future. The experience offered them a glimpse into the ever-expanding opportunities their future careers could hold.  

The program “World of Computing,” part of UGA’s Connect Abroad, took students to London, one of the world’s great technology hubs, to consider the discipline through the eyes of academics, industry leaders, and historical figures. Although the trip mostly drew students interested in technological pursuits, it was open to all majors for a simple reason:

“Computers are everywhere, right?” says Bradley Barnes PhD ’11, a senior lecturer and undergraduate coordinator for UGA’s School of Computing who led the program. “In every discipline, students could benefit from a deeper understanding of computers, regardless of their field of study.”

For Mary Dzhibladze, a first-year computer science major, the trip helped her picture her future.

“Before the program, I wondered if my career would be limited to local opportunities,” she says. 

The international trip allowed students to ponder the bigger world of technology while also considering how to focus their studies amid so many possible career paths in technology, from front-end coding to analyst roles.

The program offered more than opportunities to think about their futures; it also provided a glimpse into computing’s past. 

A train ride to the English countryside carried them to Bletchley Park, the once-secret home to WWII codebreakers who deciphered the enigmatic German code. At the estate, students explored the codebreakers’ work huts where recruits from English colleges once shaped world history. The experience struck a chord with John Calame, a first-year mathematics and cognitive science major and computer science minor.

 “These historical figures that completed groundbreaking work were my age,” he says, making him feel more connected to his studies and inspired to make a difference.

“It’s still possible for my work to have an incredible impact,” he says.

What is UGA’s Connect Abroad program?

Connect Abroad is a program created for first-year students to connect with peers and faculty over UGA’s spring break through unique experiences in six international locations (Costa Rica, England, Greece, Italy, Morocco, and Peru). It offers a chance to explore another country’s culture, society, politics, and art while creating relationships with peers and instructors.

More than half the participants in the first Connect Abroad, held in 2024, say they plan to study abroad again. In 2025, Connect Abroad sent 199 students across the world.

SGA Vice President Stephen Amolegbe is transforming the future of fintech while leaving a lasting legacy at UGA.

It’s midafternoon during UGA’s 2024 Homecoming Game and the sun beats down on Sanford Stadium. As Stephen Amolegbe Jr. is crowned Homecoming King, he feels the sweat drip down his suit, hears the crowd roar from the bleachers, and he thinks, “This is the best day of my life.”

As vice president of the UGA Student Government Association, Amolegbe actually spent most of Homecoming Week organizing events, guiding his peers, and promoting Homecoming activities. His focus has always been on the next challenge and how he can best make an impact.

When he wasn’t helping to plan one of the biggest events of the year, Amolegbe worked with the student government to create affordable transportation for out-of-state and international students. The student government cabinet collaborated with UGA’s Auxiliary Services to launch airport transportation services for out-of-state and international students. Amolegbe says that serving as vice president has instilled a sense of responsibility to represent the student body in a way that builds up the entire community.

“I really love being a ‘megaphone’ for other students. Even when I don’t have the ideas, I can help advocate for my classmates and help them achieve their goals,” he says.

Double the Dawg, Double the Impact

It’s impossible to summarize Amolegbe in one word, but “drive” is pretty close. The University of Georgia’s Double Dawgs program empowers students to earn both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in five years or less. It’s designed for future leaders who are ready to take their education and career to the next level—leaders like Amolegbe.

As a fourth-year Double Dawg, Amolegbe is pursuing a bachelor’s in management information systems and a master’s in business analytics. From his first year at UGA, he saw the program as the fastest way to reach his goals and take full advantage of the resources the university has to offer.

“Being at UGA means being surrounded by driven, ambitious people—whether they’re students in my class or industry leaders who visit campus,” he says. “The more people you interact with, the better you want to do.”

“The course wasn’t just about theory—it was about problem-solving in real time,” he says. “It was incredibly rewarding to see our ideas come to life and get a head start in the business world.”

This experience gave Amolegbe a necessary understanding of the practical applications of business analytics and technology. It also laid the groundwork for his interest in digital partnerships and prepared him for a role at the cutting edge of technology in his future position with Visa.

After working as an innovation and digital partnership intern at Visa, Amolegbe secured a full-time job with the company. Starting in the fall, he will rotate through four key sectors of the business—financial data, strategic thinking, product development, and client services—before choosing his final position.

“Every transition, whether it’s from high school to college or college to a full-time job, comes with learning curves,” Amolegbe says. “No one has all the answers, but if you surround yourself with the right people, you’ll always have the support you need to succeed.”

Ashley Galanti is on a mission to create a groundbreaking seizure-detection device.

Ashley Galanti’s journey into research and entrepreneurship wasn’t sparked by academic ambition alone but rather by living with her mom and brother affected by epilepsy. 

What began as a high school physics class project has grown into research she’s doing as a Ph.D. candidate in biomedical engineering at the University of Georgia’s College of Engineering. She’s working to create a device that can detect early signs of seizures and alert users in advance. 

“At the end of the day, epilepsy hits home for me because it’s in my own family. And I’ve met so many other people who have epilepsy or know someone with epilepsy,” she says. “It’s a very close-knit group of people who have it or know someone who does, just because of how detrimental the impacts can be from that disease.”

