Tags: Human Nature

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Alumni-student mentor initiative

UGA launched its first comprehensive mentorship initiative, the UGA Mentor Program, on June 12. Alumni, including faculty and staff, who are interested in participating can create a profile at mentor.uga.edu. The site will open for student sign-ups in August: The UGA Mentor Program offered a pilot program in January 2019 to 115 pairs of alumni and students. Of the students who participated, 93% said they gained an appreciation for…

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Roberts-Galbraith receives McKnight Scholar Award

University of Georgia faculty member Rachel Roberts-Galbraith has received the 2019 McKnight Scholar Award, which recognizes scientists in the early stages of their careers working in the field of neuroscience. An assistant professor of cellular biology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, Roberts-Galbraith is the first UGA faculty member to receive the award.  “Dr. Roberts-Galbraith’s studies are a unique combination of…

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Public History Summer Internship Program 2019

UGA's Public History Summer Internship Program in Washington, D.C., is currently underway.  Public history is the work that historians do outside of the university to bring history to a wider audience. This can take place in many different settings but includes historic sites, museums, archives, libraries, parks, and monuments. Associate professor of history and director of the summer program Akela Reason shares this update: The…

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Alumni Johnson and Schneider Leave No Trace

The UGA Graduate School magazine profiles alumni Jessie Johnson, who received an MA in Sociology (2005) and Matthew Schneider, who earned a Ph.D. in Philosophy (2010), intrepid adventurers who share a mindful approach to living: Johnson and Schneider have no permanent address, no “home” per se, but live on the road and camp in public campgrounds or sometimes on private land. They are one of four pairs of Leave No Trace…

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Women in Science pursues equality, diversity

Five years ago, Cecilia Sánchez and Anya Brown, ecology doctoral candidates at the time, founded the Women in Science in service of creating a community where they could connect with peers and mentors. Open to anyone (including men) interested in pursuing equality and diversity in science, WiSci has grown to incorporate undergraduate students and an outreach program as well as all STEM disciplines: The organization hosts several events…

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2019 Franklin College Staff Excellence Awards

The Franklin College held our annual Staff Appreciation Reception and Awards ceremony on May 14 in the North Rotunda of the Miller Learning Center. The event is always a great occasion just after the Spring semester to social and recognize our colleagues for their excellent work. The college recognizes staff who have reached milestones in years of service at 10, 15, 20, 25 and this year we celebrated James Griffith, a research professional who…

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UGA Press campaign funds history Ph.D. apprenticeships

The University of Georgia Press created an endowment to fund a publishing apprenticeship program for students from the history department graduate program. The Peggy Heard Galis History Ph.D. Apprenticeship will allow history Ph.D. candidates to gain insight into and experience in the scholarly publishing process: The Peggy Heard Galis apprentices will be Ph.D. students in the UGA history department. The apprentices will receive…

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CAREER research program to focus on active learning

One key to improving undergraduate education and student achievement across the STEM disciplines, as well as more broadly across the campus, is the integration of evidence-based teaching strategies – using what works most effectively for student learning. Now, a University of Georgia faculty member will lead a five-year, national scale research and education project to better understand and support the use of evidence-based teaching in…

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Student designs AI app to diagnose plant diseases

Shaza Mehdi tried diagnosing blighted flowers by Googling images of plant diseases and comparing those images with the sick roses, sparking an idea that led her to come up with PlantMD — a smartphone app that can diagnose a plant disease with the snap of a photo: After three months of researching, coding and getting some help from her high school teachers, Mehdi launched the app. “PlantMD works when you take a picture of a…

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Spring Commencement 2019

The sky seems indecisive the morning of May 10, 2019. The families, the graduating students, the faculty and staff of the Franklin College and the University of Georgia are not. It is a great day. It is graduation day - all the work, all the hope, tears and toil, sweat, friends, relief, awards, disappointment, anxiety, triumph. All of it has been for this. Our graduates (and their supportive network of family and friends) have done it! They…

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Student Commencement speaker: Franklin double-major Joshua Clifford

Just one week from today, double-major dual degree graduate and Redcoat Marching Band drum major Joshua Clifford’s journey through UGA will culminate as this spring’s student Commencement speaker: Because of the Redcoat Marching Band I was able to find community within UGA before classes even started my freshman year. I’ll never forget my first day of band camp when I met the 40 other members of the clarinet section. I was so…

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Communication Studies senior dedicated to literacy

Maggie George grew up on the Harry Potter books and “The Little Princess.” Now, through her work with First Book UGA, she’s helping to raise the literacy rate in Athens-Clarke County: “I believe that every kid should have access to books. “It’s heartbreaking when you read about the summer slide that happens when kids don’t have access to books over the summer,” she said. “They come back to school, and they’re just so far behind other kids…

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Georgia Debate Union finishes 2019 as top varsity debate team in the nation

