{"605811":{"#nid":"605811","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Finding Community","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGrowing up in Nigeria, Oladipupo (Ola) Johnson did a lot of traveling with his family, but never to the U.S. He attended boarding school and learned about Georgia Tech from his roommate\u0026rsquo;s sister, who convinced him to apply.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EHe didn\u0026rsquo;t think he\u0026rsquo;d get in \u0026mdash; but he did, and he arrived in the summer of 2014 for Georgia Tech\u0026rsquo;s \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/omed.gatech.edu\/programs\/challenge\u0022\u003EChallenge Program\u003C\/a\u003E, a summer academic preparation program for incoming underrepresented minority students.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIn that same Challenge cohort was Brandon Gipson, a computer science major from Virginia who started programming in seventh grade. Gipson had Georgia Tech on his radar at an early age thanks to a teacher and an older student from his high school who had gone on to attend Tech. Like Johnson, Gipson never set foot on campus before coming to Challenge that summer.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EFor Gipson, culture shock hit once classes started. During Challenge, Gipson and Johnson had been part of a cohort of 73 students. When the fall semester began, their worlds changed.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;I came from a majority minority high school,\u0026rdquo; Gipson said. \u0026ldquo;In some ways, it was exciting to get to meet people from all over the world. But, at times, it was alienating.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EGipson was feeling what numbers show: Though Georgia Tech awards more engineering degrees to women and underrepresented minorities than any other university in the U.S., black men comprise less than 5 percent of the resident student population.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.news.gatech.edu\/features\/highlighting-african-american-male-initiative\u0022\u003ERead the full story\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Two graduates talk about their time at Tech and the family they found on campus"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ETwo graduates talk about their time at Tech and the family they found on campus\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Two graduates talk about their time at Tech and the family they found on campus"}],"uid":"27469","created_gmt":"2018-05-03 16:48:45","changed_gmt":"2018-05-04 14:15:43","author":"Kristen Bailey","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2018-05-03T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2018-05-03T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"605810":{"id":"605810","type":"image","title":"Brandon Gipson and Ola Johnson","body":null,"created":"1525365956","gmt_created":"2018-05-03 16:45:56","changed":"1525366339","gmt_changed":"2018-05-03 16:52:19","alt":"Brandon Gipson and Ola Johnson","file":{"fid":"231027","name":"aami-news.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/aami-news_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/aami-news_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":373540,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/aami-news_0.jpg?itok=1Np-Tief"}}},"media_ids":["605810"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.news.gatech.edu\/features\/highlighting-african-american-male-initiative","title":"Read the full story"},{"url":"http:\/\/news.gatech.edu\/features\/commencement-stories","title":"More Commencement Stories"}],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"},{"id":"1317","name":"News Briefs"},{"id":"1313","name":"Institute Diversity"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"}],"keywords":[{"id":"627","name":"commencement"},{"id":"736","name":"diversity"},{"id":"9171","name":"institute diversity"},{"id":"629","name":"graduation"},{"id":"3918","name":"profile"},{"id":"177853","name":"brandon gipson"},{"id":"177854","name":"ola johnson"}],"core_research_areas":[],"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\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:kristen.bailey@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EKristen Bailey\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EInstitute Communications\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}