Turning education into innovation

A challenging part of epilepsy is the unpredictability of seizures. Knowing when one is coming can give you time to find a safe place or alert someone. Trained dogs can detect the onset of a seizure and offer a warning, but there’s no solution for the many who don’t have access to these highly trained canines. Galanti is determined to change that. 

She’s tackling her goals by focusing her academic work in technical and business fields. She double majored in journalism and electrical engineering in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication and the College of Engineering and minored in Spanish through the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. After graduating in 2022, she completed a graduate certificate in entrepreneurship from the Terry College of Business and is now in the third year of her doctorate. 

“I want to have that credibility behind me and know that I made this device — that if something is wrong, I know how to fix it,” she says. Ultimately, she wants to feel confident bringing her device to the marketplace.

From research to reality

With the technical expertise, communication skills, and entrepreneurial know-how, Galanti is making progress in her research. She’s working on a sensor chip that could detect pre-seizure compounds released as gases from someone’s skin, similar to what trained dogs can sniff out.

“I want anyone who has epilepsy to just erase that fear of the unknown since a seizure can occur at any time,” she says. “It could give peace of mind.”

She intends to outfit this chip in a smart wristband that would measure other biometrics such as heart rate and body temperature. She hopes the data could give someone a time frame for when they may have a seizure, giving them time to get to a safe place and take preventative measures.

Galanti founded the company AMG Detection with the help of the UGA School of Law in 2022. She also received help from Innovation Gateway, tapping into guidance from its mentor network and building her entrepreneurial skills through programs such as NSF I-Corps, pitch coaching and the Investor Showcase, which helped her launch the company.

Stories that fuel progress

As she works on upcoming clinical trials for the device and completes her doctorate, Galanti finds inspiration from her family and the broader community of those affected by epilepsy. 

“Hearing personal stories — whether through the Epilepsy Foundation, through an Uber driver, or just on the street — about how epilepsy impacts their lives and knowing that I am doing something to help them really does motivate me,” she says. “It drives me to want to help them and to give them something that is so needed but is not out there for now.”

From lab research to community connections, this UGA senior is grateful for every opportunity to make a difference.

One week in a pediatric unit solidified Laura Kate Holden’s dream to be a doctor. During clinical rotations in a hospital in Columbus, Georgia, Holden spent days with an 11-year-old girl who was extremely underweight. The doctors were struggling to figure out what had caused her condition. 

As Holden and the patient talked, painted pictures, and made friendship bracelets, they built a connection. That connection gave Holden insight into what the patient was going through, and that information helped the medical team shape the patient’s care.

“Being a person that was able to give important information about someone, especially in context of their care, really changed things for me and really made it to where I wanted to do this,” Holden said. 

She lost touch with the patient after the clinical rotation, but she hasn’t let go of that feeling of connection and ability to meaningfully help a patient. 

As Holden approaches graduation in May 2025, the UGA senior is eager for medical school. She’s applied to the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, and hopes to be a doctor in the U.S. Air Force. 

Creating knowledge

Holden started college as an Honors scholar with UGA’s Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities and as a recipient of the Bradley-Turner Leadership Scholarship.

She was drawn to UGA by the opportunities to practice research with faculty throughout her biochemistry and molecular biology degree from the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. Since her freshman year, she’s worked with Lance Wells, an associate director of the Center for Molecular Medicine and a Georgia Research Alliance Distinguished Investigator. 

“I think I’m really lucky, and I’m a huge advocate for if people want to get involved in research,” Holden said. “You can really see a project through in four years.”

Her research focuses on a gene (OGT) mutation that is associated with the development of X-Linked Intellectual Disability. Holden is trying to fill in knowledge gaps about how the mutation disrupts the function of a certain enzyme. 

Through her research experience, she has drawn inspiration from Wells and Johnathan Mayfield, a graduate student she works closely with in the lab. “Their enthusiasm for generating and creating knowledge and hope for these patients is unmatched,” she said. “Everything they teach me in the lab has translated elsewhere.”

Showing up

Holden’s commitment to helping others extends far beyond the lab. 

As a senior in high school, her mom was diagnosed with blood cancer. That was part of Holden’s inspiration for founding a chapter of NMDP, an organization formerly known as Be The Match that recruits stem cell donors to a national registry. Since its founding in 2022, the UGA chapter has registered more than 2,000 students and targets donors to help patients from underrepresented groups. Holden has led by example by donating blood stem cells to her mom.

Holden has also been an active participant in the UGA chapter of Kesem, which means “magic” in Hebrew. It is a national nonprofit that provides support to children impacted by a parent’s cancer. She has served as an outreach coordinator and co-director, helping children and families with logistics, emotional support, and care packages. She’s also attended funerals to support children who have lost parents to cancer.

It’s been an emotional, eye-opening experience.

“When you talk to those families about what they’re going through, it really just puts it in perspective the amount that they lean on you and how much you’re able to provide,” she said. “I would show up every day for any one of those kids and their families.”

Building connections

Although Holden’s research and outreach are weighty enterprises, she embraces joy and connection in all she does. 

She’s been a Digital Dawg, a UGA social media ambassador, since her sophomore year and launched the Dawg Talk series on Instagram to interview her fellow students. Inspired by Humans of New York, Holden wanted these interviews to capture the slice-of-life experiences and a glimpse into the personal stories of those she talks with. 

