Fayette Students Headed for Janfest

Five McIntosh band students will perform in the Janfest High School Band Festival hosted by the University of Georgia Bands January 20-23 in Athens.

Sarah Manley, Jesse Hu, John O’Leary, Drew Naber, and Colin Benton will be among the more than 1,000 students from states throughout the south who were selected to participate.

Participants are given the opportunity to improve their musical skills through auditions, honor and clinic bands, master classes and listening to guest bands perform. They also perform a concert at the close of the festival.

-----
Community News You Can Use
Click to read MORE news:
www.GeorgiaFrontPage.com
Twitter: @gafrontpage & @TheGATable @HookedonHistory
www.ArtsAcrossGeorgia.com
Twitter: @artsacrossga, @softnblue, @RimbomboAAG @FayetteFP

UGA announces 2010 Charter Scholarship recipients

Editor's Notes:  Super kudos to the following Fayette County graduates who received this honor from UGA!

Laura Eckhardt / Peachtree City / Starr’s Mill High School
Sadie Mason / Peachtree City / McIntosh High School
Elliott Tanner / Peachtree City / Starr’s Mill High School
Matthew Winn / Peachtree City / McIntosh High School

University of Georgia incoming freshmen have been selected to receive the Charter Scholarship for the 2010-2011 academic year.

The Charter Scholarship, named to reflect the university’s distinction as the nation’s first state-chartered public university, recognizes first-year students with stellar academic records, leadership and community involvement, and a respect for and commitment to intellectual, social and cultural diversity. The Charter Scholarship is funded by the University of Georgia Foundation.

In-state students receive $1,000 per year in addition to the HOPE Scholarship. Out-of-state recipients are given full or partial non-resident tuition differential waivers with their $1,000 annual scholarships.

The average SAT score of this year’s Charter Scholars exceeded 1400 and their average high school GPA exceeded 4.0.Usually the top six to eight percent of incoming freshmen are recognized as Charter Scholars.

The award is renewable for an additional three years if the recipients maintain certain academic standards.

-----
Community News You Can Use
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page
Follow us on Twitter:  @GAFrontPage

Fayette County Student Awarded Coca-Cola First Generation Scholarship

Jessica Craddock of Fayetteville was the only Starr’s Mill High School and Fayette County student to be awarded a Coca-Cola First Generation Scholarship as announced by the University of Georgia last week.

A total of twelve University of Georgia first-year students have been awarded Coca-Cola First Generation Scholarships for the 2009-2010 academic year. Three returning UGA students also received the award.

This scholarship, funded by the Coca-Cola Foundation since 2007, supports academically outstanding students who are the first in their families to attend college. Recipients must demonstrate financial need to be eligible.

Recipients receive $5,000 per year in addition to the state-supported HOPE Scholarship.

The Coca-Cola award is renewable for another three years of undergraduate study if recipients maintain certain academic credentials.

-----
Community News You Can Use
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page
Fayetteville, Peachtree City, Tyrone
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page
www.artsacrossgeorgia.com
Arts Across Georgia

Fruitful DNA Extraction

Students Brandon Blanchette (left) and Joe Adamson watch as the DNA separates from the strawberry mixture they prepared while UGA graduate student Kameka Johnson looks on

What do strawberries and bananas have in common with Fayette County's Whitewater Middle School students? The answer is DNA. As it turns out, the genetic material of the fruits is very similar to that of humans.

This was just one fascinating fact that approximately 290 seventh graders learned as they participated in a DNA extraction lab conducted by graduate students from the Georgia Plant Scholars Program of the University of Georgia’s (UGA) Plant Pathology Department.

Using regular household items such as coffee filters, salt, dishwashing liquid, water and rubbing alcohol, students learned how to extract DNA from bananas and strawberries. What once took months to complete in a laboratory, took the students less than an hour.

Here is how the process works. The fruit is mashed to breakdown its cell walls and then mixed with salt and dish soap. The soap dissolves the fatty part of the cell wall and the nuclear membrane while the salt breaks up the protein chains that bind around the nucleic acids. This chemical reaction allows liquid containing DNA to pass through the coffee filter and into a container. When rubbing alcohol is added to the container, fine white strands of DNA appear. The DNA forms whitish stringy material that can be spooled onto a toothpick.

UGA’s DNA extraction labs are in high demand around the state. It took science teacher Daniece Post two years to get one at Whitewater using some connections she made at a conference.

“I participated in a UGA workshop in Athens and met Kisha Shelton, the program coordinator of Georgia Plant Science Scholars. We realized we had worked with some of the same professors during our internships and I asked if she would be willing to come to Fayetteville to do a lab. We have worked for two years arranging our schedules for the visit,” says Post.

The lab experiment was used to reinforce the Life Science Georgia Performance Standards that includes levels of cellular organization, cell structure and function, and the role of genes and chromosomes, as well as introduce students to careers in areas not commonly associated with science.
Michaela Phillips (left) and Rocio Obregon prepare to extract DNA from a banana
-----
Community News You Can Use
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page
Fayetteville, Peachtree City, Tyrone
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page
www.artsacrossgeorgia.com
Arts Across Georgia

About 2,260 Eligible to Receive Degrees at UGA Commencement Ceremonies Dec. 19

FL Note: Special kudos to Katie Barter of Peachtree City for her stellar 4.0 at UGA!