For the first time in the program's history the Georgia Debate Union finished the 2018-19 season as the top varsity college debate team in both the American Debate Association and the National Debate Tournament's end-of-the-season rankings. Each ranking is derived from points that two-person teams accumulate for each tournament over the course of the season, which runs from mid-September to the end of March.  UGA's top…

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Flagship Programs figure strongly in 2019 Boren scholars

A record number of seven University of Georgia undergraduates - including five who participate Flagship Language Programs - were awarded Boren Scholarships this spring, which will allow them to study abroad during the 2019-2020 academic year in world regions critical to U.S. interests: An initiative of the National Security Education Program, the 2019 Boren Awards will send 244 Boren Scholars and 106 Boren Fellows to live in…

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Anthropology comic series, workbook connect fun to critical thinking

The Center for Applied Isotope Studies provides crucial research and analytical expertise in radiocarbon dating on campus and around the world. The commitment of its faculty, staff and students also stretches into helping young people think about science by bringing anthropology to life: [Former CAIS research scientist Alice Hunt] wanted a way to hook undergraduate students while teaching them the skills professors are…

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Amazing student Kaylee Jerman

Senior Kaylee Jerman’s desire to help others has led her through her study abroad trips, volunteering with UGA Miracle and showing off the campus to visitors. She’ll continue to pursue that passion in the Peace Corps: Many of my highlights here at UGA have been spent overseas. The summer after my freshman year I went on a trip with the Warnell School of Forestry to Botswana and South Africa. I spent that month learning how to be a…

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Kudos, April 2019

Honors week, new grants and a Guggenheim Fellowship headline the accolades for Franklin faculty announced during the month of April: The 2019 CURO symposium’s first day also included a keynote address by Jennifer McDowell, professor and chair of the Behavioral and Brain Sciences Program in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, on the topic of “Minding Your Brain.” McDowell spoke to a packed house about the…

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Notre-Dame de Paris: monument to culture, reason, spirituality and restoration

The fire that engulfed the spire and roof of the Gothic cathedral Notre-Dame de Paris on April 8 convulsed a sense of alarm, sadness and loss worldwide. One of the most widely recognized symbols of the city of Paris and the French nation, the edifice engenders a particular sense of wonder – and ownership – across the globe, a cultural reverence that crosses into the spiritual and back again in a way few buildings or places are capable.…

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A leading voice for diversity: Kecia Thomas

Franklin College senior associate dean Kecia Thomas leads diversity efforts and initiatives throughout the university, supports faculty and graduate students success and helps recruit many of the most talented professors in the nation to UGA: To add to Thomas’s long list of responsibilities, diversity within the university is her primary area of study. Thomas often works with organizations within UGA and other institutions in which she conducts…

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OVPI Awards recognize outstanding advisors

The UGA Office of Instruction celebrated the crucial role of advising with the 2019 Outstanding Undergraduate Academic Advising Awards to four University of Georgia academic advisors: Mike Merva, Ali Gerlach, Umesh Patel and Antonina Ignatiuc were nominated by their supervisors and a committee of three student representatives from SGA, along with the previous advising award winners. The Office of Instruction and the Office of…

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History professor awarded Guggenheim Fellowship

Scott Nelson, Georgia Athletic Association Professor in Humanities in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, has been awarded a prestigious John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship: Nelson, who specializes in 19th-century American social history in the department of history, has authored or co-authored five books, most recently “A Nation of Deadbeats: An Uncommon History of America’s Financial Disasters.” “The…

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Georgia Debate Union caps most successful year in its history

After winning the American Debate Association tournament earlier in March, Georgia Debate Union members Nathan Rice and Johnnie Stupek recently finished second at the 2019 National Debate Tournament (NDT), held at the University of Minnesota.   Rice and Stupek are the second team in the history of the Georgia Debate Union to make it to the final round of the National Debate Tournament and the first since 1997. In their run to the…

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Noted and Quoted, March 2019

Faculty, alumni and 'statistical significance' lead our media mentions for the month of March: Goldman’s “flexible” dress code takes a cue from Silicon Valley – associate professor of history Stephen Mihm at – Yahoo! Finance   UGA experts discuss future of CRISPR gene research after international controversy – R&B quotes Michael Terns, distinguished research professor in the department of biochemistry and…

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'Statistical significance' reaches its limits

Scientists are re-assessing one of their own most fundamental measurements: the use of statistical significance in research findings (as well as funding). An editorial co-authored by UGA statistics professor Nicole Lazar and published this week in a special issue of The American Statistician urges scientists to stop using the term: The issue, Statistical Inference in the 21st Century: A World Beyond P<0.05, calls for an…

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Franklin faculty members receive 2019 Russell Awards

Three faculty members in the Franklin College, all former Lilly Teaching Fellows, have been named recipients of the Richard B. Russell Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the university’s highest early career teaching honor: Vera Lee-Schoenfeld, associate professor of linguistics: Lee-Schoenfeld uses an inductive approach to her introductory and advanced syntax courses that guides students to collaboratively explore and analyze…
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