University of North Georgia

UNG student Helene Nilsson has been selected for the STEM NetX Fellowship and earned a grant from the fellowship to support her research with Dr. Amber Ignatius.

Dr. Lily O'Clery is jumping into her physical therapy career with a prestigious opportunity. O'Clery, who earned her Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) degree in May, will complete an acute care physical therapy residency at Duke University during the 2026-27 academic year.

Five students in the University of North Georgia's (UNG) College of Education were featured in the Georgia Association of Literacy Advocates (GALA) FOCUS Newsletter for spring 2026. Three Master of Education in elementary education students provided K-12 book reviews. Two undergraduate students recorded "Book Talk" videos.

More than 100 undergraduate students presented their work at UNG's Annual Research Conference held this spring at the Gainesville Campus. Multiple students earned awards at the conference.

UNG students who showed promise, demonstrated creativity, displayed excellence, served others and exceeded all expectations had their moment in the spotlight during the annual Student Awards events held in April.

Kinesiology students from the University of North Georgia (UNG) presented seven research posters at the Southeast Chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine (SEACSM) annual meeting held Feb. 26-28 in Greenville, South Carolina. A pair of faculty members also presented.

A pair of recent University of North Georgia (UNG) graduates presented their innovative work with the UNG Press at the Open Education Conference held Oct. 28-30 in Denver, Colorado. Nicole Clifton, a spring 2025 graduate, and Joshua Lann, a fall 2025 graduate, shared about their experience converting UNG Press's open textbooks into accessible audiobooks. Both earned a degree in English with a writing and publication concentration.

Dr. Brooklyn Herrera, a 2024 graduate of the University of North Georgia's (UNG) Doctor of Education program, has been named the recipient of the 2025 Dissertation of the Year award by the Southern Association for College Student Affairs (SACSA). Herrera presented her research at the SACSA annual conference, held Nov. 1-4 in Louisville, Kentucky. Dr. Michael Lanford, associate professor in UNG's Ed.D. in higher education leadership and practice program, served as Herrera's dissertation mentor.

A student in the University of North Georgia's (UNG) Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program has earned the Rising Star of Research and Scholarship Award from the Sigma international nursing honor society for an innovation that can help critical care providers, including nurse practitioners, physician assistants and physicians, better care for patients on ventilators. Dr. Soraya Smith-Farmer received the recognition for her research titled "A call for standardization in ventilator waveform education: Improving confidence and knowledge retention among advanced practice provider (APP) and physician fellows." She will present this work at Sigma's 37th International Nursing Research Congress, which is set for July 16-18 in Toronto.

Student-faculty collaborative research mini-grants were awarded through the University of North Georgia (UNG) Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (CURCA) for the 2025-26 academic year. Ten students with seven faculty mentors represented three UNG colleges and the Lewis F. Rogers Institute for Environmental and Spatial Analysis (IESA). "We are once again thankful to Provost Chaudron Gille for supporting our programs with additional funding. It was a tough process to select the winners, but I think it speaks highly to the dedication of our students and faculty that the seven awarded projects come from five different departments," Dr. Diogo Pinheiro, CURCA assistant director and associate professor of sociology, said.

The University of North Georgia (UNG) hosted an undergraduate research conference for its Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Scholars (STEMS) Program students and some of their collaborators Nov. 14 at UNG's Gainesville Campus. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the STEMS Program provides each scholar up to $10,000 in scholarship funds per academic year and mentoring through a $1.5 million grant.

University of North Georgia (UNG) graduate student Brooke Parker earned first place in the recent leadership essay contest of Chi Sigma Iota, an international counseling honor society. Parker, a native of Canton, Georgia, wrote about how the Counseling Compact allows licensure portability between states that have joined the agreement.

More than 20 University of North Georgia (UNG) students took part in research that was presented at the inaugural Research in Artificial Intelligence Testing & Evaluation (RAITE) Symposium, which was held Sept. 22 at UNG's Dahlonega Campus. While not all were part of the presentations that day, many of them gained conference experience alongside students from fellow senior military colleges (SMC) The Citadel, Norwich University, Virginia Military Institute, and Virginia Tech. Multiple faculty members from UNG and the other SMCs also presented at the RAITE Symposium.

