The 2018 Young Scholars Program kicked off on Monday, June 4th at the University of Georgia Griffin Campus with 20 students participating in the six-week internship program. High school students from the region were selected from a pool of 86 applicants to participate in YSP where they will spend the summer working alongside world-renowned research scientists at UGA Griffin.
This year we have eight returning young scholars: Austin Duncan, Tamara English, Mary Grace Johnson, Maddox Jordan, Sheilendria Rawls, Jolie Ryff, Martha Sikora and Sarah Smyly. Joining YSP for the first time are: William Anong, Samuel Cross, Joshua Duffey, Taaseen Khan, Yuheon Lee, Lauren Moyer, Meghan Rogers, Emily Shi, Melanie Wagner, Robert “Lee” Wall, Dean Watson and Caroline Zhang. The students will spend Monday through Thursday working with their mentors and on Fridays they will have exploratory site visits to various areas on campus and work-shops from insightful presenters about college/life skills.
The first day of the program brought orientation and a campus tour, where students visited the Seed Bank, Center for Food Safety and the UGA Research and Education Garden. Then after working with their mentors the next couple of days, the group got back together on Friday for site visits and workshops. The first site visit of the day was to Horticulture for an Ornamental Breeding Overview and greenhouse tour, hosted by Dr. Carol Robacker’s assistants, Susan Hawkings and Leynar Leyton. The next stop was Entomology for an Insect Genetics Overview, hosted by Sasha Kay. After returning to the classroom, students heard from UGA Griffin’s CAES Program Coordinator Kathleen Freeman on the many CAES majors and careers available, as well as Senior IT Manager Doug Stewart for a campus IT overview.
To close out the first week, Dr. Victoria David, Administrative Director for the UGA Office of Diversity Affairs, took the students through the Real Colors Personality Assessment where they were able to learn a little more about themselves and each other.