Honors acquired to an undergraduate, a graduate scholar and a scholar employee workers
Dana Theoc, a third-year psychology foremost from Jamaica, is UGA’s 2024 Undergraduate Pupil Employee of the Yr resulting from her work with Ella Filston, waste low cost coordinator with the UGA Office of Sustainability.
“Amongst our huge intern cohort, Dana stands out as an environment friendly communicator and glorious chief,” said Filston. “Whereas advancing sustainability on and off campus, Dana leads with kindness and an inclusive work ethic.”
Theoc is a passionate, hard-working and smart scholar who has served as a result of the zero waste intern on the UGA Office of Sustainability for the earlier 12 months and a half. All through this time, she has independently led a lot of purposes and continues to characterize the office at many public events and actions, every on and off campus. Theoc’s vital contemplating skills are evidenced throughout the processes she has developed for the UGA Swap Retailer, Water Bottle Reuse Program and Zero Waste Infrastructure Program. She has constructed environment friendly long-term partnerships with UGA Libraries, Consuming Corporations, Providers Administration Division, School Housing and others to efficiently and creatively advance waste low cost at UGA.
Dana will graduate in Might 2025 with huge hopes for her future. For now, she continues doing vital work with the group, like partnering with the Athens-Clarke County Lyndon Residence Arts Coronary heart as a customer curator this semester. On this functionality, she has hosted “Rescue: Waste and Redemption,” an art work exhibit that features hard-to-recycle provides whereas balancing her on-campus work and rigorous course load.
2024 Graduate Pupil Employee Pupil of the Yr
Garrison Taylor, a grasp’s diploma scholar studying panorama construction from Atlanta, was chosen as a result of the 2024 Graduate Pupil Employee of the Yr resulting from her work with Danny Bivins, senior public service affiliate for strategic operations and planning assistance on the Carl Vinson Institute of Authorities.
“Since changing into a member of our workers in Might 2022, Garrison has regularly impressed pals, supervisors and customers all through the state alongside along with her creative disadvantage fixing and unwavering dedication to our group customers,” Bivins said. “Her design assist has launched creative choices to initiatives in Cornelia, Lumpkin, Baxley, Ringgold and plenty of further, representing hundreds and hundreds of {{dollars}} in monetary enchancment in underserved rural communities and small cities all through Georgia.”
On this place, Taylor has supplied crucial design assist for initiatives all through Georgia. For example, she helped to unify a flowery plan with a lot of companions and 6 collaborating counties for the River Valley Group Acceptable Enchancment Plan by making a sequence of illustrations depicting native wildlife, landmarks and completely different choices distinctive to each confederate group. Taylor’s design concepts and evaluation supplied the premise for a worthwhile grant proposal developed in partnership with the native regional payment, Lumpkin and Stewart counties. Garrison’s work straight supported a higher than $2 million grant to fund streetscape enhancements and park enchancment in Lumpkin County. In an underserved rural group with a 31.9% poverty cost, these funds characterize a transformational different to boost public properly being and generate monetary enchancment.
Taylor plans to graduate in Might 2024 and has a shiny future ahead of her. Until then, she continues her crucial design assist for varied communities all through Georgia as she prepares to finish her analysis and begin her subsequent chapter after graduation.
2024 Pupil Employee Group Award
A workers of six scholar workers from the UGA Veterinary Instructing Hospital acquired the 2024 Pupil Employee of the Yr Group Award:
- Megan Partyka, grasp’s scholar, comparative biomedical science
- Kelsey Trumpp, grasp’s scholar, comparative biomedical science
- Laura Burns, grasp’s scholar, comparative biomedical science
- Alison Jeffrey, grasp’s scholar, comparative biomedical science
- Stephen Santangelo, post-first expert certificates
- Nicole Sallaberry, doctoral scholar, comparative biomedical science
The workers was acknowledged for its great work all via the Athens and Atlanta communities.
“As clinicians, they generally work 60-70 hours each week throughout the Veterinary Instructing Hospital caring for client-owned distinctive pets, injured wildlife and the group zoo animals at Bear Gap Zoo and Sandy Creek Nature Coronary heart,” said Stephen Divers, professor and head of the Zoological Medicine Service on the UGA Veterinary Instructing Hospital. “This workers is on-call and accessible 24/7, 12 months a 12 months, and our native communities have come to rely upon them.”
Together with hospital duties, this graduate workers has moreover been actively involved in conservation initiatives, like conservation for the Galapagos tortoise, and persevering with coaching events, like distinctive animal endoscopy teaching and outpatient conferences for veterinarians worldwide. Collectively, the workers brings in over $500,000 yearly in hospital earnings, and to date three years have helped secure an additional $224,246 in extra-mural funding for quite a few evaluation initiatives. This has resulted in six evaluation abstracts/journal papers to date two years, with six additional papers in preparation.
“It has been a pleasure to see these workers members help and assist each other every day, whether or not or not it’s stepping in to assist with evaluation or overlaying an emergency shift,” Divers said. “They’ve flip right into a family of like-minded professionals and are a credit score rating, not solely to themselves, however moreover to our hospital, faculty and faculty. I could not be prouder of them.”
Additional honorees
The runners-up for Pupil Employee of the Yr — Hannah Brown, UGA CyberArch intern from Loganville, nominated by Mark Lupo, and Joey Tinghitella, graduate assistant for Family Packages & Explicit Initiatives from Tamarac, Florida, nominated by Nic Laconico — have been moreover honored on the luncheon.