Honors in Brief

Engineering content

This summer, Honors sophomore Celena Michaud interned as an online instructional content designer for the College of Engineering.

“My experience in computer systems engineering,” she said, “guided me toward helping professors teaching foundational engineering courses create more supplemental content for their lectures.”

She and other engineering students helped faculty as they developed instructional content to aid in the rapid transition to online and remote learning environments. They also created materials for foundational courses to help compensate for lessened face-to-face instruction during fall 2020.

Celena is working toward a degree in computer systems engineering. In fall 2019, she completed the first of five full-time semester-long rotations in Savannah interning for Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation. In the photo at right, she is soldering electrical connections for an embedded systems robot.

Breaking barriers

Ciera Thomas, an Honors junior majoring in microbiology, is currently Senate President Pro-Tempore for the UGA Student Government Association.

Last school year, she spearheaded Breaking Barriers, a week of programming co-hosted by the University Health Center that focused on mental health awareness and crisis prevention.

“I was tasked with leading the efficient revision of legislation pertaining to organizational and student-conceived initiatives,” she said. “This role is one central to our ability to effectively represent the voices of over 30,000 students as it allows us to actively engage with our constituents and work toward resolving the issues they face on our campus.”

Graduate education: NSF fellowships

Seven Honors Program alumni were among 10 University of Georgia graduates recognized this year through the highly competitive National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program.

The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines. The five-year fellowship includes three years of financial support with an annual stipend of $34,000 and a cost of education allowance of $12,000 to the institution.

The 2020 Honors recipients are listed below along with their graduation years, UGA degrees, graduate institution, and graduate program.

• Jacob Lee Beckham, graduated from UGA in December 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, attending William Marsh Rice University for a Ph.D. in chemistry (chemical synthesis)

• Mackenzie Joy, graduated from UGA in May 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in physics and astronomy, attending the University of California, Berkeley for a Ph.D. in physics

• Katie Luedecke, graduated from UGA in May 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, attending the California Institute of Technology for a Ph.D. in chemistry (chemical synthesis)

• Arturia Melson-Silimon, graduated from UGA in May 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, attending UGA for a Ph.D. in industrial and organizational psychology

• Bailey Palmer, graduated from UGA in May 2018 with bachelor’s degrees in Arabic and economics, attending the University of California, Berkeley for a Ph.D. in economics

• Jordan Peeples, graduated from UGA in May 2019 with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics, attending the University of Pennsylvania for a Ph.D. in economics

• Zach Weingarten, graduated from UGA in May 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in economics, attending the University of Pennsylvania for a Ph.D. in economics

Outstanding Honors Students

The Honors Program celebrated its Outstanding Honors Students for the Class of 2020 through congratulatory emails and social media this spring in lieu of the usual April banquet. The honorees (from left to right, top to bottom), their majors, and their awards are listed below:

• Logan Ballard; biochemistry and molecular biology and microbiology; Alan J. Jaworski Science Award, Life Science

• Shelby Boykin; finance and real estate; Outstanding Honors Student in Business

• Paige Collins; classics and history; Outstanding Honors Student in the Humanities

• Hannah Dickens; sociology, psychology, and criminal justice; Outstanding Honors Student in the Social Sciences

• Monte Fischer; mathematics (BS/MA) and computer science (BS); Alan J. Jaworski Science Award, Physical Science

• Austin Gibbons; political science and public relations; George M. Abney Award (Grady College Outstanding Honors Student Award)

• Janelle Hampton; early childhood education; Outstanding Honors Student in Education

• Grace Anne Ingham; environmental economics and management; Outstanding Honors Student in Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

• Lauren Lewis; human development and family science; Outstanding Honors Student in Family and Consumer Sciences

• Katie Luedecke; chemistry; Joy P. Williams Science Awards, Physical Science

• Callan Russell; genetics; Joy P. Williams Science Awards, Life Science

Undergraduate welcome

Joseph Benken guided incoming undergraduates this past summer as they were virtually welcomed to the University of Georgia through New Student Orientation. In October 2019, he was one of 16 students selected as an orientation leader from more than 340 applicants. An Honors junior majoring in international business and business management, he collaborated with New Student Orientation staff to welcome 8,000-plus new students to campus. He provided mentoring for more than 40 students each session as he introduced students to academic opportunities and campus engagement activities. “Each week I was able to meet and develop relationships with incoming first-year students,” he said. “Through the use of small groups, webinars, and panels, I assisted parents and students through the transition to college during the COVID-19 pandemic.” Joseph also presented at the Southeast Regional Orientation Workshop on team development and how to effectively use prior experiences in times of uncertainty.

Georgia Writers Hall of Fame

The literary achievements of A. E. Stallings—award-winning poet and translator, noted essayist and reviewer—go hand in hand with the high regard her readers, critics, and fellow poets and translators on both sides of the Atlantic have for the Georgia-born writer and her work.