From interviewing students to helping future patients, Holden hopes to continue fostering connections with and learning from the people around her.

“In Dawg Talk, the focus should be the person being interviewed. In Kesem, the focus should be on the children. In research, it should be the patients. In medicine, it should be the people I’m trying to help,” she said. “I am constantly, and hopefully succeeding, at putting the spotlight on those around me. And when you do that, it helps you.”

Standing behind a podium to speak before an audience can be intimidating. The stakes get even higher if that podium is situated in a room at the White House. UGA junior JJ Lazo shook off the nerves and remembered that all he had to do was tell his story as a first-generation college student.

“I know that many children don’t get that same opportunity. But if we start inspiring students to start trying in high school from the start and providing them with the right resources they need, it would be one of the biggest accomplishments for our Hispanic community. These kids are the future of our nation,” he told an audience during a Peruvian Independence Day event in July 2024.

Lazo has made it his mission to banish doubt and illuminate the path to success for other first-generation students and anyone else wrestling with uncertainty.

From cradle to confidence

Lazo wasn’t always equipped to confidently share his past with a crowd, much less one in the nation’s capital. But one question set him on a path toward confidence and a mission to help others.

“Who wants to be a lawyer?” asked Xavier Brown, an assistant dean at UGA’s School of Law, who happened to encounter a crowd of high schoolers on a campus tour.

Lazo, a self-described introvert at the time, gathered the courage to raise his hand; Brown then handed Lazo his card, and Lazo realized his aspirations were in good hands.

Now a political science and international studies major, Lazo wants to expand access to education. His shining inspiration begins with his father, a Peruvian immigrant who was never able to attend college. Instead, Juan Carlos Lazo worked tirelessly to provide opportunities for Lazo and his brother, Juan Francisco, to go to college.

“My dad moved to the U.S. when he was 31 to give me and my brother the opportunity for a better life,” Lazo says. “I want to make my life worth it for him, not only for me.”

He also wants to make it worthwhile and pave the way for other students.

Breaking down barriers

That work begins at the University of Georgia, where Lazo serves as director of first-year programs for the Student Government Association. He’s also UGA’s Chapter president for TRIO, which helps low-income students find a path to college.

“I think I’ve learned my purpose—just giving myself as a resource to those who need it,” he says.

Speaking from his experience as a first-generation college student, Lazo says, “There are so many things that can overwhelm our minds and give us anxiety, but at the end of the day, it’ll work out. It may not seem that way at that moment, but I think no matter what, if you just give it your all, you can achieve anything.”

That story and passion is something Lazo knows is important to share. That’s why when Kilder Fuentes, the president of the Peruvian American National Council, invited him to speak at the White House event, he was thrilled.

“I want college to be possible, even though it is something that I thought was impossible,” says Lazo. “If you put in the work, if you truly believe it, if you can envision it, you can get it.”

Future defender

Lazo hopes the next time he chats with Brown, it will be about law school admissions as he continues on the path to becoming an immigration lawyer. And don’t be surprised if the name JJ Lazo one day appears on a future ballot.

“No matter where we are in our current world, if I know that I’m doing something that helps a community that needs it, that’s going to motivate me no matter what,” Lazo says. “Whether I run for office or not, just having the opportunity to help someone is going to drive me.”

Dr. Asia Simone Passmore.

That title was clear in one student’s mind almost from the moment she began studying piano. Fifteen years ago, Passmore fell in love with the piano, and it wasn’t long before she set her sights on a doctorate in music.

Passmore developed a profound interest in the piano as a teenager. But as a university student, she turned her attention to piano pedagogy to learn more about the history and educational practices of piano music.

“When I started, I didn’t know anything about the process, the amount of work it took to get to that level, or even what a Doctor of Musical Arts was. But I knew that I wanted to be Dr. Asia in the future,” says Passmore. 

Passmore’s lifelong commitment to music and academia has paid off. She graduated from the University of Georgia’s Hugh Hodgson School of Music with a Doctor of Music Arts in piano performance and a doctoral minor in piano pedagogy. As she moves on to the next phase of her professional journey, Passmore is determined that her future will be anything but conventional.

Performer or professor. These are the two paths that most musicians start on in college. But the further Passmore got into her degree the more she realized how many things she could do in music.

One of her most eye-opening experiences was an internship for the Frances Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy, a non-profit organization offering piano education resources for professionals and their students. Passmore helped to build a compendium of teaching videos created by different pianists. She later worked for their children’s magazine Piano Inspires Kids.

“I think that if more people knew about the different avenues in the field of music besides just performing or teaching, then more of them would pursue a music degree,” she says. “There’s arts administration and arts advocacy, event production and film scoring. You never know what doors can open up.” 

Passmore has also presented and performed at national conferences and performed in masterclasses for world-class artists. Taking advantage of every experience that comes her way helped Passmore develop into a well-rounded musician, student, and scholar.

The Sound of Success

In 2023, Passmore earned the SEC Emerging Scholars Award, awarded to outstanding doctoral students who show promise as researchers and educators. Her research centered around solo piano music written by composers from across the African diaspora, as well as the transatlantic connections between the music and their composers.

Passmore’s research focus was sparked by the piano music of Afro-British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. She became fascinated with his work and his connections to his Black music contemporaries, uncovering several works by some of these composers that were unknown and not widely accessible to the public. Passmore presented her findings in her dissertation, “Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Transatlantic Connections in the Piano Music of Black Composers,” in a doctoral lecture recital that showcased both her performance and original academic contributions.

