Smith part of NSF mentoring grant
Article By: Clark Leonard
Dr. Margaret "Meg" Smith, a University of North Georgia (UNG) associate professor of biology, is part of a 75-person cohort that will be mentored through a National Science Foundation (NSF) program.
The $1 million NSF Advancing STEM Careers by Empowering Network Development (ASCEND) project, which is part of the NSF's ADVANCE partnership, seeks "to create peer mentoring networks of mid-career STEM women faculty and administrator allies across institutions and regions," according to an NSF press release.
Participants receive the title of NSF ASCEND Faculty Fellow. They attend monthly online meetings with their discipline-specific alliance and annual face-to-face meetings with their regional network.
"This program aims for retention through building networks," Smith said. "Those networks will persist long after the money is gone."
Smith considers the NSF program a great extension of what she receives at UNG.
"I can't say enough about the supportive nature of the UNG biology department," she said.
Sixty faculty and 15 administrators from across the country are part of the cohort that runs through summer 2024.
"Faculty and administrators will work together to address the institutional and systemic barriers that prevent women at the mid-career level from being promoted to full professor or obtaining positions in academic administration," according to the release.
24 are Distinguished Military Graduates
Twenty-four cadets have been named Distinguished Military Graduates for the 2024-25 academic year, including five who are in the top 70 out of more than 5,000 in the national ROTC class.
Blue Ridge students earn scholarships
UNG honored 28 of its Blue Ridge Campus students with almost $15,000 of scholarships and celebrated the philanthropy that made those scholarships possible at the Tomato Sandwich Supper on Nov. 7.
Chemistry student groups earn grant
UNG's Dahlonega and Gainesville chapters of the American Chemical Society received a $1,000 ACS Student Communities Engagement Grant.
Students research threatened fish
Three students are working with Dr. Andrew Taylor, a professor of biology, on research helping restore habitat connectivity for a federally-threatened fish species.