Alicia Elsbeth Stallings grew up in Decatur with her parents and sister and attended DeKalb County’s Briarcliff High School, where her literary aspirations took hold. She published poems in Cat Fancy and Seventeen Magazine in her teens. She studied Latin at UGA where she was an Honors student and Foundation Fellow (AB, ’90) and then earned a degree in classical languages and literature at Oxford University in England (MSt, 1991). Since 1999 she has lived in Athens, Greece.

In interviews, when asked about what influence her work with classical writing has had on her own work, “the ancients taught me how to sound modern,” she told Forbes magazine in 2009. “They showed me that technique was not the enemy of urgency, but the instrument.”

In 1999 her poetry collection, Archaic Smile, won the Richard Wilbur Award. She has since published three more collections of her poetry. Hapax (2006) won the Poets’ Prize, from a jury of 20 American poets, as the year’s best book of American poetry. Olives (2012) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her collection Like (2019) was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Her translation of De rerum natura (The Nature of Things) by the Roman poet/philosopher Lucretius was published as a Penguin Classics book in 2009. The London’s Times Literary Supplement editor called A. E.’s version of the Epicurean classic, “one of the most extraordinary classical translations of recent times.” Her next book translation—the ancient Greek poet Hesiod’s 800-line poem Erga kai Hēmerai (Works and Days), another Penguin Classics publication—was a finalist for the Anglo-Hellenic League’s Runciman Award.

In 2011, she was given a MacArthur Foundation fellowship— commonly known as the “genius grant.” In 2012, she was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In fall 2019, she published her most recent book, her translation of the ancient Greek fable The Battle Between the Frogs and the Mice (BatrachomyomachiaI).

—Adapted from her Georgia Writers Hall of Fame biography

Alumni honors

Eight Honors Program alumni were selected for UGA’s 40 Under 40 Class of 2020.

The UGA Alumni Association’s annual program began in 2011 and celebrates the personal, professional, and philanthropic achievements of UGA graduates under the age of 40.

Ginny Barton Bowen (BS ’04) Atlanta, Georgia Lieutenant Commander, CDC, US Public Health Service

Laine Bradshaw (BSED ’07, MED ’07, PHD ’11) Athens, Georgia Founder and CEO, Navvy Education LLC

Wells Ellenberg (AB ’13) Washington, DC Governmental Affairs Manager, Southern Company

Houston A. Gaines (AB ’17, AB ’17) Athens, Georgia State Representative, Georgia General Assembly

Cheryl L. Maier (AB ’04, BS ’04) Atlanta, Georgia Medical Director, Emory Special Coagulation Laboratory

Jay McCracken (BS ’05) Atlanta, Georgia Neurosurgical Oncologist, Piedmont Atlanta Hospital Brain Tumor Center

Erin Mordecai (BS ’07) Stanford, California Assistant Professor of Biology, Stanford University

Charles T. Tuggle III (BS ’05) New Orleans, Louisiana Assistant Professor of Clinical Surgery, LSU Health Sciences Center

Honors cords

The Honors Program hosted a socially distanced cord and certificate pickup for graduates attending the spring undergraduate Commencement ceremony on Oct. 16 in Sanford Stadium. Honors student worker Jack Cenatempo, right, hands an Honors graduation cord and certificate to Aven Jones, who completed degrees in fine arts and scientific illustration in May.

New year, new mask

Maggie Whitehead celebrated the first day of classes this fall with a punny Instagram caption: “M{ask} me how excited I am to be back in class!!” The Honors sophomore is studying exercise and sport science.

MicroRNA discovery: Eye cancer research

Ayushi Vashishtha presented on her findings on eye cancer research at Augusta University’s Igniting the Dream of Medicine Conference on Feb. 29. A third-year Honors student majoring in cellular biology and minoring in global health, she is a pre-medical student.

Ayushi’s first-author paper on eye cancer research was published in the journal Oncotarget in April. It focuses on a rare eye cancer known as uveal melanoma and the median overall survival rate of patients with metastasis, which is less than a year.

“In my recently published research paper, we discovered the microRNAs that are associated with metastasis and overall survival in these patients,” she said. “Our findings have the potential to serve as future biomarkers and therapeutic targets for the treatment of this rare cancer.”

Zoom connection

In May, The Atlantic featured Honors juniors Claire Bunn, Emma Ellis, Will McGonigle, and Spencer Sumner for their Survivor game played over Zoom.

“In between our late-night study sessions, our friend group played Survivor as a way to stay in touch during quarantine,” said Emma, a Foundation Fellow majoring in genetics and Spanish. “Our story was actually featured in an Atlantic installment of the ‘Friendship Files.’”

The four friends were all in the same organic chemistry class, and when UGA moved to virtual instruction after spring break in March, Will moved their Survivor obsession online.

“When Will started the Survivor game, that helped me pick my social life back up,” Spencer shared in The Atlantic’s Q&A. He’s majoring in biology and anthropology. “It gave me something to look forward to. I would schedule my family’s day around it.”