As a student, Passmore also conducted a research project on hymn-lining for an ethnomusicology course. Hymn-lining, a “call-and-response” form of worship which originated in Black churches, became a way for Passmore to connect her own family history and cultural roots. Several family members even got together to record themselves lining a hymn for Passmore to use for her research.

“I learned that you can never do too much research,” she says. “No topic is ever truly finished. Even when you think you’ve reached the end, there’s always more to unearth.”

Since she first started her musical journey, Passmore has built a steady foundation for her career. She plans to continue sharing her research at conferences and turn her dissertation on piano music of the Black diaspora into a book. She wants to expand her research to offer a more comprehensive reference for future generations of musicians and educators.

 “I am so thankful to have access to research on a topic that would otherwise have been left in obscurity,” she says.

“Now, when I approach music, especially for research, I get to do so with the confidence that I am an expert in my own right.”

Dr. Colby Ruiz was a teenager when he watched his first surgery.

He volunteered in the operating room at Valdosta’s SGMC Health, where his parents worked as nurses. 

Ruiz BSA ’15 could have ended up in any of the hospital units except, at 14, he really didn’t want to wear the pink “candy striper” uniform of most hospital volunteers. When Ruiz learned that OR volunteers wore green, he was all in.

Even then, most volunteers didn’t actually cross the red line into the operating room. But Ruiz was offered an intriguing opportunity.

“Some of the doctors started to recognize me,” he recalls. “And then one day, one of the surgeons was like, ‘Hey, do you want to come and watch a case?’”

It became a regular occurrence as the young volunteer bonded with the surgeons.

He also met with patients during difficult times in their lives and developed empathy for their situations. These experiences ultimately set Ruiz on the path to becoming a vascular surgeon. 

But before he graduated high school and left Valdosta behind, some of the doctors offered advice and a challenge.

First, they suggested he study in-state for college, telling him he “couldn’t get a better education anywhere” than at the University of Georgia.

The challenge? 

“Don’t forget about us when you’re done.”

They meant: Don’t become another bright rural student who goes off for an education and never returns home.

Ruiz came to Athens as a pre-med student on a scholarship from UGA’s Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities (CURO). He conducted research as a freshman in the lab of Walter Schmidt, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology and a Georgia Cancer Coalition Scholar. There, Ruiz experimented with a protein associated with pancreatic cancer. He continued in the lab through his UGA tenure, eventually speaking at conferences with Schmidt and was even published in a research journal. 

After earning his degree in biological science from the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Ruiz attended medical school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He completed his M.D. and stayed five more years for his residency at UNC, training in vascular medicine. 

As a vascular surgeon, Ruiz helps people manage conditions ranging from blood clots to strokes and aneurysms. His patients are at risk of losing limbs or even death.

When operating, he might perform open surgery to repair an aorta, insert a stent to open an artery, or remove plaque from a vessel. 

His skills as a surgeon can literally be a matter of life and death. But his ability to show empathy when helping patients manage their care is just as essential.

“You’re managing people’s emotions, feelings, and thoughts and helping them make decisions because it’s all about what the patient wants to do.”

Ruiz’s residency ended last summer, and it was time to figure out what he wanted to do. A fully trained surgeon with a wife and children, Ruiz hadn’t forgotten about Valdosta or the challenge from the surgeons who inspired him.

“I came home, after all, to that same hospital that I started volunteering in back in the day,” Ruiz says.

In July, he returned to SGMC to join the vascular surgery team.

His work in Valdosta is just getting underway, but he’s already looking to establish opportunities to bring high school students in to follow him and learn about becoming a doctor.

And who knows? Maybe Ruiz will inspire future doctors to come back and practice medicine in their hometown.

New Domestic Field Study program sends dance students to New York.  

This past summer, a troupe of 11 University of Georgia dance students traveled from Broad Street to Broadway to immerse themselves in the mecca of professional dance, New York City.  Participants met with professionals and gained audition experience while touring the Big Apple.

The trip was the first Domestic Field Study program led by UGA’s Department of Dance. UGA’s Domestic Field Study programs allow students to “Study Away in the USA” with site-specific, experiential learning opportunities across the United States. 

Lisa Fusillo, UGA Foundation Professor of the Arts in the Department of Dance, was one of 11 faculty members who participated in the inaugural Domestic Field Study Fellows program, an opportunity for selected faculty to develop and launch a new course-based study away program within the United States. Fusillo created the course with the goal of having her students explore the rich history of dance in New York City, from lower to upper Manhattan. 

Over three weeks, students explored world-renowned dance centers, such as STEPS on Broadway, Broadway Dance Center, and Gibney Dance Center, and joined in more than 15 dance classes taught by professional instructors. Each student could choose the level of difficulty and dance technique for each class. 

“This was really an experience of a lifetime,” said Amelia Cassidy, a second-year student majoring in marketing and sports management and minoring in dance. “There’s nothing like this out there right now. We got to take classes with working professional dancers in New York, several of which we all grew up watching.” 

These classes connected students with some of the country’s most famous dancers, including Debbie Roche, who has been in Broadway productions and the film adaptation of “A Chorus Line,” and Heather Hawk, a STEPS on Broadway dance teacher who performed with the Pennsylvania Ballet and appeared in Balanchine’s “Nutcracker.” 

