{"601538":{"#nid":"601538","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Nearly 200 Students and Postdocs Attend the Focus Program","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;By participating in the Focus Program, I learned how to be a stronger candidate for graduate school,\u0026rdquo; said Camilla Johnson, a Virginia Tech undergraduate. \u0026ldquo;I am thankful for this program because it gave me more confidence to pursue a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EFor 27 years, Georgia Tech\u0026rsquo;s \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/focus.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EFocus Program\u003C\/a\u003E has brought high-achieving students from diverse backgrounds to campus. The annual graduate recruitment weekend is held during the observance and celebration of the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThis month, 192 underrepresented minority students and postdocs attended, representing 81 colleges and universities from 32 states and four countries.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Our Latinx applications to the Focus Program increased this year, and our attendance of Focus Scholars from Puerto Rico almost doubled compared to 2017,\u0026rdquo; said Sybrina Atwaters, assistant director for outreach initiatives at OMED: Educational Services, a unit of Institute Diversity\u0026rsquo;s \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.csdi.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ECenter for Student Diversity and Inclusion\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe three-day program includes opening and closing dinners; President\u0026rsquo;s Dinner; campus tours; department and lab visits; and panel discussions on graduate admissions, fellowships, scholarships, mentoring, and student and alumni experiences.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ES. Gordon Moore Jr., the Center\u0026rsquo;s executive director, told Focus Program participants during the President\u0026rsquo;s Dinner, \u0026ldquo;Georgia Tech seeks excellence. You are not here as an underrepresented minority; you are here because you are one of the best students in the country.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EApproximately 47 percent of the 2018 Focus Program participants, who will graduate this May, have applied to graduate programs at Georgia Tech, and 37 percent received application fee waivers. Compared to last year, participant applications to Georgia Tech\u0026rsquo;s graduate programs have increased 17 percent.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;You have to believe in yourself. The Focus Program helped everyone believe that we could earn graduate degrees,\u0026rdquo; remarked Gabriela Lopez, an undergraduate student at New York University.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ESince its inception, more than 3,000 students from a wide array of colleges and universities have participated in the program. Some 300 former Focus Scholars are among the Georgia Tech alumni who have earned master\u0026rsquo;s and doctoral degrees. Focus Scholars is a component of the program designed to inform juniors and seniors about the benefits of earning an advanced degree. Additionally, numerous Focus Fellows are members of Georgia Tech\u0026rsquo;s engineering faculty. Focus Fellows encourages diverse doctoral students to consider an academic career.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;The program\u0026rsquo;s level of success is due to the support of the Institute\u0026rsquo;s administration, faculty, staff, and students \u0026ndash; with generous support from corporate sponsors like Intel,\u0026rdquo; added Atwaters.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ECurrently, Georgia Tech awards more doctoral degrees in engineering to all racial\/ethnic minority students,\u003Csup\u003E1\u003C\/sup\u003E and more undergraduate degrees in engineering to women,\u003Csup\u003E2\u003C\/sup\u003E than any other school.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETo learn more about the Focus Program, visit \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.focus.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ewww.focus.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Csup\u003E1\u003C\/sup\u003E \u003Cem\u003EDiverse: Issues in Higher Education\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Csup\u003E2\u003C\/sup\u003E American Society for Engineering Education\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Almost Half of This Year\u2019s Participants Apply to Graduate Programs at Georgia Tech"}],"field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"For 27 years, Georgia Tech\u2019s Focus Program has brought high-achieving students from diverse backgrounds to campus. This month, 192 students and postdocs attended, representing 81 colleges and universities from 32 states and four countries."}],"uid":"27465","created_gmt":"2018-01-29 21:45:26","changed_gmt":"2018-01-29 22:46:00","author":"Annette Filliat","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2018-01-29T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2018-01-29T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"601541":{"id":"601541","type":"image","title":"2018 Focus Program Participants ","body":null,"created":"1517264596","gmt_created":"2018-01-29 22:23:16","changed":"1517264596","gmt_changed":"2018-01-29 22:23:16","alt":"Focus Program ","file":{"fid":"229277","name":"Focus Program 2018 copy.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Focus%20Program%202018%20copy.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Focus%20Program%202018%20copy.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":301401,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Focus%20Program%202018%20copy.jpg?itok=zqTJE3Ib"}},"601543":{"id":"601543","type":"image","title":"2018 Intel-supported Focus Fellows","body":null,"created":"1517264918","gmt_created":"2018-01-29 22:28:38","changed":"1517264918","gmt_changed":"2018-01-29 22:28:38","alt":"2018 Intel-supported Focus Fellows","file":{"fid":"229280","name":"Intel-supported Focus Fellows .jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Intel-supported%20Focus%20Fellows%20_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Intel-supported%20Focus%20Fellows%20_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":297112,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Intel-supported%20Focus%20Fellows%20_0.jpg?itok=K9Ytj-dn"}},"601549":{"id":"601549","type":"image","title":"2018 Focus Program Alumni Panel ","body":null,"created":"1517265332","gmt_created":"2018-01-29 22:35:32","changed":"1517265332","gmt_changed":"2018-01-29 22:35:32","alt":"2018 Focus Program Alumni Panel ","file":{"fid":"229283","name":"Focus Scholar Raheem Beyah.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Focus%20Scholar%20Raheem%20Beyah.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Focus%20Scholar%20Raheem%20Beyah.png","mime":"image\/png","size":268673,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Focus%20Scholar%20Raheem%20Beyah.png?itok=set1E__g"}}},"media_ids":["601541","601543","601549"],"groups":[{"id":"1182","name":"General"},{"id":"1313","name":"Institute Diversity"},{"id":"1307","name":"Office of Minority Education and Development (OMED)"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"}],"keywords":[{"id":"171646","name":"Focus Program"},{"id":"9171","name":"institute diversity"},{"id":"170543","name":"Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion"},{"id":"176923","name":"OMED: Educational Services"},{"id":"4767","name":"Intel"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71871","name":"Campus and Community"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAnnette Filliat\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ECommunications Manager\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EInstitute Diversity\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003Eannette.filliat@gatech.edu\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["annette.filliat@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}