Twenty-one GPC STEM scholars are participating in research undergraduate programs this summer. Host institutions for the six-to-10-week research programs include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Duke University, Emory University, Florida Institute of Technology, Texas Tech University, Georgia Tech, Georgia State University and the University of Georgia-Griffin Campus. Student participants are: Angela Aralu, Bruce Baptiste, Aemah Badri, Omolola Falade Osiefa, Anh Ho,  Khoa Ho, Rachel Kyeremaa, Yash-yee Logan, Tanesha McGarvey, Joseph Miles, Amarchi Ochiobi, Chibuzo Ochiobi, Onyinyechi Ochiobi, Chinazaekpere Ochiobi, Kikachukwu Okolo, Omojaro Olatide, Cherish Prickett, Nathanael Tshibambe, Sheena Vasquez, Maurice Jones and Francine Elle.

Five Georgia Perimeter College nursing students have been selected to participate in the Bridges to Baccalaureate program at Emory University’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing. They are Roxana Chicas, Brittany Freeman, Johnny Hardeman, Udia Oghenetego Otuguor and Alexa Stewart. The students will have an eight-week summer immersion program at Emory focused on rigorous nursing education coupled with academic research exposure. Then, after completing their associate degrees in nursing at GPC, they will seamlessly transition into the baccalaureate nursing program at Emory. The internship program is funded through the National Institute of Health.

GPC student Nicolai Samuels has been awarded a full-time paid summer internship with the Veteran’s Administration in Orlando, Fla. The internship is sponsored through the Careers in Transition National Internship Program.

J.T. Phillips, a sophomore shortstop and pitcher at Georgia Perimeter College, has earned two major awards from the Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association. He was named GCAA Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. Phillips led the GCAA in batting average at .422 and was third in RBIs with 49. He also tied for league lead in saves with seven.

Students in the fifth graduating class of the DeKalb Early College Academy received their high school diplomas in May. Of the 37 DECA graduates, 16 also earned their associate degrees from Georgia Perimeter. Some, like Kwamae Delva, have been offered full scholarships to pursue their bachelor degrees. Delva will attend Bates College in Maine, while some of his classmates head to Spelman, the University of Georgia and Georgia State. DECA, an early college/dual enrollment partnership between GPC and DeKalb Schools, enables underserved students to earn high school and college credit simultaneously.

Class of 2014 DECA graduates are Latoya Adams, Jazmyne Bonds, Anthena Butler, Kwamae Delva, Aminata Diallo, Mariama Diallo, Gino Donaldson, Julius Emmanuel, Naud Ghebre, Shamari Grant, Natasha Henry, Ada Herrara, Niya Higginbotham, Asia Howard, Delleisha Hylton, Marissa Ivery-Rogers, Jasmine Jennings, Kelesha King, Fatima Koko, Arely Lopez, Kierra Melvin, Jordan Mitchell, Victoria Morgan, John Nguyen, Omolola Olaleye, Joshua Parker, Jasmine Phillips, Britney Pitter, Kelsey Poole, Azziza Robinson, Nastacia Saunders, Sabatani Shetu, Cameron Smoot, Yasmin Warsama, Lanaarai Wilder, Atticus Williams and Nalmah Williams. Butler, Delva, M. Diallo, Ghebre, Grant, Hylton, Ivery-Rogers, Koko, Lopez, Morgan, Nguyen, Olaleye, Parker, Pitter, Saunders and Shetu all also received their associate degrees.

Georgia Perimeter's Gateway to College Academy graduated 10 students during a ceremony on Clarkston Campus. Several of the graduates plan to enroll full-time at GPC this fall, while others aim to attend college elsewhere in Georgia. Gateway, a collaborative between Georgia Perimeter and DeKalb County Public Schools, targets high school dropouts and students who aren’t faring well in traditional high schools, then re-channels them into the educational pipeline. Academy students are able to work toward their high school diplomas and attaining college credit at the same time. The 2014 spring Gateway graduates are: Hana Bekele, Ashley Campbell, Zachary Hansen, Jadel Hawkins, Madeline Lee, Quinn Ouellette Kray, David Pena, Elizabeth Shore, Charak Sith and Zakkiyyah Thomas.

Well wishers attending the  2014 Dental Hygiene pinning ceremony on Dunwoody Campus offered plenty of hand claps for the 23 Georgia Perimeter College students graduating from the program. The traditional rite takes place just before GPC’s graduation and also recognizes student achievement among both graduating and continuing students. The 2014 Dental Hygiene award and scholarship recipients are:

Hinman Scholars: Loretta Bloom, Melissa Katcoff and Amy Reed; Dental Hygiene State Board Assistance Scholarship: Elise Davidson; Wilmer Eames Award: Chris Le Fave; Martha Fasse Scholarship: Daniela Quintero; Outstanding Dental Hygiene Student: Melissa Katcoff; Sigma Phi Alpha inductees: Loretta Bloom and Ashley Davis; Sigma Phi Alpha Scholarship: Randi Borja; Seattle Study Club of Atlanta Award: Chris Le Fave; Colin Richman Award: Eun Choi; Atlanta Dental Hygiene Society Scholarship: Thu Pham and Morgan Whitsitt; Colgate Star Award: Daniela Quintero; Emile T. Fisher Scholarship: Jin Kwoun; Sheryl Wentworth Faculty Scholarship: Loretta Bloom; and Golden Scaler Award for Outstanding Clinician: Aleksandra Andreyev.