“I think that the students got a very good idea of what it takes to pursue a professional career in dance and how to network,” said Fusillo. 

On top of learning from the best, participants gained more insight into the dance industry and talked to other dancers living and working in New York. Students learned what it’s like to be a professional dancer and even gained audition experience through a mock audition. 

Outside of the dance classes, the troupe of students explored historic sites including the Apollo Theater in Harlem and Radio City Music Hall, and attended a New York City Ballet performance at Lincoln Center where they got the opportunity to explore and stand on the stage. 

The trip wasn’t all about dance all the time. Students also enjoyed three Broadway shows, a historical tour of Broadway theaters, a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a walk on the High Line, and a New York Harbor Cruise around Ellis Island. They learned that many dance styles originated from European immigrants who came to America through Ellis Island as well as from the Great Migration to Harlem, where jazz music and dance became popular. Students appreciated learning about the evolution of dance forms such as tap, jazz, hip-hop and musical theater. 

Getting to the Mane Event

At 2 years old, Caitlin Lyons found love at first sight—not with a dashing hero or a celebrity, but with horseback riding. 

“Once I got on my first horse, I just knew,” says Lyons. “And it didn’t take long for everyone around me to see how serious I was.”

Like many little girls, Lyons enjoyed horse-themed parties and visits to her favorite farm animals, but she also had a riding instructor before finishing elementary school. Two decades before she became an award-winning equestrian, Lyons was in the saddle more often than on a playground. When she turned eight, her mom gave her a short break from riding to see if it was just a passing phase. 

“I asked my mom every single day for three months when I was going to ride again,” says Lyons. “So that answered that question.”

A Horse by Any Other Name

Lyons rides different horses depending on the event and location, but her personal horse, 6-year-old Ava Grace—or Pumpkin Spice on her “spicy” days—holds a special place in her heart. 

“Horseback riding isn’t about jumping on an animal’s back and telling them what to do,” she says. “It’s about connecting. You can’t be in your head or anxious. You have to work together with a thousand pounds of living, breathing animal underneath you and know if they’re nervous or confident or confused.”

She describes horses as “big, snuggly dogs” and is quick to sneak a cookie or two to Bandido and Slash, who live in UGA’s stables. 

“Bandido is my favorite horse at UGA,” she says. “He has a really long, beautiful mane, and I couldn’t wait to wash, brush, and braid it every time I saw him. And Slash is so reliable. I’ve had my best rides on him because you can trust him to get the job done. I adore that horse so much.”

Riding into Animal Conservation

“One of the first things they teach you about horseback riding is that you always take care of your horse before you take care of yourself. Learning how to care for another living being that I love and adore has been a major influence on my character. It’s why I am who I am,” says Lyons.

While she has a lot of experience working with horses, her passion for animals extends well beyond the riding stable. She has always wanted to help with the conservation of endangered species. In 2025, she will graduate with a Master of Natural Resources degree from the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, a necessary step in her journey to working as a wildlife technician and eventually transforming wildlife conservation on a national level.

“Learning wildlife management at Warnell has taught me about the complexities of working with endangered species,” says Lyons. “It’s amazing how intertwined everything is and how much of a species’ survival depends on whether you can engage stakeholders in what you believe in.”

Just as she’s learned to build trust and care for horses, Lyons will use that dedication to protecting endangered species and their natural environments.

Frigid offices. Metal stethoscopes. Flu shots. It’s easy to think of medicine as cold and clinical.

But there’s another side to health care beyond your sick visits and annual appointments. Doctors are working behind the scenes to change this narrative and humanize the health care experience.

For Autumn Hampton, a fourth-year pre-med student at the University of Georgia, health care advocacy—particularly for marginalized communities—holds as much weight as her medical research. A dual major in biomedical physiology and sociology, Hampton aims to become an obstetrician-gynecologist, with a focus on oncology. 

This desire is deeply personal; she has experienced the challenges of cancer care, having lost her mother, Sondra Hampton, in 2023 after a decade-long battle with breast cancer. 

“It’s really important to me to be an advocate for my community in the health care field,” Hampton says. “A lot of that stems from my mother being diagnosed when I was 10 years old and watching her go through that process until I was 20 years old.” 

Autumn often reflects on her mother as “a true inspiration for the woman I am today” and describes her as a pillar of love and dedication who became a leader in her community.  She set a powerful example for her daughter, and in return Autumn carries on her mother’s legacy in both her personal life and her work with patients.

“Many hospital patients are experiencing what may be one of the most painful experiences they’ll ever go through. Having someone who looks like you, understands your background, and is solidly on your team can make all the difference in someone’s health care journey.”

Hampton grew up in a small, rural community and rarely encountered Black medical professionals. She wants to be part of a support system for someone’s journey, whether with cancer or birth, because she knows the impact that representation has, especially for Black women who face health care disparities.

“Being a Black doctor is especially important in communities where you don’t see a lot of representation for people of color,” she says. “Without having an advocate in the field, Black women often have their pain minimized. That’s my main reason for wanting to be an OB/GYN.”