About 2,260 University of Georgia students will be eligible to receive degrees at UGA's fall semester commencement ceremonies Dec. 19 in Stegeman Coliseum.

Some 1,650 seniors will be eligible to participate in the ceremony for undergraduates at 9:30 a.m. Donald Eastman, president of Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fla., will be the speaker. Before going to Eckerd in 2001, Eastman was at UGA for 10 years where he served as vice president for development and university relations and vice president for strategic planning and public affairs.

An estimated 614 candidates for master's, doctoral and specialist in education degrees are eligible to participate in the graduate ceremony at 2:30 p.m. Harriet Mayor Fulbright, president of the J. William and Harriet Fulbright Center in Arlington, Va., will speak. The widow of the late U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright, Harriet Fulbright is an educator and arts advocate who lectures worldwide on the importance of international education and collaboration.

The student speaker for the undergraduate ceremony will be Abi Oyegun of Lithonia, who will graduate with degrees in psychology and sociology. Oyegun volunteers with Students Helping Teachers, teaches in UGA's McPhaul Child Development Center and works with an organization called Invisible Children that helps raise awareness of underprivileged children around the world.

Also during the undergraduate ceremony, nine students will be recognized as First Honor Graduates for having maintained a perfect 4.0 grade point average. They are Katie L. Barter, Peachtree City; Caitlin A. Burns, Duluth; Shannon Chen, Athens; Sarah M. Craig, Lawrenceville; Christina L. Dobbs, Calhoun; Sion Kim, Hartwell; Caryn D. Rosing, Atlanta; Channell V. Singh, Hinesville; and Lauren E. Williams, Athens.

Because Dec. 19 is a Friday, a normal workday, some of the usual parking patterns on South Campus near the coliseum will be adjusted. The South Parking Deck (zone S-11) and Carlton Street Deck (zone S-15) will be open at no charge for visitors and guests attending commencement. The Hoke Smith lot (S-12) will be reserved for handicapped guests with proper handicapped placards. The McPhaul Center lot (S-10) will be reserved for members of the commencement platform party.

Both the undergraduate and graduate commencement ceremonies will be broadcast live on UGA's cable television station, channel 15 on the Charter cable system, and will be streamed in a webcast accessible via a link on UGA's Web site home page, www.uga.edu .

-----
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page
Community News You Can Use
Fayetteville, Peachtree City, Tyrone
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page

University of Georgia Awards 2008 Charter Scholarships

FL Note: Congratulations to the following Fayette County students as recipients of this scholarship. Way to go!

Emily Breault, Fayetteville, Starr’s Mill High School, Russell Breault
Hannah Calamoneri , Peachtree City , McIntosh High School, Charlie & Kimberly Calamoneri
Marlene Davis, Peachtree City, Starr’s Mill High School, Jeffery & Leisa Davis
Michael Harris, Fayetteville, Starr’s Mill High School, Mr. & Mrs. David Loyd Harris
Zachary Johnson, Peachtree City, McIntosh High School, Vicki Johnson
Alan Liow, Peachtree City , McIntosh High School, Jye-Fu Liow
Nadine Ngu, Fayetteville, Lovejoy High School, Eunice Ngu & Marcos Elliott
Meghan O’Donnell, Peachtree City, Starr’s Mill High School, William O’Donnell
Ariella Perry, Peachtree City, Starr’s Mill High School, Parham Perry
Ai Taniguchi, Peachtree City, McIntosh High School, Hiroshi & Yoko Taniguchi
Julie Thompson, Peachtree City, Starr’s Mill High School, Richard & Dorrie Thompson
Amy Wallace, Fayetteville, Whitewater High School, Mr. & Mrs. Jeff & Terry Wallace

The 2008 freshman class at the University of Georgia will include 331 undergraduates who have been awarded Charter Scholarships by the Office of Undergraduate Admissions.

The Charter Scholarship, named to reflect the university’s distinction as the nation’s first state-chartered public university, recognizes first-year students with stellar academic records, leadership and community involvement and a respect for and commitment toward intellectual, social and cultural diversity. The Charter Scholarship is funded by the University of Georgia Foundation.

In-state students receive $1,000 per year in addition to the HOPE Scholarship. Out-of-state recipients are given non-resident tuition waivers with their $1,000 annual scholarships. Usually the top five percent of entering first-year students are named Charter Scholars.

This year’s Charter Scholars had an average SAT score of 1394. Their average high school GPA exceeded 4.0.

Students can renew the scholarship for up to three more years if they meet certain academic standards.

-----
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page
Community News You Can Use
Fayetteville, Peachtree City, Tyrone

UGA congratulates First Honor Graduates

FL Note: Super kudos to Tyrone resident Lauren Nicole Beck, daughter of William and Li-Lei Beck.

Thirty-five students at the University of Georgia received First Honor Graduation distinctions at the May 10 Commencement ceremonies.

The university bestows the honor on students who maintained a 4.00 grade point average throughout their undergraduate studies. The students graduated summa cum laude and ranked in the top 1 percent of the 3,500-member graduating class.

-----
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page
Community News You Can Use
Fayetteville, Peachtree City, Tyrone