Georgia Perimeter College nursing students celebrated the completion of their program with the traditional pinning ceremony on May 7. A total of 167 students completed the program. Students receiving special recognition were: Nancy Agbeko-Todzro, Outstanding Student Award (named as  “the nurse that faculty would most want to wake up to if ill or hospitalized”); Ashanti Sims, Leadership Award; Shonda Horn Dixon, Jessica Bryl Award (named in memory of a GPC nursing student and given to a student who exemplifies Bryl’s spirit of kindheartedness and a positive, hardworking and non-complaining attitude; Carolyn Olive Academic Award, (given to the student with the highest GPA who also has achieved clinical excellence).

Also at the GPC nurses’ pinning ceremony, the following students earned Clinical Excellence awards: Jerry Heaton for Obstetric Nursing; Joanna Carbajal  for Pediatric Nursing; Yahura Maxwell for Psych/Mental Health Nursing and Melanie Williams for Medical/Surgical Nursing.

Honors Program graduate Joi Rumph has won a $17,800 merit award scholarship from Agnes Scott College. She graduated recently with her associate degree in psychology.

Olatide Omojaro, a Computer Science major, won first place in the Undergraduate Student Oral Poster Presentation Competition at the 2014 Emerging Researchers National Conference in STEM. His research project, “Integrating ASP-Based Planning and Diagnosis with POMDP for Knowledge Representation and Reasoning for Robot,” was based on work he began as a participant in Texas Tech University’s Research Experience for Undergraduates program this past summer.

Former Georgia Perimeter College student Kyle Karikari Kufour Owusu has won an $11,000 annual Quest Whole Person Scholarship to attend Oral Roberts University where he will pursue a degree in computer science. The college is in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Georgia Perimeter math and science students were recently honored during a Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics Initiatives program held at Clarkston Campus. Sheena Vasquez and Ryan Gutierrez received excellence in service awards as scholars in the Educate and Nurture Leadership in Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics (ENLISTEM) program. Amarachi Grace Ochiobi won the outstanding award in research as a Peach State Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (PSLSAMP) student, and Bruce Baptiste won the PSLAMP award for excellence. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Talent Expansion Program (STEP) students Olatide Omojaro and Long Nguyen won the excellence in academics award. Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) excellence in service award winners were Lam Vu, Kikachukwu Okolo, Maurice Jones, Cherish Prickett, Francine Njika Elle, Aemah Badri, Yash Yee Logan and Zeddikia Chisholm.

Inductees to the Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society on Dunwoody Campus took their “oath of membership” during the spring induction ceremony. PTK is the oldest and largest honor society serving two-year colleges around the world.  The new Alpha Zeta Mu Chapter, Dunwoody members are: Zahraa Al Abood, Adnan Al-Atassi, Kenneth Albertson, Nadiya Anderson, Andrew Armstrong, Jeovany Arroyo, Arezu Atefi, Peter Bonsu, Hugo Carranza, Heather Childs, Amanda Copeland, Travis Crawford, Marcia Cupery, Linda Dang, Wesley Davis, Erica Deblasio, Oluwatobi Fagbohun, Lauren Folger, Edward Bruno Gaston, Elizabeth Gates, Sarah Ghalayini, Kerry Hall, Sang Han, Nicholas Hepler, Rachel Hinson, Ann Marie Hormeku, Cierra Jacobson, Lisa Kern, Samuel Lawrence, Bradley Leary, Yunho Lee, Timothy Lee-O’Connor, Xiang Li, Pamela Lowery, Mayur Maisuria, Suzanne Maner, Esther Max-Onakpoya, Heather Meadows, Yaroslav Menshikov, Aimee Moise, Anh Nguyen, Edson Ouedraogo, Myong Choen Park, Amanda Perillo, Justin Richardson, Jonathan Rowe, Joseph Sadler, Sameh Sahari, Mileidi Salinas, Karankumar Sutaria, Jess Taylor, Thomas Teichmann, Tiffany Trivett and Gloria Villegas.

Students in Dr. Arla Bernstein’s Public Speaking Honors class participated in a service learning project with the city of Dunwoody this semester. The students created a promotional campaign for and participated in the city’s annual stream clean-up event held on May 10. Student teams presented their promotional plans to recruit volunteers for the event to city planners on May 1.