Hampton takes every opportunity to build a more compassionate health care system for vulnerable and marginalized communities. She works as a caregiver and engagement coordinator at Arbor Terrace of Athens, an assisted living facility, where she navigates a delicate balance between providing care and autonomy. 

“You’re working on two levels,” she says. “There are basic needs for grooming, feeding, showering, apartment maintenance. But a lot of these residents can’t do everything or go everywhere they used to for health and security reasons. My job is also about how to keep them engaged in a way where they have their dignity and their independence.”

Hampton has worked with the facility’s assisted living and memory care departments and isn’t content with the status quo. She runs exercises to engage the residents and stimulate their creativity so they can take a more active role in their health decisions. For her, effective care means caring for the whole person, not just the medical condition.

Hampton’s passion for advocacy also extends to her work with Kesem, a nonprofit organization that supports children impacted by a parent’s cancer. She started as a counselor before joining the executive board and becoming an operations coordinator. During her role, she planned free camp activities and year-round support for the children, including a mini carnival, a two-week summer camp, and Friends and Family Days, where families affected by cancer come to support each other.

This work, combined with being president of the University Union Student Programming Board and being a co-founder of the Biomedical Physiology Society, earned her UGA’s 2023-2024 Student Leader of the Year. 

Hampton dedicates significant time to helping patients and families affected by cancer, but she also leverages her undergraduate research in the fight against the disease. As part of UGA’s Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities, she works to identify the origins of pediatric glioblastomas and develop cancer treatments. Her research on stem cells and brain tumors with UGA’s Center for Molecular Medicine was recently published by Oxford Academic in the Neuro-Oncology Advances Journal and is advancing knowledge in this critical field.

Whether she’s interacting with families or looking at slides under a microscope, Hampton works to create a more holistic understanding of cancer care—one that addresses both the medical and emotional needs of patients and their families. 

“The thing about my time at UGA is that I don’t do things to inflate my resume or be a better candidate for med school,” says Hampton. “I’m just doing everything that I want to do. My mom always told me to go wherever I want to go but leave a legacy behind me and that’s what I’m working towards. 

“Even if all the things I’ve done here don’t directly affect my career, they’re building me into the person that I want to become, and that’s more important.”

On any given day, D.J. can usually be found relaxing on a raised platform under shady trees. On her afternoon stroll, Kelly Garrison may notice him and call down with a greeting.

He doesn’t respond — not with words at least.

D.J. is an American black bear and one of the many animals at the Bear Hollow Zoo, a hidden gem in the Athens-Clarke County community. This county-funded zoo houses various animals that you would naturally find in Georgia.

The animals of Bear Hollow are non-releasable due to disability or other circumstances that would make it difficult for them to live in the wild. Now, they serve as ambassadors for their species, motivating visitors to protect wildlife.

“It’s not every day that you get to go to a free local zoo,” said Garrison, the zoo coordinator of Bear Hollow. “It gives a lot of opportunities to all of the residents of Athens-Clarke County and even the surrounding areas to have a fun attraction that they can go to and learn a bit about.”

Garrison manages zoo animals, maintains their habitats and collaborates with staff, volunteers, and University of Georgia students on essential zoo tasks.

Reaching Visitors

Public relations students in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication have also recently taken part in the zoo fun. For the fall 2024 semester, David Clementson, an associate professor in the college’s advertising and public relations department, has structured his capstone course around the Bear Hollow Zoo. In the semester-long program, students work together to integrate new advertising techniques for the zoo.

“The students are coming up with all kinds of great strategies and deliverables that they’ll be presenting to the client,” Clementson said. 

Students conduct surveys with members of the community to better understand how the zoo can reach visitors, and they examine previous ads used to promote the zoo. In completing the finalized advertising recommendations, the students have substantial work to add to their professional portfolios and indispensable knowledge of the public relations industry.

“I’ve never had a public relations internship. It’s always been marketing based,” said Reese Mitchell, a fourth-year student in Clementson’s capstone course. “This is really important to me because it lets me see if this is something I might want to continue to do when I graduate.”

Working with the zoo and interacting with the community has allowed the students to have a better understanding of the zoo’s impact.

“Almost everyone we’ve heard from has children,” said Cheylan Baker, another student in the course. “They always talk about how much their kids love it here and how it makes them super excited. It seems like a place for community.”

This is evident with events like Bear Holloween, a time for children to put on their Halloween costumes and visit the animals. During one night in October, the zoo takes part in the holiday festivities with a variety of Halloween decorations, photo opportunities and candy. 

Events like Bear Holloween serve as a reminder of the importance of the zoo for members of the community. The ability to connect with nature is increasingly valuable to many families across Georgia.

“It is so important to be able to have the exposure to animals for our kids and for us as well,” said Michelle Jones, a mother in attendance at Bear Holloween with her daughter and husband. “We’re glad that she can learn about nature and be able to observe the animals and habitats.”

The Bear Hollow Zoo remains a vital fixture for the Athens and UGA community, providing education and opportunities for indispensable experiences to students in colleges around the university.

Compared to some of the long, more strenuous hikes at Yosemite National Park in California, the venture up the granite outcrop at Olmsted Point is short if a little steep. But an epic view awaits the 18 University of Georgia students who make the climb. 

High above Yosemite Valley, they gaze westward to make out Half Dome in the distance. Other peaks of various shapes and features stretch on endlessly. 

