The University of Georgia awarded 11 undergraduates from the incoming class of 2018-2019 with its CURO Honors Scholarship, the university’s top undergraduate research scholarship.
UGA’s Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities promotes faculty-mentored research opportunities for UGA’s undergraduates. Working closely with UGA faculty members, CURO Honors Scholars are able to conduct research in any field of study at the university.
CURO Honors Scholars receive $3,000 in annual funding renewable for up to four years; mentoring and community support; and special seminars, workshops, events and activities.
In addition to the CURO Honors Scholarship, the Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities offers a variety of research opportunities to all UGA undergraduate students without regard to major, discipline, GPA or Honors status. These offerings include the CURO Research Assistantship and the CURO Summer Fellowship as well as CURO research courses. All CURO students have the opportunity to present their research findings at the annual CURO Symposium.
Since the inception of CURO in the late 1990s, every UGA recipient of a nationally competitive major scholarship—such as the Rhodes, Marshall, Truman, Udall and Goldwater—has participated in CURO in some fashion.
The 11 new CURO Honors Scholars, listed below with their high school, hometown and majors, bring the current number on campus to 36.
- Ayah Abdelwahab; Georgia Cyber Academy; Bogart; international affairs.
- Mennah Abdelwahab; Georgia Cyber Academy; Bogart; international affairs and journalism.
- HaeYeun “Rachel” Byun; Duluth High School; Lawrenceville; biochemistry and molecular biology.
- Amber Combs; Chamblee Charter High School; Atlanta; film studies and computer science.
- Anthony Elengickal; Alpharetta High School; Alpharetta; biochemistry and molecular biology.
- Mary Kitchens; North Springs Charter High School; Atlanta; economics and international business.
- Megh Mehta; Oconee County High School; Bishop; genetics.
- Bianca Patel; Northview High School; Duluth; economics and psychology.
- Sydney Phillips; Chapel Hill High School; Douglasville; public relations and political science.
- Vanessa Sachs; Centennial High School; Roswell; biology and psychology.
- Olivia Silva; Woodward Academy; Peachtree City; cognitive science and music.
The CURO Honors Scholars are enrolled in the UGA Honors Program, which welcomed 745 new students this fall. Overall, these new Honors students had an average high school GPA of 4.11, an average SAT of 1510 and an average ACT of 33.7.