Nine students from the University of North Georgia (UNG) participated in National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU), Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships (SULI) or similar programs this summer.

Nine research teams participated in the University of North Georgia's (UNG) Faculty Undergraduate Summer Engagement (FUSE) program funded by the Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (CURCA). FUSE is a two-month program that immerses students in a collaborative project with a faculty mentor in their field. The projects are designed to be accessible to all disciplinary backgrounds by being an initial pilot project or by being a manageable segment of a larger ongoing project. All students and mentors in the project hold biweekly meetings during the summer where groups share their progress and can answer questions about their work.

Albany Zavarce is the first UNG student chosen as a STEMNetX Fellowship recipient and was awarded a one-week paid fellowship in Pennsylvania. She encourages women to explore opportunities in STEM.

Two University of North Georgia (UNG) students were named National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship selections. Both women are First-Generation college students. They will head to the NIST headquarters in Gaithersburg, Maryland, at the end of spring semester. Katia Gonzalez-Adame, a senior pursuing degrees in mathematics and chemistry, will work in the Materials Measurement Laboratory. Brittney Meza, a junior pursuing a degree in computer science, will work in the Information Technology Laboratory.

UNG junior Rylee Chafin has been selected for the prestigious NASA Student Airborne Research Program. The eight-week internship will be held in Richmond, Virginia, this summer.

UNG students who showed promise, demonstrated creativity, displayed excellence, served others and exceeded all expectations had their moment in the spotlight during the annual Student Awards events held in April.

Students gave 69 poster presentations and 24 oral presentations at the University of North Georgia's (UNG) 30th Annual Research Conference (ARC), held March 21 in the Cottrell Ballroom at UNG's Dahlonega Campus. That includes many projects that included multiple students. Six of those students won awards.

The University of North Georgia (UNG) finished fifth overall in the 76th annual Ted Cameron National Collegiate Poultry Judging Contest, which was held April 2-4 at Mississippi State University. UNG also took fourth place as a team in the market products category and fifth place in the breeds portion of the event.

Four University of North Georgia (UNG) students presented their research at the Conference on the Americas, held Feb. 21-22 at the University of Georgia (UGA). One of the students won an award.

Twenty students and four faculty members from the University of North Georgia's (UNG) Department of Kinesiology attended the annual meeting of the Southeast Chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine (SEACSM) from Feb. 20-22 in Greenville, South Carolina. Five of the students presented research posters at the event.

Student Tyler Simpson and his research mentor, Dr. Levi 'Zane' Miller, won a Best Poster Award at the American Chemical Society Southeast Undergraduate Research Conference.

Four University of North Georgia students presented their research at Posters at the Capitol on Feb. 25. The event, which included 40 research projects from 16 universities across the state, provided students a forum to share their work with state legislators, lobbyists and the general public. Posters were selected from the Georgia Undergraduate Research Conference and similar events for their high quality and general interest in them.

University of North Georgia (UNG) Cadet Connor Moore presented his cybersecurity capstone research in December at the International Conference on Modern Educational Technology (ICMET) in Tokyo, Japan.

A record-breaking nine Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (CURCA) mini grants were awarded to University of North Georgia (UNG) students for the 2024-25 year. Each project will receive $1,000 to fund supplies and will be presented at either UNG's Annual Research Conference March 21 at the Dahlonega Campus; another CURCA-sponsored event; or a disciplinary conference or published. "The only way we can break the record of number of projects that we fund is because the Provost's office works with us," Dr. Diogo Pinheiro, CURCA assistant director and associate professor of sociology, said. "We wouldn't have the funds to support all nine without that help."

UNG graduate student Andrew Clements and faculty member Dr. Bryson Payne presented their research at the Information Systems & Computing Academic Professionals conference in Baltimore, Maryland, in November.

University of North Georgia (UNG) student Marshall VandenOever capped off his time as the 2023-24 UNG Presidential Fellow for the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress (CSPC) by winning a writing award. He earned the Donald B. Marron Award for Best Historical Analysis for his paper entitled "The Presidency and Labor: A Policy of Pragmatism."

UNG students who showed promise, demonstrated creativity, displayed excellence, served others and exceeded all expectations had their moment in the spotlight during the annual Student Honors and Awards Day events held April 9-11.