After snapping a few photos with their phones, the students find a seat on the stone slab and take out their orange novella-sized notebooks and pencils. 

Class is now in session. 

For adventurous students, it’s a singular opportunity. 

“I’d never be able to do all this on my own no matter how hard I tried,” says Ava Macie, a second-year ecology major. “I couldn’t hit all these parks in an entire lifetime. This trip offered everything in one go.” 

The journey, however, is much more than a sightseeing road trip. A rotating cadre of UGA faculty and teaching assistants leads the program. And at every stop, the travelers get a lesson about the landscape, the environment, and the human aspects of their location. Piece by piece, they develop a more holistic sense of America’s natural world, its history, its society, and perhaps its future. 

When you’ve traveled the world, finding a place to finally call home can be a labor of love. Investing in a community and its people and always striving for improvement is a special kind of labor.

It happens to be the specialty of Julianne O’Connell, a University of Georgia Ph.D. candidate. After years of teaching in Germany, Indonesia, and Austria, she has returned to the Classic City to make a difference.

O’Connell is an adventurer with a passport running out of room for stamps. But it’s not a love for hopping around the world that drives her travels. It’s a strong passion for and serving those in them, especially through food security. O’Connell strives to improve student support services and the basic needs of her community through personal, long-term connections with those who need that assistance. Her empathy and work ethic make that possible not just in her home base but anywhere in the world.

There and back again

O’Connell traveled to Germany in high school. And by the time she enrolled as an undergraduate, she knew she wanted to travel abroad and make an impact.

As a student, she worked as a resident advisor in Creswell Hall and was a dedicated member of UGArden, an experiential learning organization dedicated to organic food production.

“I had a few years to identify my values and how I like spending my time,” she says. “Service really came to the forefront of the jobs that I had.”

She majored in German studies and linguistics and became fluent in German (eventually learning some Indonesian and Spanish as well).

But speaking German in Athens, Ga, could only go so far. Enter the Fulbright Program. That program sent O’Connell to Indonesia to teach English for a year. She also lived in Austria, where she taught English to Austrians and taught German to the nation’s visitors. In the years spent away from Georgia, she made her own home. 

“Making a home through community is possible  through really getting to know the people in these host communities and understanding their needs and figuring out if there’s a role I can fill in through partnership and understanding,” O’Connell says.

After a stint in over 30 countries, she decided to help others back at UGA and earn her Ph.D. in Higher Education at the McBee Institute of Higher Education. She is focusing on student support services to enable the next generation to have a secure foundation in life and has led the Higher Education Student Society and the Public Service and Outreach Committee.

O’Connell also came back to Creswell Hall as a graduate resident advisor. Now with worldly experience, she was equipped to help undergraduate residents during the COVID-19 pandemic. With limited access to dining halls, financial concerns, and overall mental health depletion, students who had invested in meal plans no longer always knew when their next meal would be. That’s what solidified her dissertation research into food insecurity among college students.

“I was always aware of the issue of food insecurity, but mostly as a K-12 issue. But here they are, having to make decisions between car payments and working and going to class and their basic needs,” O’Connell says.

In farming with AmeriCorps Tennessee and agricultural colleges in Austria, O’Connell understood the demand for fresh food that’s often missing from food banks. Now, you can find O’Connell spending her free time at UGArden or the Campus Kitchen at UGA, a student-based organization committed to hunger relief in the Athens community. Even if it’s based on helping others, O’Connell emphasizes that everyone—including the person doing the service—benefits from community care. It’s all reciprocated.

“I volunteer and help at UGArden, but I also gain access to knowledge, plants, and produce,” she says.

She now believes anyone can contribute to this collaborative cycle, even on her college campus. As a graduate assistant in UGA’s Office of Service Learning, she connects students to community resources and opportunities to give back.

After traveling the world, O’Connell has learned what it means to serve a community. She wants to pass it on to the next generation of students.

“You can have the mindset of a study abroad student in your own community,” she says. “I truly believe that you can still have a very adventurous, fun, meaningful, service-filled life, even if you are just in your hometown.”

UGA alumna finds “sweet success” in social media.

Southern Living’s lifestyle brand has been a familiar household name for generations. From the treasured family recipe your grandmother taught you to the holiday decorations you pass on to your children, the magazine touches lives in far-reaching ways.

The same is true for Ivy Odom BSFCS ’15, AB’ 15, senior lifestyle editor at Southern Living. She has become a familiar face on The Today Show, The Kelly Clarkson Show, and Good Morning America. Her social media videos for recipes, etiquette, home decor, and style and gardening tips have changed the face of Southern Living.

“Videos are a really great way to expand on the magazine, and they’re more accessible for a wider audience,” says Odom. “It’s a modern way to bring the magazine to life and encourage newer audiences to fall in love with the brand.”

Odom’s first video for Southern Living thrust her into social media stardom. 

As an intern in 2017, she was developing recipes in the test kitchens. One day, with no recipe on the schedule, Odom whipped up a Southern favorite called the Little Layer Chocolate Cake. The 18-layer dessert had mouths watering from Georgia to California. Southern Living editors knew they had found something special and demand for Odom’s videos skyrocketed after that day.

“At the time, there were no other videos in the company like the ones we started making, which was almost a mini cooking show where you could take two or three minutes to explain an in-depth recipe,” says Odom. “We created that style of video for the brand, and it was the most successful one in the company for the entire year because no one had ever done that before.”

