Campus News

January 7, 2011

Strategic Plan Update

Students stand out in classroom and community

The following are representative of Emory’s undergraduate, graduate and professional students who embody the ideal of engaged scholarship in the classroom and the community.

External recognition
on the rise

The outstanding scholarship of Emory students is internationally recognized. Among recent student honors:

• Emory College senior Shivani Jain was awarded the prestigious Marshall Scholarship to study global health in Great Britain.

• Laney Graduate School students received Fulbright and Social Science Research Council Fellowships, as well as competitive research grants and fellowships from the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation, among others.

• Medical student Seema Shah received the Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholarship for 2009-10, and spent 11 months in New Delhi researching cardiovascular disease among Type II diabetics.

Rosy Gomez

Before enrolling in medical school to become an oncologist, Emory College junior Rosy Gomez plans to spend a year after graduation inspiring the next generation of scientists in Guatemala.

Recently, Gomez was one of three Georgia students to receive a $2,500 scholarship funded by President Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize money through the Hispanic Scholarship Fund. A neuroscience and behavioral biology major with a minor in Catholic studies, she plans to use the money to study abroad in Paris this summer.

On campus, Gomez hosts prospective students and organizes events for Essence of Emory, a multicultural visitation weekend. She is co-vice president of College Students Interested in Neuroscience, facilitating opportunities for students to shadow Emory neurologists.

She also trains counselors for the week-long Camp Kesem Emory, a summer camp for children whose parents have battled cancer or are undergoing treatment.

“I understand what it’s like to grow up more than you have to,” says Gomez, whose father died of colon cancer four years ago.

After graduation, Gomez hopes to return to her parents’ village of Cuilco, Guatemala, to teach elementary biology, with an emphasis on preventive care.

Zwade Marshall

Fourth-year medical student Zwade Marshall grimly recalls trying to teach geometry when a stray bullet pierced his blackboard at Towers High School in Decatur.

Marshall’s tenth graders were alarmingly calm. One correctly identified the bullet as a .22 caliber.

After entering Emory’s School of Medicine, Marshall was determined to disrupt the cycle of violence threatening students’ confidence and motivation. In 2007, he co-founded Project Pipeline with then-medical student Samuel Funt to improve academic performance and foster an interest in the sciences among Atlanta-area high schoolers.

Supported by a grant from the Office of University-Community Partnerships and private donations, the program recently graduated its first cohort of 19 students from South Atlanta High School, all of whom are attending or will be attending college.

Students begin Pipeline in their sophomore year and continue through senior year working on interactive medical cases, developed and facilitated by Emory undergraduates, medical students, residents and faculty.

“I can definitely relate to the kids in the classroom,” says Marshall, a Guyana native and 2010 Emory Humanitarian Award Winner. “I know the distractions they face and how much effort it takes for them to achieve.”

Betty Woodman

Thriving and surviving in a sustainable world is the focus of Betty Woodman’s doctoral work at Emory’s Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts.

A recipient of the 2010 Robert S. Hascall Sustainability Innovator Award, Woodman helped launch Emory’s new sustainability minor. As a graduate fellow for the program, she has worked with the Office of University-Community Partnerships to develop service learning opportunities for students, from building a community garden in Decatur to advising local governments on training and recruitment opportunities for “green” industry.

This fall, Woodman assembled Emory faculty from the natural sciences, social sciences and business to teach “Foundations of Sustainability,” a course that encourages a multi-disciplinary appreciation for sustainability issues.

Before returning to graduate school, Woodman spent a career in the technology industry and volunteered with social service agencies. She takes a holistic approach to observing power dynamics as they influence sustainable communities, connecting bullying on the playground to the pecking order at the office to issues of environmental domination.

“I look at a number of different categories of life history in order to understand the possible constraints limiting freedom and a sustainable society,” she says.

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