What started as a simple baking video grew into a career that is custom-made for Odom. If there’s one thing she knows how to do, it’s how to take advantage of an opportunity, a skill she developed as a student at the University of Georgia. Odom double-majored in consumer journalism and Spanish language and literature. When she wasn’t in class, she was actively involved with programs like Shop with a Bulldawg, a student-led non-profit that provides funding and mentorship to children during the holidays. She was also a member of the Blue Key Honor Society and Palladia Women’s Society, studied abroad in Spain, and worked almost every event hosted by the College of Family and Consumer Sciences.

After the original chocolate cake sensation, Odom continued her baking videos. This launched a video series, television show, and TikTok channel. In her most famous video, Odom suggested a pinch of baking soda in sweet tea would cut the bitterness. 

Southerners had a lot to say about that.

“It was very controversial. For the longest time, people called me the Southern Living Sweet Tea Girl,” she says about the video, which premiered in 2020. “Strangers would ask me, ‘Are you the baking soda girl?’ Even today, people will walk up to me on the street and call me the Sweet Tea Girl.”

Odom still has a lot she wants to do at Southern Living and is working on new ventures, including an upcoming cookbook.

“I would have never in a million years, when I was a student at UGA, thought this is what I would be doing now, but I feel like I am living my dream job,” she says. “I just want to keep working toward these unpredictable moments. And whatever is going to keep me on my toes, whatever life throws at me, I want it to be an exciting adventure.”

Think of your favorite Super Bowl commercial. 

Is it a mud-splattered Betty White eating a Snickers bar? A trio of croaking frogs hawking Budweiser? Maybe “Mean” Joe Greene giving away his game jersey for a bottle of Coke?

Andy Pearson, who has worked as a creative director and copywriter for several big brands over the years, has noticed a pattern.

“All the most fun brands on the planet are the ones that are not healthy for us,” he says. Today, Pearson ABJ ’06, AB ’06 is the vice president of creative at Liquid Death, the subversive canned water company. 

For those unfamiliar with Liquid Death, here’s the quick rundown: Founder and CEO Mike Cessario wanted to sell water in cans instead of bottles to reduce plastic pollution, and he devised a brand with a punk rock/heavy metal aesthetic and farcical sense of humor.

The company packages its water (sparkling or still, flavored or au naturel) and iced tea in tall boy-sized cans emblazoned with a melting skull logo. Whereas most water companies put their beverage in a clear plastic bottle to invoke purity, Liquid Death’s cans look like, well, beer or a sugary, over-caffeinated energy drink. 

The basic premise of Liquid Death, according to Pearson, is this: “What if we took the healthiest thing on the planet—water—and made it look like beer, and then we acted like it was really unhealthy?”

“There can be just a really simple idea that we put out in the world that has a real effect,” he says.

Pearson also flourished with the leadership and learning opportunities from the Honors Program, where he served as a student advisor and member of the Honors Council.

After honing his craft at the Atlanta ad school Creative Circus, Pearson went on to work at several ad agencies and picked up freelance work. 

He’s written for Pizza Hut, Old Navy, Volkswagen, and Microsoft, to name a few. Then he took a few years to travel to Asia and Europe with his wife, freelancing all the while. During that time, he met Cessario, the Liquid Death founder. When Pearson settled stateside in Los Angeles, a job offer followed.

Pearson feels like he’s found his true calling at Liquid Death, where his job isn’t so much about selling a product as it is giving his audience a chuckle. 

“We kind of think of ourselves more as an entertainment brand that happens to sell water than a water brand that makes ads,” Pearson says. 

Pearson uses that same approach to help the brand talk about plastic pollution—particularly the difficulty in recycling plastics. (Most of the plastic that consumers “recycle” actually ends up in a landfill or, worse, the environment.) In one video, Pearson helped create a fake ad for a “recycled plastic surgery center,” which offers implants made of used plastic bottles.

“We approach sustainability using dark humor to talk about it and bring more people in,” Pearson explains.

“A lot of brands are still trying to force themselves down people’s throats, which as a person who gets marketed to all the time, that’s not what I want to be,” he says. “Our goal is to just be the best thing that someone sees that day.”

Tomamichel, a recent Ph.D. graduate of the University of Georgia’s Odum School of Ecology, has been studying what factors affect the spread of the disease, which is caused by a kind of ciliate (a single-cell animal) called Hyalophysa lynni, and how it impacts the shrimping industry. To do that, she spent several years studying shrimp black gill disease off the Georgia coast. 

When the disease first emerged, Tomamichel said, “Shrimpers had noticed that the prevalence of shrimp with this disease will spike, and then suddenly the number of shrimp caught in nets went down.”

Tomamichel wants to know what 1) environmental factors caused the prevalence of the disease to spike and 2) what contributes to making the disease deadly. 

Answering those questions could help scientists and those in the fishing industry better understand how to protect their fisheries and how to prepare when disease strikes.

She’s continuing research at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science as a postdoctoral researcher. Next up? She’ll apply what she learned at UGA as she studies another parasite infecting Virginia’s blue crab populations. 

“This is what is so inspiring about ecology in general as well as fisheries ecology,” she said. “There’s so many human environments and animal community and population dynamics that all interplay, which I think is really cool.”